759 days.
That’s how long it took for Charlie Strong to officially make this program his program, but with the announcement of 24 signings on National Signing Day, the roster he’s working with is finally comprised of more “Charlie’s guys” than not, which is one of the primary things almost everyone agreed with was a problem when he was hired.
The previous roster make-up was made up of “Mack’s guys” and as much success as the future Hall of Fame coach had in his tenure in Austin, the connotation that arrives with being labeled inside of the “Mack’s guys” group wasn’t a positive one.
The stigma that label carried with it for most of this decade was associated with entitlement, a lack of fire in the belly and way too much trouble for anyone’s liking (those player’s Charlie was forced to get rid of weren’t
his guys).
Yet, in a mere 25 months, Strong finally has a roster that is mostly his own.
A look at the current scholarship breakdown by class looks like this before any attrition takes place in the off-season.
Seniors (18)
Juniors (13)
Sophomores (27)
Redshirt Freshmen (6)
Freshmen (24)
Total: 88
When you consider that Charlie and his original staff had to re-recruit most of the 2014 recruiting class, while adding a few prospects of his own choosing, and that those players never so much spent a day with anyone other than Charlie Strong as their college head coach, they count as one of his guys almost as much as any of the 2015 and 2016 recruits. Is there a slight distinction between the guys he mostly inherited in 2014 from the classes he hand-picked in the previous two classes? Yes, but I have a hard-time not calling a guy like D’Onte Foreman anything other than one of “Charlie’s guys.”
By my count, the one only three juniors on the roster that Strong didn’t recruit at all and hasn’t been with every step of their eligibility are Jake Oliver, Naashon Hughes and Antwaun Davis. The other 10 juniors are inside the group of 67 players that are considered “Charlie’s guys”.
That’s 76-percent for those you scoring at home.
As Strong heads into the most important season of his professional life to date, he’ll be comforted by the fact that three out of every four players on the roster have been cultivated by his own hands. After two consecutive top-rated classes in the Big 12, compiled by what almost everyone will agree is one of the top talent evaluators in the country, the Longhorns are without question very young with 57 of the current 88 (65-percent) scholarship players rankings as a redshirt sophomore or younger, but you can make a case that there’s not a more talented team in the entire Big 12.
Even better, one of the things that everyone, including Strong, can stop worrying about is where the leadership inside the program is going to come from. If there’s one thing we’re learning about “Charlie’s guys” is that it doesn’t take very long for the alpha males to do their alpha thing. A dead man with no ears and eyes can identify the value of a guy like Malik Jefferson, who seems to be trying to will this team into national relevance.
One look at the depth chart will reveal “Charlie’s guys” all over the place
All that’s left now in this season of massive importance is for “Charlie’s guys” to grow up and evolve into a damn good football team.
If it happens this year, you get the sense that Strong will never look back. If it doesn’t, it might be someone else that reaps the rewards that would appear to be eventually be coming, likely just as soon as a quality quarterback emerges from the pack.
No. 2 – Speaking of the quarterback position …
What happens if Tyrone Swoopes is the best quarterback on the team in August?
With the schedule front-loaded in a way that potentially sets up the three toughest games to occur in the first five weeks, the common coaching train of thought is to play the best guy or at least the player that will limit the bad plays more than anyone else, and it’s possible that Swoopes will be that player.
But, can Strong get away with playing Swoopes, even if he is the best guy?
Over the course of the last couple of months, two things keep running through my head as it relates to the looming quarterback position.
a. In the most important coaching year of his career, is Strong going to let anyone determine his future who isn’t one of
his guys?
b. Wouldn’t Strong and his assistants receive a little more slack from the fan-base if a 7-5 or 8-4 season is quarterbacked by a young player with upside than a senior with a limited ceiling?
In my mind, that’s a no and a yes.
If I’m right, everyone needs to keep an eye on true freshman Shane Buechele, who hasn’t taken so much as a single practice rep under coaching supervision, but will have eight months of preparation and is not only a Strong guy, but a winning season that includes his emergence as a future force is much more likely to be swallowed than several other alternatives. You can throw Kai Locksley into that line of thinking as well, but there’s still doubt among those inside the program about quarterback being his long-term position (Note: This is not my opinion, as I’m sharing opinions from inside the program).
Perhaps unfairly, I wonder if Jerrod Heard isn’t closer to the Swoopes territory than the Buechele/Locksley territory. Although he’s still a redshirt sophomore, he finished the year struggling and seemed to be behind Swoopes in the pecking order. As a player who still has a lot of work to do in the passing game, Heard is going to need to flip the light switch very quickly because if the switch doesn’t flip on, Strong has to know that he can’t have an offensive repeat of 2015 any more than he can have an offensive repeat of 2014.
