Mack Brown 2012 Signing Day Press Conference

Brown is resplendent in black polo and Bob’s Big Boy wavy haircut.

According to ESPN, the crappiest of services, UT signed 20 kids rated 4 stars or higher. 12 of the top 150 and 9 of the top 100. Number 3 overall.

Scouts.com 19 4 stars or higher. 7 of the top 100. No.1 Overall Class.
Rivals. 14 ranked 4 or higher. 6 in the top 100. No. 2 Overall

Best since 2002 sounds about right.

Dustin -
 
2011 was pretty stout.

Regarding Dalton Santos: “Will had three LBs committed before Manny came here. Manny liked those players, but he really liked Dalton.”
 
I speak fluent Mack Brown code. Do you?

Yep, I speak it a little.
Some of these guys will be Tight ends. Bluiett…

Boyette was a muschamp DT. Potential 2-gapper, he seemed to do some in HS.

Mack is narrating film of the players. And I am narrating a live video feed of Mack narrating film of the players. Meta, imo.

Caleb Blueitt showing good athleticism in highlights. Potential TE, DE.
 
Paul Boyette already 300. DeAries Cotton nods his approval.

Connor Brewer is very Applewhitey.

Connor Brewer’s sister apparently plays swimmer on the football team.

Malcolm Brown is basically Warren Sapp. Absurd quickness and pad level.

A fast safety… how novel.

Colbert is fucking fast. Sheesh.

Adrian Colbert will run track for us and participate in Spring. Great highlights. Laughable that he’s a three star.

MALCOM MALCOM MALCOM MALCOM MALCOM

Cole is a great student. Proof: he wears spectacles!

Mack basically slots Tim Cole for Fullback tryouts.

Cole has great instincts and feel for the game.

Bryce Cottrell is from Plano. He should be one hell of a player once the coaches teach him how to move in directions other than north-south and east-west.

If you get that joke, you’ve driven in Plano.

Bryce Cottrell -
 
6-2.5, 237. Good quickness. Only played DE one year.
 
Toshiro Davis -
 
6-3, 230. Runs a 4.5. Nasty. #2 player in state of Louisiana. Bo Davis earned his paycheck on this one.

we get it Mack, it’s Shiro. Please don’t say it anymore though…

De La Torre is a coach’s son. Annnnnnnnnd, Mack lays the fullback foundation.

Alex DLT auditions for FB.

Bryson Echols tough and can run. Smallish.

I actually like DLT more than Cole. Mack mentions “fullback” with him as well…

Kennedy Estelle goes 6-7, 310.
 
Really moves well. Would be surprised if he’s not a multi-year starter here.
 
“Benny Wylie can’t wait to get ahold of him.”

Jonathan Gray is approximately 204 pounds. Give or take an ounce.

Johnathan Gray currently weighs 204.
 
Highlights define economy of motion. Just a subtle, instinctive, outstanding runner.
 
Probably a 4.5 guy, but acceleration over first 10 yards is elite.

Nickel Rover said: February 1st, 2012 at 2:45 pm

Mack basically slots Tim Cole for Fullback tryouts.

No so fast… B. Matthews, R. Roberson, DLT, and Chet Moss might have something to say about that…

Jonathan Gray gives our football team a chance for a home run. GOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!

If I recall right, DLT is relatively short…FB could be a good spot for him.

Wylie has already got to work on the JUCO. “Down to 308.”

Donald Hawkins currently a trim 308. Shined in offseason workouts.
 
Good feet.

Camrhon Hughes weighs 320 right now, but carrying it well.
 
Raw, very athletic. Dad is retired military. Love to hear that.

Mack describes Camron Hughes as “a young man whose house burned down.” I don’t get the metaphor.

Hughes is already 320. That’s crazy.

Peter is really fast

Peter Jinkens is a “very emotional player.” Good. We’ve been needing to replace Killebrew’s penalty yardage.

Pete Jinkens “a very emotional player.”
 
Can fly. Undersized WLB. Good in space. Passion for the game.
 
Last guy to get his fax in. Quick at everything but faxing.

Mack says Daje could play WR, RB, CB, or S. That’s Mack-speak for “meet your new fullback.”

Scipio Tex said: February 1st, 2012 at 2:55 pm

Pete Jinkens "a very emotional player."

Can fly. Undersized WLB. Good in space. Passion for the game.

Last guy to get his fax in. Quick at everything but faxing.

When you’re important people can wait…

I like Jinkens to grow into a Will and stay on the field every down.

Brick,

Sounds like we recruited 7 fullbacks among our 28 players.

Da-Jay Johnson.
 
Blew up the Nike combine in Oregon. Dad played in NFL.
 
Crazy straight line speed. How is he side to side?
 
Mack wants to try him on offense first.
 
Weighs 185, but has a lot of power in his legs.

Do you really think Daje gets and honest shot at offense?

Marcus Johnson coached by a guy who Mack knew from a friend of a cousin’s sister-in-law. Or something.

Damn, Marcus Johnson runs better than I thought. 6-1, 185.
 
High points. Sloan Thomas-y.

Jinkens = Cobbs redux

BRICK YOUR FUCKING KILLING ME!!

Mack talking up Cayleb Jones’s kick return abilities.

Mr Jones here in Austin. Long strider. Great hands. Good height.

Nick Jordan discovered in kicking camp. Parents were Aggies.
 
Mack thinks he can kick it out on kick offs. Can punt, but not his primary skill.
 
Will be a pure placekicker.

Our kicker isn’t a punter. He’ll kick field goals and kick-offs. But not punt. There’s a difference, and Mack wants you to understand it.

Brandon Moore is 6-6, 330. Needs to rework his body. Big boy, run stuffer.

Alex Norman shows good first step. Around 290.
 
