2018 Recruiting - Football

Joe Fan said:
CB today for 4-star Florida LB Nick Bonito to us
By 247 natl guy Steve Wiltfong
Bonito has had only two new CBs since Sept, one to FLA one to Texas
Wiltfong says he talked "with a source who has knowledge of the situation"
He was Defensive Player of the Year from his region in South Florida and #16 ranked OLB nationally by 247. The competition is Louisville and ou

He is supposed to sign tomorrow
Adding Bonito to verbals Adeoye and Hobbs would make for a good LB class

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wow. this kid can play. kind of reminds me of Mike Williams in HS when he ripped off heads
 
Looks like we are going to miss out on Mike Grandy (to UCLA and Chip f'n Kelly) along with every single one of the JUCO OLs we were after --

Mike Grandy
Trevor Elbert
Noah Banks
Levon Livingston
Jahmir Johnson
Badara Traore

Not great
 
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Joe Fan said:
CB today for 4-star Florida LB Nick Bonito to us. By 247 natl guy Steve Wiltfong.....He is supposed to sign tomorrow
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Bonito is supposed to announce at the Under Armor Game. If so, then he will not be signing early (tomorrow) as I wrote above
 
Joe Fan said:
Looks like we are going to miss out on Mike Grandy (to UCLA and Chip f'n Kelly) along with every single one of the JUCO OLs we were after --....Not great
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Also in the "not great" department is it sounds like Keondre Coburn will not be signing early. If we lose him, it would hurt. Bad. And would make landing Mojo Ojomo (Katy) something of an act of desperation.

Our 2018 class is a mixture of great and not great. It's pretty easy to tell which of Herman's assistants are the better recruiters.

However, if we miss on Coburn at this point in the game, it is probably more on Corby Meekins than Oscar Giles since Meekins used to be the head coach at Coburn's high school, Westfield. You have at least got to hold your own guys.

This development, along Rondale Moore and all the JUCO OLs we struck out with, have (IMO at least) already tempered somewhat how great tomorrow will otherwise be.

 
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Here is what I wrote a day or two ago on the possibility of landing Cook --

2 more CBs of 5-star Anthony Cook to Texas today. The #1 ranked CB has not stayed in Texas since 2012
If we do land him, it means we would have all 5 of 247's top 5 in state. And 10 of the top 15
Per the 247 national rankings, we would have 3 of the top 6 safeties -- Nos. 1 (Foster), 3 (Sterns) and 6 (Overshown)
And 3 of the top 14 national corners -- Nos. 5 (Cook), 6 (Green) and 14 (Jamison).​

This problem of the Longhorns not signing the top 5 in state guys has been going on for a long time now.
2010: 4 (Jeffcoat, Davis, Wilson, White) - vastly overrated class
2011: 2 (Brown, Edmond)
2012: 2 (Gray, Brown)
2013: 1 (James)
2014: 0
2015: 1 (Malikmas)
2016: 1 (Duvernay)('zero' without Baylor blowing up)
2017: 0
2018: all 5? (Foster, Cook, Sterns, Green, Eagles)
That's a long time of the Texas Longhorns sucking at recruiting its own state. And while we have been in this decline, LSU, Alabama and tOSU have been cleaning up poaching Texas players (the bunch of yellowbellied, carpetbagging scalawags that they are). This had to end. So huge kudos to Herman if he brings this change to pass, which he seems to be doing.

And this problem of ours was not limited to the top 5 either. It was the entire top 10 as well. Here is how many of the top 10 in state players we signed over this same period.
2010: 6
2011: 5
2012: 5
2013: 2
2014: 2
2015: 1
2016: 3
2017: 0
2018: hopefully 7

Mack Brown’s recruiting had already fallen off by 2010. That 2010 class, which had everyone excited and was even called his best class ever, turned out to be a total fraud - and it killed us. His classes continued this off the cliff trend until the end (including missing on a couple high school QBs who did not want to move to safety and went on to win Heismans).

Likewise, despite often being thought of us a good recruiter, Charlie Strong did not get many of the best players in Texas. His best recruiting season at Texas (2016) landed just 3 of the top 10 state recruits, and he completely lucked into 2 of those players (Hudson, Duvernay) only because of the implosion at Baylor. A lot of us had fun with the whole “errrrbody” theme, but in hindsight, that was just a form of whistling past the graveyard.
 
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OG Jacobi Lott (6'5,308) of Amarillo Tascosa
Lott was set to sign with Kansas on Wednesday, but a source very close to his recruitment said, "Not sure what he will do now."
Already has 1 CB now to us



By Greg Powers

"Pretty cool Early Signing Period saga unfolding here with Jacobi Lott, a recruit who did not even have a database page until halfway through the season. I get countless amounts of Emails, but when I got one from Amarillo Tascosa about Jacobi Lott I watched the tape and immediately reached back out for more information. One cool tidbit. He is related to Ronnie Lott, who is one of my all-time favorite NFL players. Jacobi was all set to sign with Kansas on Wednesday. KU was his best offer and his only P5 offer before Texas and he went on an official visit to Lawrence back o the 12/8 weekend. Everyone who I talked to about his tape loved it, but not many had the chance to actually see the big fella play. For a bigger-framed dude he can REALLY move and is very strong at the point of attack. He committed to Kansas without much fanfare -- Jacobi does not even have a Twitter. But I guarantee you the KU staff was happy that they had him on board, because he was/is a steal for them.

