Five Years In The Desert: Texas Longhorn Running Back Recruiting

Well done.

And a terrible way to start my Monday.

2008 Jermie Calhoun. Special Ed candidate apparently making the classroom grade at OU now. Jury is still out on his RB acumen. It’s remarkable the RBs that we simply passed on for whatever reasons that would have signed with Texas in a heartbeat if we had simply offered.

More and more since the 2007 class, Texas is selecting its players, not actually recruiting them. We’ve not selected well at the RB position. Malcolm Brown is actually making us recruit him. So we at least have that going for us this cycle.

ok, ok , so you were right on Whaley. The rest of the analysis is based on hind sight. Life is always clear , not always good, when looking back.

A good read but a bit wordy for a simple message. Our RBs are all wasted ships. I’m glad that MB is responsible for this and that he has GD to give us another year of system QBs in the shot gun.

Good god Whistling, reading your bs is maddening. Cody justified his scholarship with 3 td’s against OU as a RS Freshman. Sure they were all of the short yardage variety, but by no means were they gimmes. If you find a guy that is a veritable lock on short yardage, you take him. Coming out he was Rivals #127 (I think). Had he gone to OU, like he almost did, I’m pretty sure we’d be just as familiar with him.

Garrett Gilbert eqauls a system QB? I’ve heard it all.

The thing about Mack in the state of Texas is that he pretty much gets every player he wants. Unfortunately he doesn’t always want the right guys. I don’t see many Rb’s on your roster who are game changers a la Jamaal Charles who can break open a game. I do think some of your freshman wide receivers can, however.

Yeah, the only obvious miss I see here is Michael. We passed on Calhoun to go after Scott.

That said, I am still baffled by the Michael situation. I seem to remember him being in the top 10 in-state on all the recruiting sites and yet it seemed like no one was really recruiting him hard, which led to the questions regarding his grades and character. I remember LSU was supposed to be high on his list but even Lester didn’t seem to want him, which added fuel to the speculation regarding ‘issues’ he might have. It was probably the quietest recruitment of a top RB in the state of Texas that didn’t end back on Junior Days.

Apparently, Calhoun had a great scrimmage that included an 80 yard TD run. Whether or not that translates into anything of substance on a September Saturday is still in question.

Also, Stoops isn’t the one who is necessarily prone to hyperbole, Scip. I went back and looked over the articles on the OL during the 2009 preseason. Stoops’ comments indicated a lack of overall work ethic and commitment from the unit. Kevin Wilson and James Patton, on the other hand, both made one think the group was world beaters.
Stoops almost universally sticks to his usual coach-speak bullshit one liners, with classic hits such as “They have a chance to be…” and “Working in a good way”.

Who has been putting out their Kools on my floor?

WHO HAS BEEN PUTTING OUT THEIR KOOLS ON MY FLOOR?

1) The mind boggles at how much aggy would have revelled in a Longhorn named Christine.

2) At what point do decent RBs start looking at Texas/GD and go “oh hell no”?

Optimistic about Shead. Word is that he’s been looking good.

I think Mack is looking for another Natrone Means.

“1) The mind boggles at how much aggy would have revelled in a Longhorn named Christine.”

They thought it was hilarious back when it looked like he was going to Texas. But now that he’s in aggyland, I suppose Christine is a perfectly masculine name for a running back.

From Ricky: “At the time, the defense was known as the wrecking crew…”

Ha. I think Ricky had a hand in putting a stop to that cute little tradition.

An observation that this posting warrants (imho).

One tendency that seems to coincide with all these whiffs is y’alls willingness to offer kids very early – like, after their sophomore year. Are there some positions that it makes more sense to offer early rather than others? As an example – does it make sense to offer defensive backs early (because you can already tell their speed and size) and perhaps wait on running backs (to see how their strength improves).

I personally think that there are some positions it makes sense to offer early and some others it doesn’t. However, there are some talents that come around that you just have to offer early (Jerry Gray’s kid at Aledo, for example). But do you think Coach Brown’s desire to strike early has played into the dearth of top shelf running backs at UT-Austin?

Offer early or late will not change anything unless someone on the staff can start doing a better job of evaluation.

There hasn’t been many game breaking backs in the whole league the last 5 years….much less any one squad.

Maybe i don’t understand…. but 4 star recruits are NOT a dime a dozen. Isn’t our roster FULL of 4 star RB recruits. I agree we haven’t hit the 5* talent, but its not like we are whiffing left and right. Admittedly. Last year appears to be a whiff at the RB position. As long as we don’t whiff again this year, we’ll be just fine for years to come.

Cody Johnson is trying to turn himself into a carbon copy of Jerome Bettis.

Even if we’re only getting 2-3 ypc, I say we put him in there and let him lower his shoulder punish the LB’s and DB’s that have to tackle.

