Cobi Hamilton

and he has played football only for 2 years(his senior year was his second year).

I thought Mallett was his QB as a sophomore?

And if he can’t catch, put him in the weight room and make him a LB. I am all for taking 6-2ish athletes. You can find any number of spots for them.

As Philip Payne will soon find out.

Payne’s spot will be at Sam Houston State.

I am continuing me multi-year study of the recruiting ratings of guys invited to the NFL Combine (great stuff coming this year as I get enough data to see,if any coaches find more diamonds in the rough than others). WR is the position with the greatest number of non-ranked players going to the Combine, and the greatest number of 4-star and 5-star recruits dropping off the earth.

I think I’m coming to the position that WRs should be scouted more on attitude and coachability once a minimum level of athleticism is reached.

The positions with the best match between Combine invites and star ratings? RB, LB, and DL.

That’s because WR is the easiest position to play. There are guys like Roy Williams and Larry Fitzgerald, but most of being an NFL receiver is just learning to be at the right place at the right time and having a good QB. There are reasons there are a glut of mid level WRs in the free agent market every year. After the elite grouping it’s just not worth paying anybody.

In other words, there is almost nothing you can scout for from high school to here. Go find “football players” and teach them to catch.

This kid looks like the real deal!

Based on the receivers in next year’s class, I don’t see any reason to push for this guy. If he’s that good, why weren’t we after him from day one?

That is a silly post, Chris Applewhite. Teaching someone to catch is like teaching someone to be fast.

One important thing left out of the WR equation is balls or heart or whatever you want to call it. There are some really fast, really sure handed pussies out there and some get away with it for a while.

If WRs were that easy to manufacture, every team would have a Quan Cosby. You can’t teach he hands or his guts. The rest of what he brings to the table is subpar compared to the rest of WRs out there.

HenryJames—

The “why weren’t we on him if he’s so good” mentality is absurd with this staff. They define laziness in recruiting at this point, Muschamp and Applewhite excluded.

I actually think HJ was kidding, but I may be giving him too much credit.

I don’t think Kennard visited this past weekend. Rumors have it that he notified the coaches of his decision today and it looks like we will have room for Cobi.

thanks for the correction – had a brain fart.

We don’t really need this guy.

Yes we do.

He’s tall, athletic, comes from a good background and can gain weight. Sign him and find a place for him.

Hopefully he doesn’t develop a habit of restating Scipio’s points the way I do…..

I’ll drink to that.

Come to UNT

CTJ,

Staff laziness doesn’t apply here. This guy isn’t some unknown commodity from Pasadena Rayburn. Dude’s from the same school as Nathan Vashar, Chris Brown and Dustin Earnest. We also recruited Ryan Mallett. Barry Norton loves us. Kid from one of our feeder schools with good grades is exactly the type of guy we get committed last February.

HJ:

Whether you agree with the timing of this guy when considering next year’s WR class, would you agree that this is the kind of 3* we should be recruiting?

I also think that we got it in our heads early that we’d only take one WR this year and settled on Emory Blake as our fallback if Timmons flaked.
 
Maybe this suggests we’re going to have more turnover at WR than anticipated.

HenryJames—

For one, do you think Barry Norton fully understood what he had if the dude had been playing for less than a year last February?

Sloth actually always applies for Brown’s staff when it comes to recruiting. We ignored Daryl Stonum and had to be begged to take Desean Hales. Brock Fitzhenry, however, was offered early and with certainty.

I trust our ability to win by accident sometimes, and that almost always seems to be the case and best hope with deep East Texas. The staff had to be begged to take Nathan Vasher. We aggressively ignored Decori Birmingham. Etc., etc.

My guess is that we’re going to be disappointed with our WR haul in 2010, unbelievably. It is already stacking in a manner in which we’ll screw it up. Mike Davis probably won’t be offered, if you look at all of the updates on him. Cobbs and the Georgia guy are unlikely bets. Darius Terrell is 2nd tier on other boards, but he might be first on our list. The Harris guy is rumored to be getting an offer and no one understands that one. Other schools are excited about what we’re going to be leaving on the table. If we’re lucky, we at least grab White in the midst of all of this.

If Hamilton is the shit, I will take him over a 3rd or 4th WR in the next class that might be the next Montre Webber/Philip Payne/Dustin Miksch/Brock Fitzhenry/Clint Haney. I don’t question Bobby Kennedy’s ability to coach. He has done tremendously here. But his judgment of talent so far looks uglier than your future children and dumber than scally.

Maybe some of the targets for next year are giving us bad vibes. I’m sure this is a known to Mack and the staff already since 90% of our class will be done by the next two Jr days.

Kennedy should have gone after Marlon Brown as well. I agree that this position is the hardest to predict but it seems we go after lesser talent and then it becomes obvious when they don’t work out. Its much easier to justify a miss on a blue chip top 100 kind of player than a Brock Fitzhenry type. Just my thoughts but it seems WR’s are lining up to get an offer from us so logically we might as well shoot for the moon.

I love reading about recruiting just to see slow middle-aged white guys deconstruct and destroy the potential of 17 year old kids.