Texas had plans to reel in another OL, but after that fell through the contact began with Jacobi this afternoon. Jacobi spent the better part of the day on the phone with the UT coaches. UT is overnighting him the signing papers and things are in place should he decide or want to sign with Texas. He is sleeping on the decision tonight and then letting his coaches know in he morning where he will play. He has a signing ceremony at 4pm, so there is a chance it could linger out, but I doubt it. As Lott's head hit the pillow tonight things are still up in the air, so it is definitely a bit of signing day dramatics for us to watch out for in the morning."
- - - -
"In answer to a Q ...........I think it is truly up in the air. Not a lot of time to decide really. He basically has to commit if he wants to go to Texas without having really had the opportunity to go a on visit and think about being a student-athlete there and meet with the coaches like he did at KU. KU has the advantage in that regard, but this is new territory with a new early signing period. Would a kid commit AND SIGN on a last second in-state offer? It hasn't happened that much in the past in the traditional signing period with a whole month off for new evals and official visit dates, but this is a sped up timeline the coaches and the recruits now have to work within."​
 
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Badass said:
It's official, Moore decommits....
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Replacements?
Jaylen Waddle (unlikely, too many i$$ues)
Craig Williams (waited too late, going to Baylor)
Lawrence Keys
Tazhawn Henry
Julon Williams
Jawhar Jordan (Miami commit)
Josh Moore
Kalon Barnes
 
I don't know if it means anything concerning these kids who are decomitting or delaying their signing but we can now see the three or four late game mistakes by Sam are probably having a huge impact on the overall buzz around the program. It's unbelievable if true because we're talking about possibly three plays that directly impacted the final result at the end of the game.
 
Joe Fan said:
.....Our 2018 class is a mixture of great and not great. It's pretty easy to tell which of Herman's assistants are the better recruiters.....
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Here is Bobby Burton on this topic on the OL

On the OL, it's a mixed bag with some real positives. But not nearly enough in my view. The Horns came up significantly short. The Horns will add three four stars. But anybody who watched Texas play this season knows that's not nearly enough. The Horns lose three starters at the end of this season alone, one of whom was the team's best offensive player (Connor Williams), and they lose some back-ups to graduation. For the Texas coaches, their late runs at multiple juco prospects turned up nothing. Late runs at two in-state players were effectively lost to Kansas and Kansas State. How's that for crazy?

Texas lost to Kansas and Kansas State for in-state OL prospects. It's like a year ago when Texas OL coach Derek Warehime not only whiffed on Walker Little, but also fall-back tackle option Grant Polley who chose Colorado. Whatever the case may be, it's clear to me that Texas has issues recruiting on the offensive and defensive front. Whatever Tom Herman and his two position coaches are selling at those spots, not enough recruits are buying. Look, I really like what Texas has done at the skill positions on both offense and defense, especially if Keontay Ingram ends up a Longhorn after his state championship game. It's arguably the top skill position group in the country at RB, WR and DB. But Texas has to do better on the lines and they have to do better immediately​
 
Joe Fan said:
....Our 2018 class is a mixture of great and not great. It's pretty easy to tell which of Herman's assistants are the better recruiters.....
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Here is the Burton part on the DL
We still have a chance to close with some good prospects on the DL, but it's not done yet (I think/hope Coburn, Ojomo and Alexander)

Until and unless Spring Westfield DL Keondre Coburn signs with the Longhorns, Texas will have been shutout on the defensive front. And that's in a year in which the Horns could only muster a couple of late signees last February all of whom have shown little promise (Marqez Bimage is slated for LB, at least at this point), after losing four players to transfer (Jordan Elliott, Marcel Southall, Chris Daniels and likely D'Andre Christmas-Giles) and graduating the team's best interior lineman (Poona Ford). Texas DL coach Oscar Giles has always been known as a light recruiter. It would appear that's the case again this year. And don't give me the "this is a down year in Texas for DLs" line either. There are at least 10 DLs out there in state capable of playing for Texas, and the Horns haven't snagged a single one.

- Bobby Brown - Texas A&M
- Vernon Jackson - Alabama
- Jarell Cherry - LSU
- Max Wright - Texas A&M
- Chasen Hines - LSU
- Dominic Livingston - LSU
- Tyree Wilson - Texas A&M
- Ochaun Mathis - TCU

The Horns also lost out to OU on two out-of-state players, Ron Tatum, who was once a commitment to Texas, and on Ronnie Perkins a key target from St. Louis. The only remaining DLs Texas looks to still be in the hunt for are:

Keondre Coburn - Spring Westfield
Joseph Ossai - Conroe Oak Ridge
Moro Ojomo - Katy
Courtre Alexander - Owasso, Okla.
Daniel Carson - Independence, Mo.

The defensive front is ridiculously thin. And if Charles Omenihu somehow follows his junior counterparts and declares for the draft, things will become even more dire. As much as I like what Texas did in recruiting this year, a team is generally only as strong as its weakest link. Right now, the DL - for the second consecutive year - is a real problem, a problem that OU, OSU, TCU, A&M and LSU don't seem to have a problem addressing with similar access to talent. The team's three largest needs were on the defensive front, the OL and in the secondary. The secondary was addressed. The defensive line has not been.​
 
Joe Fan said:
The Horns lose three starters at the end of this season alone, one of whom was the team's best offensive player (Connor Williams), and they lose some back-ups to graduation.
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The talking heads keep droning on about the loss of Connor Williams, but it actuality, he didn't do much to change our W-L record this year. He didn't play for the majority of the season (missed 8 games if you count the bowl). We won a whopping two games with him playing. One of those was San Jose State, which we would have won without him. Net gain from him this season was at most 1 game.

Will our line be worse because he's leaving? Yes, but only compared to the 5 games he actually played in.
 
CB said:
....Will our line be worse because he's leaving? Yes, but only compared to the 5 games he actually played in.
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I think so. He made the entire line better. Next year, LT is a complete unknown.

We were two or three dumb freshman QB choices (or play calls if you prefer) away from 8-4 or even 9-3. The perception of the 2017 would be so different then
 
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