2025 Recruiting - Football

I agree but I thought Dillon Gabriel also went to Oregon and if thats correct, he will have a very accurate passer to throw to him along with a pocket full of cash. Hope it doesnt weigh him down to much!!!
I think this is Gabriel’s last year so someone else would be throwing to Moore.
 
Some general questions: 1) How much is a scholarship worth in terms of dollars? 2) If a scholarship is worth X dollars and a certain player agrees to a N-I-L deal for $1 million, what’s the downside of making the N-I-L for $1 million + X dollars? The player then foregoes accepting the scholarship. He doesn’t count against the limits. 3) Is there another rule that keeps scholarship limits from being circumvented? 4) If not, then are we back to the point where big schools can, as a previous poster said, warehouse all of the talent?

I think it would not be like the 50s and 60s as lots of players would rather have an opportunity to see the field in their first or 2nd year. That’s one of the many reasons why the portal is so popular. However, I can see a situation where a school evaluates a player who is currently a 3-star player with lots of raw talent and, the potential to really hit it big and become an All-American. In other words, a developmental player with an extremely high upside.

Just curious
 
From another site.
07/10 Kelshaun Johnson
07/12 Jonathan Cunningham
07/13 Daylan McCutcheon
07/15 Nick Townsend
Tanook Hines
No date but expected to be in July
DJ Sanders
Nathan Tillmon
Madden Faraimo

Aidan Anding is trending toward LSU
 
I'm not an expert and do not have a solution, but I'm certain this isn't it. If we did that, sooner or later even we will have a hard time getting donors to pony up once we completely destroy the market .
The donors want to see results for their dollars. Deliver on the talent, which will translate to Playoff berths, and they will happily pay. But, being a half a step behind the competition and/or trying to secure the services of the few players who don’t care about money is a long term loser-proposition. They don’t want to pay for that. We are in denial of this being what it is, an arms race. It sucks and I hate it, but I hate it more when we are losing the arms-race. The NIL arms-race is eventually going to get limited, but when it happens is it better to be stacked with years worth of Super Bluechips and momentum from a couple of Nc’s or fighting just for a seat at the big boy table, battling Goliath every other week in the SEC? A&M, USC, BlowU, Miami and others got to the top by cheating, but the benefits of that cheating lasted long after they were caught. We don’t cheat, but we don’t have to now that NIL. Same benefits, no penalties. This sport is now all about the mighty dollar. Pay for the best talent or somebody else will.
 
The donors want to see results for their dollars. Deliver on the talent, which will translate to Playoff berths, and they will happily pay. But, being a half a step behind the competition and/or trying to secure the services of the few players who don’t care about money is a long term loser-proposition. They don’t want to pay for that. We are in denial of this being what it is, an arms race. It sucks and I hate it, but I hate it more when we are losing the arms-race. The NIL arms-race is eventually going to get limited, but when it happens is it better to be stacked with years worth of Super Bluechips and momentum from a couple of Nc’s or fighting just for a seat at the big boy table, battling Goliath every other week in the SEC? A&M, USC, BlowU, Miami and others got to the top by cheating, but the benefits of that cheating lasted long after they were caught. We don’t cheat, but we don’t have to now that NIL. Same benefits, no penalties. This sport is now all about the mighty dollar. Pay for the best talent or somebody else will.

I get what you're saying. However, Phil Knight is firing 2% of his global employees, slashing upper management and reducing branding money for this recruiting class and maybe the next couple. That does not mean we need to match his offers. His crazy offers and buying a team is the game we're in but it is not sustainable. As long as we are in the top 2% we'll get plenty of elite athletes to play here and can not reset the market for every Johnny Come Lately players.

So we lose out on DM, big deal. He is an elite talent and it sucks to miss out on him, but how many other programs are going to pay $1.2 mil a year for a receiver? That's what is being reported, QB's don't even get that money. There are other elite 5 star receivers out there and none of them will be offered that money and I'm certain we'll get at least one of them. If we miss on all of them then I might be concerned.

I'm more concerned with why we can't get elite defensive players to commit. Maybe we need to re-evaluate our offers there because we're not filling big time needs like LB and DT. We just whiffed on Pettijohn at LB and the #7 overall player Jonah Williams at LB isn't even considering us. We're getting DB's and Safeties but I'm not sure we're getting the best. I guess time will tell. I wonder if Sark is demanding that more money go to the offense since that's his gig. I don't know that.

I'm still not sold on last year's improved defensive performance being Coach K. We lost Patterson to Baylor of all places and our DT coach to LSU because of family, but something is just not right. Maybe recruits are picking up on that.
 
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Mr. Nike can spend all the money he wants to buy players, but that means nothing in the grand scheme when the quackers don’t gel into a cohesive team and bring him a national championship.
There is a great deal to say for ‘culture’.
Just ask Sark.
 
Apparently we didn't lose Moore because of money, so that's not the be all end all. I agree with the concerns about interior DL and LB recruiting. That's our biggest weakness right now.
 
so if not the $$ why did Texas not get DM?

They sold him on the program. His HS coaches son is also on their staff so there is a connection there too. He's far from the first Texas kid to go there. I hope we can still flip him but it's arguable that Texas has a better, deeper WR room and that may have played a part too. He could be #1 at Oregon on day one.
 
