The finely re-calibrated Texas recruiting machine rolls on with the Longhorns grabbing elite interior line prospect Darius James from Killeen's Harker Heights. CenTex will not be denied. He's widely considered the top ranked center prospect in the nation, a Top 100 national recruit, a Top 10 recruit in-state, and he's athletic enough to be a high level nose tackle recruit as well.

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For the last two years, part of my job has been to watch a young man's YouTube highlights and assess his ability to play college football. I'm far from the hardened, white-haired veteran, two days from retirement, but it still takes a lot to lift my eyebrow.

It takes something like a 6'5, 220 pound QB taking a shotgun snap, then ending up two yards past the line of scrimmage in four steps (1st play in the video over at Recruitocosm).

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So we all get what's happening now, right?

Slower plays, decisive early moves only on elite recruits, deeper dives in scouting and player evaluations, more focus on what players might be instead of what they currently are, staff mechanisms to hold each other accountable instead of offense/defense fiefdoms, greater tolerance for athletes who don't project cleanly to a position as 16 year olds, and the purposeful stringing out of recruiting commitments to spread the light of recruiting sunshine across all of the bright faces while stealing every bit of offseason media oxygen from the room.

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The skilled RB from Arlington Martin is the newest addition to the 2013 Longhorn recruiting class. Check out his highlights on Hudl. Some thoughts on Kyle Hicks, after the jump.

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...and you need to be OK with that.

JT Barrett is what Robert Griffin would look like if Griffin played in the current era of Texas football, one dominated by shotgun spread option. Other than distance from the center and the deployment of a fullback, the two players are nearly identical. Seriously, watch one reel and then the other and try to come up with a meaningful difference.

Cody Thomas plays the position better than Aaron Rogers and Tom Brady did at the same age. Kenny Hill is a product of the productive SLC QB Cloning Program, with top scientists managing to take Chase Daniel's DNA and redistribute the excess weight from the skull to the legs. Kohl Stewart also exists.

Texas will likely have to face them all at some point, possibly more than once. You should be OK with this because our guy is better than the whole lot of them.

via a.espncdn.com

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After one live viewing of Travis High School's superb Harrison twins, I convinced my friend to come to a repeat showing, this time against district foe Hightower. It wasn't a hard sell. My friend, a Houston Cougars graduate but Texas Longhorns fan, was interested in seeing Hightower's Danuel House (a Cougar signee). You may remember House's name from a past BC post written by Trips Right (if not, here's the link to jog your memory).

We ventured out to Missouri City and Hopson Field House, part of a new athletics facility fed by a powerhouse athletics program: Hightower's football team fell to Southlake Carroll in this year's 5A Division 1 state championship. Presumably, Hopson will also host games for the recently opened Ridge Point High School, a 4A school fed by Sienna Plantation, a preferred neighborhood for rich Houston athletes. So yeah, athletics is pretty good round them parts.

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It's not only the Longhorn football program that's hitting the recruiting trail this winter on the lookout for immediate help. Rick Barnes and the Texas basketball staff have been diligently scouring the remaining options in the class of 2012. Despite already inking a four-man class, Texas is looking for at least one more recruit--and a Ridley Hancock--to close out the class.

Cameron Ridley

Is no news good news on Cameron Ridley? The latest from Ridley's camp still toes the company line: "Ridley is committed to playing at the University of Texas." But it's not hard to picture a Frank Lucas-esque figure coolly stating, "I got Harlem Ridley. I took care of Ridley, so Ridley's gonna take care of me."

Ridley's committed to Texas until he's not, but the positive is (1) he hasn't been linked to any other schools, and (2) Texas is staying in communication with the big man. However, the first day of the late signing period is a ways away (April 11, 2025), and until Ridley puts pen to paper, he's game for anyone to recruit.

By the way, against Galena Park last week, the Bush big man posted the following stat line: 52 points, 25 rebounds, 10 blocks. Beastmode.

Jakarr Sampson

Perhaps the most troublesome news regarding Ridley is Texas' burgeoning interest in Sampson, a former St. John's commitment. Sampson is doing a post-graduate year at Brewster Academy after failing to qualify for the Red Storm in his graduating class of 2011. Along the way, he opened up his recruitment, and Texas recently went a calling.

Reportedly, someone (or ones) on the Texas coaching staff pulled double duty this weekend, not only coaching a game against Texas State but also taking a Northeast recruiting trip to Brewster Academy, The Tilton School ('13 prospects Nerlens Noel and Goodluck Okonoboh, and '14 Wayne Selden), Cushing Academy ('14 Kaleb Joseph), and Notre Dame Prep (see mystery recruit below!).

Sampson has an NBA 3 body, but as a plus rebounder with post ability, he would very likely play combo forward in college. Texas fans could dream of the next Damion James.

With Ridley, Sampson is a luxury. Without Ridley, Texas is looking at Prince Ibeh starting at center on day 1 (with Clint Chapman and Alexis Wangmene graduating), and a Sampson-like freshman rotating in the frontcourt with Jonathan Holmes and Jaylen Bond. I have no faith in Connor Lammert being ready to play collegiate minutes three months removed from orientation.