Currently slated for D, but has O line potential.

Alex Norman “could play offense.” Welcome to 9th string fullback, Alex!

Brandon Moore is another Muschamp-Saban looking DT. Interesting to me that Diaz wanted him. Situational guy, I guess. Or a fullback.

Basically Kwame Cavil.

Can we trade Jalen for Mykelle on offense?

Jalen Overstreet goes 6-2, 217.
 
Will be a QB early, but don’t be surprised when he ends up at LB. Fairly primitive passing skills.
 
Not a speedster, but a very fluid, natural runner. Strong as hell in his hips and legs.

Apparently Wylie played with Daje Johnson’s dad at KState. I’m impressed with this staff’s ability to use their connections to brings kids in, especially Bo Davis with Toshiro.

Overstreet’s highlights consist of a black and white reel from the 1950’s.

Overstreet has a mysterious relationship to former Sooner great Overstreet. Potential spy, imo. Slot him at super-secret fullback in our all-fullback formation.

Tatum and Van are clown cars?

Hassan wants to be called Ridge. Please honor that request, Cosmonauts.

Hassan Ridgeway. 6-5, 255.
 
I love this kid. Early film had gurus down on him. That tune has changed, I think.
 
Extremely powerful and he can run. Plays hard.

BrickHorn, your last 2 comments made me literally laugh out loud. Now the whole office is looking at me funny. Thanks!

Curtis Riser has great feet. Not Rob Ryan’s wife’s feet great, but still pretty good.

Curtis Riser is an inside thumper. Pure guard.
 
Searles wanted 4 OL and he got his top 4 picks. Not just coachspeak - I think that’s true. Love this OL class.

Kendall Sanders will play wide receiver cornerback.

Kendall Sanders -
 
MVP in basketball and football in his district as a junior. Will be a WR/DB for us. Dominated the All-American game.
 
One of our top 5 recruits. Love me some Kendall Sanders. I think he’s a NFL corner, but kid wants to play O.

That’s it

I see Ridgeway as Acho-Redux. No Vaccaro highlights…

Damn Bob!

They left out Lil Vaccaro on the highlight reel. Does that free up another scholarship?

Acho with 2 extra inches?

Mack plays the role of “old man unable to figure out computers” as we stare at his Windows desktop.

this is lil’ embarrassing

Experiencing technical problems. Computer history shows YouPorn.com highlights.

Damn, Bob get it straight

Still need Vaccaro, Dalton Santos, Orlando Thomas.

Man this kids a freaking fast…

Orlando “Duke” Thomas attended RG3 High AKA Copperas Cove, a school we apparently had never heard of until last year.

Underrated ATH/DB.

Santos is a big kid.

Dalton is the kinda kid that we would lost out on, and gone onto OU and killed us for 4 years

Dalton Santos houses it as a 255 pound tailback.
 
Every player in the Under Armour game raved about Santos.
 
I consider him a Top 10 signee in this class. Anyone with a Reed Boyd comp, stfu.

Thomas is a nifty little guy.
 
Legit speed. Smaller Adrian Phillips.

Orlando “Duke” Thomas is fast….there is speed all over this class.

Any kid that plays in that region, and chooses to give himself a nicname of Duke is gonna be a stud

Dalton f’n Santos. Holy shit. Didn’t know he played tailback. Great feet.

THE MIDDLE LINEBACKER WE’VE BEEN DREAMING OF SINCE TOMMY NOBIS

Thomas is a nifty little guy.

He’s also a member of the landed aristocracy.

lil’ machete

Lol at Mack rewinding the video to watch HS kids get decleated.

Now we’re done

Thomas reminds me of Vasher on special teams. Aggressive to the hole, body lean, great lateral quicks.

Kevin Vaccaro brings the pain. Quite small, but tough. Jaxon Shipley spoke highly of him based on high school experience.

BrickHorn said: February 1st, 2012 at 3:12 pm

Thomas is a nifty little guy.

He’s also a member of the landed aristocracy.

LOL

So Daje was always a Texas lean

Here’s what an offer from Mack Brown looks like.

Scipio who are your top 5?
My guess: Estelle, Sanders, MBII, Gray, Jones.

Mack starting to forget shit like a grandpa.

As long as our coaches are out on the all-nepotism recruiting trail, we need to hire a few Mormons and/or Catholics.

Or Travis Henry

Sounds like we recruited 7 fullbacks among our 28 players.

Strangely, Mack’s haul of 13,837 angry Egyptians with road flares and rusty knives goes unmentioned.

Oh well, you’ll see. You will all see.

Nickel - you got 4 of 5. I see Jones more like top 10-12.
 
Really tough to rank our guys from 5-15 - which is a very good problem to have.

Thomas reminds me of Vasher on special teams. Aggressive to the hole,

I’m starting to understand your screen name.

Mack confirms the intel that J.Gray wanted to play with a deep stable of backs and not shoulder all the wear and tear.

That’s a pretty sophisticated long-term view for Mr Gray.

Camhron Hughes is more ready to play than Kennedy, imo.

Mack on recruiting:
 
“If you keep asking about our depth chart, you’re insecure and I’m not sure you think you can compete.”

Thanks for narrating as I was out walking the dog. Really looking forward to Scipio’s class breakdown now.

Brick, hilarious.

Scipio: Jones was the one I was uncertain of, he’s outside my top 5. I don’t know who my 5th is after those guys. I really like ridgeway but now we add Shiro…

Love the OL class 1-4. Usually, we have at least 2 OL that I roll my eyes over. Not this bunch.

Shiro is all the more important because I think Ridgeway ends up sliding inside. Kid is only 17. He won’t be 18 until his freshman year.

Scipio:

Definitely not an obvious Chris Hall in this bunch.

