(From Anwar)
Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers is doing everything within his power to hit the ground running when he arrives in Austin for winter conditioning.
The former Ohio State quarterback entered the transfer portal in early December. After entertaining Texas Tech and Texas, Ewers committed to the Longhorns in mid-December. Two days later, Casey Thompson entered the transfer portal and eliminated Ewers’ biggest competitor in the 2022 quarterback battle.
Hudson Card is expected to begin the offseason as the No.1 quarterback since he has the most experience in coach Steve Sarkisian’s system. Maalik Murphy, Ben Ballard, and Ewers will compete for the backup position during the winter. Ewers and Murphy are expected to join the Longhorn program in January. Murphy is viewed as a developmental project. Ewers is viewed as a potential opening day starter.
And Ewers is preparing like a quarterback who is ready to seize his opportunity.
According to my sources, Ewers recently organized a workout with multiple Longhorn receivers and tight ends. I do not have the full list of every player who caught passes from Ewers. However, I was told Xavier Worthy and Ja’Tavion Sanders were among the players in attendance.
In fact, this would be the perfect time for a sidebar.
I was told Sanders performed like a stud during the private workouts. Ewers was impressed with every pass-catcher but the athleticism and agility of Sanders caught the quarterback’s attention. I would not overreact to a workout in January. Nevertheless, it is worth making a mental note.
In addition, my sources told me Ewers has an NFL arm and can make every throw. Ewers did not have any issues connecting with his future teammates.
Ewers has been working out twice a week. He has worked with quarterback trainer Jeff Christensen, owner of Throw It Deep, during the offseason. Christensen’s most notable client is Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
I was told the biggest challenge Ewers might face is developing into a vocal leader.
Multiple sources on Thursday described Ewers as a humble and quiet person. They told me Ewers prefers to lead by example and does not talk a lot. Those close to the situation are optimistic Ewers will become more vocal when he becomes more comfortable inside the program.
That is the same way Card was described throughout the previous year. Card was a quiet leader who did not talk a lot while Thompson was the opposite.
Before last season, Sarkisian told reporters he believed a quarterback could lead without being vocal.
“I think he [Card] can,” Sarkisian said. “I don't think you have to be the most vocal guy, especially in this day and age. The idea of being in the huddle and the quarterback looking you in the eye and those things, the no-huddle thing has kind of changed that some. If you're doing things the right way, you're carrying yourself the right way, and you're doing things and representing the university and our football program the right way, that's as powerful as impactful as anything.”
In addition, Sarkisian later said, “I don't know that you're just going to see him breaking down the huddle, like on the sidelines with the entire team around him. I think that that type of respect over time will come naturally, and is a little bit more organic. I do think there's that natural leadership that comes to play, especially from an offensive perspective, about the guys that are out there with you. Clearly, he's got to drive the car on the field, get people aligned, the cadence, all those kinds of things, make the necessary protection adjustments, and those types of things. You have to be vocal to do that. I think, him being vocal comes between series, and maybe right at the start of a series. I think it's a natural progression. I think it is relatively organic.”
Sarkisian does not require his quarterbacks to be vocal leaders.
However, he does want a quarterback who is leading by example on the field.
Ewers is seemingly ready for that challenge.
We will keep you posted.
*****
As of Thursday afternoon, former TCU football coach Gary Patterson was not any closer to joining Sarkisian’s staff.
Multiple sources close to the situation told me Sarkisian had not reached out to Patterson lately. Sarkisian and Patterson were supposed to meet in person after signing day, but the head coach wanted to focus on recruiting.
From what I can tell, the ball is in Sarkisian’s court.
In addition, I was told Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte is allowing Sarkisian to decide if he wants Patterson to the football staff without his influence.
Patterson resigned as the winningest coach in TCU history with a 181-79 record. He led TCU to a 13-0 record and Rose Bowl victory during the 2010 season. Patterson led the Horned Frogs to three double-digit win seasons in four seasons from 2014-17. In 2014, the Horned Frogs won 12 games and shared the Big 12 title.
