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(From Anwar)
Texas football coach Tom Herman addressed the media during a televised press conference on Tuesday, but he had a lot more to say during a breakout session that afternoon.
Texas tight end Andrew Beck, defensive lineman Chris Nelson, defensive lineman Breckyn Hager and guard Patrick Vahe spoke with the media for nearly 90 minutes on Tuesday. I spent the majority of the time with Herman, but did catch up with the other players, too. Unless you are dying to know about Hager’s hair care routine, I will spare you those details.
Instead, I will share the remaining notes from Texas’ breakout session.
Tom Herman
When asked if he wants quarterback Sam Ehlinger to slide instead of absorbing contact, Herman said, “You tell them that, certainly. There’s something inside of those guys, the Tim Tebows, Cam Newton, and J.T. Barrett was the same way. Just a physical runner. You try to educate them, but when it’s in your DNA, so to speak, it’s very hard. Are you going to see him slide? Probably not. Are you going to see him step out of bounds instead of lowering the shoulder on a guy out of bounds? I hope so. I don’t think you’re ever going to see him just slide. I can tell him to, but I don’t know if it’s going to happen.”
Herman said coaches do not choose quarterbacks, but they pick themselves by moving the football, protecting it, and scoring points.
Ta’Quon Graham has progressed a lot, according to Herman. Graham spent the spring playing nose guard because Herman wanted him to experience the physicality of playing inside before transitioning back to the defensive end spot.
Herman said he expects to play all of his freshmen this year. It may not happen, but Herman said if you are forced to redshirt a skill player, a mistake was probably made in the evaluation of the athlete.
DeMarvion Overshown will initially play in the lighting package as the joker, a boundary, weakside,drop-down safety, according to Herman. As Overshown’s body develops, his defensive role could change.
Herman said when center Zach Shackelford struggled last season, it was against big and strong defenders. However, Shackelford has attempted to add mass and strength this offseason.
When asked about the new fair catch rule, Herman will tell his returners to gauge the hang time. If they are waiting too long, he wants them to fair catch the ball. If it is a line drive, Herman wants a return.
Herman was asked if the new redshirt rule could have helped his team with the injuries last season, and he said it would have. However, Herman did not harp on those injuries.
When asked if defensive coordinators Jimmy Heacock (Iowa State) and Todd Orlando (Texas) defense changed college football, Herman said, “The short answer is yes. Did they change it forever? I don’t know. I know the first time we used our lightning package, we held Oklahoma State to 10 points in regulation, and the first time they used it, they held us to 17 points. I think the only way you can survive with six DBs on the field is if your front five, in that case, can defeat blocks. The way we’ve all grown up learning football is everybody’s got a gap, and you get pushing the ball to the extra defender because the ball carrier can’t block for himself. When you put all those guys into coverage, or at least off the line of scrimmage, now you’re saying, ‘Hey, big boy. Taking up your gap is not good enough. You’ve got to make a play. You’ve got to get off a block and make a play.’ If you’ve got the guys who can do that, great. If not, it’s a bit dicey.”
Herman said after he saw Iowa State run that defense against Texas last season, he asked Orlando to look into that scheme. After studying it, Herman said the Longhorns slowly implemented that scheme into Orlando’s defense.
Herman on Casey Thompson and Cameron Rising: “They belong. They were a very pleasant surprise. Not only how quickly they picked up the offense, but how physically ready they were for the speed of the game.”
When asked about this year’s recruiting class, Herman said they have a lot of out-of-state commitments, but was unsure why that is the case: “I think every year is different. The competition is doing a great job. They’re one of our biggest rivals in recruiting. Their coaching staff is undefeated, just like we were at this time last year. That helps. It’s a long way until December.”
Herman said he never met Herb Hand before asking him to interview for the offensive line job at Texas: “He said how do you know me? I said, this is going to be really nerdy, but as an offensive coach coming up in the profession, every offseason I studied the best offenses in the country, and Tulsa, when he was there, was always one of them. Vanderbilt was one of them, in a unique way. Penn State and Auburn. In studying them, he had the best double-teams I had ever seen on an offensive line. He had Vanderbilt’s offensive line moving SEC defensive linemen off the ball. I looked his name up. Obviously, he has a very unique name, so it’s always stuck with me. When I made the decision to bring in one of the best offensive line coaches in the country, he was the first one I called. It was a match made in heaven.”
