SPONSORED BY MYPERFECTFRANCHISE.NET
Are you…- Ready to leave the corporate Rat Race for the American Dream?
- Looking for a side hustle while working your current job?
- Wanting to diversify, build wealth, and/or leave a legacy?
Andy is a franchise consultant (as well as franchise owner) and helps people find franchises that fit their skill sets, financial requirements, time to commit and more….
His services are 100% free and he’s here to help if you have any questions about business ownership.
Learn more about Andy and franchise ownership through these resources:
Andy's Story
Why a Franchise
Service Based vs Brick and Mortar
Semi Absentee Ownership
The Process and How It works
Andy Luedecke
www.MyPerfectFranchise.Net
p: 404-973-9901
e: andy@myperfectfranchise.net
Book time with me at: Andy's Calendar
*****
If the NFL combine last week taught us anything, it's that Texas is losing some DUDES to the NFL draft in 2024. Let's recount:
No one needs to be reminded about Xavier Worthy's record-breaking 40-yard dash. In 13 years of attending the combine, it was by far the most intense and exciting moment that I have witnessed, and I was there to see John Ross run his previous record. Maybe it was the fact that the crowd was in there for this one that made it truly feel like a real "sports" moment, and not a thing happening in a sterile evaluation setting. Regardless, Texas loses the fastest man in football.
Adonai Mitchell wasn't lying last week when he said he didn't ever run his routes full speed at Texas. It wasn't because he was lazy, either. He said he did it to take control of his opponent and keep them on their toes with his ability to change gears through drives and route transitions. The 4.35 40-yard dash time he put on display was incredible, putting him in the 95th percentile historically at the position for that drill while also putting up a broad jump in the 99th percentile and a vertical in the 91st percentile.
Byron Murphy and T'Vondre Sweat were undoubtedly the best interior DL tandem in the country and arguably the two best defensive linemen, period. They tested like it last week.
On top of these, Ryan Watts tested better than expected (even practicing among corners despite the general thought that he'll play safety at the next level), while Christian Jones continued his pre-draft ascendance that started at the Senior Bowl.
Keilan Robinson was one of only three running backs who scouts asked to see work out at WR after the main RB testing ended, and while Ja'Tavion Sanders had a slightly disappointing performance in Indy, Texas fans know what the threat of his athleticism brings to the table and how it can help an offense.
Jonathan Brooks, Jaylan Ford and Jordan Whittington either didn't work out at all due to nagging ailments, or just did minimal drills (Whittington only tested on bench press due to a hammy strain), but in Ford we're talking about a former first-team All-Big 12 LB. In Brooks, we're likely talking about the first running back taken in the draft despite coming off a torn ACL. In J Whitt, we're talking about as sticky a culture "glue guy" and gritty worker you could ever dream up.
That's a lot to lose, but if history tells us anything, it's that when you recruit elite players and have them in the pipeline, those players have a tendency to step up when their number is called ... provided (and this is a VERY big qualifier) that the staff in question has proven itself to be good developers of talent. Thankfully for Texas fans, at this point, we have to give Sark, Becton and Co. the benefit of that doubt.
And when we do that, we can be assured that players are going to "come out of nowhere" as Longhorns stars in 2024. Not for you or me; no player on the roster is someone you don't know well, but for the general public and the observers of the game across all fanbases.
One of those guys in 2024 can obviously be RG DJ Campbell, who got his first chance to start a full season in 2023 and was a rocket-ship (more on that in a bit).
I asked Christian Jones at the combine what he noticed about Campbell's development through 2023, lining up next to him on the right side of the line through Texas' successful 2023 run:
"DJ, that's my dog," Jones said, "he improved a lot from camp, through the season to the beginning of the season just off of his mentality. His thought process and I'm not saying that it's OK to mess up, but you have to have a goldfish-type memory. You can't be on the sidelines thinking about the play you messed up when there's a next drive coming up. You have to protect the Q, make sure he has time to get it to the skill guys, the ball players to make plays. I feel like that's a young player's hitch at first because everyone wants to be perfect. It's OK if you use it as a learning lesson. So that maturity, I saw that, I was very proud of that."
And to say Campbell improved through the year would be an understatement. Yes, Jones is exactly right that the issue with Campbell to start was that he looked AWESOME for 3 plays then would completely blow one. Sark once said during the season it was frustrating to see, because he knew what Campbell was capable of.
But look what happened through the season. Look at Campbell's trendline in snaps-per-disruption-allowed through the course of the season before finishing as second-best on the team.
He was a disaster to start out 2023. It was two steps forward, one big step back, drive after drive. Until it wasn't. And until it stayed that way. It's easy to forget that Campbell had the highest score in the Deep Dig last season of any Texas offensive lineman in a single game (81.8 versus Texas Tech). He was playing like a true NFL prospect by the end of the year.
Everyone talks about upcoming breakouts from the Isaiah Bonds and the Trey Moores and the Johntay Cooks of the world (and rightfully so), but the DJ Campbell emergence is one that is easy to see coming. Technically, it's already been happening in plain sight.
And we shouldn't be surprised if he puts together a season where he's actually walking in with Kelvin Banks to the Indy convention center next March for combine interviews of his own.
*****
BOOK REVIEWS!
It'll be a while before I have more of these, as I've been #blessed with the arrivals of the new editions of the Joe Pickett and Gray Man series' that I'm excited to read ... but with my draft season travel schedule, I'm very happy to report I've read two great books, and one is an instant addition to the elusive five-star list...
