More than a decade ago in an East Texas eatery, I engaged in a fascinating conversation with a friend of mine who just happened to moonlight as an out-of-state college assistant coach working the area during his once-a-year rounds in the spring when he wasn't trying to find the nearest golf course on all of his daily trips around the state.
"If it were up to me, I wouldn't offer a single player from the state of Texas that doesn't live in East Texas," he said between bites of his meal at The Butcher Shop.
Considering that he had spent the previous few days in the Austin area to visit one of his commitments before heading out to East Texas, while also fishing for new targets, I was a little surprised at his comments.
What came next out of his mouth was the first association of a word with the Lone Star State's talent-base that would eventually become synonymous with the Texas Longhorns football culture.
"All of these kids are so damn entitled," he said with a bit of a sneer. "They are treated like gods at their high schools and are household words before they ever play a down of college football. The weight rooms they lift in are better than most of the schools in my conference. All of the big schools have a coach for each position. There is just too much pampering going on and by the time we get them, it's damn near impossible to get them to really get down and dirty. They feel like they've made it by simply being recruited and becoming stars on the Internet."
He wasn't done…
"Take a kid from Florida and his weight room is terrible, he's lucky to have a single full-time coach on the entire team and if he doesn't make it in football, he knows he might never have anything in his life outside of what he already knows, which means that when we get them they are desperate to succeed or that might be it for them … not in football, but in life. Those are the kids I want, not some damn 18-year old that gives me the eyeball because our coaches won't hold his hand when he's in the weight room. I can find the kid I'm looking for in East Texas, but it's not like that in other areas of the state."
Fast-forward more than a decade later and I tell this story not as some sort of indictment on the players hailing from the state of Texas because the data correlated with the NFL Draft shows that in a lot of cases, elite Texas football prospects outperform the national numbers. Instead, I tell the story because it might ...might … give us a look into the window of Texas head coach Charlie's Strong's football soul.
Of course, I paraphrased the conversation I had with this particular coach because after more than a decade has gone by, the message sticks out more than specific words, but the bottom line is that he was more than a little dubious of what this state was producing in terms of hungry college football players and if you dig around a little, you'll find that his sentiments are shared by a lot of his peers in that part of the country. It's sort of a hybrid brother of the conversation that exists that Texas high school prospects have lower ceilings than some of their peers from around the country because they've been able to take advantage of so many bonuses that inherently come with playing high school football in a state that often pays its head coaches more than it pays its school administrators.
All of this is important in the context of discussing Charlie Strong and the final weeks of his first year in office in Austin for two reasons:
1. Strong just finished his initial season admitting in the aftermath of an ugly bowl loss that he just can't figure out his team (mostly made up of kids from the state of Texas) and why it isn't quite connecting to his desires for it.
2. With in-state recruiting proving to be a little tricky in 2015 with a lot of the state's elite prospects, Strong and his staff have returned to their South Florida roots to piece together a dynamic class that currently ranks as a top-10 class nationally.
Personally, I'd love to hook Strong up with a glass of truth serum and ask for his true thoughts on the mentality of his players and what he thinks about the differences between the kids he offers in Texas and the kids he offers in Florida because he'll almost certainly never tell us while he's earning a paycheck from the state of Texas' flagship university.
If we let what has happened in the calendar year speak for itself, there's a chance we might find some answers without having to ask him.
Upon arriving in Austin, Strong made it very clear to anyone within earshot of him what he was looking for in his team and that's everything that it has to give. Strong's a believer that if you throw your mind, body and soul into your schoolwork and football, there's nothing that can't be accomplished and yet through his first 13 games as a coach in Austin, he doesn't have enough of those kinds of players and it would appear to infuriate him.
What kind of overall vibe Strong currently has about the players from the Lone Star State remains to be seen, but when his program was in a little bit of lull a few weeks ago, it can't be ignored that Strong has returned to the area he knows best in an effort to pour cement into the foundation of the program he wants … and it's not in Texas.
Only 10 of the 27 commitments that are in Strong's 2015 cupboard are out of state prospects, but of the team's 11 five- or four-star commitments (using Rivals.com rankings), seven are from out of state.
With the commitment of Gilbert Johnson on Sunday afternoon, the idea of the "Florida Five" has not only come to fruition, but you can sense in the words from each of the five commitments that Strong has sold them on the idea that together as a group they bring something that the program desperately needs. Cecil Cherry, Devonaire Clarington, Tim Irvin, DeVante Davis and Johnson aren't coming to Texas to fit in as much as their arrival as a whole signals that we're entering a new era of Texas football.
Make no mistake about it, Strong and his staff will recruit the difference makers in the state of Texas, but unlike the Mack Brown regime, the fear of building the program (and not merely supplementing) with players from other states simply doesn't exist. Also, make no mistake about the fact that the "Florida Five" is just the beginning of Texas creating South Florida roots.
"The entire region is paying attention to what Charlie Strong is doing," one coach told me via email this week. "Landing those players this week signals to all of these kids that the doors at Texas are open to them."
Come hell or high Atlantic Ocean water, Strong is going to get his junkyard dogs who will give into his vision, even if it means leaving the region from which Mack Brown built a national contender to get there.
Something tells me that deep down this is exactly the way he wants it.
No. 2 - Introducing the voice of reason concerning Jerrod Heard …
One of these days, we're going to be able to have a discussion regarding the Texas quarterback position that won't require us to sift through the rubble of extreme thoughts and opinions.
As it relates to redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard, we're now officially six months deep into his career in Austin and we've already seen both sides of the extremes regarding his talent and the kid hasn't so much as played a down of football and my advice to everyone is to simply chill the hell out.
