BIG 12 SEARCH: Pittsburgh and BYU continue to be schools of interest for the Big 12 in the wake of Texas A&M’s announced withdrawal from the conference.
Louisville is also on the radar, two sources said Thursday. And if Pittsburgh and Louisville were to express interest in joining the Big 12, there could be a domino effect that could lead back to Notre Dame, the sources said.
Sources said if the Big East started to become unstable because of movement by other conferences, it could force Notre Dame to put all of its sports - other than football (which all currently reside in the Big East) in another conference.
Sources in the Big 12 say Notre Dame could move those sports into the Big 12 and remain independent in football.
All of this could happen if the Southeastern Conference admits Texas A&M as the 13th member and then possibly Virginia Tech as the 14th school in the SEC. A&M sources have told Orangebloods.com they were told by the SEC the plan was for that league to grow to 16.
But sources close to the SEC have also indicated the presidents don’t want to be responsible for collapsing other conferences. That’s why the SEC won’t touch Missouri, a source said, because it could bring down the Big 12.
But if Virginia Tech leaves the Atlantic Coast Conference, and the ACC were to start looking around to grow to 12, 14 or 16 and looked at schools such as UConn, Syracuse and Rutgers, then the Big East could be very vulnerable, forcing Notre Dame to move its non-football sports to another league. And the Big 12 would be receptive.
Texas AD DeLoss Dodds told me last summer he suggested to ND athletic director Jack Swarbrick he move the Irish’s other sports to the Big 12.
One of the reasons Pittsburgh is such a hot candidate for the Big 12 is Pitt AD Steve Pederson. He has already been an AD in the Big 12 (he was at Nebraska before Tom Osborne returned). And Pederson is a close friend of DeLoss Dodds. There’s a comfort there between Pederson and the Big 12.
When I reached out to Pederson for a comment, he respectfully declined. (Brown)
******************
WHAT ABOUT THE PAC-12: All eyes are on Oklahoma to see if the Sooners will remain committed to the Big 12 or if OU will possibly reconnect with Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott and head west.
Sources across the Big 12 believe OU is still committed to its current conference. Athletic director Joe Castiglione is part of the five-member, Big 12 expansion team, along with Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds.
Talked to an industry source Thursday about how difficult it would be to turn the Longhorn Network into a regional network in the Pac-12 should Texas and Oklahoma decide that's the best course of action.
"Very difficult," the source said.
"Impossible?" I replied.
"After the last year, I don't subscribe to that word anymore," the source said.
The source said it didn’t appear that was the direction being considered at the current time. A Big 12 administrator put the odds at 70 percent that the Big 12 would be held together by replacing Texas A&M with schools such as Pittsburgh, BYU and/or Louisville and then possibly getting Notre Dame to place its non-football sports in the Big 12. And that source put 30 percent odds on Texas, OU, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech ending up in the Pac-12. (Brown)
**********************
WILL ANYONE SEE TEXAS VS. RICE?: As if the Longhorn Network hasn’t been blamed for enough things already, ESPN has indicated to Orangebloods.com that it will NOT make the Longhorn Network available online if the network can’t reach an agreement with cable providers to carry LHN by Saturday night’s Texas-Rice game.
So if there is no agreement between ESPN and cable operators, there will be no place to see this game other than the handful of markets where LHN will be carried by Consolidated Communications, Bay City Cablevision, Mid-Coast Cablevision, Texas Mid-Gulf Cablevision, Verizon, En-Touch Systems and E-Tex Communications.
I have left messages with Texas officials for two days. But there have been no returned calls. I can’t imagine UT is remotely OK with this game not airing with wide distribution in Texas so fans can see it. But no one at Texas is talking about this. Fans are getting hot.
The issue for ESPN is setting a price point in terms of cents-per-subscriber where it feels it can recoup its $300 million investment because that price point is usually locked in for the length of the contract, in this case, 20 years. The ideal situation is to have LHN added onto basic cable packages. The worst case scenario would be to have it as a stand-alone channel that people must pay for individually.
As of late Thursday afternoon, the stalemate goes on with the big carriers and satellite services such as Direct-TV, Dish Network and Uverse.