Charles Omenihu needs to have a bigger impact in the run game, according to Herman. However, Herman said Omenihu has a made a lot of progress, and he is very happy with his defensive lineman’s progress.
Chris Nelson
There were multiple reports speculating about his future at Texas this offseason. Those reports speculated that Nelson was unhappy and could possibly transfer to another school. I asked Nelson about what was reported, and he denied the validity of those reports: “It wasn’t true, because I don’t really put my business out there to anybody, honestly. I don’t know how any of that got out. I’m happy with the people I’m with. I love my teammates. It’s been wonderful. I’m good.”
As a follow-up, I asked Nelson if he had to meet with Herman and clear up those rumors, and he said, “Of course, it got back to me. The coaches know I’m a stand-up guy. If there is anything on my mind, I go to the coaches first about it. I’m straight up.”
When asked about replacing Poona Ford, Nelson said he does not have to walk in the former player’s footsteps. Instead, Nelson said he anticipates making a lot of big plays as a nose guard this season.
Patrick Vahe
When asked about his tenure at Texas, Vahe said it has been a roller coaster ride. His main focus is to work every day and fulfill the expectations of his coaches.
Vahe on why the offensive line will be better this season: “To be honest, as an offensive line unit, we try to develop a lot of confidence. A lot of bond and relationships with each other. The reason why is because it’s going to take us a long way. It’s hard to play in a game and not trust the person to your left and right. Really, having that bond is something that is going to be very important when it comes to the preparation for the season. In the offense, we’re all talking. We’re all communicating. Even off the field, we’re barbecuing, or going down to the river and floating. Just stuff like that is going to help us out a lot.”
As Vahe spoke about the unity on this year’s offensive line, he was asked about grad transfer left tackle Calvin Anderson. Here is what Vahe said about his new teammate: “He’s not newto the game. The only difference is he’s wearing a different uniform. He came in and we knew him off the bat. He’s got my trust. The only reason why is he knows the expectations. It’s not any different than what the offensive line did at Rice. You still have to grow a bond. You still have to make sure you can trust the guy to the left and to the right. Him coming in, and working the way that he does, I give him a lot of props for what he’s doing. I think he’s going to fit in quite well.”
Vahe was asked if injuries affected the offensive line last season, and the senior refused to use that as an excuse: “To be honest, I don’t feel like it really affected us. The only reason why is because it goes back to that mentality of next man up. Everybody plays a vital role. That is something coach (Herb) Hand told everybody in our meetings. You’ve got to know your stuff so when your time comes, you’re ready, locked and loaded, and ready to get out there and play.”
Winning a Big 12 championship this season is one of Vahe’s senior goals, but he intends to take this year one game at a time.
Andrew Beck
When asked about the tight end room, Beck said the younger players still need to develop, but they have come a long way. He is excited to see everyone in the room grow and develop.
Beck on tight end Reese Leitao: “The first thing you notice when you spend a good amount of time with Reese is how hard of a worker he is. He always wants to watch film. He’s always working to improve what he does. I think he’s an incredible athletic kid. He can move with the ball in his hands. His route-running is very good. He’s strong. He’s gotten better at blocking. I think that’s one place he continues to improve.”
Breckyn Hager
One of the players Hager competed against for defensive MVP honors during a spring scrimmage was Malcolm Roach: “I was yelling at him, ‘Who is going to make a play first? I’ll go make a play. You go and make a play.’ Once it’s contagious, and everyone has bought into that make this splash play, that’s when it’s beautiful. That’s what I mean by spread it, but I don’t’ really have to spread it anymore. They all get it. We’re not really a hoorah bunch.”
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(From Suchomel)
After reeling in three recent commitments, it’s been a pretty slow couple weeks on the recruiting front as the dead period ends next Tuesday, before another one starts that runs the entire month of August.