Staff has spent 8 hours over the last two days watching juniors to get the right invites to camp.

Shiro is a Top 5 guy, IMO. Huge get. I’d like to see us redshirt him and spring him on the world in 2013-2015.

BrickHorn

“Peter Jinkens is a "very emotional player." Good. We’ve been needing to replace Killebrew’s penalty yardage.”
Best translation ever.

Manny thinks Mack wants to turn all his guys into TEs. Ha.

Mack:
 
“We will sign two TEs next year.”
 
MJ McFarland now weighs 260. Had a good redshirt year developmentally. Think he and DJ Grant can cover the position adequately next year.

Mack on Harsin talking Fozzy:
 
“Fozzy was the best Wildcat QB he’s ever had.”
 
No shit. Goddamn he was good at it. So pissed his season ended the way it did.

“Would be not be surprised if several of these guys play.”
 
Set the over/under at 16.5.

Over

Very nice class, lots of athletes.

Look at it a different way. Who are the bottom 5 in the class (rhetorical). In the past you would often have a lot of head shakers. In this class I bet you have several that you don’t want to part with…

I’d rather see the Under in that scenario and get back to redshirting guys if we can. 18/22 freshmen seeing PT is almost unheard of.

Young coaches bring energy and gratitude for being here. “New coaches woke us up.”
 
Harsin’s wife started crying when she went into the stadium for the first time.
 
Vasherized’s wife cries whenever she walks in their bedroom.

So similar.

My top 5 guys, Shiro, Gray, Brown, Sanders, Colbert

Bottom 5, excluding the kicker:
Bluiett, Cole, DLT, Vaccaro, Overstreet?.
I wouldn’t part with Overstreet or Bluiett for much out there.

Spastic -
 
I adopt a similar approach. People tend to focus on the top of the class. I tend to look at the middle 10 - the median. Who are those athletes? When I really like those guys, I know we’re in excellent shape. I loved 2011’s class for that very reason. Can’t say I knew that 18 would play, but I knew they were bad mamma jammas.

amazing thread, bros. would read again

Magnitude -
 
I like that list, too.
 
Nickel -

Brandon Moore has something to prove to me. As does Boyette. I want to see a motor.

Blueitt’s a hell of an athlete. That’s the kind of 3 star development kid I want. Same for Overstreet. It’s not unreasonable to imagine Overstreet @ 235, playing LB, running well, with good hands and ball skills.

Ah, forgot about Moore. Replace Overstreet’s name with Boyette, I thought I included him. Moore is Boyette in 2 years.

Blueitt’s a hell of an athlete. That’s the kind of 3 star development kid I want. Same for Overstreet. It’s not unreasonable to imagine Overstreet @ 235, playing LB, running well, with good hands and ball skills.

Orie Lemon, Jr.?

Back to Mack:
 
Staff watching junior video collectively. Every coach must offer an opinion and defend it. Used to separate offense and defense staff. No longer.
 
That’s a huge point right there. Imagine if Muschamp had been allowed to do some quality control on our offensive staff.
 
That also prevents “athletes” from slipping through the cracks. You now can make collective staff decisions that are good for the program without a specific position slotting. A huge point.

Did Moore play football this year? He appeared not to have any offers or even a recruiting profile before he committed to Texas.

BrickHorn -
 
Nice comp, man.

Bigduke: He was winning one of his 7 national championships! Dude is a winner down to the bone. 2nd Cousin’s uncle played for the Cowboys.

bigduke -
 
He played JUCO at EMCC after transferring from Bama. I know Florida offered him

Mack: “I’m going to get a blog and say Kirk Bohls is quitting and run with it”

Vasherized’s wife cries whenever she walks in their bedroom.

So similar.

This is true. Baby arm, imo.

My top 5:

Gray. Shiro. MB-2. Hughes. Daje.

Calvin Howell is leaving the team and leaving school.
 
Not a surprise.

He played JUCO at EMCC after transferring from Bama. I know Florida offered him

I knew he was at Eastern Miss but I had wondered if he had sat the year out or some such, as he seemed to be flying way under the radar. I googled him after hearing that he was close to committing to Texas and couldn’t find anything at the time apart from his HS recruiting profile. Maybe I just suck at the internet. Didn’t know bout the Florida offer.

2nd Cousin’s uncle played for the Cowboys.

I like those bloodlines.

Calvin Howell confirmed to be leaving team due to personal issues. Now if we can only fire Brickhorn for the same reasons without triggering a wrongful termination lawsuit…

Who thinks Daje will see more playing time at RB than Donald Jr. next season?

Does Shiro basically assure that Caleb will start working with the TEs?

What’s the fastest path the playing time for Sanders? CB or WR?

Shame about Howell. Is he transferring or leaving? I recall someone mentioning (another thread here? Somewhere else?) that he had some injury issues.

Great stuff gents.

Thanks for doing this.

If you would have thrown down the 9.95 for an InsideTexas sub, you would have know about Calvin Howell yesterday, which makes it better.

Crazy question, Hutchens is undersized for Guard, right? Has excellent feet right? Pretty athletic? Blocks mean (Searles loves him). Ran a sub 5.0 40 as a recruit. Why isn’t he playing TE?

Magnitude -
 
OG athletic and TE athletic are different ballparks.

"Peter Jinkens is a "very emotional player."

Does this mean he could kill someone on the field?

Scip, true but he’s already faster than Poehlman will ever be, and he lettered in Basketball as a soph for a pretty stout Desoto squad. I just think that we may have mis-eval’d the kid. what else are we gonna do with a 260 lb 6’5" OG? You have to excuse me I’m an efficiency expert and I hate waste, and it seems a waste to have Hutchins warming the bench. JMO.