The reality of the situation is that five seasons of walking through the desert in search of a quarterback position has left a large number of you slightly delirious and unable to rationally approach the subject.
After arriving as a national top 100 prospect out of Denton Guyer with a couple of state championships on his resume, there was a long line of Longhorn fans that were ready to insert him into the line-up without stopping to consider whether he was truly ready to play at a high level. Upon hearing that he wasn't tearing it up in practice from the jump, too many people closed their eyes to reality and swore that it couldn't be true, that it was impossible to believe that he couldn't at least produce at the level of starting quarterback Tyrone Swoopes and there was nothing you could report to them that could get you to change their mind.
One week after the conclusion of the 2014 season, we have now entered the opening stages of the 2015 silly season (aka nine month off-season) and the pendulum of extremes seems to have swung in the other direction. Because of his early freshman struggles, his lack of a picture-perfect fit into Shawn Watson's offense and the arrival of another national top-100 prospect at the position that others are going crazy over, there's a growing sentiment out there that Heard will never be the answer at the position and should start thinking about a transfer.
Good grief, here's the reality of the situation …
Heard is an incredibly young quarterback that needs a little more baking in the oven, which is to say that he's like almost every good college quarterback on the planet, especially the ones working with new offenses and working without so much as the benefit of a full-year on campus. That means that if the instructions on his development read to set the oven at 350 degrees and let bake for a season or two, you shouldn't lose your mind if you set the oven at 450 degrees, wait for a few weeks and don't get the results your timeline desires.
I'll remind everyone that when Colt McCoy was into month No. 6 of his college career, there probably was only a handful of people in the Texas program that thought he would ever emerge as the starting quarterback, let alone a guy that would have his number retired, and that includes his own coaches. As for Vince Young, he was still skipping passes into the flat at that age and was two years away from truly seeing the light switch flip on.
My advice for everyone is to chill and let Heard have a chance to bake in the oven. It's possible that all of those things that have people fearful are true, but there's no way to truly know what he's made of as a player at this point without more information. It's not Heard's fault that the program and fan base collectively amount to a divorced man that hasn't gotten lucky in five years and is a little eager to go from 0-60 MPH on every single date until the streak is broken.
Jerrod Heard's only sin at this point is he wasn't ready from day one like you wanted him to be, a task that none of the great quarterbacks from James Brown to Major Applewhite to Chris Simms to Young to McCoy have eve been up for. All of those players other than Simms redshirted just like Heard and all of them (including Simms) started a little slowly out of the gate in their true freshman seasons.
Let Heard bake in the oven just a little longer and the meal you eventually receive might taste very good.
No. 3 - 27 down, for still to go?
Before getting into what is left on the Texas recruiting front with about a month to go until National Signing Day, let's examine the numbers game that is currently in play.
The 85-man scholarship number really isn't that big of a deal because Texas is sitting at 60 scholarship players before any attrition in the upcoming off-season takes place, which is why so many people have targeted a 30- or 31-man recruiting class. Usually, a program like Texas loses a minimum of 4-5 players annually due to a variety of issues that range from grades, playing time, girlfriends, arrests, etc … so, just forget about the 85-man number because you can take it to the bank that there will be at least the normal amount attrition in the off-season.
From a math standpoint, the only thing that really matters is the 25-man restriction number once you eliminate the early enrollers (Brandon Hodges, Malik Jefferson, Tristan Nicholson, Garrett Thomas, Quincy Vasser and Connor Williams) that can be counted towards the 2014 recruiting class and remember that Dallas Christian Prep quarterback Matthew Merrick plans to grey-shirt and count towards the 2016 numbers.
That leaves the Longhorns at 20 commitments in the 2015 class, which technically leaves them with five available slots (six if you are already chalking up John Burt as a flip to Auburn) and about a dozen targeted prospects still on the board.
Let's take a position-by-position look at the players that the Longhorns are still in on:
QB: Kai Locksley (Baltimore, MD)
RB: Chris Warren (Rockwall), Soso Jamabo (Plano West) and Nicholas Brossette (Baton Rouge, La.)
WR: Ryan Newsome (Aledo), Carlos Strickland (Dallas Skyline) and Demarkus Lodge (Cedar Hill)
TE: None
OL: Drew Richmond (Memphis, TN)
DT: Daylon Mack (Gladewater)
DE: None
LB: None
DB: Kris Boyd (Gilmer), Holton Hill (Houston Lamar), Mark Fields (Charlotte, NC) and Deandre Baker (Miami, FL)
Let's also take a look at the upcoming official visit schedule:
January 16th
RB: Brossette
DT: Mack
DB: Hill
January 23rd
QB: Locksley
OL: Richmond
DB: Baker and Fields
No schedule visit at this point
RB: Jamabo
WR: Lodge
DB: Boyd
Of that group of players, I've mentally locked in Warren and Newsome as future Longhorns and nothing has changed in that regard, which means there are either three or four slots left, depending on what eventually happens with Burt's recruitment.
Outside of those two, I'd offer that Mack and Richmond represent the players that you wouldn't turn down no matter what, even if you've reached 31 scholarships, as you'd figure it out by any means necessary, even if it means talking to a kid or two about a possible grey-or blue-shirt option. That being said, both players register as slight long-shots because of UT's underdog role at this point, so I don't even think you worry about them as it relates to the math.
It's possible another QB could probably would fit into that grouping as well, but if the Longhorns find a way to swing Locksley their way you have to believe that the window for any other possible QB will have closed. Meanwhile, until Lodge and Jamabo actually set up visits (rather than just talk about setting up visits), they belong in their own category of unlikely pieces of the puzzle. If any or all of the three set up visits, perhaps you'd put them in a sub-grouping just below Mack and Richmond.