Some of you might be thinking in your head right now, “Just play the best guy!” and I get it because I was pretty much that guy last year when all signs pointed towards Swoopes having a clear edge in the passing game department over Heard, even if that truth carried limited upside. None of us can be naive enough to believe the optics of the most important position on the field don’t matter at all.
So, get your popcorn ready because everything about the quarterback battle, from who gets the quality reps to who has the most upside to who gives the team the best chance to win, is going to be the most fascinating story of the next seven month.
One thing for certain is that after 2014 looked like 2013 and 2015 looked like 2014, the 2016 season at the quarterback position can’t look remotely similar …
Or else.
No. 3 – Scattershooting on Longhorns football …
… While we’re on the subject of quarterbacks, just know from what we’ve heard, the coaches cannot wait to get Sam Ehlinger on the field in the quarterback competition. I get the sense that if he was on campus right now, he’d be seriously in the thick of things.
… As it relates to Rivals’ ranking of Ehlinger, I think it’s classic case of a high four/five-star player trapped inside of the body of a three-star. What’s really ridiculous in my mind is not that he’s only a high-three star prospect right now, but that he’s ranked behind a guy in Ty Brock, who missed last season due to injury and lacks any major offers. Hell, 247Sports moved Ehlinger to a low-four star this past week, but still only has him ranked No. 33 in the state (four spots higher than Rivals) and that’s just as laughable as the current Rivals rating. Mark my words, Rivals will eventually come around on Ehlinger, even if it means that I have to go to the mattresses for the kid.
… I can’t help but wonder if Ehlinger’s performance against North Shore in the state title game caused a few recruiting people to flinch because it wasn’t Ehlinger’s finest performance of the season by any stretch and it was the only game that was on television across the country. Perhaps those folks need to watch his performance against Allen from the week before …
… Members from the 2016 class that I think will play in 2017: QB Shane Buechele, RB Kyle Porter, WR Collin Johnson, OL Denzel Okafor, DT D’andre Christmas-Giles, DT Jordan Elliott, DT/DE Chris Daniels, DT/DE Marcel Southall, DE Andrew Fitzgerald, LB Erick Fowler, LB Jeffrey McCulloch and DB Brandon Jones.
No. 4 – Three thoughts on the Longhorns taking care of business against Tech ...
a, It wasn’t always pretty, but taking care of business in games like this is what producing good seeding in the NCAA Tournament is all about. On a day when the team wasn’t at its King-slayer best, it gutted out a win to remain in a second-place tie with Oklahoma and Kansas, one game behind first-place West Virginia. One thing this team needs to address in the final month of the season is not simply playing up or down based on the competition, as it was hard not to wonder on Saturday if the Longhorns were bored with the task of beating Texas Tech.
b. He’s flashed occasionally this season, but it was nice to see Tevin Mack put in more of a complete contribution at this stage of the season in his 14 minutes of play. Both three-point shots that he converted were big momentum shifters and he’s a guy that can be a key bench scorer down the stretch if he can bottle up what he played with on Saturday.
c. It’s hard not to chuckle at the irony of opposing teams in the post-season fearing the play and production of Javan Felix and Isaiah Taylor. Quality guard play wins in March and both of these players are playing the best basketball of their respective careers right now.
Bring on, Oklahoma.
No. 5 – I just have one question about the Texas women’s basketball team ...
I know Texas is 21-1 and only has a single loss to Baylor on its resume, but …
Does this team have another gear or is what we’re watching from the Longhorns what we’re going to see the rest of the season?
The Longhorns can defend with anyone in the nation, but I haven’t sensed that Big 12 play has brought the best out of the team or that we’re seeing real maturation during the time when great college teams are supposed to be turning the blood running through its veins into steel.
Perhaps the Longhorns are bored? Outside of Baylor, there aren’t a lot of teams in the conference slate that inspire excitement.
Perhaps everything is second-fiddle to playing Baylor a second time?
Whatever it is, it feels like the Longhorns are in the middle of a lag in the middle of conference play. Oh, don’t get me wrong, they still keep beating teams by double-digits, but if you look a little closer, you’ll see that the Longhorns were only up by five entering the fourth quarter on Saturday in Ames against a lackluster Iowa State squad.
If there was something to make you feel good about Saturday, it’s that the team only committed 14 turnovers, which is a lower number than we’ve seen from the team for much of the last month.