While missing on DKM is a disappointment (if indeed he sticks with Oregon), I continue to believe that our biggest and perhaps only significant problem area is DT… although we’re in pretty good shape for this season.

As I mentioned previously, per Paul Wadlington of IT (who I respect), 70% of four and five star DT recruits don’t make it to the NFL. Translation: They either underachieve, or they are a bust.

Consider this. A year ago the perception was that Texas’ weakest position was Edge. One year later, Edge has transformed into a near elite position group, composed primarily of recruits.

I’m not sure how Sark is going to pull it off, but I suspect he’ll find a way to address the DT issue, and quickly.
 
While missing on DKM is a disappointment (if indeed he sticks with Oregon), I continue to believe that our biggest and perhaps only significant problem area is DT… although we’re in pretty good shape for this season.

As I mentioned previously, per Paul Wadlington of IT (who I respect), 70% of four and five star DT recruits don’t make it to the NFL. Translation: They either underachieve, or they are a bust.

Consider this. A year ago the perception was that Texas’ weakest position was Edge. One year later, Edge has transformed into a near elite position group, composed primarily of recruits.

I’m not sure how Sark is going to pull it off, but I suspect he’ll find a way to address the DT issue, and quickly.
I agree. You can't worry about 1 player. If someone wants a player bad enough they'll get him. And having one player making 10x everyone else is bad for team unity.

I'm also more concerned about DT, but I don't see how the current issue can be solved quickly.
 
Nothing really new to see here, our opponents siphoning off the fast giants, by whatever means. It’s been the successful strategy for decades.
 
One thing is for sure, our rivals are not going to sit by and watch us become the elephant in the room. They will do whatever it takes to compete, even 1.2 million.
 
YouTube interview with Jamie Fftench. Gotta love this young man’s energy. And talk about a culture fit, it probably doesn’t get much better than this.

Hope he chooses us on August 30th.

 
One thing is for sure, our rivals are not going to sit by and watch us become the elephant in the room. They will do whatever it takes to compete, even 1.2 million.
You guys all make some great points, but this is not just about DM or Phil Knight. This is the direction college football is going and everybody is raising the stakes constantly. It’s a continual arms race.
 
Apparently we didn't lose Moore because of money, so that's not the be all end all. I agree with the concerns about interior DL and LB recruiting. That's our biggest weakness right now.
Actually it was. Having Samples on the ducks staff was not a bad thing for him but this was all about NIL money
 
You guys all make some great points, but this is not just about DM or Phil Knight. This is the direction college football is going and everybody is raising the stakes constantly. It’s a continual arms race.
The stakes are going to keep getting higher and higher. There is no ceiling. BMD at major universities donate because they want to see success. Right now, we are behind the curve. We lost 4 stud DT transfers over the winter b/c of money. We are being out spent over and over. The point about Phil Knight is a great one. He is basically the only BMD for Oregon and UT has many. It’s crazy to think Oregon could ever bring in a non-legacy recruit , really any recruit over Texas. DM might have enjoyed his 1 visit to Eugene where they offered $1.2M, but if we offered $3M he wouldn’t care about how nice Eugene is in the summer. Bama, Ohio St., and GA have been smoking us in terms of super blues for awhile. Think what they are going to look like as their NIL budget grows. There is just no reason to let that happen. The culture and cohesion argument is only relevant if you stop looking for people who fit the culture. I’m not saying that or to bring in criminals. I’m saying with out resources, we should never lose out on any recruit if we want them. It was one thing to lose out on great players by self governing with refusing to cheat, but it’s another thing to lose out on great players because someone with less money legally outbid you. We are increasing the #s anyway, we are just doing too slowly. Rip the band aid off, man. Demonstrate what UT is capable of and why the NCAA had restrictions against all this.
 
Just a 2:30 game time in a Texas August would discourage me if I had visited the NW in the summer. Just sayin there’s all kinds of reasons in a 19 year old’s head. Plus as I’ve said before while us old folks go “are you kidding me” the kids really do get off on their uni’s. I was shocked when I heard my grandkids say how cool they thought they were.
 
Have not heard anything about that. The staff was a bit turned off by the way he handled it all.
I fully believe that the staff was turned off as you are reporting.

I’ll say it again. When a kid brings an entourage of 11 family members, including their wheelchair bound grandmother, that is an extremely strong statement. To me, it speaks to the maturity – or lack thereof — of the recruit, that he went for the $$$ and the sizzle.

Sark has emphasized that he wants players who want to come to Texas, and once that has been established, the NIL situation will take care of itself. He also understands the predictable disruption that will occur by overpaying one or two players, like a Dominic Williams or a Dakorien Moore. If ever there was a case study for the detrimental impact of overpaying for players, it would be TAM in 2022.

We are living through an unprecedented era in college sports. To my knowledge there has never been an organized sport that allows unrestricted free agency from the jump, and the ability for any player to leave any team at essentially any time. This environment is not sustainable, and I predict that it will change in the next couple of years. There has to be and there will be some level of control, and restrictions. Without it, the competitive game that we know and love will transform into something that few true fans really want.
 
If Texas wins it all this year, expect rules and regs applied pronto even though Texas isn’t outbidding anyone.
 

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