That leaves Locksley, Brossette, Boyd, Hill, Fields and Baker for the remaining three or four slots in the class. On paper, it looks like you're likely to save two spots for offense and two spots for the defensive backs, which translates to Locksley likely having a spot reserved because the Texas coaches love him, another slot reserved for Brossette or some other offensive skill player (Jamabo or Lodge) and two spots for the defensive backfield. The smart money has Boyd and Hill having spots reserved for them for a couple of weeks, but if we get to the 23rd and Fields/Baker come into town without them having yet committed, all bets could be off because the staff will likely be perfectly fine with taking whatever pair from that group it can get.
If one of the spots reserved for offensive skill players remains empty, then the coaches can take a third defensive back or have a spot remaining for one of the lottery tickets it wants to cash at defensive tackle or offensive tackle.
Keep in mind that the numbers are potentially fluid because the coaches could look to open up a spot or two if they believe they can virtually run the table on their top prospects. That's a problem the coaches would certainly love to have, but for now the staff would appear to have just enough room to complete the task, especially when you consider the various means available to massage another scholarship or two if needed.
No. 4 - Scattershooting on the Longhorns and High School All-Star Games …
… Anwar Richardson and I were having a conversation on New Year's Day about the Texas quarterback situation and while we didn't completely agree on all of the angles of the conversation, we definitely agree on one piece of the discussion that surrounds returning starter Tyrone Swoopes. Both of us agree that it will be over Charlie Strong's dead body before he allows any player that's not one of his own recruits, including Swoopes, to bring the ship down around him. Heading into next year, Strong has to know that playing Swoopes as the starter opens him up to all kids of unflattering opinions if it feels like the definition of insanity is in play, so we agree that Swoopes being the best quarterback on the roster in August might not be enough to convince Strong that he must start him. On some level, Swoopes has to convince Strong that he's a different player that won't flinch or break or flat-out fail in South Bend in September. The next nine months are the most important nine months of Swoopes' football life because the smart money says that he will have to really accelerate his abilities in such a fashion that Strong can move away from the memories of TCU and Arkansas.
… Of the commitments the Longhorns received over the weekend, I'm of the opinion that wide receiver Gilbert Johnson, safety Tim Irvin and linebacker Anthony Wheeler all project as possible early impact players. The Longhorns actually have somewhat of a competitive depth chart at wide receiver, but Johnson's size and ball skills could make him an immediate red zone weapon. Meanwhile, Irvin is essentially Quandre Diggs 2.0 and that means he could have a similar first-year impact at a number of spots in the secondary and special teams. As for Wheeler, it's possible he could emerge as a starter at linebacker, but I think he ends up being a guy that Charlie Strong moves around all over the field in an attack position.
… If the Longhorns can get tight end Devonaire Clarington on campus in August, he could certainly compete for immediate playing time, but I would personally advise everyone to treat him like found money at this point. If he gets all of his academic work handled in a way that allows him to come straight to Texas, it'll be fantastic news to say the very least because he has a chance to be an impact player at a position that is screaming for it, but it's quite possible that he's going to be a long-term project for the program.
… When it's all said and done in February, the Longhorns will have a couple of assistant coaches worthy of Big 12 Recruiter of the Year honors. If nothing else, Chris Vaughn and Brian Jean-Mary have earned their stripes as the best recruiters among the assistant coaches on Strong's staff. Although they've teamed up on a number of the out of state prospects (see Clarington), the official commitment scoreboard as lead recruiters currently looks like this:
Vaughn: Tim Irvin, DeAndre Davis, John Burt and Jamile Johnson
Jean-Mary: Malik Jefferson, Deandre McNeil, Anthony Wheeler, Cameron Townsend, Cecil Cherry and Clarington
Together they've created and united the Florida Five, but Jean-Mary's overall haul is hard to ignore, especially when you consider that no other Big 12 assistant coach has spearheaded a recruitment that has landed a top-50 player from the Rivals100 with a month to go until signing day.
… I thought Gladewater's Daylon Mack performed as well at defensive tackle in the Under Armour game as any highly-rated in-state defensive tackle has performed in any of the major all-star games. He has a Roy Miller quality to him right now that makes him nearly impossible to block with one man at the high school level.
… It was hard to watch McKinney North running back Ronald Jones II and not wonder how different things might have been had the Longhorns jumped in on him ferociously in the early stages of his recruitment. Once upon a time, that guy was there to be won.
… Although he didn't have a flashy performance in the Under Armour game, DeShon Elliott very quietly flashed really nicely in coverage throughout the game. If he can continue to bring that element of his game to the table, the chances of his playing early for the Longhorns rises considerably higher than it already is.
… Florida State got itself a fun little quarterback in Deondre Francois. It's not hard to imagine that guy emerging as a playmaker for the Noles.
No. 5 - Quack-quack, get ready for an Oregon coronation …
Understand this about the Oregon Ducks before they go into its national championship game against Ohio State in a week …
The Ducks embarrassed and exposed defending champion Florida State to the tune of a 39-point margin of victory and didn't even play an A-level game in the process. That was like a B or B+ at best for the Ducks and that team still turned the Noles into pouty quitters.
With all due respect to Ohio State, a team that earned its way into the title with anything but an accidental win over Alabama, it feels like this is Oregon's national title to lose.
No. 6 - With Isaiah Taylor back, it's time for the Longhorns to become the team they are supposed to be …
There's little question that Rick Barnes' team is a little bit out of sorts heading into the first full week of conference play and a home game against Oklahoma on Big Monday. Since the Kentucky game on December 5, the Longhorns have mostly played disjointed basketball as they waited for point guard Isaiah Taylor to return to the court.
