running backs

Uhhh, no top flight blue chip but Charles signed with us while Ced carried the load.

No top flight blue chip signed with us while Jamaal carried the load, then he left a year early so we had a hole in '08.

This year we sign another one. Nothing new or surprising to the pattern, as I see it. And by the way, McGee wasn't some recruiting afterthought, nor was Cody Johnson.
 
Below are the guys from 06-09 that have committed to each. Texas got 0 top 25 RB's while the lowly ags got 5? Had Charles stayed all 4 years and barring injury it still leaves a hole. And when does a top tier team only want 1 top tier back? Regardless of how any of these guys turn out in hindsight the question is why are they not coming to Texas and why has Texas not even offered several of them.

2006
Aggie
#6 Michael Goodson
#22 E.J. Shankle
#25 Latrael Cooper

Texas-None in top 25

2007
Aggie
#13 Bradley Stephens

Texas-None

2008
Aggie
#9 Cyrus Gray

Texas-None

2009
Aggie
#4 Christine Michael

Texas
#9 Whaley
 
Hindsight wasn't available at that time unfortunately. But my point is the lowly ags got some highly touted rb's while Texas didn't. Now they might not have been world beaters and not comparing them to the guys that went to SC, OU and Florida during the same time period. Then again if Goodson had gone to Texas or OU I think he would have had a much different career. But why for so many years has Texas not been able to get a back that was rated high? They have offered some that ended up elsewhere and chose to ignore others.
 
Yes, there ineed seems to have been some sort of an issue with our RB recruiting for years now. Curiously, this started happening when Texas was on something like a 10 or 12 year streak with 1000 yard rushers and had produced Priest, Ricky, Selvyn, etc for NFL. It does not really make much logical sense.

.. and despite all the burnt-orange-colored optimism around, the fact is that our running game was pititful this year and we don't have much of an idea if it would be better next year either (Whaley, Fozzy etc notwithstanding). Major has not exactly turned heads with RB coaching, and our OL run-blocking has not been top-notch for a while either. I still believe that the California dude went to Colorado (to a good extent) because the signs of sub-par RB coaching were there to see. Mack needs to do something about this. May be I am exaggerating ...

R.J.
 
I really don't care if Cedric has a 1000 yard season in the NFL Well, I hope he does for his sake. But how much success he has in the NFL does not diminish his career at UT which was very significant. I will take 5500 yards from any RB and be happy.
 
Part of the problem may be that UT has gone to a passing oriented offense for the past few years. It is harder to run down hill out of the shotgun and without a FB to lead block. UT's O line is better at pass blocking than run blocking and that probably isn't going to change. UT tends to play tight ends that are quicker and lighter than your typical run blocking TE. UT's run scheme tends to be a sideways oriented zone running thing rather than a quick hitting blast through a well defined hole. The running back coach is an ex QB with 1 season's experience as a running back coach.

It all adds up to non optimal situation for a tailback. The 5 star tailbacks have better options available to them and do the rational thing.

It has been a long time since UT signed a 5 star tailback (Jamaal was 4 stars). It is amazing.
 
This year there are 4 5-star RBs in the nation. One of them is from Texas (Michael). To act like there are 15-20 stud RBs each year and TExas refuses to sign then doesn't exactly hold water.

Last year there were 2 5-star RBs. Calhoun from Texas (grades discouraged the TExas coaches) and Scott whom Texas recruited to the end.

2007 there were 3 5-star RBs. Marc Tyler (who I think Texas recruited some), Joe McKnight (Texas tried but he was between KSU and USC if I remember right) and Noel Devine (don't think he was ever interested in Texas.

2006 had 4 5-star RBs. 3 you have all heard of (CJ Spiller, Stafon Johnson and Chris Wells) and 1 most of us haven't or don't remember - James Aldrige at Notre Dame.

There aren't tons of 5 star guys running around. I was a lineman in high school and love running the ball now as a coach. However, is Texas throwing more because there isn't that dominant back on campus or just a shift in philosophy?

What seems apparent (at least from Rivals' rankings) is that there have only been 13 5-star RBs in the last 4 years across the entire nation.

One thing to add, Texas has gotten 6 -star players total in the last 4 years with a slim chance of a couple of other ones still this year.
 
The # of stars given out by rivals wasn't really the part that puzzles me. I am confused how they have not gotten a back ranked in the top 25 by position. Every year there are top 25 backs just in the state of Texas but for some reason they are going elsewhere, for example the aggies. It would seem to me that Texas is just putting an emphasis on backs for the last few years. You can't tell me a kid would prefer to go to college station along with several other backs to compete for playing time on an also ran team. They went after Scott pretty hard, creer , and moody but came away empty on all and the other good backs went elsewhere by that time since Texas had not shown interest.
 
A # of goods backs to look at this coming year...what are the thoughts on DJ Jones? Does UT show interest and does DJ show interest here?
 
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