ESPN spokeswoman Keri Potts repeated a statement given to me earlier in the week in an e-mail Thursday afternoon.
“We’re disappointed that operators like Grande and Time Warner Cable are choosing to deprive Texas fans of valuable content, including this weekend’s Rice vs. UT game,” Potts said. (Brown)
**************
We reached out to a number of the top prospects in the state of Texas for the 2013 class, in addition to a number of the Horns' 2012 commitments, to see who all might be coming in for Saturday's game against Rice.
Based on the guys we connected with, it sounds like it might be a fairly light recruiting crowd. Before people throw their hands up in panic, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Coaches were allowed to contact 2013 players for the first time on Thursday (September 1), and with the UT coaches dialed in on preparations for their season opener, there hasn't been a lot of time to extend formal invitations. Don't be surprised it the list of unofficial visitors grows next week.
A few guys who we confirmed will be in for t his week's game ...
2012 Austin High WR Cayleb Jones (UT commit - probable)
2012 Harker Heights OL Camrhon Hughes (UT commit)
2013 Celina OL/DL Jake Raulerson
2013 Harker Heights OL Darius James
2013 Harker Heights S/LB Naashawn Hughes
We touched base with the majority of the players in the top 20 of the LSR 2013, and aside from the ones mentioned above, none that we talked to had plans to be in Austin.
Some other notes worth mentioning ...
- Whitewright QB Tyrone Swoopes will not be attending any games this weekend, but (keep reading, it's worth it) ...
- 2013 Rosenberg Terry TE Derrick Griffin didn't have any plans set up, but he said he was going to talk to his coach about seeing a college game this weekend. Making his way to UT was said to be "possible."
- No visits this week for No. 2-ranked A'Shawn Robinson.
- Bryan QB Chris Johnson (No. 8 in 2013 LSR) will be at the Texas A&M-SMU game on Sunday.
- Ja'Braylin Thomas (No. 13 in 2013 LSR) said he'll probably not go to any games this week. He's going to talk to his family to plan out some future visits. Texas will "for sure" get a game visit.
- UT commits Peter Jinkens and Thomas Johnson will not be able to attend.
- UT commit Nick Jordan will not be able to attend the game this weekend.
- UT commit Caleb Bluiett will not be able to attend the game this weekend due to family commitments.
- UT commit Tim Cole will not be able to make the game this weekend.
- UT commit Bryson Echols will not be able to attend.
- Livingston ATH Chevoski Collins (No. 21 in 2013 LSR) will be at the Texas A&M-SMU game on Sunday. Collins said he wants to hit a UT game as soon as he gets an invite.
- Bastrop DB Antwuan Davis (No. 6 in 2013 LSR) will not be attending any games this weekend. He does plan on hitting a UT home game in the near future.
- Houston Klein Forest DE Tyree Gray (No. 75 in 2013 LSR) has no plans to hit a game this week.
- Elysian Fields DT Isaiah Golden (No. 29 2013 LSR) has no plans to hit a game this week.
- Wylie East WR Marcel Ateman (No 15 in 2013 LSR) has no plans to hit any games this weekend. Teammate WR Quan Jones (No. 24 in 2013 LSR) said he's considering hitting a college game this weekend but he's unsure of if (or where) he'll go.
- DeSoto RB Dontre Wilson (No. 20 in 2013 LSR) was hoping to hit the LSU-Oregon game but has had trouble getting in touch with the LSU coaches. (Suchomel)
******
Ten things to chew on…
1. Springfield (MO) Hillcrest wide receiver Dorial Beckham-Green is expected to publicly announce a final five in the next week or so and after talking with a few people with knowledge of the recruitment, the Longhorns are still very much expected to make the cut and receive an official visit later in the year. Although most national eyeballs on this recruitment have the Longhorns trailing big, the Longhorns are quietly confident that they can make a dent with a follow-up visit from this summer.