With Taylor back on the floor on Saturday in Lubbock for the first time in more than a month, the Longhorns labored their way to a 1-0 start in Big 12 play, as they allowed the Red Raiders to hang around for 40 minutes when the game probably should have been put away much earlier.
Hey a win is a win when you go on the road in conference play, so there's no reason to apologize for the victory, but moving forward for the next nine weeks this team's goal is to start rounding into the type of form that will allow it to make a deep NCAA Tournament run.
It all starts against the Sooners and while there will likely be some bumps along the road in a loaded Big 12, everyone watching this team should remain mindful of the bigger goal. In its quest to win the Big 12 regular-season title, the goal each night needs to be playing to a standard as much as it is about winning and entering March with its best brand of basketball living in the present and not in the rear-view mirror.
Texas survived without its chief playmaker at guard and now that he's back, the 2014-15 season can officially resume once more.
No. 7 - How bout them Cowboys!
Exhale. Breathe. Exhale.
It was a game that I'm pretty sure I never want to watch again, but my goodness, I'll take it. After all these years of inventing ways to lose games that we've never seen before, the Cowboys found a way to win a big game in the same kind of head-scratching way.
Did the Cowboys catch a break or two? Perhaps, but for three quarters it seemed like every call was going against Dallas, so I'm not going to apologize for catching a break at the eight-minute mark of the fourth quarter.
Playoff wins don't come easily for the Cowboys, so I hate to nitpick, but if Jason Garrett goes into Green Bay and empties the backfield on short-yardage plays for a second straight game, I might strangle someone with red hair. I'm just saying.
For now, I'm just going to be happy and leave you with this …
No. 8 - Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind …
… As I tried to tell anyone that would listen for months, Jon "Bones" Jones is merely in a different class than Daniel Cormier and that fact unfolded in front of everyone's eyes at UFC182 in Las Vegas on Saturday night. What made his dominant performance truly special was that it seemed like he decided that he wanted to beat Cormier at his own game, as he outwrestled the former Olympian and imposed his will while fighting inside a telephone booth instead of busting him up from distance. Barring injuries, Bones is likely to own his division for a while because he currently has wins over the No. 1, No. 2, No. 4 and No. 6 contenders in the light heavyweight world. Love or hate him, but you must respect what this guy is doing.
… I don't know what to tell Cormier other than he better reinvent himself if he wants to beat Jones because his current best isn't good enough.
… It's time for Cowboy Cerrone to start receiving some attention as an actual contender for the Lightweight crown. How about a match against Gilbert Melendez? After six straight wins, it's time to give him something juicier as an opponent than Myles Jury.
… Because I don't have any words for the Steelers fans that I know, I've pretty much just left them alone. Sorry, Suchomel and McComas.
… The Bengals going on the road at Indianapolis with Andy Dalton at quarterback and without A.J. Green at wide receiver stood no chance of winning in Indianapolis on Sunday. Basically, the Bengals are the NFL's version of a six-seed in the NBA (good enough to win 50 games but no chance to win a title).
… Cory Redding making a big impact in a playoff game was good to see. Love that dude. Once upon a time, he was Malik Jefferson for Mack Brown.
… Andrew Luck vs. Peyton Manning. Tom Brady vs. Joe Flacco. Russell Wilson vs. Cam Newton. Tony Romo vs. Aaron Rodgers. Yes, please.
No. 9 - Countdown to the Oscars: 49 Days …
One of the must-see movies of the year was consumed over the weekend and I have to say that I came away slightly disappointed, which was surprising because the previews alone had already tempered my enthusiasm.
It's not that Unbroken is a bad movie, it's just not a great movie, despite the fact that you'd be hard-pressed to find a better story to be old from the entire 20th century. Maybe that was the problem … there's just too much story to be told over the course of two-plus hours and in an effort to get all of it in, it ended up just touching the surface of what was there to be touched.
I wanted to love the movie, but it was just pretty good and not really worthy of Best Picture discussion in my book.
Next up on my list: Selma, American Sniper, Foxcatcher, The Imitation Game, Into the Woods, A Most Violent Year, Wild, Cake and The Judge.
Best Picture (based on movies that I have actually seen)
1. Boyhood
2. Birdman
3. Whiplash
4. Gone Girl
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Actor (based on the movies that I have actually seen)
1. Michael Keaton (Birdman)
2. Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)
3. Miles Teller (Whiplash)
4. Matthew McConaughey (Interstellar)
5. Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Best Actress (based on the movies that I have actually seen)
1. Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
2. Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)
3. Anne Hathaway (Interstellar)
Best Supporting Actor (based on the movies that I have actually seen)
1. J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)
2. Ed Norton (Birdman)
3. Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
4. Miyavi (Unbroken)
Best Supporting Actress (based on the movies that I have actually seen)
1. Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
2. Emma Stone (Birdman)
3. Jessica Chastain (Interstellar)
4. Carrie Coon (Gone Girl)
Best Director (based on the movies that I have actually seen)
1. Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
2. Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman)
3. Damien Chazelle (Whiplash)
4. David Fincher (Gone Girl)
5. Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
No. 10 - And finally …
I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of ESPN anchor Stuart Scott, who passed away at the age of 49 years old on Sunday after battling the demon that is cancer.
Although I wasn't a super-fan of Scott at all times (but always respected his game), there's no question that he impacted his profession deeply and leaves behind a monster-sized legacy, especially for minority broadcasters.
More than anything, it was the work he put into being a human being that will be the one thing those who knew him will remember the most. In all the years I've been in the industry, I've never heard a single person say a negative word about Scott … not a single one. Instead, the people that I've encountered who knew him described him as one of the best people they've ever known.
What could be a better thing to say about a person?
Actually, do yourself a favor and watch the NFL Network's Rich Eisen do his dear friend the justice warranted on this sad day.