The International Bowl featuring Texas commits Daje Johnson, Caleb Bluiett, Tim Cole, and Malcom Brown kicks off now on CBS.

channel finder

We’ll start a new live game thread so we can keep this gem uncluttered.

Malcolm Brown may kill a Norwegian.

Snide - it means, don’t talk to him about his weight.

Magnitude:

Who thinks Daje will see more playing time at RB than Donald Jr. next season?

I do; And if Daje doesn’t somebody else will. Somebody whose dad played at Texas Tech.

Does Shiro basically assure that Caleb will start working with the TEs?

Yes, and maybe Ced Reed

What’s the fastest path the playing time for Sanders? CB or WR?

WR with us. Right now. But for his NFL-earnings sake, he needs to give CB a try someday.

JS with the hard sell

I don’t think Ced Reed goes to TE unless he’s really good there. It’s going to be hard to supplant him I think.

Especially with us, since we are substituting so much on DL and having to chase Big 12 QB’s with high effort 50 times per game or risk getting gashed by big passing plays.

I was pleasantly surprised by Reed last year. I can’t see him moving to TE.

Also, no need to debate the top players in this class.

We’re Texas, our top 5 has like 12 players in it.

our top 5 has like 12 players in it

yes.

If your Top 5 has like 12 players in it…you might have one of the top recruiting classes in the nation.

I was kidding on the Reed to TE deal . . . but with JJ, Oak, Wilson and Shiro, we have four functional ends. And Ridgeway (sorry, Ridge) will be a force. We’ll need Reed on defense year after this one, four sure.

Mack kept hinting at somebody moving to TE. Besides Bluiett, who might move?

Will say I’m more than a little tired of the “He can’t play anywhere else, let’s try him at tight end” game. Dom Jones. Whaley. Luke. Daniels. Greg Smith!!

Disclaimer: if you are an SEC school, 7 of those players may not receive actual scholarships, despite signing LOI’s

Can anyone explain why Mack keeps getting raises while everyone else gets a pat on the back? We should double the salaries of everyone on the staff after Mack. They’re making this magic happen and need to get paid. No reason to be stingy, keep the staff intact and the national title should happen by the 14 season at the latest.

tackchevy: Our assistants are amongst the highest paid in the game. They’ve been taken care of as well.

Great thread. Thanks to Scip, Vash and Brick. Like old times around here the last few days.

That’s the most honest and complete assessment I’ve ever heard Mack make about the rot that had set in and how inportant it was to get new blood on the staff. Pretty blunt assessment of the contract extension as well, IMO which he deftly weaved into a subtle shot or two at Aggy as he discussed stability and the Admin and BOR being on the same page.Nice dig, too at the Sabans when he talked about not putting yourself in a situation where you go back to parents and tell them you’re yanking an offer because you’ve oversigned.

@edsp: He definitely said Daniels would be moving there once he’s healed up.

If I had any kind of computer skill whatsoever, I would put a picture of Blueitt next to one of Jermichael Finley his freshman year and dare anyone to tell me which is which. TE all the way IMHO if he can catch.

Oh, and our friends at texags want us to know how much our class sucks, and is overrated, and how fat and slow MBII is. For all of you desperate to hear their opinions…

What was Mack’s answer to the extension?

Just got done reading this recap - thanks for doing it, guys! Scip and BrickHorn firing zingers back and forth like Nadal-Jokavic is a good way to kill part of an afternoon.

My pretty dramatically uneducated guesses at true frosh contributors:

Donald Hawkins (starting tackle - side TBD)
Jonathan Gray (going out on a limb here, I know)
Malcom Brown (rotational DT - too good to keep off the field, and gets more snaps with Howell’s departure)
Brandon Moore (in the DT rotation as an early-down run-stuffer - hope he’s ready to work hard with Bennie)
Cayleb Jones (probably seeing 20-30 snaps a game by season’s end at an outside WR spot)
Kendall Sanders (special teams demon and 5-10 snaps a game on whichever side of the ball his destiny lies)
Adrian Colbert (special teams, getting his feet wet a bit in the secondary and possibly auditioning for Machete’s hybrid/eraser role down the road)
Nick Jordan (continuing the Phil Dawson tradition of badass freshman kickers)

Really hope we’re able to shirt Hughes, Estelle and Riser, and I think we should be able to - particularly if Espinosa is able to gain the mass and strength to hold down the C spot and prevent any positional cascades from occuring on the interior OL.

Nobis60: I wonder if Moore sees snaps here on the goalline and in short yardage. On both sides of the ball.

excellent thread, thanks yall

SMPD blotter, January 29th, 2012:
 
 4:44 a.m.- Possession of marijuana less than 2 oz., 1500 block Aquarena Springs drive, Calvin Trent Howell, 20, arrested.

Great stuff, guys. Even hours later. Much appreciated.

“SMPD blotter, January 29th, 2012:

4:44 a.m.- Possession of marijuana less than 2 oz., 1500 block Aquarena Springs drive, Calvin Trent Howell, 20, arrested."

Why is he the only suspect actually named on the entire list?

Nevermind there are others. Sucks and wish him the best.

A question for the “the wondering masses”
If you were to take ESPN- Rivals as gospel ….
1 Alabama
2 Florida State
3 Texas
Here’s the question. Would you swap our top 5 for either teams “top 5”?
Well would ya, punk? (Clint Eastwood voice)

For those of you who follow the inner workings of this program better than I do, is this an automatic dismissal for Howell. a one strike and you’re out? I haven’t read the police report, but is 2 oz. really a dismissable offense? Even in many work settings, there are opportunities for help if someone messes up with drugs before they’re let go. I wonder if there are multiple parts to this—other offenses or he was thinking about transferring anyway.

Noonan -
 
You get many chances. Mack isn’t unreasonable. This was a final straw.

