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Inside the War Room (May 23)

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Suchomel

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Let's start off with some actual team news that should make Longhorn fans happy.

Texas was dealt a blow to its offensive line late last year when Kennedy Estelle was forced to sit out the Alamo Bowl due to his struggles in the classroom.

According to someone close to the situation, that misstep, which had some people close to the team thinking Estelle was headed to a junior college this summer, has really helped Estelle flip the switch.

A person with direct knowledge of Estelle's situation said one of the Horns' projected starting tackles "had a great semester" and Estelle "will be fine" heading into the summer sessions and next fall.

"It was an eye-opener to miss that bowl game. It really was," the source said.

After Estelle, Daje Johnson and Jalen Overstreet were all ruled academically ineligible for the Horns bowl game, there was immediate speculation on the long-term status of all three. Early in the spring semester, there were rumblings among people close to the program that Estelle may be destined for a couple years on the junior college circuit, but the person we spoke with this week said Estelle turned things around in a big way and is now in good shape.

The effort in the classroom has spilled over into Estelle's workouts as well. The Pearland Dawson product is back home for a quick break before he'll return to Austin for the first summer session, and Estelle has been in the weight room every single day during his "break."

"He knows he has to step his game up. Education is important, what he does on the field is important," our source said. "I think he sees the light now. He was kind of embarrassed not being able to play in the bowl game. He let the team down. It happens to the best of us. We all slip and fall, it's how you get back up that matters."

Give credit to Estelle for realizing the opportunity that's in front of him, but some of the credit also goes to the new football staff for helping light a fire under Estelle and the other players who were on the academic fence.

"I think (the coaching change) was a great thing, bringing somebody in who is hard-nosed, holding guys accountable for what they do," we were told. "That's life, being held accountable for whatever you do, wherever you go."

Also, in case you missed our note on Monday, we're told Texas RB/WR Daje Johnson also turned in a strong spring semester on the academic front.

Johnson has indicated to people that he was in the 3.0 GPA range this semester and he's "good to go" heading into the summer. (Suchomel)

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Top UT DE target Tak McKinley finished up his spring season on Wednesday, and he's begun setting up his official visits.

McKinley will visit UT on December 12. He'll visit OU the weekend prior to that (the Sooners offered on Tuesday). He's also planning to visit UCLA and is sorting though his last two trips.

McKinley, out of Contra Costa C.C., is up to about 25 scholarship offers. He originally committed to Cal out of high school but says he has second thoughts about that decision.

"Each school that offers me, I try to do my research on them, see how it fits me. Out of high school I signed with Cal and I kind of rushed into things. I want to take it slow, see what every school has to say, take my time with it.

"Ca was close to home, 10, 15 minutes. I felt like Cal was a great fit for me. I was from a small-town school, they offered me and five minutes later I called them back to commit. Now I want to take things slower."

Texas visited McKinley twice this spring, with DL coach Chris Rumph going out once and Tommie Robinson stopping in this week.

McKinley on UT and OU and his willingness to set up early visits:

"Those are Big 12 schools. Texas has an amazing coaching staff with coach Strong and coach Bedford, all of them. I feel he's going to change Texas back to their national championship days. At Louisville, he had one of the best defensive ends picked in first round of the draft. If he can progress a quarterback into a first-round draft pick, he's doing something right," McKinley said. "At Oklahoma, that's just Oklahoma. They beat Bama in their bowl game. To get offered by them is an amazing experience."

McKinley said he's debating whether or not he wants to leave the state of California. If he decides to stay, the only school being considered is UCLA. A big part of his final decision will be the depth charts.

"That's kind of what I ask the coaches, what about your depth chart. Are there any seniors leaving or any upcoming freshman? I know at Texas they have Cedric Reed, by the time I go there he would be gone, so it would be a battle," McKinley said. "I don't want anything to be given to me, I'll have to earn my spot. All I want is an opportunity and I think I'd get that at Texas. (Suchomel)

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While at Contra Costa, Texas also gave a look to defensive tackle Deonte Reynolds. Reynolds, like McKinley, was offered by OU on Tuesday. Texas has told him he's on UT's radar as well.

"The d-line coach came by about a week ago. He said he has an interest in me, there could be an offer coming soon," Reynolds said. "He's going to evaluate me some more, talk over my film with their head coach. He wants me to give him a call later this week."