Boo-yah, Stuart.
This post was edited on 1/5 9:30 AM by Ketchum
"If it were up to me, I wouldn't offer a single player from the state of Texas that doesn't live in East Texas," he said between bites of his meal at The Butcher Shop.
Considering that he had spent the previous few days in the Austin area to visit one of his commitments before heading out to East Texas, while also fishing for new targets, I was a little surprised at his comments.
What came next out of his mouth was the first association of a word with the Lone Star State's talent-base that would eventually become synonymous with the Texas Longhorns football culture.
"All of these kids are so damn entitled," he said with a bit of a sneer. "They are treated like gods at their high schools and are household words before they ever play a down of college football. The weight rooms they lift in are better than most of the schools in my conference. All of the big schools have a coach for each position. There is just too much pampering going on and by the time we get them, it's damn near impossible to get them to really get down and dirty. They feel like they've made it by simply being recruited and becoming stars on the Internet."
He wasn't done…
"Take a kid from Florida and his weight room is terrible, he's lucky to have a single full-time coach on the entire team and if he doesn't make it in football, he knows he might never have anything in his life outside of what he already knows, which means that when we get them they are desperate to succeed or that might be it for them … not in football, but in life. Those are the kids I want, not some damn 18-year old that gives me the eyeball because our coaches won't hold his hand when he's in the weight room. I can find the kid I'm looking for in East Texas, but it's not like that in other areas of the state."
Fast-forward more than a decade later and I tell this story not as some sort of indictment on the players hailing from the state of Texas because the data correlated with the NFL Draft shows that in a lot of cases, elite Texas football prospects outperform the national numbers. Instead, I tell the story because it might ...might … give us a look into the window of Texas head coach Charlie's Strong's football soul.
Of course, I paraphrased the conversation I had with this particular coach because after more than a decade has gone by, the message sticks out more than specific words, but the bottom line is that he was more than a little dubious of what this state was producing in terms of hungry college football players and if you dig around a little, you'll find that his sentiments are shared by a lot of his peers in that part of the country. It's sort of a hybrid brother of the conversation that exists that Texas high school prospects have lower ceilings than some of their peers from around the country because they've been able to take advantage of so many bonuses that inherently come with playing high school football in a state that often pays its head coaches more than it pays its school administrators.
All of this is important in the context of discussing Charlie Strong and the final weeks of his first year in office in Austin for two reasons:
1. Strong just finished his initial season admitting in the aftermath of an ugly bowl loss that he just can't figure out his team (mostly made up of kids from the state of Texas) and why it isn't quite connecting to his desires for it.
2. With in-state recruiting proving to be a little tricky in 2015 with a lot of the state's elite prospects, Strong and his staff have returned to their South Florida roots to piece together a dynamic class that currently ranks as a top-10 class nationally.
Personally, I'd love to hook Strong up with a glass of truth serum and ask for his true thoughts on the mentality of his players and what he thinks about the differences between the kids he offers in Texas and the kids he offers in Florida because he'll almost certainly never tell us while he's earning a paycheck from the state of Texas' flagship university.
If we let what has happened in the calendar year speak for itself, there's a chance we might find some answers without having to ask him.
Upon arriving in Austin, Strong made it very clear to anyone within earshot of him what he was looking for in his team and that's everything that it has to give. Strong's a believer that if you throw your mind, body and soul into your schoolwork and football, there's nothing that can't be accomplished and yet through his first 13 games as a coach in Austin, he doesn't have enough of those kinds of players and it would appear to infuriate him.
What kind of overall vibe Strong currently has about the players from the Lone Star State remains to be seen, but when his program was in a little bit of lull a few weeks ago, it can't be ignored that Strong has returned to the area he knows best in an effort to pour cement into the foundation of the program he wants … and it's not in Texas.
Only 10 of the 27 commitments that are in Strong's 2015 cupboard are out of state prospects, but of the team's 11 five- or four-star commitments (using Rivals.com rankings), seven are from out of state.
With the commitment of Gilbert Johnson on Sunday afternoon, the idea of the "Florida Five" has not only come to fruition, but you can sense in the words from each of the five commitments that Strong has sold them on the idea that together as a group they bring something that the program desperately needs. Cecil Cherry, Devonaire Clarington, Tim Irvin, DeVante Davis and Johnson aren't coming to Texas to fit in as much as their arrival as a whole signals that we're entering a new era of Texas football.
Make no mistake about it, Strong and his staff will recruit the difference makers in the state of Texas, but unlike the Mack Brown regime, the fear of building the program (and not merely supplementing) with players from other states simply doesn't exist. Also, make no mistake about the fact that the "Florida Five" is just the beginning of Texas creating South Florida roots.
"The entire region is paying attention to what Charlie Strong is doing," one coach told me via email this week. "Landing those players this week signals to all of these kids that the doors at Texas are open to them."
Come hell or high Atlantic Ocean water, Strong is going to get his junkyard dogs who will give into his vision, even if it means leaving the region from which Mack Brown built a national contender to get there.
Something tells me that deep down this is exactly the way he wants it.
No. 2 - Introducing the voice of reason concerning Jerrod Heard …
One of these days, we're going to be able to have a discussion regarding the Texas quarterback position that won't require us to sift through the rubble of extreme thoughts and opinions.
As it relates to redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard, we're now officially six months deep into his career in Austin and we've already seen both sides of the extremes regarding his talent and the kid hasn't so much as played a down of football and my advice to everyone is to simply chill the hell out.
The reality of the situation is that five seasons of walking through the desert in search of a quarterback position has left a large number of you slightly delirious and unable to rationally approach the subject.