Texas will host several recruits next Friday, July 27 (more on that in a bit), but before we get into that, an update on four-star athlete Makiya Tongue …
The Baton Rouge University Lab product is down to Texas, Georgia and Arizona State. Tongue was considering visiting either Texas or Georgia next weekend for either school’s recruiting event and said he literally had to flip a coin to decide, with Georgia winning out. Tongue told us this week he “might” visit Texas after the Georgia trip, in the days leading up to the August dead period, but that visit is not locked in.
For the last couple months, most have openly stated they thought Tongue would wind up at Georgia. A few weeks ago, in this column, I wrote the following …
“While there’s been some buzz about Georgia after Tongue took an official visit there a couple weeks ago, we have reason to believe the Longhorns are in a better spot right now than most realize.
“Georgia is definitely a threat here with Arizona State being a wildcard, but with Tongue hoping to make his decision this summer, we heard this week that this one could fall Texas’ way for the Baton Rouge University Lab product.”
A little background …
While in Atlanta for the Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge, I was told that Georgia wasn’t exactly pushing for an early commitment due to tight numbers, so this one was trending in UT’s direction. There were some moving parts with this one in terms of Georgia’s wide receiver numbers, so it wasn’t out of the question that things could change and muddy the waters, but in circling back to my source this week, I was told that nothing has changed and Georgia was still sorting through their scholarship numbers. That makes Tongue’s decision to visit UGA next weekend interesting, and we’ll all be watching closely to see how that visit plays out.
Tongue said this week that he “hopes” to make a decision in August, but it sounds like there’s some wiggle room with that timeframe. If he doesn’t hear what he wants to hear during his Georgia visit next weekend, and if he does wind up visiting Texas at the end of this month, this one strongly favors Texas. If Georgia does make a strong push over the next couple weeks, it could be a case where UGA surges back to the top. We should have our answer pretty soon if he does stick to his August timeline.
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Next weekend should make for some interesting recruiting news, both in terms of UT-specific news and what’s going on with other programs in the region.
Texas will host several top targets next Friday night. A&M is supposed to have a recruiting function of its own on Saturday and Oklahoma is having its big BBQ even on Saturday as well.
I touched base with some targets this week to get their plans (very preliminary list here) but most players I communicated with weren’t yet sure of their plans, or if they’d be going anywhere at all. We’ll continue to update that list as we get more confirmations, but it’ll be telling to see which in-state guys attend which events.
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With the last few weeks being pretty slow due to the dead period, I thought it would be a good time to check around with a few different sources in the Houston and Dallas areas to get their thoughts on a few of the Longhorns’ top targets.
Lewis Cine – “I think, at the moment, it’s like 50/50, depending on what you think he thinks. But I think with the way things are trending, I think Texas is in a good spot with him. He wants to take that fifth official visit, doesn’t have a spot picked out for that. The longer he stalls on that, there’s more opportunities for Texas to continue working on him. He already has a return for the USC game picked out, and then however many more games he sees fit. It’s not like he’s going to be going to Penn State a bunch. I don’t think Michigan is a contender, and I think Penn State fades.”
Dylan Wright – “He’s waiting until an all-star game, but if it’s down to Texas and A&M, and if things aren’t changing with anyone else, he might feel a move earlier. A&M only has a few more spots, so if it’s going to be A&M it better be sooner than later. They also have three guys committed at receiver. Every time I see him, he’s in Texas gear. The last time I talked to him pretty recently, his tone towards A&M was more upbeat. I think it’s still legitimate race between those two.”
Taurean Carter– “Jeffery Carter (his cousin) is making all this noise about Tech, and he wants to play offense. He’s definitely a take for tech. If that’s the case, they also have a pretty longstanding relationship with Taurean. But that’s several dominoes having to fall to be the case. If he was to make his decision on his own, I think Texas would be the move. Just by doing the math, I think it comes down to Texas and TCU, in which case I would expect him to go to Texas in the long run.”
