Major Tennison Decommits From the Texas Longhorns

This one had been in the wind for a while now, but tight end Major Tennison made the official announcement that he's opening up his recruitment. Tennison goes 6'6", 240 and profiles as a "move" tight end/H-back who can do real damage up the seam and has no trouble operating split out from the formation.  He has apparently become very enamored with Alabama of late, and if he announces a new commitment in the coming weeks then the smart money is on the Crimson Tide.

It can't have helped the Longhorns' cause that no Texas tight end has caught more than sixteen balls in a season since David Thomas in 2005. The history of the 5333 offense using the tight end as a blunt instrument rather than a downfield dominator likely added another easy avenue for negative recruiting.  It wasn't likely that Caleb Blueitt was going to put on a receiving show that emulated what a guy like Tennison could potentially achieve in this offense, but the hope was that Gilbert and Jeff Traylor (who has a history of creative TE deployment) could sell him on an evolution of the offense that could suit his skill set.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem like he was willing to wait and let that pitch unfold.

The ideal fit for a guy like Tennison is probably in a pure Air Raid outfit where he can flex out and serve as the next Jace Amaro. Alabama doesn't represent a real playing time guarantee - there are currently NINE tight ends on the Tide depth chart, and while Bama TEs have put up some respectable receiving numbers there's not much history of Saban giving run to a guy who isn't also capable of dancing with the defensive end.

But if you're debating between two programs with potentially iffy fits, four National Championship rings makes for one hell of a tiebreaker.