Here's some darn good stuff from a guy that attended the S.A, Longhorn Club luncheon an put it all on paper... the individuals name is Santa Gertrudis over on Hookem.com! It's lengthy, but well worth it...
Posted by SA on Hookem....
I went to the Longhorn Club meeting at the Plaza Club in San Antonio and saw Manny Diaz speak. Manny is nothing less than a freaking stud as a speaker. He is engaging, charismatic, and has a wonderful sense of humor- oh, by the way, the dude can coach as well. Manny spoke about a year ago when they were recruiting kids and the opposing coaches saying, “5-7- It’s over at Texas. They’re done. They’re never coming back.” He went on to say, “We went out and told the kids we were going to build this program from the ground up brick by brick and they believed in us. Combine that class of kids with the previous 2 classes and man you got something.”
On to what was said:
1. You will notice that for the most part these guys are big, strong, & fast. Manny stated when he and his wife came to their first UT event his wife asked, “Where are our big guys?” Manny replied, “They are here.” Manny’s wife replied, “Our big guys are nowhere as big as the big guys at Mississippi State!” Food for thought regarding the strength and conditioning program under Madden- more on that later.
2. As you know, Texas is famous for putting HS QB’s in Division 1 FBS Programs. Guess what? The South East is famous for putting big, bad *** Defensive Tackles and Linemen into Division 1 FBS Programs as well. With Bo Davis’ and Stacy Searels’ background, care to guess where we will be looking for Linemen on both sides of the ball? Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
3. Expect Leadership on defense to come from Kenny Vacaro, Jeffcoat, Hicks, Byndom, and others. Diaz said that these guys were being passive and deferring to the upperclassmen but NOW is their time. Diaz said, “Once these upcoming Juniors and Sophomores step into those roles- WATCH OUT!”
4. Expect Leadership on offense to come from Mason Walters. Again, 1 bad MOFO! Also mentioned that we needed a QB to step-up in that leadership role.
5. Connor Brewer led his team to 3 straight State Championships. Great player, great leader.
6. Malcolm Brown- kid just turned 18 TODAY! Never wavered on his commitment. Kid MAULS people and is violent. Big & Nasty.
7. Tim Cole- good linebacker out of Brenham. A&M came calling and these guys never wavered. Speed.
8. Transferring of players is just the way it is these days. Some kids are down on the depth chart and they were big stars a their HS Programs and have problems exception that. Some kids don’t want to compete so they move on. Before you ask Manny would not discuss Calvin Howell.
9. Jalen Overstreet is 6’3” 205 and a stud. The video clips that Manny showed were “Vince-esque” to say the least. Vince with a better arm mind you. Speed and Gamebreaker
10. Kendall Sanders- co Defensive MVP in the Army Game with 2 pics but asked Coach Brown if he can still be WR. Mack told him he could play Center if he wanted to. Speed and Gamebreaker
11. Jonathan Gray- Manny was in awe of the kid. Said he can take it to the house on any play. Said the kid ran for “like a Million Yards or something and the only reason it wasn’t more is that the field ended at 100 yards.” The kind of kid you want in the program. No having the entire school come to the auditorium and have 3 hats on the table and them pulls of his shirt with a UT t-shirt under it. Great kid. Due to James Gray’s experience, he understood the importance of not
being the ONLY stud RB in the program. Understands that it takes many RB’s to win a National Championship. Class act. Again, Speed & Gambreaking ability.
12. Curtis Riser- they loved this kid at the UT Camp. He was the best at all of the drills and is a big mauler. Searels LOVES this guy. Big & Nasty
13. Cayleb Jones- Big receiver with good hands. Not great speed but can get open. Said Austin High wasn’t very good this season and that Cayleb was about all they had. He did everything for them including “selling tickets before the game and serving drinks at halftime. We have people that do that here for us already so now he can focus on catching the football and blocking.”
14. Brandon Moore- this kid has already put on weight since coming to the program. Bo Davis coached him at Alabama before he was kicked off the team. Something to note, this kid played as a FRESHMAN AT ALABAMA UNDER NICK SABAN! That is saying something! Said that he has been a constant companion of Wylie’s in the weight room. Big & Nasty
15. Marcus Johnson- good target, great speed. Picked him up from Tech after slots came open. Speed & Gamebreaker.
16. Kevin Vaccarro- just a football player. Kid lost a tooth during the Junior Camp. They were going to pull him out of the drills and he said no and proceeded to give the tooth to his mom and went back into the drills. Hey, the kid is a Vaccarro- what’d you expect?