But seriously, great analysis. I’m now simultaneously scared shitless and tremendously excited about the prospect of us recruiting the fifth most famous “Ko-be” (Kobe Bryant, Cobi Jones, Colbie Caillat, and that dude that shouldn’t be playing over Jamaal Charles) on the planet.

This is a guy who has played football for two years. Yay upside! But what is the downside? The guy will spend at least two years figuring out how to run something other than a seam. We have no clue whether or not the dude likes contact. His track background and highlight video of 90% fly routes looks suspiciously like David Aaron or David Gettis of Baylor.

Well said Henri

Darius White, who might be the best WR in state next year, apparently loves us.

Blake, you can have the keys to the defense for the next 3 years.

*will have

We’re already throwing Fitzhenry in the garbage?

Cool.

Hookah—

I discounted the Fitzhenry take in much the same way I did with Gideon, Miskch, Hansen, and so forth. When he gets on the field and actually produces against a viable D-1 opponent, I vow to never post on any Longhorn board ever again. We beat Sam Houston State and SMU for him. Outstanding.

HenryJames—

The position you espoused and that I countered was in regard to the staff’s wherewithal to make the right early decision on this guy. Whether he shows up and makes us forget Roy Williams or shows up and has us longing for Montrell Flowers, I don’t know. You have moored yourself here to the talent evaluation skills of Bobby Kennedy. I don’t have much faith it is going to work out for you, or the rest of us.

Can anyone verify that the big issue in recruiting Stonum is that he wouldn’t attend the summer camps?

I did and twice on Sundays.

Hard to understand the numbers at wr and how this guy fits

Less than 30 days after we close out a year with two legit All-American wide receivers on our team with a stock pile of talent at the position and the state’s #1 player at the position ready to sign we are bitching about our recruiting.

Part of me longs for the days of Chris Simms and his infinite chokeness so our fans have something real and tangible to bitch about.

Newy25—

Context clues might help you out a bit in the future. They teach classes on it at your local elementary school if you want to stop by and freshen up.

All I can see is more wild-ass fornicating parties, hot nekkid girl-on-girl action, and all manner of illicit drugs and illegal inducements by you Texass boys.

I can smell a good sanctioned write-up on the whole sordid business by mid-February. Ought to keep me in booze and drugs (scratch that, just say no to drugs!!) ’til summer time.

CTJ and HJ should go on the Dick Cavett Show to continue this debate. Bonus points to whoever whips out the cigarette holder and lights up first.

CloseToJumping-

“My guess is that we’re going to be disappointed with our WR haul in 2010, unbelievably. It is already stacking in a manner in which we’ll screw it up”

That is bitching about recruiting. Maybe even worse, it is bitching about recruiting that has not happened yet. That is almost a new low for the arrogance of Texas fans.

Newy25,

I can’t answer for anyone else and I really don’t have an issue with Hamilton. If they think he can play great, take him.

My issue here is twofold. First, Texas since the class Roy, BJ, Sloan, and TJ has had a varied degree of success recruiting receivers. Some you can look at like Timmons and Ramonce (I realize more of a multi-positional guy) and you see it wasn’t talent on the field that was the issue. Others though like Haney, Hardy, Payne, Webber, and Fitzhenry leaving me scratching my head. Especially in light that Texas never really recruited players such as Stonum and LaFells. Finally, you have players such as Monroe and Hales. I have watched both in high school and they have that explosive quickness that has been missing from the Texas offense since Ramonce. Only question to me is how do they fit in the Texas offense? Neither one is big enough to play running back in college, it is a waste to use these guys to block in a power running game, and in the back of my head I just can’t see Mack letting Davis truly dump the run.

In a way, this position to me sums up the quandry of Texas recruiting at times. Instead of picking pieces to fit into a system you have a eclectic group of players thrown together and time then spent building a system to fit the talent. Seems a bit backwards to me, but what do I know? Heck, I think there is nothing wrong with leaving 225 lb. receivers at receiver. I have actually heard of some teams having tight ends above 6’4". I think Texas should go after the best in the state and the country, but when I have seen players like Stonum and LaFell play and they not merit intrust I sometimes wonder if staying close to home is more important.

“Instead of picking pieces to fit into a system you have a eclectic group of players thrown together and time then spent building a system to fit the talent.”

At times? You just described the entirety of the Mack Brown / Greg Davis era.

*Insert comment about Chris Whaley here

Justaguy-

I see your point. Part of me agrees but part of me wonders if you had that strategy we would never have recruited a player like Vince Young. There has to be balance between looking for a certain skill set and making sure a special talent does not leave the state. Oddly enough, the staff chose this year to pass on Shepard as a pure QB in favor of someone who fits their profile for the current offense and half of the Longhorn community is up in arms.

Hales was not originally offered because the staff had the same concerns you have – is he a RB? Can he play WR as an every down player? After some talking to Brown finally realized that if someone is really that gifted you get him on your campus and worry about the rest later. I am in the camp that says Shepard should have been offered and given the chance to compete for the QB job as long as everyone understand up front that nothing will be given to anyone. My problem is LSU has essentially told him he will start at QB. And with that I say goodbye and good luck in the SEC.