2. Spoke with a number of people this week about Garrett Gilbert and his mindset coming into the season opener and everyone agreed that he’s been a different player for the last two weeks going back to the second pre-season scrimmage. He’s also continued to make the coaches feel good about the decision this week. One thing that everyone should keep an eye on early in the season is Gilbert’s mental reaction to his first piece of adversity. After an e-mail discussion about the matter last week, I asked someone that has known Gilbert for almost a decade this week about the idea that the junior’s biggest problem last season was himself. “Oh yeah, I’ve never seen a kid put as much pressure on himself and when it got away from him last year, he wore himself out. When he gets a little bit of momentum going for himself, his confidence isn’t an issue. But, when he isn’t perfect, he presses. He pressed a lot last year and a lot of guys get better when they press, but he’s not one of them. His ability to move on to the next play when he makes a mistake is going to determine his fate this season."
3. Not enough can be said about the youth on this team and they roll the kiddie cadets are going to play. Don’t look for Mack and Co. to wade in the shallow water with their youngsters on Saturday. The Class of 2011 will have fingerprints all over the place.
4. The best thing to happen to Malcolm Brown is the emergence of Joe Bergeron. The competition between those two has lifted both players up, but it definitely seems to have inspired the former five-star recruit, who was forced to sit and watch his fellow 2011 classmate open early eyes with his running abilities. “It’s the best kind of competition because each guy is rooting for the other, but they also want to the ball and playing time. Every time they get a chance to touch the ball, there will be a sense of urgency. It’s been there for both all month.”
5. Keep an eye on Bryan quarterback Chris Johnson, who might just be the first quarterback option for the Longhorns when the dust settles. His season opens this week against Clear Springs and will be in the Austin area next week when they play McNeil. Yes, there will be interested eyes at that game.
6. I’ll let Chip handle the realignment stuff, but I’ve heard from multiple connected people in the last few days who believe that every school in the Big 12 with potential individual options (Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri) is absolutely exploring them.
7. I was told this week not to read into any comments about leaders as it relates to big-time 2013 tight end prospect Derrick Griffin. Long way to go there.
8. Expect Texas to be much more active with game visitors next week for the BYU game. I was told today that Mack wants as much focus as possible on the game this weekend.
9. For those wondering, I haven’t heard that anything is happening with Mario Edwards Jr. and Texas right now.
10. Aledo running back Johnathan Gray will be the new No.1 player in the state when the 2012 LSR is updated on Wednesday. (Ketch)
****************************
Tryone Swoopes, the state's top prospect for the 2013 class, will not be attending any games this weekend. But the Whitewright QB is planning a visit next week that will be of interest to Longhorn fans.
"I'm not going anywhere this week. But I'm for sure going to the next Texas home game," Swoopes said. "I think I'm going to go with my mom and dad."
On Thursday, the first day college coaches could get in direct touch with Swoopes, he heard from schools like Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Alabama and Florida.
Swoopes lists Texas and TCU on top of his list, but said he's still very much open to other options.
Last week, in Whitewright's season-opening 35-22 win over Nocona, Swoopes accounted for all five of his team's touchdowns. He found the end zone on 3 runs, 1 pass, and 1 pick six. How's that for impressive? (Suchomel)
******
Round Rock defensive tackle Glen Antoine committed to UTEP in June, but he hasn't completely shut the door on Texas, should the Horns come calling.
Remember, Antoine is a guy who battled tough injuries during his sophomore and junior seasons, but he performed well at UT's camp this summer.
Antoine has no visits set up at this point (he'll take an official visit to UTEP, of course). If Texas was to extend a game invitation, there's a good chance Antoine will take in a Longhorn home game.
"Texas been on me pretty hard. I might go check one of their games out," Antoine said. "Coach Bo (Davis) wants to see a couple of my games and then he said I could be a potential offer.
"After our game last week, coach Bo knows my dad's friend and he texted him. He said he wanted my film so he could a make a decision pretty fast. He said he needs a couple games to show to Mack Brown so they can make a decision."
If UT were to pick up its interest, Antoine said the Longhorns would be the only team for which he'd be willing to open his recruitment.
"It's UT. And it's so close to my home," Antoine said. (Suchomel)
******
San Antonio (Texas) Brandeis cornerback Colin Blake is one target the Longhorns have been watching closely over the past few months.
The Longhorns have not offered but he is definitely in the running for a scholarship. He has talked about taking an unofficial to Texas, and mentioned taking official visits to Florida St. and Oklahoma. This weekend though he will take his third trip to Texas A&M, this time on an official visit.