Noonan-

2oz is a shit ton of weed. Under 2oz is a misdemeanor…over is a felony.

However, possession is an arrestable offense. Therefore, if they found weed, he is screwed. I have a feeling this new mentality in the staff isn’t going to put up with it anymore… “if you don’t want to be responsible and play hard, we will find someone else”

Brick, Scip, Vash-

Funny as hell as always. Great job. This class has a chance to be great and be great very fast. I’m looking forward to watching MB2 and Santos bring the pain honestly.

Thanks for the insight. It’s been a LONG time since I thought of ounces in anything other than counting calories

Great read, guys! Thanks for doing it. This is a tremendous class, and Shiro was a really nice signing day surprise.

Hook ’em!

Press conference transcript:
http://www.mackbrown-texasfootball.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/020112aaj.html

I had a couple pretty hard laughs reading this thread just now. Thanks.

Mack probably won’t redshirt any of the frosh who have a good chance of leaving early (like Finley and Earl Thomas did).

DJ Grant isn’t the blocker you need at TE, especially on running plays. DJ is more of a flex TE than a true TE. Bet Mack moves at least one DE to TE. When Mack decided not to offer Hobbs at TE, my guess is that the deal was to instead move a DE to TE and give Diaz another draft choice. Shiro probably made that an easy decision.

Smart to keep Shiro’s selection of Texas a secret till the end. It tremendously reduced the community pressure on Shiro.

Sad to see Howell go. He was really looking great by the end of the season.

Has Texas ever had two straight recruiting classes of the quality of the last two?

FYI, “Possession of marijuana less than 2 oz” is the minimum offense level for possession of marijuana (POM). It’s a Class B misdemeanor, 0-180days in jail and/or up to $2000 fine. 2 > 4oz is a Class A misdemeanor, and 4+ oz = felony amounts.

Back in the day in Travis County, you only got arrested for POM-B if you pissed off the police. Otherwise, APD would grind your joint into the ground and write you a ticket for possession of drug paraphernalia or public intoxication, which are fine-only offenses. I guess San Marcos PD is not so accommodating.

Correct, they had changed it. However, they stiffened the penalty for Class A misdemeanor I’ve noticed. Surprised the State Jail Felony has such a high threshold though. Unusual for a strict penlty state like Texas

Oh and I used to work with SM PD when I was working EMS down there and going to UT…not the coolest bunch of guys IMO. Sense of humor seemed to be lacking in some as well.

Just a hunch, but I don’t think SMPD cops are generally as likely to pass up an arrest of a gigantic black out-of-towner than a white TSU psych major. Two ounces is indeed a lot of pot but I’d bet it wasn’t nearly that much. It was a possession arrest in a retail strip in the residential student area next to a big party school after a late Saturday night. No DUI so they were probably just walking down the street making too much noise or something and Calvin had a personal bag on him. Feel bad for the kid because I’ve been there a few times myself. He should have known better but most kids his age don’t. Like say, the nice kids let off on a paraphernalia charge.

A few random thoughts on the overall class:

Good thing we got Moore now that Howell’s out, eh? And now maybe we’ll get something out of Greg Daniels, if he isn’t transferring. Or, maybe he isn’t now.

Perhaps the most impressive part of this class is that the middle of the bunch is very intriguing. Guys like Bryce Cottrell, Caleb Bluiett, Jalen Overstreet, etc. All of them look like solid takes even if you don’t know exactly where they’ll end up. Athletic guys with adequate size and football attitude. When a guy’s not a blue-chip sensation, that’s what you want to see.

And even the more questionable takes look OK to me. DLT’s 6-1, 230. That’s a great size for a freshman fullback, and we know he’s a high energy kid who’s a quick study and enjoys contact. Given the state of our FB depth chart, if he’s ready to plunge in headfirst he could end up with lots of snaps over his career. Li’l Machete plays like one. We should stave off the Nkwoparaite birds of prey for at least a couple of years to see if he grows a little more like Kenny did and/or shows something. I don’t think Cole is as slow as he timed and his film looks OK to me. Duke, Norman and Boyette need to develop but have something to work with. And I don’t see anyone else who could be questioned as a take at this point.

And the offensive class has me downright thrilled at every position except TE. I think people are underestimating how useful it will be that Brewer’s been playing with Boise concepts for the better part of four years already. He would be a good take for a lot of schools but he’s a better take for us. And all of our OL and skill position kids look outstanding. Given our heinous offensive performance over the last two years, let’s be clear: this is miracle work. To get an offensive class like this without the help of any offensive firework displays this decade is simply impressive and a testament to how much faith Harsinwhite inspires in folks.

Counting chickens now…
one
two
three
four
…
1.23E+11
…

NSD is all about counting chickens before they are hatched; it is not only OK but is encouraged. Don’t take the fun out of funatic.

BTW, there were only 28chickens.

If your top five are Estellse, Gray, Brown, Davis and Sanders that next ten are pretty damn good. If your next ten are:

Brewer
C. Jones
Riser
Ridgeway
O. Thomas
A. Colbert
D. Johnson
Hawkins
M. Johnson
Santos

then you have a really special class. That next ten includes a possible multi year starter at QB, S, DE, MLB, G and T.

Now that is counting your chickens before they hatch.

Looking at some of the comments by staff on Fozzy and what he brought to the wildcat, I’m less convinced Overstreet is a future OLB. Fozzy was a hard nose, nice lateral movement inside runner out of the wildcat. Overstreet is big, athletic, powerful leg drive and seems to be a shifty runner. Good attributes for the position. It also takes some of the inside ponding away from Gray or other candidates for the spot (Gray or Daje at the position wouldn’t stink either…). Also, looking at RB: Brown, Bergeron, Gray, Hills and ??? DJ? The new DJ? Maybe it is Overstreet as a RB - not slotted in the QB spot.