17. Donald Hawkins- Searels happy to have him. Kid mauled the #1 DE in Junior College this year when they met head-to head. Big & Nasty
18. Hassan Ridgeway- can run well from sideline to sideline and is punishing tackler. Big & Nasty
19. Daje Johnson- kid ran a 4.235 40 at their combine. Blazing speed but has power and can take it to the house on any play. Speed & Gamebreaker
20. Peter Jinkens- ideal LB for the Big 12. Great speed, loves to hit, and can cover like a safety. Again, ideal for the Big 12 as a defender.
21. Dalton Santos- according to Diaz, “Mark my words, Santos will be a fan favorite. He will blow-up the opposition. He will blow up his team. He will blow up the band.” When an opening came available Dalton was the first player Diaz wanted to replace him with. Diaz LOVES the guy! Big & Nasty
22. Kennedy Estelle- Big, Nasty offensive lineman that Searels is excited to have. The guy’s size is 6’7” 300 lbs. The kid has plenty room for growth. Big & Nasty
23. Nick Jordan- Kicker that can put it into the end zone on every kick and will be taking over the role that Justin Tucker had. Also, apparently they are going to move the kickoff up to the 35 yardline next season- I was not aware of that.
24. OK, I said I would get back to our Strength & Conditioning situation so here we go. I asked Manny how we compared from a year ago in regards to our strength and conditioning as a program. Manny unapologetically said, “We are LIGHT YEARS ahead of where we were a year ago.” He went on to say that, “during the Spring we were doing so many things so fast that we were afraid that we were going to get some people hurt. Now we are doing preventative training in which if a player has a propensity for a specific injury, we work around the injury while rehabilitating it.”
25. More on this that I was not aware of the extent Josh Cochran was hurt last season. Here this kid was injured coming into the program as a true and he could not even work-out to build himself up to take on kids that were 4 & 5 years older than him that had been in a collegiate weight training program for years. Expect big things from Cochran this season after a year with Bennie.
26. I asked Manny if he were better prepared going against Big 12 Offenses and he said a lot of it has to do with schemes. It doesn’t matter what your scheme is, if you’re going against the Heisman Trophy winner at QB you’re probably going to have some problems defensively. Good point.
27. Manny said they were going to get this thing built back up and they were going to do it right. When he thinks about the kids from the last 3 classes that he has to work with, he can’t be anything but excited. “The problem is we don’t have a time machine in which we can turn all of these kids into 3rd year Juniors. We still have to coach them when they get on campus.
28. Forthose of you wanting Manny’s prediction for the Super Bowl- forget it! He wouldn’t give us one.
29. Spring Training begins in 3 weeks and the Spring Game is Sunday, April 1- GOD I MISS FOOTBALL!.
Hook ‘em Horns!
SG
Posted by SA on Hookem....
I went to the Longhorn Club meeting at the Plaza Club in San Antonio and saw Manny Diaz speak. Manny is nothing less than a freaking stud as a speaker. He is engaging, charismatic, and has a wonderful sense of humor- oh, by the way, the dude can coach as well. Manny spoke about a year ago when they were recruiting kids and the opposing coaches saying, “5-7- It’s over at Texas. They’re done. They’re never coming back.” He went on to say, “We went out and told the kids we were going to build this program from the ground up brick by brick and they believed in us. Combine that class of kids with the previous 2 classes and man you got something.”
On to what was said:
1. You will notice that for the most part these guys are big, strong, & fast. Manny stated when he and his wife came to their first UT event his wife asked, “Where are our big guys?” Manny replied, “They are here.” Manny’s wife replied, “Our big guys are nowhere as big as the big guys at Mississippi State!” Food for thought regarding the strength and conditioning program under Madden- more on that later.
2. As you know, Texas is famous for putting HS QB’s in Division 1 FBS Programs. Guess what? The South East is famous for putting big, bad *** Defensive Tackles and Linemen into Division 1 FBS Programs as well. With Bo Davis’ and Stacy Searels’ background, care to guess where we will be looking for Linemen on both sides of the ball? Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
3. Expect Leadership on defense to come from Kenny Vacaro, Jeffcoat, Hicks, Byndom, and others. Diaz said that these guys were being passive and deferring to the upperclassmen but NOW is their time. Diaz said, “Once these upcoming Juniors and Sophomores step into those roles- WATCH OUT!”
4. Expect Leadership on offense to come from Mason Walters. Again, 1 bad MOFO! Also mentioned that we needed a QB to step-up in that leadership role.
5. Connor Brewer led his team to 3 straight State Championships. Great player, great leader.
6. Malcolm Brown- kid just turned 18 TODAY! Never wavered on his commitment. Kid MAULS people and is violent. Big & Nasty.
7. Tim Cole- good linebacker out of Brenham. A&M came calling and these guys never wavered. Speed.
8. Transferring of players is just the way it is these days. Some kids are down on the depth chart and they were big stars a their HS Programs and have problems exception that. Some kids don’t want to compete so they move on. Before you ask Manny would not discuss Calvin Howell.