“I’m going to go see them play SMU and my dad wanted me to get my official visit,” Blake said. “Monday’s a holiday so my dad setup an official visit to A&M for this week.”
He remains in contact with several programs and has been very deliberate in his approach to the recruiting process. He is in no rush to end the process but did not count out the possibility he could make a decision this weekend.
“I really want to have a chance to take some more of my official visits, but I never know what’s going to happen,” he said.
As far as Texas goes, things have been quiet but there has been some communication.
He says he is not focused on the recruiting process with the season kicking off last week and the visit to Texas A&M is the only official visit he has scheduled for now. (Howell)
******
A prospect who has not been brought up lately has been San Antonio (Texas) East Central cornerback Nick Coleman. He did not camp at Texas but he did attend the spring game and a Texas junior day, so I thought I would check in to see how things are going .
So where is the recruiting process for Coleman?
“Right now it’s mostly about track. They’re contacting my dad so I don’t know yet, but my dad is talking to them back and forth,” Coleman said. “I think I’m going to the UTSA game this Saturday. Then I think I’m going to go to some Texas St. games and some other games to talk to coaches and see how everything is going.”
He says he has received a track offer from Army, with Texas St., UTSA, Cornell, Alabama, and LSU just a few names he could remember showing interest on the track.
As for Texas, communication has been limited.
“It was awhile ago. I can’t even recall. I did not go to their camp,” he said. “He told me there were two or three people in front of me for a scholarship.”
He has decided to look closer at other options besides Texas and at this point does not have any favorites. Several schools have shown interest in both football and track and Coleman has no preference there either.
“Sports are sports and I love them both,” Coleman said. “I love being out there with those 11 people on the defensive side of the ball and bonding with them to where you know what they’re going to do before they do it. And how when everything goes just right, like when I got my pick everyone turned around and hit somebody. We went from defense to offense in a split second. I just love the way it all comes together. Track is kind of a hereditary thing. We got it from our father who ran track at Texas St. He still holds the 4x4 time up there. It’s always just been a family thing. I love the look on my dad’s face when I talk to him about it.” (Howell)
******
Quick team note ...
There have been a lot of behind-the-scene rumors this week of a few Longhorn players transferring (Connor Wood's transfer was confirmed by UT on Wednesday). The talk has focused on a few young players at the DL, RB and RB spots.
As of Wednesday, we were told by a source we trust that Wood was the only person not working out with the team this week. There's always a chance for some last second news, but from what we hear, the team is not expecting any last-minute roster casualties. (Suchomel)
***************
I talked to one of my sources close to the program about Garrett Gilbert and his response on the field since being named the starter and was told, “It’s actually settled him down some. He’s going to be fine as long as he does not think that he needs to go out and win everything by himself.”
I also asked the source if the team looks at Garrett Gilbert as someone that has something to prove and he seemed irritated by the question.
“I'm sick of everybody thinking it was all Garrett. We went %#&@! 5-7 last year,” he shot back. “We all a got some #%&@ to prove, from the top to the bottom.”
The same source told me that this freshman class will contribute like few have in the last few years. “These boys ball are for real. Can you imagine Ship, Davis, Harris and White when they get their feet wet? How about the young OL? I hate looking forward because we have to win now but the team you see on Saturday won’t be anything close to what it’ll be later in the year. Mizzou, K-State, the Aggies and Baylor are going to run into something when these kids start growing up.”
I talked to a second source about which side of the ball had the most swagger walking into the game and he went on for a minute about the defense probably has more swagger because they have more “ballers” with experience.
Also, don’t sleep on Fozzy Whittaker.
“You better watch Fozzy. He is so confident in who he is and what he’s put in since the game against A&M,” the source said. “He doesn't mind helping everybody because he knows he has a spot.”
He went on to talk about unselfish leadership. “When you have leaders that are not trying to preserve their own spot by holding down somebody else, the team gets better. We’ve had some selfish leaders who were always thinking about keeping their own place and hating on others. No team can do anything when you have selfish kids like that. I'll say this though, 5-7 keeps a lot of people from being selfish. It's just different.” (Adams)
This post was edited on 9/1 11:07 PM by Suchomel
Louisville is also on the radar, two sources said Thursday. And if Pittsburgh and Louisville were to express interest in joining the Big 12, there could be a domino effect that could lead back to Notre Dame, the sources said.