Am I making a mountain out of a molehill with a team that is 21-1? Am I creating a standard that is too high, even for the nation’s No.6 team?
Probably.
No. 6 – Buy or sell …
(As always, these are questions submitted by Orangebloods subscribers)
BUY or SELL: Shane Buechele has a better career than Chris Simms?
(Sell) Is it ok for me to say that the 2002 version of Simms was one of the best quarterbacks in school history and that for a brief moment, he was a starting quarterback for an NFL playoff team? If Simms had been the quarterback in either of the last two seasons, Strong’s job security would be perfectly fine.
While we’re talking about the best quarterback play in the last 40 years , here’s how I would rank the top five:
Vince Young (2004-05)
Colt McCoy (2008)
Chris Simms (2001-02)
Major Applewhite (1999-2000)
James Brown (1995-96)
BUY or SELL: Marvin Wilson is most important get for 2017? Marvin Wilson took notice of the in state talent we landed in this class?
(Buy and Buy) Yes, he’s the top talent in the state, he’s from Houston and he’s at a position that still needs serious help until we see something from the young guys that translates to success. He’s the type of talent that could start from day one on the 2017 defense. Meanwhile, there’s no way he didn’t notice what happened in the last 48 hours before signing day. The Longhorns will be in the top two of his recruitment when the dust settles.
BUY or SELL: A clear cut leader emerges at QB during Spring Practice?
(Sell) Fifteen practices won’t be enough time, especially with the young kids being potentially a big part of the plan.
BUY or SELL: While a great day for the Longhorns, NSD 2016 was the worst day of your professional career?
(Sell) As rotten as Wednesday was, it was not a worse Signing Day disaster than what happened two years ago on Signing Day when we were down for about four times as long and I had to go on my radio show with the embarrassment of knowing my site had been down for hours upon hours and still wasn’t up when I went back on the air. Meanwhile, I’d probably throw the night of the Red Banquet and the Saturday night when I made my Ole Miss Tweet right up there.
It’s funny, I didn’t have an answer right away, but it didn’t take very long to come up with a list and many of them that have occurred in the last 25-26 months.
BUY or SELL: We see you post another apology a year from now about the shitty software/servers you keep forcing us to use only to do the same a year from then.
I guess my real question is do you really have a plan to fix this problem or just cut and paste the same worthless apology year after year? We deserve better as does your staff.
(Sell) In two of the last three years, the site has gone down on National Signing Day (it did not crash in 2015, but the 2014 crash was long enough to make it feel like five years worth of crashes) and there’s not a single person in the network who has been here for both that doesn’t …
a. Call it two of the worst days of his or her professional careers
b. Believe it is completely unacceptable.
What I’m going to try to do right now is have a very open and honest dialogue about out short- and long-term future as a web site, our relationship with Rivals and some of the very tough considerations we have to make as a business.
First of all, Orangebloods is under contract for pretty much of the rest of this decade. We signed a long-term deal a couple years ago and we’re still in the middle of it.
While the relationship with Yahoo has been imperfect to say the least in the last decade, there are a number of benefits to being the No. 1 site in the network.
a. From a business standpoint, our relationship allows Rivals to handle much off the heavy lifting in terms of transactions, customer support, technology, etc…
b. Although subscribers don’t often see the people behind the scenes in action, there is a very talented, loyal and important group of people that work with us to provide support on multitude of levels. On a day-in and day-out basis, the behind the scenes support from Rivals is very strong.
c. There are many components of the Rivals relationship that I believe are incredibly valuable to our Orangebloods family, from the historic level of access we obtain in the Rivals Camp series to the database (which hosts almost two decades of historical data) to the legion of recruiting analysts from around the country to the relationships we have with our fellow Rivals publishers, who have been invaluable to our ability to cover stories over the years.
From a business standpoint, a move from Rivals, whether it’s to another network or as a stand-alone site, would be very risky. In this industry’s history, no site has ever made such a move and seen a successful transition. What we would be risking is our position as the No. 1 site in this industry, as it would almost certainly take years to build our subscriber numbers back to the current state (if we ever did) and in the meantime we’d be losing years of potential growth in the name of trying to build back up what we currently have. When BamaOnline.com switched over to 247sports, it is my understanding that they were able to transition somewhere between 55-65 percent of its previously existing business in the first year and it has spent the rest of the years since trying to regain what was lost.
Another piece of the conversation that needs to be addressed is my confidence in the Rivals leadership. While I miss former head of Rivals Eric Winter very dearly, there’s not a person in the history of the network that has ever spilled more blood, sweat and tears than John Talman, who has been with the network almost since day one and has taken over a large portion of Winter’s duties. Although Wednesday was an unacceptable disaster, it doesn’t change the fact that Rivals has stepped up its game considerably in the last couple years and that includes getting us off the wasteland that was the old technology that kept this company together.