Jalen Catalon – “TCU could be tough, especially with the Taurena Carter connection and them both playing at Legacy. That could be an interesting wrinkle. I do think he likes the idea of not playing in his own backyard, but I also think Texas is not too far, but just far enough so I could see that happening. I think ultimately comes down to Texas or TCU.”
Javonne Shepherd – “He does act committed to Texas already. But I think he’s liking the attention he’s getting from the fan base, or he wouldn’t be so proactive putting out those edits or those videos having Texas gear on. I can’t speak to what level he may be interested in SEC schools, but he talks about visiting them. But he’s spent so much time at Texas, they’ve made up so much ground with him.”
Zachary Evans– “He’s really looking at offensive linemen at each school. I think Texas is in a good spot. I think what’s going to be interesting to see, North Shore all of a sudden is a beefed up team in Houston. If (Texas) can start getting more involved in North Shore, even feign interest, that would help. It seems like personal relationships is becoming a trend in his recruitment. I still think he realizes he could be a conventional type of SEC back, so I think SEC teams will stay in the picture. I think he squeezed in one last visit to Alabama before the dead period. As far as more regional teams, I think Texas has a good shot, but they’re going to have to show him something in the way that they’re making changes in their offense this season. That’ll take care of itself. Reese Moore has potential, they got that guy from out west (Junior Angilau). If they get Javonne (Shepherd) like they’re supposed to, they have Tyler Johnson in this class. If they get those guys, that’ll impact him some.”
Demond Demas – “I think Demas won’t take a lot of unofficial visits, so for the most part it’s going to be an A&M or Texas that he’ll visit the most. Unless he takes a trip to a place like Alabama and they wow him on the whole championship persona and he buys into it on the spot, he’s not going to have the level of exposure that he’ll have to Texas or A&M. He’s got a situation with his family, he’s not going to go too far away from his mom.”
David Gbenda – “Honestly, if you were to look at his top 10 and envision high profile programs over lower profile programs, I could envision him going to one of the lower schools. We’ll see how this fall goes. I wonder what the level of urgency between a lot of the teams and him is. I’m not sure how many linebackers Texas is taking, but if they have a guy similar to De’Gabriel Floyd that wanted to come, they may take that guy sooner and before Gbenda and move on.”
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A quick note on Rivals250 RB Derrian Brown, out of Buford (GA) ….
He told me this week that he wanted to visit Texas next weekend, but a team function will prevent him from making that rip. Regardless, Brown having a desire to visit shows that his interest in Texas is legit, and I look for him to take an official visit to UT in the fall if the staff continues to push there.
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(From McComas)
This morning, I hit I-35 for Mansfield Legacy High School, the host of the second-annual Main Floor hoops event. Unfortunately, 2020 stud point guard R.J. Hampton had a rest day after playing last night, but I was able to see recent Texas 2020 offer Caleb Lohner, and Drive Nation (Samuell Williamson, Drew Timme) versus Texas Hardwork (Will Baker, 2021 prospect and Texas offer K.J. Adams). Some recruiting notes:
About three weeks ago, Baker took his first official visit to UCLA, who many consider to be out in front of the recruitment along with Texas.
“They showed me around the campus, got to hang out with some of the players. I got to see all of the campus. I visited before unofficially, but I got to see a lot more of everything and definitely more detail,” Baker said about the trip.
Baker, like many top prospects, doesn’t tip his hand with public comments. All indications are the UCLA trip went well, but he did leave it uncommitted.
Although it wasn’t an official visit, Baker was on the Texas campus around the same time for an unofficial visit. The purpose of the visit for Baker, who has been on the UT campus a lot, was to get an in-depth look at UT’s Radio-Television-Film School.
“I got to talk to the academic adviser and we were talking about if I took film because they have a good film program at Texas. I’d probably do that if I went there,” he said about his last UT unofficial visit. “I got to talk to her about what my schedule would look like, and I actually got to meet some of the people at the Radio Television and Film program, and they showed me around their facilities and stuff.”
Baker stated the head coaches he hears from the most are UCLA, Texas, Texas A&M, Georgia, Georgetown, Stanford, and more.