Sources said if the Big East started to become unstable because of movement by other conferences, it could force Notre Dame to put all of its sports - other than football (which all currently reside in the Big East) in another conference.
Sources in the Big 12 say Notre Dame could move those sports into the Big 12 and remain independent in football.
All of this could happen if the Southeastern Conference admits Texas A&M as the 13th member and then possibly Virginia Tech as the 14th school in the SEC. A&M sources have told Orangebloods.com they were told by the SEC the plan was for that league to grow to 16.
But sources close to the SEC have also indicated the presidents don’t want to be responsible for collapsing other conferences. That’s why the SEC won’t touch Missouri, a source said, because it could bring down the Big 12.
But if Virginia Tech leaves the Atlantic Coast Conference, and the ACC were to start looking around to grow to 12, 14 or 16 and looked at schools such as UConn, Syracuse and Rutgers, then the Big East could be very vulnerable, forcing Notre Dame to move its non-football sports to another league. And the Big 12 would be receptive.
Texas AD DeLoss Dodds told me last summer he suggested to ND athletic director Jack Swarbrick he move the Irish’s other sports to the Big 12.
One of the reasons Pittsburgh is such a hot candidate for the Big 12 is Pitt AD Steve Pederson. He has already been an AD in the Big 12 (he was at Nebraska before Tom Osborne returned). And Pederson is a close friend of DeLoss Dodds. There’s a comfort there between Pederson and the Big 12.
When I reached out to Pederson for a comment, he respectfully declined. (Brown)
******************
WHAT ABOUT THE PAC-12: All eyes are on Oklahoma to see if the Sooners will remain committed to the Big 12 or if OU will possibly reconnect with Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott and head west.
Sources across the Big 12 believe OU is still committed to its current conference. Athletic director Joe Castiglione is part of the five-member, Big 12 expansion team, along with Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds.
Talked to an industry source Thursday about how difficult it would be to turn the Longhorn Network into a regional network in the Pac-12 should Texas and Oklahoma decide that's the best course of action.
"Very difficult," the source said.
"Impossible?" I replied.
"After the last year, I don't subscribe to that word anymore," the source said.
The source said it didn’t appear that was the direction being considered at the current time. A Big 12 administrator put the odds at 70 percent that the Big 12 would be held together by replacing Texas A&M with schools such as Pittsburgh, BYU and/or Louisville and then possibly getting Notre Dame to place its non-football sports in the Big 12. And that source put 30 percent odds on Texas, OU, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech ending up in the Pac-12. (Brown)
**********************
WILL ANYONE SEE TEXAS VS. RICE?: As if the Longhorn Network hasn’t been blamed for enough things already, ESPN has indicated to Orangebloods.com that it will NOT make the Longhorn Network available online if the network can’t reach an agreement with cable providers to carry LHN by Saturday night’s Texas-Rice game.
So if there is no agreement between ESPN and cable operators, there will be no place to see this game other than the handful of markets where LHN will be carried by Consolidated Communications, Bay City Cablevision, Mid-Coast Cablevision, Texas Mid-Gulf Cablevision, Verizon, En-Touch Systems and E-Tex Communications.
I have left messages with Texas officials for two days. But there have been no returned calls. I can’t imagine UT is remotely OK with this game not airing with wide distribution in Texas so fans can see it. But no one at Texas is talking about this. Fans are getting hot.
The issue for ESPN is setting a price point in terms of cents-per-subscriber where it feels it can recoup its $300 million investment because that price point is usually locked in for the length of the contract, in this case, 20 years. The ideal situation is to have LHN added onto basic cable packages. The worst case scenario would be to have it as a stand-alone channel that people must pay for individually.
As of late Thursday afternoon, the stalemate goes on with the big carriers and satellite services such as Direct-TV, Dish Network and Uverse.
ESPN spokeswoman Keri Potts repeated a statement given to me earlier in the week in an e-mail Thursday afternoon.