Although the transition is still under way, technology upgrades have been made and are still being made on a day to day, week to week and month to month basis.
All of the discussion above doesn’t mean that I’m not still furious over what happened this week or the fact that our reputation gets killed when failure of such magnitude take place. I felt like this site was in the middle of one of the best days in the 16-year history of the site when the network crashed, which will forever nullify in the minds of some the quality of work performed by the staff on Wednesday.
Personally, I was absolutely deflated for the 80 minutes that were down on Wednesday and I would be lying if I said I didn’t read Talman the riot act to such a degree that I felt like an apology was warranted afterwards for multiple reasons. I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t seriously question our relationship moving forward.
However, this is a decision that is layered and nuanced to say the least.
Whatever anger or unrest you might have felt in us not being able to deliver the goods, amplify it by 10 and that’s what the Orangebloods staff felt all day. We take the embarrassment seriously and personal. The next couple of years will be defining ones for the relationship between both sides and I have a lot of work to do behind the scenes to ensure that we’re prepared to take this site to even higher peaks than we’ve ever reached before.
I don’t want to ever have to write a similar type apology again because the most recent one was worthless and fell on deaf ears.
Moving forward, Rivals must be better in every way.
BUY or SELL: Strong would start Swooooooopes against Notre Dame if Sterlin Gilbert told him to?
(Buy) Otherwise, what was the point of hiring Gilbert, right? If Gilbert doesn’t know the stakes right now, he will and I believe the staff will be on the same page. If that were to occur, I have to believe it means that Swoopes is so far ahead of the rest of the pack that there’s no other move to make.
BUY or SELL: Brandon Jones is the day one starter at one of the safety spots?
(Sell) Day-one starters are hard to come by and I believe that the coaches are going to move some parts around this year in order to get their best five guys on the field, which means I won’t be surprised if we see a guy like Kris Boyd get a look in the back end. With DeShon Elliott, PJ Locke, Jason Hall and Dylan Haines all battling for game reps, I think starting from day one might be a tall order ... however … I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s starting by week six. This kid plays football the way Charlie Strong likes his kids to play football.
BUY or SELL: There is a hard win total required for Strong to keep his job?
(Sell) Everyone is playing this thing by feel. More than anything, Strong has to survive the first five weeks of the season and not finish with a 2-3 record coming out of the Oklahoma game.
BUY or SELL: Charlie's last two recruiting classes will be more productive than Mack Brown's first two.
(Buy) Mack’s 1998 class didn’t have a ton of meat on the bone once you get past Mike Williams and Ahmad Brooks, which means what you’re really asking me is whether I think the last two classes will prove to be as good as the 1999 class, and I believe they will based in large part on the early production of the 2015 class.
BUY or SELL: Coldplay was a better halftime act than you expected?
(Sell) It was exactly what I thought it would be, which means without Beyonce (who killed it), it was a yawner.
No. 7 – Scumbag move of the Weekend ...
Nice Super Bowl Sunday news-dump, by Rape-Enabling University.
This isn’t the first-time this tactic over this matter has been used …
Something everyone needs to remember…
Sorry, Ken. Sorry, Art. We’re not forgetting and we’re not going to let up.
No. 8 – Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind …
... Son of a gun, the Broncos did it, which means Peyton goes out with a ring and the Panthers wasted a 17-1 season. It wasn't exactly a good game, but the theater was fascinating.
... I've got very little to say about Cam Newton's on-field performance because sometimes great defense is better than great quarterbacking, especially when your receivers can't or won't hold on to the ball, but you've got to dive for that football in the fourth quarter of a one possession game in the Super Bowl. That's going to leave a mark.
.. Speaking of leaving a mark, his performance in the post-game interviews will definitely leave a mark. You can't stunt, dab and dare teams to stop you all season, only to act like a poor sport when someone does to you what you've been doing to everyone else. Be better, Cam.
... Von Miller was a deserving MVP and you get the feeling that one day they'll show that sack and strip of Cam Newton in the first half like they show Charles Haley's sack of Jim Kelly every time his Hall of Fame career is mentioned.
... Good for Demarcus Ware and Wade Phillips. How can you not feel good for those two?
... Super Bowl winning coach Gary Kubiak? That's going to take a while to digest.
... Kelvin Benjamin would have made a big difference in this game. For the first time all season, he was truly missed.