Scipio Tex said: February 1st, 2012 at 3:48 pm

Back to Mack:

Staff watching junior video collectively. Every coach must offer an opinion and defend it. Used to separate offense and defense staff. No longer.

That’s a huge point right there. Imagine if Muschamp had been allowed to do some quality control on our offensive staff.

The dramatic difference in efficacy between offense and defense recruiting from 2006 - 2009 is explained, and hopefully fixed.

Scip, that is a huge point. That the offensive coach cabal could just breeze through film and greenlight their takes without having a full staff input is indeed telling. Of course, Applewhite would have been in there, but he was also the junior guy in the room. And, I’d certainly appreciate Bo Wallace’s take on O-Lineman, as his is the perspective of someone who’s made a career out of sussing out their weaknesses.

You may have seen this, but a look at the DGB recruitment. I post it here because a) you’re all fans of college football recruiting and b) shows how much the Beckhams liked Mack Brown as a person. Made me like him even more.

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Dorial-Green-Beckham-inside-the-chase-for-nations-top-recruit-020112?m_n=true

You’ll have to ask Case for his take on the OL. William “Bo” Wallace was last seen gettin’ his drink on in Hattiesburg. Or sacking York, or some shit.

York just can’t catch a break. First the scottish, and now drunken confederates running amok.

Phenomenal Smith:

They won’t read that as it is almost certainly a hit piece based in fiction. Just look at who wrote it.

I read it, Arkansas comes off really, really bad. Mizzou gets suspicously good coverage. OU staff come off as conniving and arrogant, Mack comes off really well.

Really interesting read but I’m sure there was a lot more between the lines.

Fiction? Nah. Poor writing? Absolutely.

I certainly appreciate him giving me the definition of “snapback”, though. I don’t think I could have figured out that one without Evans’ illuminating prose.

All’s well that ends well with DGB. I hope he’s a Top 5 pick in 3 years’ time.

Nate, I don’t know the writer. Do you think he just made up all the Beckham family quotes? Or do you think the Beckhams were making stuff up?

Nickel, it is likely there was more between the lines, but the process was kept largely under wraps so anything about it is interesting. Anyway, I suspect Mizzou got good coverage because the story came from the Beckhams. They aren’t going to dump on his school of choice.

As a Mizzou fan, I especially liked the bit about KU.

Tracy Beckham, who has a master’s degree from the University of Kansas, was just as disappointed in the Jayhawks’ recruiting efforts under former coach Turner Gill, who was fired in November after two disastrous seasons. Kansas twice scheduled visits to see Dorial but canceled both, Tracy Beckham said.

"They were just a mess," Tracy Beckham said.

DGB better lay off the pitchers of Long Islands.

Interesting piece. I would say they present every school about exactly where their stereotypes are. Mack as the guy more interested in feelings than football. Stoops as a cold-hearted prick toting along binders of data the family didn’t care about. Petrino as a smarmy ass that nobody trusts to stay around. Saban as an even more heartless prick than Stoops.

I agree the Mizzou coverage is artificially good. Sounds like Pinkel did a nice job with the family, but there is a reason what little talent comes out of Missouri typically leaves Missouri. That has improved under Pinkel, but is still a fact.

I read it. There are some odd disconnects in there. Not too flattering to Stoops. So assuming it’s been filtered through Evans, Stoops must have been a royal ass. I saw a comment somewhere else pointing out that the coaches all come of as caricatures of what we already suspect them to be.

Interesting to see about the scouting/videos/etc, but one area where moneyball-style analytics doesn’t seem to have really penetrated (probably due to an absence of reliable stats) is recruiting.

Besides Thayer Evans’ HCwDB hairstyle, the thing that most troubles me about the DGB article is finding out DGB’s favorite food is fried sushi. That’s offensive to Asians and to fish. It’s like saying your favorite food is oven-baked Texas ’cue.

Phenomenal -

The writer of the article in question drew the ire of Longhorn fans, as well fans of journalistic integrity and factual reporting, when he did a piece highlighting the J’Markus McFarland recruitment a couple of years ago. Tall tales of drug-fueled lesbian orgies at Texas-sponsored parties over OU weekend were passed off as fact with nary an effort to confirm, Mack Brown was painted in a light that’s absolutely comical to anyone who has followed his career for more than five minutes, and McFarland’s mom was given a forum to both bash Texas and audition for the next season of The Real Housewives of Tyler.

nobis-

And that does not even include the Darrell Scott piece.

nobis, I remember that story but not the writer. That was horrible.

jc, I thought the same thing. In fact, I didn’t know fried sushi existed.

JC25:
It’s time you came out of the closet, racist.

Arriviste:
I’be fascinated to see more moneyball stuff for football. What I have seen suggests that it’s much more of a team effort than other sports (obviously) and QB’s are much less responsible for wins and losses than assumed. Or more responsible. I’ve seen both.

“fried sushi” = tempura = good eats. Take just about anything, dip it in a light batter, fry it briefly in sesame oil. Boom, it tastes better. Works in Japan the same way it does at the Texas State Fair, and everywhere else on Earth.

247 saying the first 2013 commitment will come tomorrow morning. Jake Raulerson, come on down.

Interesting article (linked by Phenomenal above), if true.

A few of the points that stood out the most…

Funny: Mack Brown = “Mr. Picture Guy”

Fried sushi: I’m a sushi lover but what the heck is fried sushi? Hope they weren’t referring to tempura.

Helicopter and MIZ-DGB: Didn’t know getting to sit in a chopper was an NCAA recruiting no-no, but it seems putting flyers in the stands or seats telling everyone to cheer for Dorial would be even more so (i.e. orchestrated vs. spontaneous student cheering). Wouldn’t want Mizzou to get in trouble for minor ticky-tack stuff like that (as opposed to street agents and Reggie Bush type stuff), however.