“You know the thing with Gary, I've got obviously a great deal of respect for Gary,” Sarkisian previously said. “I think it's 24 years or something like that at TCU. He’s done a fantastic job. Really built that program into what it is and to make it one of the more desirable jobs in the country. I give him a lot of credit for that. I know he's trying to figure out you know in what capacity does he want to continue this profession. We have not made any determination on if we would want him here or if he would want to be here. But the reality is there's definitely a level of respect for the job that he's done at TCU.”
*****
Texas wants Wyoming receiver Isaiah Neyor to join its program.
The Longhorns will soon learn if the feeling is mutual.
Neyor is slated to visit USC, Texas and Tennessee over the course of the next few weeks. From what I have been told, Tennessee appears to be the team to beat. The Vols are looking to replace Velus Jones Jr. and JaVonta Payton. Jones had 807 receiving yards seven touchdowns last season, while Paton added 413 receiving yards and six touchdowns.
I was told Neyor’s biggest challenge is the recruiting process. Wyoming was Neyor’s most notable offer as a Lamar High School senior. This is the first time Neyor has entertained multiple Power Five offers.
One source described Neyor as a flexible and fluid runner who is raw. Neyor had a breakout 2021 season with 44 receptions for 878 yards and 12 touchdowns. In addition, Neyor averaged 20.0 yards per reception this season and 21.7 yards during his two seasons with the Cowboys.
One appealing aspect about Neyor is he has three years of eligibility remaining. Neyor was redshirted as a freshman in 2019, played in 2020 but that season did not count, followed by the 2021 season.
One person inside the building told me Texas is looking for a dependable No.2 receiver to start opposite Xavier Worthy. If Neyor does not sign with Texas, the biggest takeaway is Sarkisian wants another reliable receiver. It will be up to the receivers on the roster not named Worthy to alleviate the concerns of this staff during the offseason.
*****
(Ketch)
Look for Texas senior place-kicker/punter Cameron Dicker to make an announcement in the next week or so with regards to staying at Texas for an extra season via the COVID year exemption from a season ago or heading off to the NFL.
A source with knowledge of his decision told me that Dicker was taking his time with the decision-making process, but was "getting closer to announcing".
One source I spoke with this week from the program told me that they were "growing more and more optimistic by the day" that Dicker would announce he's returning for the 2022 season. In fact, it would probably register as a bit of a surprise decision if does decide to leave the program.
A return from Dicker might actually represent the single most important returning senior in the program because it would give the Longhorns among the best options in the Big 12 in all kicking duties, while allowing the program to better prepare a bridge year between Dicker and the future players that will eventually replace him (i.e. they wouldn't have to force Will Stone into a starting role at place-kicker as a true freshman).
There's been speculation that a return to the program for Dicker might lead to a grayshirt/blue-shirt option for Stone, especially with the program's 2022 incoming scholarship numbers getting tighter, but the last time we checked with Stone, those possibilities had not been discussed and the expectation is that he would join the program in the summer with the rest of the non-early enrollees.
*****
(Ketch)
Just a quick little set of notes on the transfer portal as a whole
Basically, it's wild out there in the transfer streets.
One person I spoke with on Thursday basically described the entire scene as something that would make the wild, wild West of the 2022 high school football recruiting scene blush by comparison.
Many of the players entering the Portal are simply looking for the best deals they can find, whether it's NIL-related or whatever.
"Oh yes, the deals behind the scenes are ridiculous," one source said. "Players have ask-lists like The Rolling Stones did."
This note isn't really directed at any one prospect. Rather, I wanted to paint a little picture of what Steve Sarkisian and his staff are dealing with in this new age of college free agency.
"Some of these players don't really have NFL options right now, but they have viable earning power in the Portal," another source said. "Multi-year starters at mid majors were never really wanted when they are recruits and now they've got the big boys throwing dollar amounts around. This is the world that exists right now. Forget about guys like Caleb Williams, I'm talking about guys transferring from the Ball States of the world. If the world is suddenly their oysters, imagine what someone like Williams will have presented to him."