After arriving as a national top 100 prospect out of Denton Guyer with a couple of state championships on his resume, there was a long line of Longhorn fans that were ready to insert him into the line-up without stopping to consider whether he was truly ready to play at a high level. Upon hearing that he wasn't tearing it up in practice from the jump, too many people closed their eyes to reality and swore that it couldn't be true, that it was impossible to believe that he couldn't at least produce at the level of starting quarterback Tyrone Swoopes and there was nothing you could report to them that could get you to change their mind.
One week after the conclusion of the 2014 season, we have now entered the opening stages of the 2015 silly season (aka nine month off-season) and the pendulum of extremes seems to have swung in the other direction. Because of his early freshman struggles, his lack of a picture-perfect fit into Shawn Watson's offense and the arrival of another national top-100 prospect at the position that others are going crazy over, there's a growing sentiment out there that Heard will never be the answer at the position and should start thinking about a transfer.
Good grief, here's the reality of the situation …
Heard is an incredibly young quarterback that needs a little more baking in the oven, which is to say that he's like almost every good college quarterback on the planet, especially the ones working with new offenses and working without so much as the benefit of a full-year on campus. That means that if the instructions on his development read to set the oven at 350 degrees and let bake for a season or two, you shouldn't lose your mind if you set the oven at 450 degrees, wait for a few weeks and don't get the results your timeline desires.
I'll remind everyone that when Colt McCoy was into month No. 6 of his college career, there probably was only a handful of people in the Texas program that thought he would ever emerge as the starting quarterback, let alone a guy that would have his number retired, and that includes his own coaches. As for Vince Young, he was still skipping passes into the flat at that age and was two years away from truly seeing the light switch flip on.
My advice for everyone is to chill and let Heard have a chance to bake in the oven. It's possible that all of those things that have people fearful are true, but there's no way to truly know what he's made of as a player at this point without more information. It's not Heard's fault that the program and fan base collectively amount to a divorced man that hasn't gotten lucky in five years and is a little eager to go from 0-60 MPH on every single date until the streak is broken.
Jerrod Heard's only sin at this point is he wasn't ready from day one like you wanted him to be, a task that none of the great quarterbacks from James Brown to Major Applewhite to Chris Simms to Young to McCoy have eve been up for. All of those players other than Simms redshirted just like Heard and all of them (including Simms) started a little slowly out of the gate in their true freshman seasons.
Let Heard bake in the oven just a little longer and the meal you eventually receive might taste very good.
No. 3 - 27 down, for still to go?
Before getting into what is left on the Texas recruiting front with about a month to go until National Signing Day, let's examine the numbers game that is currently in play.
The 85-man scholarship number really isn't that big of a deal because Texas is sitting at 60 scholarship players before any attrition in the upcoming off-season takes place, which is why so many people have targeted a 30- or 31-man recruiting class. Usually, a program like Texas loses a minimum of 4-5 players annually due to a variety of issues that range from grades, playing time, girlfriends, arrests, etc … so, just forget about the 85-man number because you can take it to the bank that there will be at least the normal amount attrition in the off-season.
From a math standpoint, the only thing that really matters is the 25-man restriction number once you eliminate the early enrollers (Brandon Hodges, Malik Jefferson, Tristan Nicholson, Garrett Thomas, Quincy Vasser and Connor Williams) that can be counted towards the 2014 recruiting class and remember that Dallas Christian Prep quarterback Matthew Merrick plans to grey-shirt and count towards the 2016 numbers.
That leaves the Longhorns at 20 commitments in the 2015 class, which technically leaves them with five available slots (six if you are already chalking up John Burt as a flip to Auburn) and about a dozen targeted prospects still on the board.
Let's take a position-by-position look at the players that the Longhorns are still in on:
QB: Kai Locksley (Baltimore, MD)
RB: Chris Warren (Rockwall), Soso Jamabo (Plano West) and Nicholas Brossette (Baton Rouge, La.)
WR: Ryan Newsome (Aledo), Carlos Strickland (Dallas Skyline) and Demarkus Lodge (Cedar Hill)
TE: None
OL: Drew Richmond (Memphis, TN)
DT: Daylon Mack (Gladewater)
DE: None
LB: None
DB: Kris Boyd (Gilmer), Holton Hill (Houston Lamar), Mark Fields (Charlotte, NC) and Deandre Baker (Miami, FL)
Let's also take a look at the upcoming official visit schedule:
January 16th
RB: Brossette
DT: Mack
DB: Hill
January 23rd
QB: Locksley
OL: Richmond
DB: Baker and Fields
No schedule visit at this point
RB: Jamabo
WR: Lodge
DB: Boyd
Of that group of players, I've mentally locked in Warren and Newsome as future Longhorns and nothing has changed in that regard, which means there are either three or four slots left, depending on what eventually happens with Burt's recruitment.
Outside of those two, I'd offer that Mack and Richmond represent the players that you wouldn't turn down no matter what, even if you've reached 31 scholarships, as you'd figure it out by any means necessary, even if it means talking to a kid or two about a possible grey-or blue-shirt option. That being said, both players register as slight long-shots because of UT's underdog role at this point, so I don't even think you worry about them as it relates to the math.
It's possible another QB could probably would fit into that grouping as well, but if the Longhorns find a way to swing Locksley their way you have to believe that the window for any other possible QB will have closed. Meanwhile, until Lodge and Jamabo actually set up visits (rather than just talk about setting up visits), they belong in their own category of unlikely pieces of the puzzle. If any or all of the three set up visits, perhaps you'd put them in a sub-grouping just below Mack and Richmond.
