It's NSD eve and Charlie Strong has been cramming for finals in his own imitable fashion. Coach skipped class the entire semester, read Tolstoy's entire collection, and cranked out a fifty page Russian Lit paper. Tomorrow we'll find out if it's A or B work.
The upshot of this late-breaking Texas class is that the Longhorns should dominate tomorrow's announcements and rise something like 157 spots (an estimation) in the various rankings. More importantly, we'll have another complementary class of Strong's guys who can restock empty cupboards.
We'll be covering NSD tomorrow in an open thread. And I'll be following up with a position by position breakdown which will attempt to blow minimal smoke up your asses, appraise that talent soberly and point out Strong's particular genius at identifying late-breaking talent that will peak at age 21 instead of age 17.
There's some legitimate drama in tomorrow's announcements for half of these prospects. Some of these athletes have multiple coaching staffs convinced they're headed their way. Ah, youth.
Here are some scheduled announcement times:
DT Marcell Southall 7:30am
DT Chris Daniels 7:45am
S Brandon Jones 8:00am
DT Mike Williams 8:10am
DT Stephon Taylor 8:30am
LB Erick Fowler 8:30am
S Deontay Anderson 9am
S Chris Brown 9am
ILB Dontavious Jackson 9am
LB Jeffrey McCulloch 10am
OT Patrick Hudson 10:30am
DT Jordan Elliott noon
DT Darius Christmas-Giles (correction - tonight)
RB Kyle Porter - just announced for Texas
Edge Rusher Mark Jackson - Sooner bound
**
What's your best guess?
Right now I feel pretty good about:
Southall
Daniels
Jones
Brown
McCulloch
Elliott
DCG
Flip a coin for both Fowler and Taylor. When it lands on its side, do it again. Hudson isn't going to happen, no matter how much I'm trying to delude myself. I think we're choice #2 for Dontavious and Williams, but the former's stance could change tonight. There's also a small chance of an out-of-the-blue commitment who was thought to be totally off of the board.
If things break quite poorly late (lose Jones, Fowler, Elliott), Texas will finish in the bottom part of the Top 20. If things break perfectly late, the Longhorns should crack the back end of the Top 10. More important than absolute rankings, a good NSD means Texas meets needs and land a good mix of highly touted studs and high ceiling "developmentals" that the ratings don't always do a very good job of quantifying.
Hang on to your seats...it's going to get bumpy.