Reynolds has official visits set up to OU, Arizona State and Kansas State. He's considering taking an official visit to UCLA and he said if Texas offers, the Longhorns will be "one of the top ones" and he'd likely visit UT (of note, he said when he thinks of Texas, Vince Young stands out). Reynolds says he's not ready to name favorites.

"I really don't have a leader right now. I'm going to keep my options open until I take all my official visits," Reynolds said.

Reynolds will have three years to play two at the Division I level, identical to McKinley. Last year, as a freshman, the 6-5, 325-pound Reynolds recorded 33 tackles, 5 sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss. He originally committed to Washington coming out of high school. (Suchomel)

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We caught up with our good friend Adam Gorney, Rivals.com regional recruiting analyst on the West Coast, to get his thoughts on a few of UT's top targets in his region.

Orange (CA) Lutheran DE Keisean Lucier-South - "My sense is that UCLA would be the team to beat if he stays local. He's going to visit Michigan and he's called Michigan his dream school. He's a really intelligent kid. He's going to take an official visit to Notre Dame too. But he's kind of a kid that's going to be enamored with the big-school mentality, so probably at some point he's visit Texas because they've offered, it's a big name and he's kind of tied to that idea."

Concord De La Salle DT Kahlil McKenzie - "He released a top 12 today (Texas wasn't on the list). I would say Texas is definitely on the outside. I think Tennessee is the team to beat, and Wisconsin is very much up there. Arizona too after he took a visit there. He's a kid if he happens to visit Texas, if Texas happens to go after him, he lives in northern California so no regional ties. He's originally from Wisconsin. He has three family members, I think, that played at Tennessee, so getting him away from there is going to be tough."

Long Beach Poly CB Iman Marshall - "My impression is that he's going to stay local, USC or UCLA. Stanford is also a possibility. His dad is very involved. He never misses 7-on-7, a camp, he's at every game. I don't necessarily see him going that far away. That being said, I think Texas very much intrigues him. He's going to go to the best situation for him to get him to the NFL. He's not going to pick a place just for college, it's for long-term. Alabama, Auburn, Georgia if they offer might be a factor. If his dad can part ways with going to every one of his games, Texas is definitely in his picture. If not, it will probably be UCLA and USC." (Suchomel)

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Top tight end Will Gragg has visits set up to Texas (9/5) and Florida State (9/15). Gragg is one of UT's top targets, and Charlie Strong has taken a hands-on approach, keeping in close contact with Gragg.

(In case you're wondering, the other head coaches that are recruiting him are at Arkansas, Alabama and Ole Miss.)

The Longhorns continue to sit high on Gragg's list.

"They're definitely in the mix," Gragg said. "I like the things that are coming along, the way coach Strong used tight ends at Louisville and is going to use them there. I feel good about it."

Gragg said he'll narrow his lengthy list of offers down to about five schools closer to the fall. Asked about Texas' chances to make the cut, Gragg said the odds are "pretty good."

It'll be a shock if Texas isn't among his finalists. (Suchomel)

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Jacksonville Trinity Christian LB Jeffery Holland was a player Brian Jean-Mary was recruiting back at Louisville. Those efforts by Jean-Mary have carried over to Texas, with the Longhorns offering a few months ago.

Holland keeps in touch with Jean-Mary every couple weeks.

"He just wants me to come take a visit. I have an uncle that lives in Port Arthur, Texas, so he wants me to come for a visit," Holland said. "I'm going to go up there, probably this summer. I don't have anything else lined up. My coaches are going to help go on a couple visits."

Holland, who holds offers from just about every school imaginable, said he likes that UT is "a winning program, a traditional defensive team and they've had a lot of good players."

How hard will it be to get the Rivals100 member out of the state of Florida?

"It's not going to be that hard. I kind of want to get out of state, just to see other things," Holland said. "(Texas) fit(s) in well. I grew up watching Texas." (Suchomel)

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UT commit Toby Weathersby will be a guy we'll be watching closely over the next several months.

Weathersby, out of Houston Westfield, is very happy with his decision to commit to Texas, but he wants to enjoy the recruiting process a bit and do some traveling. Weathersby said he hasn't officially "opened it up to anybody" and if Texas asks him to not take visits, he'll "probably do th at."