“Personally for me, it’s all about building relationships with head coaches and assistants because when it comes down to it, it’s not all about the program,” he said about things he’s focusing on when it comes time to make a decision. “It’s about the coaches and people you’re with. So, that’s really important.”
He mentioned that Gonzaga, Texas Tech and Florida are a few schools starting to show him more attention. Expect a list of some sort soon.
“No timetable,” he responded about a decision. “I’ll probably have some sort of list by the end of the live period, maybe. We’ll just see. I don’t know if any other schools are going to come in and offer.”
In my opinion, Baker is going with the flow right now, but I still expect his recruiting to accelerate once the final July live evaluation period is complete. I do think he’s intrigued by other programs like Georgetown and Texas A&M, but no one has told me UCLA and Texas aren’t ahead in the race right now. And the interest in film is definitely real. Baker is a very bright kid that seems to have a good grasp of what he wants to pursue in life and what he’s passionate about.
Timme once joked with me that he’s taking a very political stance to discussing his recruitment, and that didn’t change today. He still isn’t listing teams publicly, but he does have a better feel for when he will release a list.
“Yeah… I know I was telling a lot of people after Peach Jam, but I honestly all I care about is winning and going out in my last summer with a bang. I’m going to wait until after Las Vegas, but pretty soon after Vegas. I’m thinking eight to 10 [teams],” he said about a list of top teams.
As for any team he knows for sure will make the list or wants to take a visit too, this was his response:
“No. We haven’t gotten that far.”
When the list does come, my gut feel is it could be made up of Gonzaga, Virginia, Texas, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Michigan, Duke, and Arizona.
Whatever Texas is doing right now when it communicates with Williamson, I think it’s working. The Longhorns were the first program mentioned by the 6-7 sharpshooter when I asked who was making him a priority.
“The schools making me a big priority are Texas, Oklahoma, Louisville, Texas A&M, and Marquette and a few others. That’s who I hear the most from,” he said.
And a few months back, Williamson made it a point to get to a lot of programs he had interest in for unofficial visits. He visited Oklahoma, Texas, Louisville, Marquette, Ohio State, Texas A&M and Baylor. This is how he described his Texas visit:
“That was my first visit of the summer, and they set the bar really high for the rest of the visits. They showed me around. I got to talk to some of the players, Matt Coleman. It was really cool. I love the campus and the size of the fan base. I enjoyed it a lot.”
The good news for the Longhorns is it sounds like those visits Williamson took will play a significant role in his decision-making process.
“Wow… I learned a lot,” he responded when asked what all the unofficial visits taught him. “Some visits went really well, some visits just went okay. Taking those visits definitely helped me a lot, and as I cut my list in the next couple of weeks those visits are definitely a key for me.”
Williamson said he hears from Shaka Smart the most, but also the entire Texas staff too. My feel after talking to him today is UT is in good shape. But… Kansas is lurking, and Williamson has strong family ties to KU. The Jayhawks haven’t made Williamson a priority. If that changes, they’re going to likely emerge as the team to beat. If they don’t, I think Texas is positioned well. The good news for Texas is Kansas has a lot of offers out to similar players.
After attending the Texas Team Camp recently, Lohner received an offer from the Longhorns. He’s starting to add more offers, and should emerge as one of the most heavily recruited players in Texas for the 2020 class. But the Texas offer was probably a little different because of his family ties to UT.
“It was nice. I like it down there. It’s fun. Good atmosphere. My dad went to business school there,” he said about the UT camp and offer. “As a little two and three-year-old I lived down there. Going to football games and stuff.”
It’s very early, and Lohner’s head is spinning from all the new recruiting attention.
“A good amount of schools… I don’t even know where to start, really. It’s kind of been crazy,” he said about all the recruiting attention. “All of a sudden a couple of months ago there were teams that had big interest and I didn’t even know they knew my name.”
He’ll definitely be a name to follow closely in the 2020 class. At 6-7, he’s highly skilled and can shoot the rock from deep. (McComas)