Johnson’s supposed to be sporting 250 lbs of iron, and he’s got all the hard yardage experience. You cannot tell me that if you’ve had to tackle Cody 3 or 4 times, that you’re not going to set your feet and be stuck in the mud when GG pulls the PA.

Maybe after 3 quarters, put Fozzy in there fresh to work the hell out of a tired team.

“Apparently, Calhoun had a great scrimmage that included an 80 yard TD run. Whether or not that translates into anything of substance on a September Saturday is still in question.”

It translates like a Shakespearean Sonnet, baby.

Reverse that. Have Cody in the game in the 4th quarter beating up an already tired defense.

@Ag— Actually we don’t hand out any offers until after their Jr years. The first Junior day is when the first offers go out, so that hasn’t been the problem.

Reading this actually made me feel a little better about 2006 – 2008, at least as far as the in-state recruits. We added contributors Fozzy, Cody and Tre and really didn’t miss on much else. I’ll give the staff a pass on Rodgers. Calhoun was a huge academic risk. Goodson would have been a cancer.

Moody probably would have been better than McGee at Texas, but I think being the 3rd RB in the class (don’t forget Derke “my name is Derek” Robinson) made him start this affair with USC.

So the main problems are the 2009 class – passing on Micheal and ending up with no RB in the class, and failure to go out of state when there really hasn’t been a great RB in-state since Jamaal.

Also, we flirted with Trent Richardson and now it looks like some of the rumors of why the staff backed off were true.

Cody’s average per carry is actually fairly solid when considering the goal line runs and one yard first down dives he gets assigned.

He’s an every down back given the right circumstances both shematically and stamina wise.

Ricky was #10? Who were the other 9? Jeebus.

If Cody still has a chance to prove his value, isn’t it premature to label Newton as adequate?

How much of the load can Fozzy bear?

Maybe i don’t understand…. but 4 star recruits are NOT a dime a dozen. Isn’t our roster FULL of 4 star RB recruits. I agree we haven’t hit the 5* talent, but its not like we are whiffing left and right.

Seems the Ketch’s of the world are whiffing on evaluating running back talent too.

I’m slightly more optimistic about Cobbs than Shead after watching two limited open practices. He’s got a little more pop in his cuts and willingness for contact. Both have good frames and run too upright, like 90% of D1 RBs over 6 feet tall. Both were good takes, imo.

Cobbs just seems like the better aflete. And I love it when kids from Oklahoma pan out for Texas because it happens about once every two decades.

The next step is to extend these deductions into accurate career totals.

“Huuuuuckleberry…”

Newton and Cody were 3 stars I think, but Fozzy, Vondrell, Hills, Whaley, Shead, Cobbs were all 4 stars.

Swedish Chef said, “How much of the load can Fozzy bear?”

Depends on how hard the defenders meat da’ ball.

Cody Johnson has the best balance of any of the RBs. He absorbs tackles like Earl Campbell light. I don’t know about the rest of CJ’s body, but god gave him great inner ear.

Where’s DJ Monroe in this discussion?

N/A

Situational at best. He’ll line up more at WR than RB.

Mack doesn’t seem to understand that power backs grow in college, not HS. Ricky and Ced were both right around 200lbs when we recruited them, and they became workhorses. Malcolm Brown seems cut from the same cloth, as is Michael. Guys like Melton and Whaley, they aren’t going to get smaller.

I was on the Brennan Clay bandwagon last year too. I’m willing to give Shead and Cobbs at least a few more weeks before I write them off, but Clay was certainly a better looking prospect than either of them. As you noted, a kid willing to travel halfway across the country to attend OU is most likely willing to travel a similar distance to attend UT. A missed opportunity there.

Compared to other elite recruiters Mack seems to be much more willing settle. To use your bar analogy, Mack walks into his regular bar, and if there ain’t nothing but 6s in there, then Mack is going home with a 6. Urban Meyer walks into the same bar and says no way I am going home with one of these pigs. He’ll go to the bar across the street, or even across town, but he’s going home with an 8+ no matter what it takes. Also, Mack doesn’t like to wait until closing time, so he’s been known to pick up 6s that were willing to leave with him at 8pm.

Monahorns, Cody was a strong four, as I stated he was in Rivals top 130. They had him as the number one fullback in the nation.

Anyone else notice the fire in Cody Johnson during the open practices? On the first day he took every single one of his runs to the endzone even when the whistle was blown and the defenders had stopped pursuit. I see some real workhorse potential here.

Big Johnson, I see a lot of potential in the CodeMan. He could be great, but there is a point in which added weight becomes a burden instead of a benefit. It’s a simple formula.

The mass of the ass, times the speed of the steed, equals the load of the Code.

A funny thing about Mack’s recruiting is that having a very high ratio of visits/commits is important to him. It might be psychologically related to locking up a recruiting class at the earliest possible moment. Mack’s early sign approach revolutionized UT’s recruiting but, now that Mack rules the recruiting world, it might be time for Mack to loosen up the recruiting schedule. A more just in time approach would reduce the offers to the kids who peaked too early and increase the offers to the stars who are late bloomers.