“John Beckham also knew his son’s chances of playing for a national championship weren’t as high with the Tigers.” Even a broken clock (Thayer Evans) is right twice a day.

Spastic Synapse,
“Looking at some of the comments by staff on Fozzy and what he brought to the wildcat, I’m less convinced Overstreet is a future OLB. Fozzy was a hard nose, nice lateral movement inside runner out of the wildcat. Overstreet is big, athletic, powerful leg drive and seems to be a shifty runner. Good attributes for the position.”

Lots of possibilities with a big, fast dual purpose QB like Overstreet. Down the road who knows where he ends up (OLB would not be surprising) but in 2012 he probably stays at QB if Brewer redshirts (which he should). Texas needs at least 3 QBs ready to play. With Case as the backup QB, Harsin probably does not want to risk injuring Ash by running him too much. This means there needs to be a running QB and Overstreet will be that man.

Once the horns get down to 4 down territory (where punting isn’t too useful and it is a bit long for a field goal), it is great to have a QB who runs quite well, can run with power and durability inside, and can punish the D by passing competently if the D sells out to stop the run. Overstreet can do all that. When the offense is at the +40 yard line (for example), there is still a lot of territory for a safety to cover (i.e. the field has not been shortened like when the offense is in the red zone). Forcing the D to honor the deep passing attack when the running QB is in the game is a huge advantage for the running game. Overstreet at QB may be a significant asset at QB for the horns in 2012.

I know nobody cares, but here is my top 5 bottom 5:

Top 5:
1. Gray
2. Suga Brown
3. Torshiro-San
4. Colbert
5. Hawkins

Bottom 5:
1. Cottrell
2. DLT
3. Cole
4. Boyette
5. Brewer

Wow General! No Vacarro in your bottom 5!

You obviously think Brewer is the answer in both the short term and the long term. I would have to disagree.

Brewer bottom 5? I don’t have a strong opinion on him and am intrigued by anyone who does.
I’m also interested as to why you think Vaccaro is better than him.

I’m interested in Hawkins, I understand he’s already supposed to be the answer at tackle and I’ve seen very little of him. Hopefully KSU’s Juco’s aren’t all of that quality.

I like Vaccaro. He is a junk yard dawg that will have a chip on his shoulder. Also, I think height is the most overrated attribute of a corner. Give me a 5’9" kid that can cover any day over the 6’1" super athlete developmental corner. The list of 6’1" or taller kids that can flip their hips and cover are very very small.

I think a team in a spread league like the Big 12 needs kids that can cover more than they need kids that can make NFL scouts drool.

I also think Brewer is slightly overrated and is more of a longer term prospect. He needs to red shirt and learn the system to become a decent to good player for us. In other words he is like David Ash.

But when no one outside of Abilene Christian offers you a scholarship and your brother is currently an All American in college it is more than just your height which scouts do not like. My bottom five would be:

ADLT
Vaccaro
Boyette
Cole
Echols

Just my opinion but I think Texas really needs to sign difference makers at LB, DB and QB next year.

I would add WR to that list. Thought they were going to sign 5 this class, and ended up only getting 3 and losing out on the top 2 targets. And of those 3, one of them is also our best DB prospect. I feel like WR and TE are the two biggest needs for the next class. And given the OL talent in this class, they need to get while the gettens good.

I don’t have a strong opinion on Brewer but I do have a few small concerns.

One concern is that it is difficult to evaluate a QB when he plays vs inferior competition. Texas is the world leader in producing QBs, everybody comes to Texas to recruit QBs. The football competition in HS is awesome in Texas and makes it easy to evaluate a QB. It seems a bit strange that Harsin went to Arizona to recruit his QB.

Another concern is that in the all star game that I watched in which Brewer played, he had zip pocket awareness and escapability. Brewer stood there like a statue and just got lit up. In football, especially in a leadership position, you have to be aware of matchups and adjust accordingly. IIRC, the RT did a real poor job blocking. After a while you have to compensate for that problem. Brewer’s replacement did a much, much better job at escaping the rush and getting rid of he ball on time.

A third concern is that Harsin may have had unrealistic expectations for how well an OL can pass block protect a QB vs an elite D, thus not putting a sufficiently high priority on QB mobility to escape the rush and buy some time.

In those games where the OL cannot block well for the run game and down field passing game, you have to have a competent short passing game. Having a competent short passing game would be a huge boost for Brewer.

A question is whether Harsin’s offensive scheme is so complex that it significantly narrows the pool of QBs who can master Harsin’s scheme and that that was one of the key reasons for recruiting Brewer.

Having said that, let’s wait and see. Give Brewer a redshirt year and he may be an amazing QB.

My worry about Vaccaro isn’t so much the height as it is the speed. I am not sure he is a lockdown guy in coverage. I certainly wasn’t left with that opinion when I watched his film. Echols shows much more value as a short cover corner and while I doubt he will be a Thorpe candidate, I think he could be valuable depth if he is willing to be a back up for most of his career. I think Cottrell has good speed and a guy his size with speed gives him more value than smaller guys that don’t have good speed for their size like DLT, Cole, and Vaccaro. I might put Moore in the bottom 5, just due to higher expectations. He basically has to come in and be an impact immediately or his value drops dramatically.

Brewer bottom 5? I don’t have a strong opinion on him and am intrigued by anyone who does.
I’m also interested as to why you think Vaccaro is better than him.

Quickly, I used “impact for the program” as a criteria along with the traditional recruiting criteria. Also, I have no insider information on any of these kids other than what someone who tries to read the whole interwebs everyday would have.