That leaves Locksley, Brossette, Boyd, Hill, Fields and Baker for the remaining three or four slots in the class. On paper, it looks like you're likely to save two spots for offense and two spots for the defensive backs, which translates to Locksley likely having a spot reserved because the Texas coaches love him, another slot reserved for Brossette or some other offensive skill player (Jamabo or Lodge) and two spots for the defensive backfield. The smart money has Boyd and Hill having spots reserved for them for a couple of weeks, but if we get to the 23rd and Fields/Baker come into town without them having yet committed, all bets could be off because the staff will likely be perfectly fine with taking whatever pair from that group it can get.
If one of the spots reserved for offensive skill players remains empty, then the coaches can take a third defensive back or have a spot remaining for one of the lottery tickets it wants to cash at defensive tackle or offensive tackle.
Keep in mind that the numbers are potentially fluid because the coaches could look to open up a spot or two if they believe they can virtually run the table on their top prospects. That's a problem the coaches would certainly love to have, but for now the staff would appear to have just enough room to complete the task, especially when you consider the various means available to massage another scholarship or two if needed.
No. 4 - Scattershooting on the Longhorns and High School All-Star Games …
… Anwar Richardson and I were having a conversation on New Year's Day about the Texas quarterback situation and while we didn't completely agree on all of the angles of the conversation, we definitely agree on one piece of the discussion that surrounds returning starter Tyrone Swoopes. Both of us agree that it will be over Charlie Strong's dead body before he allows any player that's not one of his own recruits, including Swoopes, to bring the ship down around him. Heading into next year, Strong has to know that playing Swoopes as the starter opens him up to all kids of unflattering opinions if it feels like the definition of insanity is in play, so we agree that Swoopes being the best quarterback on the roster in August might not be enough to convince Strong that he must start him. On some level, Swoopes has to convince Strong that he's a different player that won't flinch or break or flat-out fail in South Bend in September. The next nine months are the most important nine months of Swoopes' football life because the smart money says that he will have to really accelerate his abilities in such a fashion that Strong can move away from the memories of TCU and Arkansas.
… Of the commitments the Longhorns received over the weekend, I'm of the opinion that wide receiver Gilbert Johnson, safety Tim Irvin and linebacker Anthony Wheeler all project as possible early impact players. The Longhorns actually have somewhat of a competitive depth chart at wide receiver, but Johnson's size and ball skills could make him an immediate red zone weapon. Meanwhile, Irvin is essentially Quandre Diggs 2.0 and that means he could have a similar first-year impact at a number of spots in the secondary and special teams. As for Wheeler, it's possible he could emerge as a starter at linebacker, but I think he ends up being a guy that Charlie Strong moves around all over the field in an attack position.
… If the Longhorns can get tight end Devonaire Clarington on campus in August, he could certainly compete for immediate playing time, but I would personally advise everyone to treat him like found money at this point. If he gets all of his academic work handled in a way that allows him to come straight to Texas, it'll be fantastic news to say the very least because he has a chance to be an impact player at a position that is screaming for it, but it's quite possible that he's going to be a long-term project for the program.
… When it's all said and done in February, the Longhorns will have a couple of assistant coaches worthy of Big 12 Recruiter of the Year honors. If nothing else, Chris Vaughn and Brian Jean-Mary have earned their stripes as the best recruiters among the assistant coaches on Strong's staff. Although they've teamed up on a number of the out of state prospects (see Clarington), the official commitment scoreboard as lead recruiters currently looks like this:
Vaughn: Tim Irvin, DeAndre Davis, John Burt and Jamile Johnson
Jean-Mary: Malik Jefferson, Deandre McNeil, Anthony Wheeler, Cameron Townsend, Cecil Cherry and Clarington
Together they've created and united the Florida Five, but Jean-Mary's overall haul is hard to ignore, especially when you consider that no other Big 12 assistant coach has spearheaded a recruitment that has landed a top-50 player from the Rivals100 with a month to go until signing day.
… I thought Gladewater's Daylon Mack performed as well at defensive tackle in the Under Armour game as any highly-rated in-state defensive tackle has performed in any of the major all-star games. He has a Roy Miller quality to him right now that makes him nearly impossible to block with one man at the high school level.
… It was hard to watch McKinney North running back Ronald Jones II and not wonder how different things might have been had the Longhorns jumped in on him ferociously in the early stages of his recruitment. Once upon a time, that guy was there to be won.
… Although he didn't have a flashy performance in the Under Armour game, DeShon Elliott very quietly flashed really nicely in coverage throughout the game. If he can continue to bring that element of his game to the table, the chances of his playing early for the Longhorns rises considerably higher than it already is.
… Florida State got itself a fun little quarterback in Deondre Francois. It's not hard to imagine that guy emerging as a playmaker for the Noles.
No. 5 - Quack-quack, get ready for an Oregon coronation …
Understand this about the Oregon Ducks before they go into its national championship game against Ohio State in a week …
The Ducks embarrassed and exposed defending champion Florida State to the tune of a 39-point margin of victory and didn't even play an A-level game in the process. That was like a B or B+ at best for the Ducks and that team still turned the Noles into pouty quitters.
With all due respect to Ohio State, a team that earned its way into the title with anything but an accidental win over Alabama, it feels like this is Oregon's national title to lose.
No. 6 - With Isaiah Taylor back, it's time for the Longhorns to become the team they are supposed to be …
There's little question that Rick Barnes' team is a little bit out of sorts heading into the first full week of conference play and a home game against Oklahoma on Big Monday. Since the Kentucky game on December 5, the Longhorns have mostly played disjointed basketball as they waited for point guard Isaiah Taylor to return to the court.
With Taylor back on the floor on Saturday in Lubbock for the first time in more than a month, the Longhorns labored their way to a 1-0 start in Big 12 play, as they allowed the Red Raiders to hang around for 40 minutes when the game probably should have been put away much earlier.
