Well... I have to say I'm impressed with Jimbo Fisher's ability to "widen the net" with respect to recruiting. For 2019 we have a bunch from the home state, but there is some national cherry-picking going on. One position that is annually a problem in Texas (thanks to 7 on 7 etc) is linebacker. We struggle to find guys who are big enough to stand up to SEC running games. Most of the LB's in Texas are converted to edge rushing DE's or something else. Jimbo just went into Pennsylvania and snatched a commit from a kid Penn St thought they had in the bag. At 6-foot-3, 224 Andre White should fill the need nicely. White commits to A&M
Good Pick uP for the Ag's, you guys are off to a good start. I think there are more kids right now who are looking to play in the SEC as a way to prepare themselves for the NFL. SEC again had the most kids drafted this year. Plus Jimbo has a big name and a big reputation from his FSU days. Longhorns picked up a LB from Calif who is in the Nat'l Top 50 . In the Mack Brown days, Texas rarely even looked outside the state.
I think LB is a position that is really limited in Texas right now... with the way the highschools have all gone spread-happy. The defenses are all built to stop the pass, and if you have a kid with good LB size, and decent speed he's almost always deployed as a rush end. Very rare to find a really good MLB in the Lone Star state today because the need isn't there as much as it was in the day...
Longhorns lost a battle to Ohio State with regards to a highly ranked WR from the neighborhood. Garrett Wilson of Lake Travis, where Baker Mayfield went to HS. What really hurt is his reasoning for going to Ohio State over Texas. To be fair, Herman has been there 1 year and the program in the last few years of Mack Brown and Charlie Strong was sliding downward and it's tough to fix all of that in 1 year. But still he's right we haven't done much with the talent that has come to Texas and until Tom Herman has that breakout year (maybe next year) he'll continue to have to convince kids that the good times are coming. While in Columbus Urban just has to point to results both on the field and in the NFL draft to attract kids. It didn't hurt that Wilson lived in Columbus before moving to the Austin area, so he's still got lots of family in Columbus.
Since Garrett Wilson sort of dissed the Longhorns ...somebody on Inside Texas did a retrospective on the WR's at Ohio State under Urban. Nothing unusual, good players, no all americans only 3 drafted by the NFL. He might be the best when his career is finished, but if he was going off of track record, Ohio State isn't a great place for WR's to dev into NFL players, it's just OK. But he will experience winning a lot! Here's a breakdown of their recruiting and numbers. 2012 Ohio State WR Recruits Ricquan Southward - ***/487/61/62 – transferred to Arizona Western in 2012 Michael Thomas - ***/8/3/6 (Prep School) – 2016 2nd Round Draft Pick - Saints 2013 Ohio State WR Recruits Jalin Marshall - *****/34/4/1 – 2016 UFA to Jets, not in NFL James Clark - ****/236/35/34 – Transferred to Virginia Tech, caught 8 passes as a SR, undrafted Corey Smith ****/11/4/4 (JUCO) –2017 UFA to Bengals, not in NFL 2014 Ohio State WR Recruits Curtis Samuel - ****/56/7/1 – 2nd Round Pick of Panthers in 2017 Johnny Dixon ****/77/9/13 – 25 catches for 477 yards and 8 TDS in his career, 1 year left Parris Campbell - ****/139/22/4 – 53 catches for 584 yards and 3 TDs in his career, 1 year left Noah Brown - ****/207/16/5 (ATH) – 7th Round pick of the Cowboys in 2017 NFL Draft Terry McLaurin - ****/248/36/4 – 40 catches for 550 yards and 6 TDs, 1 year left 2015 Ohio State WR Recruits KJ Hill - ****/153/16/1 – Redshirted, 74 catches for 811 yards and 4 TDs, 2 years left Alex Stump - ****/304/37/15 – transferred to Vanderbilt in 2017 2016 Ohio State WR Recruits Austin Mack - ****/72/9/2 – 26 catches for 358 yards and 2 TDs, 2 years left Binjimen Victor - ****/97/12/16 – 27 catches for 413 yards and 7 TDs, 2 years left 2017 Ohio State WR Recruits Trevon Grimes - ****/41/2/6 – left the team during 2017 season, transferred to Florida Brendon White - ****/126/3/2 – flip flops between safety and WR, no stats, 3 years left Jaylen Harris - ****-177/28/4 – 2 catches for 27 yards in 3 games, 3 years left Elijah Gardiner - ***/796/115/116 – redshirted, 4 years left So they’ve had 18 recruits at WR since Urban took over. 1 was a *****, 14 ****, and 3 *** recruits. 4 of those recruits left the program.
