2019 Recruiting - Football

I can't remember if Texas has ever got a RB who was considered the best in the country?

A.J. "Jam" Jones, was Parade High School Player of the Year out of Youngstown, Ohio. IIRC he WAS the cover photo of Parade Magazine for that year's article on the national selections, 1978 I believe.

Akers somehow got him to leave out of the midst of tOSU, Meatchicken, ND, etc., and come down to Austin. Of course Texas had just come off the 5-5-1 to 11-1 season, No. 1 ranking for most of the season, and highlighting Earl in the "I", so probably helped.

Being national player of the year in high school suggests he was also considered the best high school running back.

Edit: checking it out on the interwebs, looks like Dickerson was 1978, clearly the top RB in the US out of highschool that year. Haven't found Jones yet.

Okay, found him, 1977. Get THIS, that 1977 Parade All American roster of 17 RBs included, in addition to Jam Jones, Brad Beck (Perryton, TX) and Rodney (referred to here as Rod) Tate (out of Oklahoma). Akers got all 3 to wear burnt orange.

img


My memory may suffer on this; not sure now if Parade named one player THE player of the year, maybe, maybe not.
 
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...He is fast. Maybe not quite as fast as Gary Johnson but hopefully a little better at positioning and not biting on fakes. Gary's good season (+ the hole on the depth chart) is what opened Caleb's eyes to coming here.
Both defensive JUCOs Caleb and DE Jacoby Jones are January enrollees

 
EJ Holland also CBd Hoofkin to Baylor
Rhule pitching early PT. He would definitely not play as a freshman here. He needs to gain ~30 lbs first
 
A.J. "Jam" Jones, was Parade High School Player of the Year out of Youngstown, Ohio. IIRC he WAS the cover photo of Parade Magazine for that year's article on the national selections, 1978 I believe.

Akers somehow got him to leave out of the midst of tOSU, Meatchicken, ND, etc., and come down to Austin. Of course Texas had just come off the 5-5-1 to 11-1 season, No. 1 ranking for most of the season, and highlighting Earl in the "I", so probably helped.

Being national player of the year in high school suggests he was also considered the best high school running back.

Edit: checking it out on the interwebs, looks like Dickerson was 1978, clearly the top RB in the US out of highschool that year. Haven't found Jones yet.

Okay, found him, 1977. Get THIS, that 1977 Parade All American roster of 17 RBs included, in addition to Jam Jones, Brad Beck (Perryton, TX) and Rodney (referred to here as Rod) Tate (out of Oklahoma). Akers got all 3 to wear burnt orange.

img


My memory may suffer on this; not sure now if Parade named one player THE player of the year, maybe, maybe not.
wow, Ryne Sandberg as qb! other notables besides Art "Put me down for $100 and the over" Schlichter (sp?) were John Fourcade (Ole Miss/NO Saints) and Lindsay Scott (Ga, beat Florida (?) on way to NC--thanks for posting, brought back memories...
 
Okay, so reading the 2nd to last paragraph of that 1977 Parade article, which goes:

"And it is the consensus that Mike Carter of Albuquerque, N. Mex., is the best running back in the nation. Challenging him for supremacy are Pete Buchanan of Plymouth, Ind. and Brad Beck of Perryton, Tx."

I don't remember what ever happened to Carter or Buchanan; as I noted Beck did go to UT, IIRC was a fullback?

But I still seem to recall that A.J. "Jam" Jones was highly considered. When he came to Austin, Texas at times had Johnny "Ham" Jones (from Hamlin, Tx), Johnny "Jam" Jones (from Lampasas, Tx), and A.J. "Jam" Jones on the field at the same time. ABC opened the preview of the Texas - piggy game in Austin with a background recording of "Everyone's Talking About the Jones Boys". #8 Texas beat Lou Holtz's #3 piggy 28-21, with all 3 Jones boys playing, plus Brad Beck:

Rushing No Gain Loss Net TD Lg Avg
-------------------------------------------------
Jones, A.J. Jam 16 69 0 69 0 14 4.3
McEachern,Randy 22 66 3 63 0 11 2.9
Jones, Johnny H 7 19 2 17 1 6 2.4
Jones, Johnny L 2 7 0 7 0 6 3.5
Beck, Brad 3 6 0 6 0 3 2.0
Totals... 50 167 5 162 1 14 3.2

Arkansas vs Texas (Oct 21, 1978)

I think Jam was also a hurdler on UT's track team. Most of us know that Lam won an Olympic gold medal as part of the 4x100 meter relay. But, I think I've got this right, the UT relay team after Jam came on, which thus included Lam, Ham, and Jam; don't know the 4th. But many consider the Ham, Lam, and Jam football backfield when all 3 were in was UT's fastest ever.

A final bit of trivia about this season, Texas finished the regular season 8-3 (losses to #1 OU, #8 UH, and unranked Baylor), then won the Sun Bowl 42-0 over .... Maryland.
 
Kennedy Lewis is in — big tall WR
I like his film pretty well. Herman's system is thriving on big rangy WRs right now. But he may need a year or so to develop his body before he is ready for Saturdays.

We are taking a good group of WRs this year and with the small but potent class of WRs from last year, we are looking pretty good out wide.
 
I like his film pretty well. Herman's system is thriving on big rangy WRs right now. But he may need a year or so to develop his body before he is ready for Saturdays.,, We are taking a good group of WRs this year and with the small but potent class of WRs from last year, we are looking pretty good out wide.

Herman personally likes him
Herman has supposedly liked Lewis since camp. He reportedly said he won a lot of games at Houston with guys less talented than him.
 
Kennedy Lewis is in — big tall WR


Lewis is 6'3, 205 and looks like a good fit for the X-WR in Herman’s power spread. There is some talk about his speed, but he ran timed 10.88 in the 100 in track, and runs in the late 4.5s in the 40. Although I admit, his film doesnt look all that fast

Here is a snippet from Ian Boyd's Recruiting Notebook:

"How he fits at Texas: Lewis is a big receiver of the sort that seem to grow on trees in the Metroplex. He’s got good size to win jump balls at the X but he’s at his best right now using good footwork, strength, and pure speed to beat coverage off the line and get open down the field rather than high pointing fades.

Lewis is a well-rounded guy that could really surprise at the X. He almost looks like a possession receiver at times because of his route running and you don’t realize he can fly. Not a guy defenses would want to leave isolated on a CB...."

----------------

And here is TFB on him --

"... Kennedy Lewis is built like the prototypical outside wide receiver. While he will most likely fit well at the X-WR position, he could end up trying the Z-WR position.

Lewis is a bloodhound for the ball. He has very long limbs, so his catch radius expansive, and he’s shown an aptitude for locating and attack the ball in the air, making him pretty tough to beat in jump-ball situations. Besides his jump-ball ability, his capacity for finding soft spots in coverage with his routes was impressive.


When in the open field, Lewis is more of a bruiser than he is a speedster. He often out-physicalled defensive back in high school, showing a pretty nasty stiff arm and some above-average strength. While he doesn’t possess a crazy amount of speed, he runs well with the ball and demonstrates the capability to run a multitude of routes.

Add to all this his willingness to block outside, and you have the makings of an excellent receiver....."

HOOK'EM! WR Kennedy Lewis commits to Texas - The Football Brainiacs - UT Edition
 
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