9. Jalen Overstreet is 6’3” 205 and a stud. The video clips that Manny showed were “Vince-esque” to say the least. Vince with a better arm mind you. Speed and Gamebreaker
10. Kendall Sanders- co Defensive MVP in the Army Game with 2 pics but asked Coach Brown if he can still be WR. Mack told him he could play Center if he wanted to. Speed and Gamebreaker
11. Jonathan Gray- Manny was in awe of the kid. Said he can take it to the house on any play. Said the kid ran for “like a Million Yards or something and the only reason it wasn’t more is that the field ended at 100 yards.” The kind of kid you want in the program. No having the entire school come to the auditorium and have 3 hats on the table and them pulls of his shirt with a UT t-shirt under it. Great kid. Due to James Gray’s experience, he understood the importance of not
being the ONLY stud RB in the program. Understands that it takes many RB’s to win a National Championship. Class act. Again, Speed & Gambreaking ability.
12. Curtis Riser- they loved this kid at the UT Camp. He was the best at all of the drills and is a big mauler. Searels LOVES this guy. Big & Nasty
13. Cayleb Jones- Big receiver with good hands. Not great speed but can get open. Said Austin High wasn’t very good this season and that Cayleb was about all they had. He did everything for them including “selling tickets before the game and serving drinks at halftime. We have people that do that here for us already so now he can focus on catching the football and blocking.”
14. Brandon Moore- this kid has already put on weight since coming to the program. Bo Davis coached him at Alabama before he was kicked off the team. Something to note, this kid played as a FRESHMAN AT ALABAMA UNDER NICK SABAN! That is saying something! Said that he has been a constant companion of Wylie’s in the weight room. Big & Nasty
15. Marcus Johnson- good target, great speed. Picked him up from Tech after slots came open. Speed & Gamebreaker.
16. Kevin Vaccarro- just a football player. Kid lost a tooth during the Junior Camp. They were going to pull him out of the drills and he said no and proceeded to give the tooth to his mom and went back into the drills. Hey, the kid is a Vaccarro- what’d you expect?
17. Donald Hawkins- Searels happy to have him. Kid mauled the #1 DE in Junior College this year when they met head-to head. Big & Nasty
18. Hassan Ridgeway- can run well from sideline to sideline and is punishing tackler. Big & Nasty
19. Daje Johnson- kid ran a 4.235 40 at their combine. Blazing speed but has power and can take it to the house on any play. Speed & Gamebreaker
20. Peter Jinkens- ideal LB for the Big 12. Great speed, loves to hit, and can cover like a safety. Again, ideal for the Big 12 as a defender.
21. Dalton Santos- according to Diaz, “Mark my words, Santos will be a fan favorite. He will blow-up the opposition. He will blow up his team. He will blow up the band.” When an opening came available Dalton was the first player Diaz wanted to replace him with. Diaz LOVES the guy! Big & Nasty
22. Kennedy Estelle- Big, Nasty offensive lineman that Searels is excited to have. The guy’s size is 6’7” 300 lbs. The kid has plenty room for growth. Big & Nasty
23. Nick Jordan- Kicker that can put it into the end zone on every kick and will be taking over the role that Justin Tucker had. Also, apparently they are going to move the kickoff up to the 35 yardline next season- I was not aware of that.
24. OK, I said I would get back to our Strength & Conditioning situation so here we go. I asked Manny how we compared from a year ago in regards to our strength and conditioning as a program. Manny unapologetically said, “We are LIGHT YEARS ahead of where we were a year ago.” He went on to say that, “during the Spring we were doing so many things so fast that we were afraid that we were going to get some people hurt. Now we are doing preventative training in which if a player has a propensity for a specific injury, we work around the injury while rehabilitating it.”
25. More on this that I was not aware of the extent Josh Cochran was hurt last season. Here this kid was injured coming into the program as a true and he could not even work-out to build himself up to take on kids that were 4 & 5 years older than him that had been in a collegiate weight training program for years. Expect big things from Cochran this season after a year with Bennie.
26. I asked Manny if he were better prepared going against Big 12 Offenses and he said a lot of it has to do with schemes. It doesn’t matter what your scheme is, if you’re going against the Heisman Trophy winner at QB you’re probably going to have some problems defensively. Good point.
27. Manny said they were going to get this thing built back up and they were going to do it right. When he thinks about the kids from the last 3 classes that he has to work with, he can’t be anything but excited. “The problem is we don’t have a time machine in which we can turn all of these kids into 3rd year Juniors. We still have to coach them when they get on campus.
28. Forthose of you wanting Manny’s prediction for the Super Bowl- forget it! He wouldn’t give us one.
29. Spring Training begins in 3 weeks and the Spring Game is Sunday, April 1- GOD I MISS FOOTBALL!.
Hook ‘em Horns!
SG