The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes
FROM THE PUBLISHER: If, like Kane, you’re a Denied Access Area spy for the CIA, then boundaries have no meaning. Your function is to go in, do whatever is required, and get out again—by whatever means necessary. You know when to run, when to hide—and when to shoot. But some places don’t play by the rules. Some places are too dangerous, even for a man of Kane’s experience. The badlands where the borders of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan meet are such a place—a place where violence is the only way to survive. Kane travels there to exfiltrate a man with vital information for the safety of the West—but instead he meets an adversary who will take the world to the brink of extinction. A frightening, clever, vicious man with blood on his hands and vengeance in his heart.
ALEX'S THOUGHTS: One of the best books I've ever read. It took ten years for Terry Hayes to write his follow-up novel to the amazing and epic "I Am Pilgrim" (a five-star book on this list) and it was worth every minute of the wait. The publisher's description does not do this book justice. In fact, I forgot the main character's name was even Kane, if that tells you anything about the twists and turns in this mind-bending thriller. From nuclear submarines to Iranian espionage, to Siberian wolves, to extra-terrestrial plagues here on Earth and time travel, it's a complete page-burning masterpiece. If I could give it ten stars, I would. I GIVE IT THE EVER-ELUSIVE, PERFECT 5 STARS!!!
The Sandbox by Brian Andrews and Jeffery Wilson
FROM THE PUBLISHER: When the CEO of the world’s leading artificial intelligence company is found murdered in his home, former Army CID officer Valerie Marks is thrust into her first case as a homicide detective. Valerie has a gift for reading people, a gift that has never failed her before. But that gift is put to the test when her instincts point her to an impossible suspect—an AI born from a secret venture with the Pentagon known as Project Nomad. To learn the truth, Valerie must team up with two men she doesn’t trust—a Green Beret turned government spook from the Pentagon, and the victim’s former partner and leading suspect in the case. But nothing can prepare the trio for the dangers that await them and the existential threat to humanity if the Project Nomad AI has somehow escaped its sandbox.
ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Andrews and Wilson having become quite a prolific writing duo, but I have sort of taken a bit of a break from their work since finishing the "Tier One" series, which was awesome (4.75 stars on this list). This book does not have the protagonist with the gravitas of a Dempsey, but it does have a really interesting and scary element to it, as the villian is a supercharged (and decidedly creepy) AI. Look, Andrews and Wilson write page-turners, it's what they do and I don't know how they write so much without the quality really suffering. I would recommend the book to anyone who is a fan of the genre of thrillers and particularly those involving clandestine operations and tradecraft, law enforcement, etc. but it's unfair to have read it in the same period of time that I read something like Year of the Locust. I really enjoyed it. It makes the list. I GIVE IT 3.75 STARS.
- Alex's Daily Short Reading List (updated 3-5-2024)
Books I've read or listened to on Audiobook since I've been sharing these reviews on OB (this list is not encompassing of all of my favorite books although it certainly includes a few of them - books I recommend reading/listening to start at 3.5 stars - I will review every book I read, but only list those that I awarded 3.5 stars and up here).
Lonesome Dove (5 stars)
Joe Pickett Series (5 stars)
The Undoing Project (5 stars)
The Accidental Superpower (5 stars)
I Am Pilgrim (5 stars)
Empire of the Summer Moon (5 stars)
Gridiron Genius (5 Stars)
The Cartel (5 stars)
Disunited Nations (5 stars)
Lone Survivor (5 stars)
The Terminal List Series (5 stars)
The Gray Man Series (5 stars)
The Year of the Locust (5 stars)
The Son (4.75 stars)
Seasons of Man Series (4.75 stars)
The Lincoln Highway (4.75 stars)
The 4-Hour Work Week (4.75 stars)
Astroball (4.75 stars)
Project Hail Mary (4.75 stars)
Tier One Series (4.75 stars)
Shantaram (4.5 stars)
Dueling With Kings (4.5 stars)
Wanderers (4.5 stars)
Back of Beyond (4.25 stars)
Blue Heaven (4.25 stars)
The Border (4.25 stars)
Wrath of the Khans - Dan Carlin Podcast Series (4.25 stars)
The Time it Never Rained (4.25 stars)
Hard Country (4.25 stars)
This Tender Land (4 stars)
Supermarket (4 stars)
Ready Player Two (4 stars)
When Christmas Comes (4 stars)
Hollywood Park (4 stars)
Fields of Fire (4 stars)
Terminal Rage (4 stars)
The Great Alone (3.75 stars)
Hunting El Chapo (3.75 stars)
The President is Missing (3.75 stars)
The First Conspiracy (3.75 stars)
REAMDE (3.75 stars)
American Wolf (3.75 stars)
The End is Always Near (3.75 stars)
Second Wind (3.75 stars)
The End of the World is Just the Beginning (3.75 stars)
A Strange Habit of Mind (3.75 stars)
The River (3.75 stars)
The House of Love and Death (3.75 stars)
The Sandbox (3.75 stars)
A Bright Shore (3.5 stars)
The Lost City of the Monkey God (3.5 stars)
The Summer That Melted Everything (3.5 stars)
The North Water (3.5 stars)
Deep Survival (3.5 stars)
The Boy From the Woods (3.5 stars)
The Frackers (3.5 stars)
Arliss Cutter Series (3.5 stars)
AS ALWAYS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW ANY BOOKS YOU WOULD RECOMMEND, PREFERABLY THAT ARE AVAILABLE ON AUDIOBOOK. MANY OF THE BEST BOOKS ON THIS LIST HAVE COME VIA RECOMMENDATIONS ON ORANGEBLOODS.