“We’re disappointed that operators like Grande and Time Warner Cable are choosing to deprive Texas fans of valuable content, including this weekend’s Rice vs. UT game,” Potts said. (Brown)
**************
We reached out to a number of the top prospects in the state of Texas for the 2013 class, in addition to a number of the Horns' 2012 commitments, to see who all might be coming in for Saturday's game against Rice.
Based on the guys we connected with, it sounds like it might be a fairly light recruiting crowd. Before people throw their hands up in panic, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Coaches were allowed to contact 2013 players for the first time on Thursday (September 1), and with the UT coaches dialed in on preparations for their season opener, there hasn't been a lot of time to extend formal invitations. Don't be surprised it the list of unofficial visitors grows next week.
A few guys who we confirmed will be in for t his week's game ...
2012 Austin High WR Cayleb Jones (UT commit - probable)
2012 Harker Heights OL Camrhon Hughes (UT commit)
2013 Celina OL/DL Jake Raulerson
2013 Harker Heights OL Darius James
2013 Harker Heights S/LB Naashawn Hughes
We touched base with the majority of the players in the top 20 of the LSR 2013, and aside from the ones mentioned above, none that we talked to had plans to be in Austin.
Some other notes worth mentioning ...
- Whitewright QB Tyrone Swoopes will not be attending any games this weekend, but (keep reading, it's worth it) ...
- 2013 Rosenberg Terry TE Derrick Griffin didn't have any plans set up, but he said he was going to talk to his coach about seeing a college game this weekend. Making his way to UT was said to be "possible."
- No visits this week for No. 2-ranked A'Shawn Robinson.
- Bryan QB Chris Johnson (No. 8 in 2013 LSR) will be at the Texas A&M-SMU game on Sunday.
- Ja'Braylin Thomas (No. 13 in 2013 LSR) said he'll probably not go to any games this week. He's going to talk to his family to plan out some future visits. Texas will "for sure" get a game visit.
- UT commits Peter Jinkens and Thomas Johnson will not be able to attend.
- UT commit Nick Jordan will not be able to attend the game this weekend.
- UT commit Caleb Bluiett will not be able to attend the game this weekend due to family commitments.
- UT commit Tim Cole will not be able to make the game this weekend.
- UT commit Bryson Echols will not be able to attend.
- Livingston ATH Chevoski Collins (No. 21 in 2013 LSR) will be at the Texas A&M-SMU game on Sunday. Collins said he wants to hit a UT game as soon as he gets an invite.
- Bastrop DB Antwuan Davis (No. 6 in 2013 LSR) will not be attending any games this weekend. He does plan on hitting a UT home game in the near future.
- Houston Klein Forest DE Tyree Gray (No. 75 in 2013 LSR) has no plans to hit a game this week.
- Elysian Fields DT Isaiah Golden (No. 29 2013 LSR) has no plans to hit a game this week.
- Wylie East WR Marcel Ateman (No 15 in 2013 LSR) has no plans to hit any games this weekend. Teammate WR Quan Jones (No. 24 in 2013 LSR) said he's considering hitting a college game this weekend but he's unsure of if (or where) he'll go.
- DeSoto RB Dontre Wilson (No. 20 in 2013 LSR) was hoping to hit the LSU-Oregon game but has had trouble getting in touch with the LSU coaches. (Suchomel)
******
Ten things to chew on…
1. Springfield (MO) Hillcrest wide receiver Dorial Beckham-Green is expected to publicly announce a final five in the next week or so and after talking with a few people with knowledge of the recruitment, the Longhorns are still very much expected to make the cut and receive an official visit later in the year. Although most national eyeballs on this recruitment have the Longhorns trailing big, the Longhorns are quietly confident that they can make a dent with a follow-up visit from this summer.