(From Suchomel)
It was expected to be a fairly slow recruiting week, even with the All-American Bowl practices kicking off on Tuesday, and things have been even quieter than expected with top UT target Larry Turner-Gooden quarantined in San Antonio under COVID protocols. We still might have announcements during the All-American Bowl on Saturday, although the logistics of some of that are still being worked out, so we’ll be on guard for that.
With dead period set to lift next weekend, let’s take a look at what’s left on the board for the Longhorns over the next few weeks as we lead into NSD on February 2.
Quarterback – Nothing to see here. With the additions of Quinn Ewers and Maalik Murphy, who will both head to Austin next week, Texas is set at quarterback recruiting for the 2022 class. We’ll try to catch up with Murphy for one last update before he heads to Austin to get an update on his health and his mentality as reporting day nears, but in our conversations with Murphy in the past (and those close to him) he’s coming in with confidence and the mindset that he’s going to be able to win the job.
Running Back – Texas would have loved to have taken two in this class and losing Jamarion Miller to Alabama was a significant blow, but landing Jaydon Blue is a pretty big addition. Remember, before Blue opted out of his senior year, he was regarded as one of the top couple backs in the country. By bringing in just one back, new running backs coach Tashard Choice will have an open depth chart to sell in the 2023 class and he’ll be aggressive in recruiting the elite of the elite, including Rueben Owens.
Wide Receiver – Texas put a late offer on the table for Caleb Douglas just prior to the early signing period, but that was under Andre Coleman and things have been very quiet since then. With the Longhorns actively pursuing transfer products, including Wyoming’s Isaiah Neyor, I would expect that’ll be the focus moving forward barring a complete change of direction once the dead period lifts next week.
Tight End – Nothing going on here and the attention will be placed on the 2023 class. Early in the process, Texas flirted with Arlis Boardingham but that interest on UT’s part fizzled out. The staff did talk to a few other guys but ultimately, this position wasn’t a huge priority over the course of this cycle.
Offensive Line – One of the few groups that still holds a bit of intrigue. Five-star lineman Devon Campbell is sticking to his plans to announce on NSD2 and has narrowed his options down to Texas and Oklahoma. The Arlington Bowie product doesn’t tip his hand much, but after spending time around Campbell during Under Armour All-America week, every sign seems to be pointing in UT’s direction. Even Oklahoma people I talked to conceded that the Sooners had very little chance in this one.
Earnest Greene is in San Antonio for the All-American Bowl and is scheduled to announce on Saturday. Texas has hung around in this race and credit to the staff for making it interesting, but this one was always a longshot despite some late chatter about Texas making some noise. Truth be told, this one has been over for a while and Georgia is the runaway leader.
If Texas can wrap up its OL class by putting a bow on it with a commitment from Campbell in a few weeks, that’ll be one of the best positional recruiting efforts we’ve seen from the Texas program in some time. In case you missed @Anwar Richardson’s report from last week, Texas and Minnesota transfer OL Curtis Dunlap have gone separate directions, which is another good sign with Campbell.
Defensive Line - Omari Abor came off the board (mostly) last weekend when he announced his commitment for Ohio State. Abor did tell OB he still wants to take his remaining visits and mentioned UT as a possible stop for one of those trips, but the smart play is to close the book on this one. With seven defensive line commits in the class, Texas is almost certainly done at this spot unless something pops up in the portal.
Linebacker - Harold Perkins’ story is the same as Abor, just substitute Texas A&M for Ohio State. He’ll probably still take some visits, but I doubt Austin will be one of them. TJ Dudley, out of Alabama, is still a possibility but the smart thinking there is that he’ll stay in the Southeast. If Texas pushes and if Dudley decides to come back to Austin for a second visit, that one could get interesting … two big ifs. This could be another position in which Texas scours the portal for impact players.
Defensive Backs – Along with offensive line, this is the position that holds the most interest. Safety Larry Turner-Gooden was scheduled to announce his decision on Saturday but those plans could be in limbo due to him being in COVID protocol down in San Antonio. If he is able to go forward with is commitment announcement, the chatter early in the week was focused on Texas but LTG has done a great job of keeping people guessing so there will be a bit of intrigue in this one down to the wire.