... Manning got No.2 and all
… Consider me a little unimpressed with the decisions made by the Hall of Fame voters this weekend.
a. The weird little waiting game that the HOF has made the best receivers of all-time (not named Jerry Rice) is starting to piss me off as a fan. You don’t have to like Terrell Owens, but you do have to respect the fact that he was one of the most dominant players of his generation, regardless of position, and he was forced to watch an inferior player at his position get in ahead of him for what must have been political reasons.
b. You’ll excuse me if I don’t view Tony Dungy Hall of Fame worthy. He got in on his popularity.
c. Someone is going to have to explain to me how Kevin Greene waited 12 years to get into the Hall, but when he made it in, he did so by getting in over Owens? If you have to wait 12 years to get in, you probably shouldn’t be in at all. Sounds like the Hall of Very Good to me.
… The worst thing you’ll see all weekend
… The Golden State Warriors are 46-4. With 32 games to go in the regular season, the Warriors need to go 24-8 in order to get to 70 wins, which feels like a Steph Curry lay-up, barring injuries.
… I don’t know what to tell Kevin Durant as he enters free agency, but OKC just feels incredibly stale right now, despite it’s 38-14 record, which would be impressive in a world where the Warriors and Spurs don’t exist. If he stays in OKC, I’m not sure I see him winning a title.
… Please UFC, stop pretending that Roy Nelson needs to be the co-main event of any card that people actually are scheduled to tune in and watch.
… I was completely unprepared to see Stephen Thompson kick Johny Hendricks’ ass. As a ran of Big Rig, that fight was very disappointing.
… Scattershooting on the weekend in the EPL
a. Leicester! Leicester! Leicester! The Foxes are going to do it!
b. After watching Man City get outclassed at home by the table leaders, I suppose Pep Guardiola and the blank checkbook that will arrive with him can’t arrive soon enough because the line-up that looked like the EPL’s best at the start of the season is seriously lagging in February. Yaya Toure looks washed up. David Silva hasn’t been an impact player. Raheem Sterling is more disappointing than not. The defense has been in shambles without Vincent Kompany. The only thing that team seems to have going for it at the moment is Sergio Aguero and he can’t do it all by himself.
c. The final 10 minutes of the Liverpool match pretty much ruined my Saturday, as I found myself in a grouchy mood all day and I can pinpoint the beginning of my grouchiness to the Reds blowing a 2-0 lead.
d. I don’t want to think the mean things I think about Simon Mignolet because it makes me feel like such a bad person.
e. Part of me wishes I had picked Tottenham as my team when it was time to pick a team because then I could watch Deli Ali without feeling guilty about it.
f. Fraser Forster is the real deal.
No.9 - T-minus 20 days until the Oscars
100 Words or Less Movie Review: The Revenant (A)
This 156-minute saga is brutally harsh, but the three-man trio of Leo Dicaprio, Tom Hardy and Alejandro Iñárritu create cinema gold with one of 2015’s best movies. All three men give Oscars-level performance, but while Leo seemed to channel his inner Daniel Day-Lewis, I thought Iñárritu’s directing was the real star of the show, as his ability to capture and embed the beauty of nature into the story was mesmerizing. You’re not going to walk out of this movie smiling about the good time you just had, but you will walk out knowing you’ve seen special film-making and acting.
My Current Oscars Leaderboard
Best Picture (based on movies I have actually seen)
1. Spotlight
2. Room
3. The Revenant
4. The Big Short
5. Sicario
Best Actor (based on the movies I have actually seen)
1. Leonardo Dicaprio (The Revenant)
2. Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)
3. Michael B. Jordan (Creed)
4. Matt Damon (The Martian)
5. Steve Carrell (The Big Short)
Best Actress (based on the movies I have actually seen)
1. Brie Larson (Room)
2. Jennifer Lawrence (Joy)
3. Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)
4. Emily Blount (Sicario)
5. Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Best Supporting Actor (based on the movies I have actually seen)
1. Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)
2. Jacob Tremblay (Room)
3. Tom Hardy (The Revenant)
4. Benicio del Toro (Sicario)
5. Christian Bale (The Big Short)
Best Supporting Actress (based on the movies I have actually seen)
1. Joan Allen (Room)
2. Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)
3. Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina)
4. Tessa Thompson (Creed)
5. Rachel McAdams (Spotlight)
Best Director
1. Lenny Abrahamson (Room)
2. Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant)
3. Tom McCarthy (Spotlight)
4. J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)
5. George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)
No.10 - And finally… life lessons as the father of 22-month old twins…
207 days 'til Columbus... who is the OC/DC/QB? | Behind Enemy Lines