2. Spoke with a number of people this week about Garrett Gilbert and his mindset coming into the season opener and everyone agreed that he’s been a different player for the last two weeks going back to the second pre-season scrimmage. He’s also continued to make the coaches feel good about the decision this week. One thing that everyone should keep an eye on early in the season is Gilbert’s mental reaction to his first piece of adversity. After an e-mail discussion about the matter last week, I asked someone that has known Gilbert for almost a decade this week about the idea that the junior’s biggest problem last season was himself. “Oh yeah, I’ve never seen a kid put as much pressure on himself and when it got away from him last year, he wore himself out. When he gets a little bit of momentum going for himself, his confidence isn’t an issue. But, when he isn’t perfect, he presses. He pressed a lot last year and a lot of guys get better when they press, but he’s not one of them. His ability to move on to the next play when he makes a mistake is going to determine his fate this season."
3. Not enough can be said about the youth on this team and they roll the kiddie cadets are going to play. Don’t look for Mack and Co. to wade in the shallow water with their youngsters on Saturday. The Class of 2011 will have fingerprints all over the place.
4. The best thing to happen to Malcolm Brown is the emergence of Joe Bergeron. The competition between those two has lifted both players up, but it definitely seems to have inspired the former five-star recruit, who was forced to sit and watch his fellow 2011 classmate open early eyes with his running abilities. “It’s the best kind of competition because each guy is rooting for the other, but they also want to the ball and playing time. Every time they get a chance to touch the ball, there will be a sense of urgency. It’s been there for both all month.”
5. Keep an eye on Bryan quarterback Chris Johnson, who might just be the first quarterback option for the Longhorns when the dust settles. His season opens this week against Clear Springs and will be in the Austin area next week when they play McNeil. Yes, there will be interested eyes at that game.
6. I’ll let Chip handle the realignment stuff, but I’ve heard from multiple connected people in the last few days who believe that every school in the Big 12 with potential individual options (Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri) is absolutely exploring them.
7. I was told this week not to read into any comments about leaders as it relates to big-time 2013 tight end prospect Derrick Griffin. Long way to go there.
8. Expect Texas to be much more active with game visitors next week for the BYU game. I was told today that Mack wants as much focus as possible on the game this weekend.
9. For those wondering, I haven’t heard that anything is happening with Mario Edwards Jr. and Texas right now.
10. Aledo running back Johnathan Gray will be the new No.1 player in the state when the 2012 LSR is updated on Wednesday. (Ketch)
****************************
Tryone Swoopes, the state's top prospect for the 2013 class, will not be attending any games this weekend. But the Whitewright QB is planning a visit next week that will be of interest to Longhorn fans.
"I'm not going anywhere this week. But I'm for sure going to the next Texas home game," Swoopes said. "I think I'm going to go with my mom and dad."
On Thursday, the first day college coaches could get in direct touch with Swoopes, he heard from schools like Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Alabama and Florida.
Swoopes lists Texas and TCU on top of his list, but said he's still very much open to other options.
Last week, in Whitewright's season-opening 35-22 win over Nocona, Swoopes accounted for all five of his team's touchdowns. He found the end zone on 3 runs, 1 pass, and 1 pick six. How's that for impressive? (Suchomel)
******
Round Rock defensive tackle Glen Antoine committed to UTEP in June, but he hasn't completely shut the door on Texas, should the Horns come calling.
Remember, Antoine is a guy who battled tough injuries during his sophomore and junior seasons, but he performed well at UT's camp this summer.
Antoine has no visits set up at this point (he'll take an official visit to UTEP, of course). If Texas was to extend a game invitation, there's a good chance Antoine will take in a Longhorn home game.
"Texas been on me pretty hard. I might go check one of their games out," Antoine said. "Coach Bo (Davis) wants to see a couple of my games and then he said I could be a potential offer.
"After our game last week, coach Bo knows my dad's friend and he texted him. He said he wanted my film so he could a make a decision pretty fast. He said he needs a couple games to show to Mack Brown so they can make a decision."
If UT were to pick up its interest, Antoine said the Longhorns would be the only team for which he'd be willing to open his recruitment.
"It's UT. And it's so close to my home," Antoine said. (Suchomel)
******
San Antonio (Texas) Brandeis cornerback Colin Blake is one target the Longhorns have been watching closely over the past few months.
The Longhorns have not offered but he is definitely in the running for a scholarship. He has talked about taking an unofficial to Texas, and mentioned taking official visits to Florida St. and Oklahoma. This weekend though he will take his third trip to Texas A&M, this time on an official visit.