Five-star safety Jacoby Mathews has Texas in his top five, but if I’m handicapping that race, I would have the Longhorns towards the bottom of his remaining options. Texas isn’t dead, but I don’t see UT winning out without getting Mathews back on campus in January, and he’s running short on available weekends. Safety could be another position in which Texas looks to add talent from the portal.
Longtime Texas commitment Ronald Lewis technically remains committed, but he’s expected to take other visits in January and that one looks like it’ll wind up going another direction.
*****
(Womack)
I went on the radio today in Austin to talk about different topics related to Texas basketball with Isiah Collier. Here’s some of what I talked about.
- How you think the team looks at the moment?
I think it’s hard to tell quite where they are at the moment, especially considering Big 12 play has been marred with COVID-19 issues for both of the teams Texas played against. West Virginia was down their top scorer, Taz Sherman, who averages 21 a game, and KSU was down to seven scholarship players for their game. I’m not trying to take away too much from the Longhorns, but I’d like to see how they fare against healthier teams. But right now, they sit at 2-0 in conference, with one being on the road.
I have been impressed with the two conference wins. Seeing them pick it up a bit in transition has been really important considering the way Marcus Carr is used to playing.
When he was at Minnesota, Richard Pitino had the Gophers playing with the 65th fastest pace in the nation out of 358 teams. Compare that to the pace at which Texas has been playing, and you can see why guys have struggled to adjust in the early going. Their possessions per game are hovering around 65, which is 349th in the nation.
What’s been different lately I think is that when forcing turnovers, they’ve been pushing the ball more, specifically in their last three games. They’re forcing about 17.5 TOs/game, which actually was decreased because of the Kansas State matchup, where they only forced six. But here’s an indication about the conference they’re in: despite being 17th in the nation in this category, they’re still just 4th in the Big 12 in turnovers forced per game.
But overall, the defense has been impressive, though it’s a bit inflated considering the strength of their competition. They haven’t been tried at home, considering West Virginia was their best home opponent and they were hobbled with coronavirus, like I mentioned earlier.
- Jaylon Tyson situation
Jaylon Tyson was a four-star freshman forward from John Paul II HS in Dallas, and he transferred because he wasn’t getting any playing time, averaging about 7 minutes per game. His lack of court appearances surprised me given his pedigree. He’s athletic and a good shooter, both of which are kind of areas of need for this team.
This isn’t the first time this has happened to Chris Beard, actually. When he was at Texas Tech, he had a five-star, Nimari Burnett, transfer early after averaging 17 MPG. So Burnett’s transfer wasn’t quite as related to playing time as it was not fitting into the system. Again, this is not a knock on him as a player - he’ll be great once he returns to Alabama after his season-ending knee surgery. But sometimes, the system just doesn’t work for a guy. That’s what the transfer portal is for.
It is a tad bit concerning considering the prep talent Texas has coming in next year. Making this a trend would be really bad for recruiting in general, but the best way to make sure that doesn’t happen again is pretty simple: just keep winning. Winning cures all.
Of course, I wish Jaylon nothing but the best. Like I said before, it isn’t always a perfect fit. He’ll have a great career wherever he ends up, and has legitimate NBA potential. Hopefully for Texas, he doesn’t end up on another Big 12 team, because he will be a problem when he’s ready.
- Big 12 as a conference and how Texas stacks up
The Big 12 is absolutely stacked, and is the best basketball conference in the country. The reasoning is that their lowest-rated KenPom team, Kansas State, is 70th. That is crazy consistency across the league. There really isn’t a weak link. The conference has been projected to put seven-to-eight teams in the tournament, which is wild out of 10. The odd men out are Oklahoma State because of their, in my opinion, unfair postseason ban, and KSU. Every other team is in the top 64, so every week is a challenge.
I think this lends itself to success down the road in the tournament, because every team is going to be ready to go come March. No one is going to be shocked by the teams they play, because they’ve already had to play twice against Baylor, Kansas, Texas, Iowa State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, etc. Every team in the conference is above .500, and the conference slate for every team is going to be a war.