Also, I think this is an incredibly strong class top to bottom, so there is zero shame in being in the bottom 5.

On Brewer, I think his impact is likely to be strongly positive or strongly negative. As a prospect, I think he needs time to develop physically and mentally before he could have a positive impact. I think my evaluation will be dead wrong if he takes his first meaningful snaps as a redshirt junior, after hitting the weight and film room hard (Colt McCoy style). That will give him time to realize his potential and learn the offense. If he is the backup next year, I think he turns into Case McCoy. So, he is either a poor man’s Colt (upside) or a rich man’s Case (downside). His career could be a strong indicator on the health of their program.

Obviously, that eval is based somewhat on the health, performance, and character of David Ash and Case McCoy. I think we will have been very lucky to get Brewer to his redshirt junior year without meaningful snaps.

I don’t necessarily think that Vaccaro is a better talent than Brewer, but he has no downside as far as I am concerned. He is a talent maximizer that will be a special teams standout for four years if the players above him perform to expectations on the low side. On the high side he could end up being something vaguely similar to Ahmad Brooks (who continues to be involved in the program in a positive way).

I see what you are saying General, but if the quality of immediate playing time is a criteria then I would put Estelle and Hughes in the bottom 5 as well. Estelle was a big reason that Brewer looked so horrible in that All-Star game. He just didn’t look capable of handling an elite HS DE. Riser actually didn’t look that great either, but I think he is closer to serviceable.

I see no reason why Brewer shouldn’t turn into a quality QB. He may not be a Heisman candidate, but our offense shouldn’t need Vince Young or Colt McCoy to be successful. I would put Brewer in the top half of the class if the criteria is that the player will be a starter at some point during his career.

I’m interested in Hawkins, I understand he’s already supposed to be the answer at tackle and I’ve seen very little of him. Hopefully KSU’s Juco’s aren’t all of that quality.

I think Hawkins may be the most impactful player in the class if he takes the left tackle role that Searles supposedly recruited him for.

If Hawkins plays left our line could look like this:

Hawkins - Hopkins - Espinosa - Walter - Cochran with essentially a sixth starter in Selvin Flowers and a quality backup at tackle with Paden Kelly. If two of Thomas Ashcraft, Marcus Hutchins, Taylor Doyle, and Garrett Greenlea are serviceable we are set. Unless Texas is decimated by injury, those are the only players that need see the field on OL.

That allows development on the OL in a couple of ways.

One, Hughes, Estelle, and Riser redshirt. This is imperative for 19 out of 20 offensive lineman physically and mentally. I want Bennie Wylie to have a couple of years with kids before we have to play them on the interior. It also builds depth for next years recruits to have the same opportunity.

Without Hawkins, we are hoping for on of Doyle, Greenlea, or Paden Kelly to be a tackle (we need Hopkins inside to maximize line value).

Two, I think it will help Josh Cochran to get a year on the right side where every mistake he makes won’t be of the QB potential injury sort. He has to catch up in the weight room since he played as a freshman. Lessening the pressure on this kid would be a good idea for him and the team.

Re-establishing OL depth, pipeline, and competition is second only to doing the same for the QB position, and I think that Hawkins is the key to that

Kafka, you more eloquently made the point I was after. I think he gets real snaps this year (more Fozzy at the Wildcat than a Gray, who brings slightly different skills (different and fricking awesome)) and it also saves some wear and tear on the other backs.

It is going to be fun to see what Harsinwhite and Wylie are going to do with their new toys.

PostMortimer : Now why would :
(A) Bo Wallace leave his QB job @ Ole Miss and help our coaches assess OL ?
(B) Was he sussing their weaknesses in the huddle @ EMCC ?

J/K I think Bo-WITCH-Davis and MannyDiablo know all about offensive weaknesses as much as I am sure that Stacy"Don’t Call me DearStacy"Searels and Harsinwhite can dig into defensive holes

Ricky,

I think that we could play the freshman line this year, and by the time they are seniors, they would have progressed to 80-90% of their potential at Texas. The team would just suffer until they were juniors.

If Brewer plays as a freshman, I think that his career at Texas could be Garrett Gilbert or Case McCoy. Right now, those players stand to have net negative impact on the program, or if I am wrong about Case’s future, maybe net neutral.

I don’t think playing a QB as freshman is a guarantee to ruin him. I think Ash will be fine and that was after playing with a line that on paper was much worse than the one we hopefully will run out this year.

Should Ash go down and Brewer is called in to be the man, I think he will have a much easier go of it than Ash did. Not only is he more polished coming in, but he will take no worse than 3rd team snaps from Spring through Summer. There is no way he sits on the sidelines during 7 on 7s like Ash did. The rest of the offense will have had a second year under Harsin and adding Gray and all those athletes we just signed to the mix is also a game changer.

Mack has been quite clear about the value of red shirting frosh QBs, he is strongly for it. He has said that Vince and Colt really benefited from redshirting and Gilbert was hurt by not redshirting. Brewer will redshirt unless Ash or Case gets hurt or Brewer is the second coming of Colt and there is no way to keep him off the field.

I am hardly arguing for Brewer to not redshirt. I am just saying that knocking Brewer’s value in the class because of potential deficiencies if he had to play as a true freshmen doesn’t necessarily mean a repeat of Ash this year, much less a repeat of Gilbert.

You may be right Ricky, and I hope you are. I just don’t think you are.

Just my opinion, but I think the odds are relatively decent that Brewer may never play a down at UT. The 2013 QB recruits are awfully salty, and if Ash holds down the job, that would mean that they would get to redshirt as well and would be competing with Brewer for playing time. Between Barret, Cody Thomas, and Swoopes - I think you could make an argument that whichever we end up with will come to UT with as much or more upside than Brewer.