“I’m going to go see them play SMU and my dad wanted me to get my official visit,” Blake said. “Monday’s a holiday so my dad setup an official visit to A&M for this week.”
He remains in contact with several programs and has been very deliberate in his approach to the recruiting process. He is in no rush to end the process but did not count out the possibility he could make a decision this weekend.
“I really want to have a chance to take some more of my official visits, but I never know what’s going to happen,” he said.
As far as Texas goes, things have been quiet but there has been some communication.
He says he is not focused on the recruiting process with the season kicking off last week and the visit to Texas A&M is the only official visit he has scheduled for now. (Howell)
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A prospect who has not been brought up lately has been San Antonio (Texas) East Central cornerback Nick Coleman. He did not camp at Texas but he did attend the spring game and a Texas junior day, so I thought I would check in to see how things are going .
So where is the recruiting process for Coleman?
“Right now it’s mostly about track. They’re contacting my dad so I don’t know yet, but my dad is talking to them back and forth,” Coleman said. “I think I’m going to the UTSA game this Saturday. Then I think I’m going to go to some Texas St. games and some other games to talk to coaches and see how everything is going.”
He says he has received a track offer from Army, with Texas St., UTSA, Cornell, Alabama, and LSU just a few names he could remember showing interest on the track.
As for Texas, communication has been limited.
“It was awhile ago. I can’t even recall. I did not go to their camp,” he said. “He told me there were two or three people in front of me for a scholarship.”
He has decided to look closer at other options besides Texas and at this point does not have any favorites. Several schools have shown interest in both football and track and Coleman has no preference there either.
“Sports are sports and I love them both,” Coleman said. “I love being out there with those 11 people on the defensive side of the ball and bonding with them to where you know what they’re going to do before they do it. And how when everything goes just right, like when I got my pick everyone turned around and hit somebody. We went from defense to offense in a split second. I just love the way it all comes together. Track is kind of a hereditary thing. We got it from our father who ran track at Texas St. He still holds the 4x4 time up there. It’s always just been a family thing. I love the look on my dad’s face when I talk to him about it.” (Howell)
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Quick team note ...
There have been a lot of behind-the-scene rumors this week of a few Longhorn players transferring (Connor Wood's transfer was confirmed by UT on Wednesday). The talk has focused on a few young players at the DL, RB and RB spots.
As of Wednesday, we were told by a source we trust that Wood was the only person not working out with the team this week. There's always a chance for some last second news, but from what we hear, the team is not expecting any last-minute roster casualties. (Suchomel)
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I talked to one of my sources close to the program about Garrett Gilbert and his response on the field since being named the starter and was told, “It’s actually settled him down some. He’s going to be fine as long as he does not think that he needs to go out and win everything by himself.”
I also asked the source if the team looks at Garrett Gilbert as someone that has something to prove and he seemed irritated by the question.
“I'm sick of everybody thinking it was all Garrett. We went %#&@! 5-7 last year,” he shot back. “We all a got some #%&@ to prove, from the top to the bottom.”
The same source told me that this freshman class will contribute like few have in the last few years. “These boys ball are for real. Can you imagine Ship, Davis, Harris and White when they get their feet wet? How about the young OL? I hate looking forward because we have to win now but the team you see on Saturday won’t be anything close to what it’ll be later in the year. Mizzou, K-State, the Aggies and Baylor are going to run into something when these kids start growing up.”
I talked to a second source about which side of the ball had the most swagger walking into the game and he went on for a minute about the defense probably has more swagger because they have more “ballers” with experience.
Also, don’t sleep on Fozzy Whittaker.
“You better watch Fozzy. He is so confident in who he is and what he’s put in since the game against A&M,” the source said. “He doesn't mind helping everybody because he knows he has a spot.”
He went on to talk about unselfish leadership. “When you have leaders that are not trying to preserve their own spot by holding down somebody else, the team gets better. We’ve had some selfish leaders who were always thinking about keeping their own place and hating on others. No team can do anything when you have selfish kids like that. I'll say this though, 5-7 keeps a lot of people from being selfish. It's just different.” (Adams)
This post was edited on 9/1 11:07 PM by Suchomel