I don’t understand offering only one TB in a class. TBs are awesome athletes that can be turned into TEs, H backs, WRs, safeties, LBs, even DEs.

Cody is awesome and not just as a short yardage back. Given that the horns now have more size at the skill positions, it is straightforward to have an H back or TE block the play side OLB and a big, good blocking WR (like Malcolm, Mike Davis or Chiles) shield block the play side safety, isolating Cody on a CB. Forcing a CB to tackle a 250 pounder with a low center of gravity and a head of steam is cruel and unusual punishment. It is also easy yards and a great way to get into the head of an elite CB (and maybe physically punish him enough to get him off the field). The OL doesn’t have to do anything except block downfield after the completion. A great play vs OU and NU, IMO.

“Lennon Creer goes to Tennessee and pronounces that he doesn’t believe in Volunteers, he just believes in me.”

Shot in the dark, but is this a Collective Soul reference?

I would have loved to have Goodson, I thought he was really good. I’m huge into dynamic players though. Injuries were the only problem with him, but that was a miss IMO.

Missing on Moody and Scott were two of the best things that ever happened to us.

Michael was just embarrassingly bad. One of the worst recruiting decisions I’ve ever seen.

Cobbs seems like a better fit at safety or WR from what I saw. Shead looked really solid.

I said at the time on OBs that passing on Christine was a serious mistake. Making Whaley the exclusive RB target in the year was the mistake, not taking him. In making the decision to pass on on CM, they still should have offered Stephens as a compliment to Whaley and I also said so at the time. IF it meant offering one less Kyle Kriegal type, then so be it…..we needed help badly at RB.

Nate-

Is Calhoun the #2 guy this year?

Blake B.

Lennon.

That makes more since, babytime.

fear, Stephens was the year before Whaley/Michael.

Actually, no. Eric Stephens was ’09. The same year as Whaley/CM. I had many discussions about him on OBs at the time, remember it well. And for good measure, I looked it up and verified it. You may be thinking of the Bradley Stephens that went to ATM. I was referring to the little scat back (Eric), who looked like a poor mans Jacquez Rogers.

the fact that the 3 top recruits in SAN DIEGO (excluding Baxter) went to NORMAN Oklahoma over just about any school in the nation must mean that ou pays its players.

only possible explanation

fear, yep, gotcha. Yeah, E. Stephens at Tech. I thought you meant Bradley since his name was mentioned somewhere above.

“the fact that the 3 top recruits in SAN DIEGO (excluding Baxter) went to NORMAN Oklahoma over just about any school in the nation must mean that ou pays its players”…….more than USC.

Fantastic ACE. Davis looking in is great.

I second Horncasting’s comments. Boy, one semi-critical post heading into the season and the haters come alive. I suppose you fine folks always take the house in Vegas, too. Looking at the cold, hard facts, we’ve got some decent, if unspectacular, backs playing in an unspectacular rushing attack. We still do a’ight. We also got some lucky breaks (Scott, Moody, Goodson) and an unlucky one (Michael). Calhoun would be at SFA now if he started here. Whaley could still be a good player for us (and a good take in hindsight), just not likely at RB (Melton redux, perhaps).

That’s fantastic, ACE.

I saw Rodgers in high school, I know the bloodline, there is more heart in that bloodline than most of the running backs Texas has signed since Ced, and Texas fucked this when they made a half-assed attempt to recruit the uncle when they opted to go and recruit four players at Texas City that didn’t equal Michael Lewis as a ball player.

However, there are some talents that come around that you just have to offer early (Jerry Gray’s kid at Aledo, for example)

Ag,

The kid’s dad is James Gray, from Tech, not Jerry Gray.

I like skinny jeans.

For some reason, I expected Mike Davis to be rail thin. He ain’t.

Malcolm, please hurry and commit.

lets see if I have this curse thing straight
Scott failed because he didn’t sign with Mack?
so conversely that means if he did he would pass thru this time space dimensional warp
and suddenly make everyone forget Ricky?
I might believe it if I hadn’t watched the last few years of guys who did sign with Mack.
Seriously though
I can’t figure out how he fooled so many people. I watched quite a few of his high school highlights before he signed with anyone and I was not impressed. He had plenty of straight line speed but not a speck of lateral movement. And for a guy that weighed over 200 lbs he did not run with commensurate power. He was the beneficiary of an innovative swinging gate blocking scheme that gave him at least a ten yard lane to run through untouched. Usually the first guy to get to him did bring him down. Almost every play in the highlight reel was the same exact play.

McGee led the team in YPC for a long time last year, but very rarely got snaps as time passed. I still don’t understand that, apart from a few vague references to blocking.

All better as of tonight.