Baylor is the best team in this conference and in the country - they have no weaknesses. Excellent guard play, highly athletic wings, great play in the post. They force more turnovers per game than Texas does. They’re 8th in adjusted defensive efficiency and 4th in adjusted offensive efficiency.
They’re undefeated, run the floor with supreme athletes, and pretty much do everything necessary to win a national title. Are they as good as last year’s team? No, because last year’s team is one of the best college teams ever, especially in the back court. But this year’s team has to be the favorite to win it all. They have seven guys averaging 8.5+ points and four averaging double figures.
Kansas is the next best team, and I think they and Baylor are sort of in a tier of their own right now in this conference. They’re fifth in the country in offensive efficiency according to KenPom, and have my player of the year in conference so far in Ochai Agbaji, averaging 20/game. They also have Christian Braun averaging 16. They’re not quite as good defensively as they are offensively, but they have been steadily improving on that end.
The next tier I think would be Texas, Iowa State, and Texas Tech, all thrown in together. Iowa State beat Texas Tech last night in a really rough game to watch, where the final score was 51-47. Texas Tech is built a lot like Texas, and plays a similar style, which is grind-it-out. Mark Adams invented the no-middle defense, so they like to swarm the ball and force ball handlers to the sidelines and baselines. The X-Factor for the Red Raiders is going to be when Terrence Shannon Jr. comes back, because that is going to make a major impact on that team in the positive. He’s arguably their best player and definitely their best pro prospect.
Iowa State is really good as well. Izaiah Brockington, the Penn State transfer, is really solid, averaging around 16.5 per game as well as 8.4 rebounds, which is super impressive for a 6’4 guard. They also have Tyrese Hunter who’s averaging around 10 points and 5 assists. Considering their transfer losses in Rasir Bolton to Gonzaga and Jalen Coleman-Lands to Kansas, it’s impressive they’re as good as they are. Many picked them to be last place in the conference, yet here they are, ranked 11th.
After that, it’s kind of a jumbled mess. Oklahoma, WV, Oklahoma State, TCU, Kansas State, probably in that order. Again, a lot of this will depend unfortunately on who is healthy.
- Some of the players individually and how they’re playing in your eyes
I think the most notable improvement is the guy I already mentioned - Marcus Carr. It’s only been two games in conference, but he’s looked completely different – averaging 19.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists. If Texas wants to compete in the Big 12, they need a bucket-getter like Marcus Carr on point at all times. I recently did a GIF breakdown of his latest two games, and it illustrated to me that he’s not a guy that lost his ability to play basketball at all, but a guy who was still adjusting to a new scheme.
Dylan Disu has been super exciting as well. He hasn’t played a ton of minutes this season as he was sidelined until recently with a knee injury dating back to his days at Vanderbilt. He’s been averaging 8.5 points in 16 minutes per game, and averages more blocks per game than the rest of the team combined with 1.8 per. He’s a guy that’s not afraid to put up shots when he gets in the game, and is in my opinion the team’s best athlete.
Timmy Allen is probably the most solid player on the team. He leads in points and rebounds right now, at 12 and 7 per game. He had 14 boards against Kansas State, which, considering his height at 6’6, makes it even more impressive. He’s very PJ-Tucker-like in that he’s a star that’s willing to do the dirty work, and doesn’t mind diving for loose balls and locking in on defense. He’s the ultimate team player and has had the best season of anyone so far. He’s very tenacious on the boards.
I like what I’ve seen out of Tre Mitchell as well, though he hasn’t played quite as much as he was earlier in the season. It’s a crowded front court, with Allen, Disu, Bishop, and him, and minutes are kind of hard to come by, even for elite players like Mitchell. I think he’ll continue to start and will get more minutes as conference play goes on. He was lights out against Seton Hall earlier this season.
The guards, Ramey and Jones, have both been much better as of late. The entire guard unit has improved drastically since conference play started. Ramey has been the most consistent of all of the guards, and is the team’s best three-point shooter at 39.6%. It’s a big reason he plays so many minutes, as this team has struggled from deep this year in a lot of games.
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