He rates his commitment to Texas as "pretty strong" and said he may come up for a UT camp next month to hang out (he doesn't plan to work out). That trip, if it happens, could give the Longhorn coaches to tighten this one up a bit. (Suchomel)

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After speaking with Manor Head Coach Sadd Jackson on Thursday, Orangebloods has learned that Longhorns DC Vance Bedford was a visitor just down 290 in Manor Monday to get his eyes on gifted 2016 DE/OLB prospect Erick Fowler.

(For a breakdown of Fowler, please see my latest 2016 DE column breakdown.)

Jackson said that every school under the sun has been by Manor in recent weeks - SEC, Big 12 and "Pac- ... whatever it is now" - to see not only Fowler, but also a trio of soon-to-be junior linebacker-types that also includes Adrian Hunter and Xavier Zamora who Jackson told Orangebloods was insta-offered right at practice by Iowa State coaches last week. Texas has been most interested in Fowler, though.

QBs coach Shawn Watson has oversight of recruiting responsibilities for the region or group of schools that includes Manor, and has spoken with different members of the Mustang staff multiple times over the course of the spring about Fowler via telephone conversations. Monday was the first in-person visit with Bedford.

UCLA has been recruiting Fowler with persistence - which makes sense given the caliber of defensive end and outside linebacker that UCLA has been putting out recently - but it seems apparent that Texas would be largely, squarely in the heart of the mix if an offer were to be extended as things currently stand. (Dunlap)

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As assistant coaches are all across the country, Tommie Robinson spent some time in the Orange County, California area, and one of his stops was to see Orange Lutheran defensive end Keisean Lucier-South . The No. 35-ranked prospect in the Rivals100 said the message from Texas has been pretty straight-forward thus far.

"They just want to build a strong relationship with me," said the 6-4 pass-rusher. "They want me to come down and see Texas."

Speaking of visits, the four-star recently set up two official visits to Notre Dame and Michigan. At the moment, those are the only two officials he has locked in for sure, and Lucier-South doesn't know which schools will get the other three. Does the idea of visiting Texas soon interest him? Yeah, but…

"Oh, yeah," responded Lucier-South about being interested in Texas and a visit this summer. "But it's going to be tough to get down there."

In addition to Robinson, the California prospect has had multiple conversations with Texas assistant coach Chris Rumph.

"They were really great," Lucier-South responded about the conversations between he and Rumph. "I like coach Rumph."

Lucier-South stated that he still hears from "a lot of schools," and his offer list seems to grow every single day.

His interest in the Longhorns, but they're going to have to find a way to get him on campus, or win one of those three remaining official visits. (McComas)

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While we're on the subject of defensive ends and visits, I was able to catch up with Navarro Junior College defensive end Quincy Vasser recently. Vasser, a Georgia commitment, is seeing his stock continue to get hot, and he told me that after a long phone conversation with USC he believes it will offer very soon.

Meanwhile, Vasser indicated the Longhorns are still in contact, and the defensive end, originally from New York, believes they're very interested.

"Yeah, very interested," responded Vasser about Texas' interest level in him. "They just had a long conversation [with us]."

And maybe there is starting to be some mutual interest because Vasser is planning on taking an official visit to Texas.

"Yes sir," responded Vasser when asked if Texas was going to be one of his five official visits. "They're supposed to set up a visit soon."

The JUCO defensive end has always seemed to be pretty set on Georgia partially because of teammates he knows there, but it sounds like Texas is going to be able to get him on campus for an official visit. (McComas)

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After Texas' very impressive Big 12 Tournament win over Texas Tech last night, I checked in with a source (before the Longhorns' game tonight against Oklahoma State) to get the feel for the pulse of the Texas players right now. Before last weekend's series against Kansas State, Augie Garrido repeatedly mentioned that the break could have been good for Texas, and that this was a group that just needed to get some confidence back. The break coupled with an exciting series victory at Kansas State could have done just that.

"Now that they're out of school, they're reenergized," a source said. "So much more energy. They're more confident right now too. They look different. They think they can win no matter what happens."

Obviously, the Longhorns have a lot to play for in the Big 12 Tournament, and all of a sudden, some pieces are starting to fall their way, which leaves the possibility of hosting a regional open. Right now they're starting to look like a team that is playing more focused, confident, aggressive, and energetic. But most importantly for Texas will be to continue to gain confidence the rest of the tournament, stay healthy, and keep the pitchers on a rest schedule for the postseason. (McComas)
 
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