Hey a win is a win when you go on the road in conference play, so there's no reason to apologize for the victory, but moving forward for the next nine weeks this team's goal is to start rounding into the type of form that will allow it to make a deep NCAA Tournament run.
It all starts against the Sooners and while there will likely be some bumps along the road in a loaded Big 12, everyone watching this team should remain mindful of the bigger goal. In its quest to win the Big 12 regular-season title, the goal each night needs to be playing to a standard as much as it is about winning and entering March with its best brand of basketball living in the present and not in the rear-view mirror.
Texas survived without its chief playmaker at guard and now that he's back, the 2014-15 season can officially resume once more.
No. 7 - How bout them Cowboys!
Exhale. Breathe. Exhale.
It was a game that I'm pretty sure I never want to watch again, but my goodness, I'll take it. After all these years of inventing ways to lose games that we've never seen before, the Cowboys found a way to win a big game in the same kind of head-scratching way.
Did the Cowboys catch a break or two? Perhaps, but for three quarters it seemed like every call was going against Dallas, so I'm not going to apologize for catching a break at the eight-minute mark of the fourth quarter.
Playoff wins don't come easily for the Cowboys, so I hate to nitpick, but if Jason Garrett goes into Green Bay and empties the backfield on short-yardage plays for a second straight game, I might strangle someone with red hair. I'm just saying.
For now, I'm just going to be happy and leave you with this …
No. 8 - Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind …
… As I tried to tell anyone that would listen for months, Jon "Bones" Jones is merely in a different class than Daniel Cormier and that fact unfolded in front of everyone's eyes at UFC182 in Las Vegas on Saturday night. What made his dominant performance truly special was that it seemed like he decided that he wanted to beat Cormier at his own game, as he outwrestled the former Olympian and imposed his will while fighting inside a telephone booth instead of busting him up from distance. Barring injuries, Bones is likely to own his division for a while because he currently has wins over the No. 1, No. 2, No. 4 and No. 6 contenders in the light heavyweight world. Love or hate him, but you must respect what this guy is doing.
… I don't know what to tell Cormier other than he better reinvent himself if he wants to beat Jones because his current best isn't good enough.
… It's time for Cowboy Cerrone to start receiving some attention as an actual contender for the Lightweight crown. How about a match against Gilbert Melendez? After six straight wins, it's time to give him something juicier as an opponent than Myles Jury.
… Because I don't have any words for the Steelers fans that I know, I've pretty much just left them alone. Sorry, Suchomel and McComas.
… The Bengals going on the road at Indianapolis with Andy Dalton at quarterback and without A.J. Green at wide receiver stood no chance of winning in Indianapolis on Sunday. Basically, the Bengals are the NFL's version of a six-seed in the NBA (good enough to win 50 games but no chance to win a title).
… Cory Redding making a big impact in a playoff game was good to see. Love that dude. Once upon a time, he was Malik Jefferson for Mack Brown.
… Andrew Luck vs. Peyton Manning. Tom Brady vs. Joe Flacco. Russell Wilson vs. Cam Newton. Tony Romo vs. Aaron Rodgers. Yes, please.
No. 9 - Countdown to the Oscars: 49 Days …
One of the must-see movies of the year was consumed over the weekend and I have to say that I came away slightly disappointed, which was surprising because the previews alone had already tempered my enthusiasm.
It's not that Unbroken is a bad movie, it's just not a great movie, despite the fact that you'd be hard-pressed to find a better story to be old from the entire 20th century. Maybe that was the problem … there's just too much story to be told over the course of two-plus hours and in an effort to get all of it in, it ended up just touching the surface of what was there to be touched.
I wanted to love the movie, but it was just pretty good and not really worthy of Best Picture discussion in my book.
Next up on my list: Selma, American Sniper, Foxcatcher, The Imitation Game, Into the Woods, A Most Violent Year, Wild, Cake and The Judge.
Best Picture (based on movies that I have actually seen)
1. Boyhood
2. Birdman
3. Whiplash
4. Gone Girl
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Actor (based on the movies that I have actually seen)
1. Michael Keaton (Birdman)
2. Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)
3. Miles Teller (Whiplash)
4. Matthew McConaughey (Interstellar)
5. Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Best Actress (based on the movies that I have actually seen)
1. Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
2. Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)
3. Anne Hathaway (Interstellar)
Best Supporting Actor (based on the movies that I have actually seen)
1. J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)
2. Ed Norton (Birdman)
3. Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
4. Miyavi (Unbroken)
Best Supporting Actress (based on the movies that I have actually seen)
1. Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
2. Emma Stone (Birdman)
3. Jessica Chastain (Interstellar)
4. Carrie Coon (Gone Girl)
Best Director (based on the movies that I have actually seen)
1. Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
2. Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman)
3. Damien Chazelle (Whiplash)
4. David Fincher (Gone Girl)
5. Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
No. 10 - And finally …
I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of ESPN anchor Stuart Scott, who passed away at the age of 49 years old on Sunday after battling the demon that is cancer.
Although I wasn't a super-fan of Scott at all times (but always respected his game), there's no question that he impacted his profession deeply and leaves behind a monster-sized legacy, especially for minority broadcasters.
More than anything, it was the work he put into being a human being that will be the one thing those who knew him will remember the most. In all the years I've been in the industry, I've never heard a single person say a negative word about Scott … not a single one. Instead, the people that I've encountered who knew him described him as one of the best people they've ever known.
What could be a better thing to say about a person?
Actually, do yourself a favor and watch the NFL Network's Rich Eisen do his dear friend the justice warranted on this sad day.
Boo-yah, Stuart.
This post was edited on 1/5 9:30 AM by Ketchum