Offers to Myron Hardy and Phillip Payne were not a mistake. One had injury issues and one is not playing the correct position, IMO. Shit happens I suppose and you continue to recruit players like them in the future.

Newy, I saw Vince Young play multiple times in high school and there was never a doubt that guy was a difference maker. If you watched one game his senior season you saw that he had incredible leadership skills and physical talent. That can not be said for the odd lot collection of wide receivers, running backs, and tight ends Texas has recruited over the past few years. The last back they recruited with that same type of ability was Charles. Since then you have a group of guys that really aren’t outstanding in any one area. Some will point Whaley, but if that was the back Texas wanted all along why have they been recruiting a bunch of smaller guys?

I disagree on Hardy and Payne when again players like LaFell and Stonum weren’t recruited. Friends who coach in the Austin area scratched their head about Hardy. Good athlete who never really seemed to dominate and then Texas was going to switch positions? Guess they call that projecting talent, but seems to me Mack has been too willing to take reaches close to home.

Part of me longs for the days of Chris Simms and his infinite chokeness so our fans have something real and tangible to bitch about.—-Newy

A big ol’ “Fu*k you” for that cheap shot.

Beowolf, I’m still smarting from the beating you gave me circa 1999 for my comments about Joe Walker. Good to see you’re still standing up for our guys.

beowulf-

Because calling our coaches lazy and stupid is not a cheap shot.

For the record, I think most coaches are lazy and many are stupid. Not just the Texas coaches. Hope that helps.

Mack is in a position where he can afford to be somewhat lazy in recruiting. 99.9% of other college coaches are not.

CTJ, I am not sure if it is that or that many coaches cling to what they know even if it doesn’t really work for them. They convince themselves that in the right situation it will work.

We see it all the time when a coach fails in one place, goes somewhere else, and implements the very same system to fail again.

In Mack’s time at Texas it isn’t as much failure as much to me as not accomplishing all the could have been accomplished. He has rebuilt the program, done great things, but is still haunted by things that could have been and more importantly following the same pattern again and again.

Mack has made the decision to push for early commits which has worked well, but it has left many wondering why not use that to an advantage. To target those out-of-state prospects who could be true difference makers.

Instead, we see the same pattern of some late recruits who leave us wondering at times and local reaches that really haven’t panned out.

Consider Ian Harris. Seems like a good kid, not saying he doesn’t deserve a scholarship, but that he doesn’t really fit they type of tight end Texas has recruited.

We have seen it from early in 1998 with Courtnee Garcia and Miguel McKay to current times. Almost this compulsion to fill the class with bodies instead of selecting pieces for a machine.

Nordberg,

So where do you put coaches like Carroll and Meyer? They aren’t lazy and they push to find the very best talent they can for their teams.

I contend Mack can recruit how he does because of outside of OU he doesn’t face much competition in the Big 12 South for talent.

“That is a silly post, Chris Applewhite. Teaching someone to catch is like teaching someone to be fast. "

That’s true. Good thing the Sooners couldn’t work it out with all those DBs and RBs moving to WR in 2000. That would’ve really sucked for us!

Or any of those QBs we moved to WR. Quan something or other.

We should stick to recruiting pure WRs, like Kwame Cavil.

“You have moored yourself here to the talent evaluation skills of Bobby Kennedy.”

But you have to admit that his brother never balked at a chance to evaluate talent.

Gonna be Arkansas. Ketch’s site just reported he will announce his decision on radio this Thursday. We never (well, hardly ever) get these kids that need a public forum to tell the world where they are going to play football.

Hell, I hope it is Arkansas. His parents, for cripes sake, are both Hoggie grads. Can’t imagine how that wouldn’t be great fun for all of them. Why miss out on that experience with the family?

We didn’t offer.

Ketchum also reported that Hamilton committed to Texas while on a visit to Oklahoma State.

True dat.

But this is my prediction. I’ll either fall on the sword or be mentioned in the same breath with “Scout”.

Hamilton to Arkansas. It’s a done deal.
 
Henry James fist himself pumps in glee.

Can the program recover?

I’m going to text you unmercifully when Hamilton scores a touchdown against Louisiana Monroe in 2011.

HJ asked the same question when Bomar signed with OU.

He was despondent for months.

If the staff had it there way he would be catching passes from Riley Dodge with the Cleve Bryant’s kids.

Ok that was extreme.

Now it will be interesting to see if we take a late chance on anyone else. If we do we really are in for attrition at WR.

“We should stick to recruiting pure WRs, like Kwame Cavil.”

I saw him at Texas Relays one time with his pet snake around his neck.

That’s my most vivid memory of his UT career.

Newy,

Agreed. Was this just a hidden gem that got uncovered or a late run to address a need?

Quan is gone and even if the Horns loss Payne, Webber, and Monroe they still have on the roster Shipley, Collins, Kirkendoll, Williams, Buckner, Hales, Timmons,and Grant.

A hidden LB or RB gem would be nice.

No joke. Or maybe just a badass from day one.

Our running back recruiting has been befuddling since we landed Charles.

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