Complicating the Ridley matter is that there's simply no other college-ready center left on the 2012 board. A Ridley-less class probably needs another big forward, and Barnes looks like he's being proactive. If that's the case, there's two other names to keep on the radar. Ricardo Gathers reopened his recruitment after decommitting from St. John's; Texas was in his top 3 along with LSU. So did Savon Goodman with Villanova; he similarly had Texas amongst his finalists.

Devonta Pollard

Aside from waiting with bated breath on an eventual Ridley signature, Devonta Pollard looks like Texas' only other 5* candidate in the 2012 class. As of last week, Pollard was averaging 21 points and 17 rebounds for his team, Kemper County High. He's an uber-athletic small forward who could immediately step into the big shoes left by past Texas swingmen Kevin Durant, Damion James, and Jordan Hamilton.

Pollard recently visited hometown program Mississippi State, which has emerged as the team to beat. After the visit, he told 24/7 that he's looking at Mississippi State, Alabama, Georgetown, and Texas. Kentucky may also emerge as a competitor, though the Wildcats aren't actively recruiting Pollard at this time.

Honestly, dude is a talent (9th overall on Rivals), and it's a wide open recruitment. What Barnes chooses to do in regards to Pollard this spring will speak volumes. If Rick backs off, he's probably pleased with the year 1 development of Sheldon McCllelan and Jonathan Holmes. It would also possibly lead to another year of questions from the peanut gallery, RE: Texas' recruiting strategery.

By the way, Andrew White, who at one point was high on Texas, ended up committing to Kansas earlier this month.

Zena Edosomwan

The academically and syallabic gifted Zena Edosomwan recently picked up an offer from his childhood favorite school, UCLA. Texas had made his finalists list, but it was widely believed that the young padawan was waiting on admission to Harvard before making his decision.

Edosomwan is still likely to pick between Harvard, UCLA and USC, with the Horns falling short. Amazingly, Tommy Amaker's Crimson may be the right choice if Edosomwan is interested in athletic concepts like winning, being ranked in the polls, and making an NCAA tournament.

Sam Cassell, Jr

Yes, you read that right. I'm not sure what the bigger deal is for Dr. Kyle Broflovski of DeVry Institute: learning that alien life form Sam Cassell could clone an offspring, or seeing the new Men in Black 3 trailer hit the interwebs. Unfortunately for History Channel lovers, Cassell fils looks almost human--there's been some improvements in version 2.0.

Anyways, Cassell recently was contacted by assistant Rob Lanier, and Texas watched Cassell during its northeast barnstorming tour (along with Sampson, see above). The Longhorns' interest in another guard in the 2012 class is troubling, as it's likely a hedge bet against Myck Kabongo and/or J'Covan Brown going pro.

With the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement settled, Kabongo is a legitimate threat to be one-and-done, and if Brown continues to ball like a Hyperizer, he could play himself into the "draftable" category as well.

Texas doesn't seem to be scouting any other guard prospects other than Cassell, but this is a situation that bears watching. Plus, if there's another candidate I'd rather see carry on the tradition of J'Covan's juevos grandes swagga, who better than the son of the originator?

By the way, I'm on the Twitters. Follow me @JC_Hoops for Horns basketball recruiting and general college basketball ruminations.

You had to hear it from someone, and it might as well be me. Science is done. Through. Finished. Kaput.

We technical types have known this for years. But we conspired to keep the drooling rube masses in the dark for as long as possible. Unfortunately, the jig is up. It's no longer possible to keep the secret. Science is dead.

You see, when "scientists" start transforming research grants into bar graphs illustrating a correlation between 40-yard dash times and Scout recruiting star-rankings, then you know legitimate scientific inquiry has drawn to a close.

"But this can't be the end!" you say. "You eggheads promised us flying cars."

Yeah. Sorry about that. It turns out that The Jetsons was based on a miscalculation. Goldberg and Librovsky proved the mathematical impossibility of flying cars over a decade ago in their famous paper "Don't Tell High School Drop-Outs and Liberal Arts Majors, But Flying Cars Aren't Going to Happen."

Of course, you never heard about that paper. Because we didn't tell you about it. Even if we had, you wouldn't have been able to understand it. But as soon as this Ghigiarelli asshole released his study, we figured even you people would put two and two together on the flying car thing. It's out of the bag now.

What should you do now that science has run its course? Some are probably considering suicide. I advise against that.

You won't hear me trying to talk you out of a little spontaneous looting, however. Have at it. Now that science is over, TVs aren't going to get any better. You might as well steal the latest model before Sony's flatscreen engineers pass away and we're back to rabbit ears and cathode ray tubes.

Most importantly, whatever faith you once had in scientists should be abandoned in lieu of idolotry and shamanism. Scientists can't help you anymore. Why not give Ba'al a try?