I can not argue too much regarding those stats, however, Urban has always been a coach who likes to run the read-option offense. J. T. Barrett was an exceptional young man who ran that offense for five years. Assuming Haskins is the pro-style type QB this fall with an excellent arm, the situation for the receiving corps could really change? Thee Columbus connection was really the selling point in my opinion.
Garrett's a heck of an athlete and football player. I'll be surprised if he's not one of the top receivers Urban has ever had.
The 2015 NFL draft also had Devin Smith in the 2nd to the Jets, and Evan Spencer in the 6th to the Redskins. Although not Urban recruits, Urban had a say in their development. Also, don't forget Braxton Miller was selected as a WR in 2016 by the Texans. In three years, Urban had four recruits selected in the draft as WR, 26 overall. Throw in 2015 and you get six WRs selected, 31 overall. The Longhorns? Marquise Goodwin in 2013. Jordan Shipley in 2010. Limas Sweed in 2008. So back 11 years to draft as many as Urban did in the discounted three years your expert counts up. And in that 11 years, I think 36 TOTAL players were drafted. Go back to 2004 to get to Sloan Thomas and Roy Williams and the Longhorns get to five WRs drafted. What I think you're trying to say is that just because the Longhorns haven't been as reliable at sending recruits to the NFL in the past 10+ years, that is not a fair assessment of what Herman could do. Heck, he could end up sending 20 to the League every year. You could be right. But, it also is not fair to discount the history of Urban (and OSU in general) in order to try to make the point that Texas (with Herman) is obviously the better choice when a WR wants to get to the NFL.
Well what I think I was trying to say, is that Longhorns haven't done much since 2009, and Ohio State has been a top program that whole time, except for the interim year when Tressel was let go. So for highly rated kids, winning is naturally pretty darn big, he comes from a HS program that has won multiple state championships, has always been in the hunt for state championships, has had a slew of HS QB's who were great HS QB's and they throw the ball. At Texas we haven't won, we haven't done much. So in spite of the fact that Ohio State isn't exactly WR-U because of their style of offense, they have been right their with Alabama and Clemson as the premier programs in College, so I understand not throwing in with the Longhorns and going to Columbus. BTW, everybody knows that Tom Herman was Urban's OCoord on their Nat'l Championship team and the Texas offense is a derivative of that Ohio State offense. But Herman's only been there 1 year and it wasn't a break out year that would assure a kid like Wilson that good times will be rolling when he arrives on campus. Plus I think it's big that he was originally from Columbus. Urban and Saban have a lot to sell kids, they win, they win big, they have a lot of players going to the NFL every year. Heck that argument that Ohio State isn't Wide Receiver U could be said about Alabama and QB's, There hasn't been an Alabama QB become a regular starter in the NFL in years..not since the 70's. Yet highly rated QB's go to play for Saban every year, I remember reading that one reason Jalen Hurts went to Alabama was that they told him they would prepare him for the NFL. He's won a lot of games and has a terrific record as an Alabama QB, but he's not likely to ever be a starter in the NFL based on what I've seen so far.
In the last paragraph, after the first sentence, I meant to say "and I agree". It isn't necessarily fair to judge what a coach can and will do based on the coaches that came before. Unfortunately, we all struggle with (and fear) that when we get our new coaches, fair or not.
Terry, Jalen Hurts has not shown the decision making skills to be a qb in the NFL..I have no idea what he was told during recruiting, but winning a National Championship may have entered the conversation. 8)
kp do you expect to see Jalen suited up for Alabama in Sept? His dad's comments seem to indicate that Jalen isn't going to sit on the bench at Alabama ...something about Jalen being the biggest free agent in college football. It would seem like if he was going to transfer that end of May after finishing classes is the best time to make the move, you can make the move anytime before you actually enroll in classes in late August, but it would seem to limit your options while guys who announce in May have some time to visit a few places and consider options and then make the move in June and start getting acclimated to a new program.
Terry, I'm not sure. I know that Saban will make the best choice for the team. He doesn't play favorites. Hurts didn't help himself this spring so most everyone is thinking Tagavolua has the edge but he couldn't participate at all this spring. I will be disappointed if either one transfers but I know that is a distinct possibility. Tua may can wait a year but Jalen probably feels like he can't.
The coaches job us still to produce wins for the school, not to prep or showcase individual players for the NFL. To that end, I would label Meyer, Saban and Swinney at or near the top of the class.