Tom Herman needs more playmakers.
Everywhere.
As I begin the column this week, I found that it would be best to begin with the conclusion of this week's assignment instead of waiting until the very end. While wondering about the ceiling of the 2020 Texas Longhorns, I decided to rank the top 25 players in the program going into the spring, a process that left me fully understanding the production levels/talent that have departed the program and the needs that exist in every phase of the team if it wants to win a Big 12 Championship.
This is a team that returns exactly zero first-team All-Big 12 players from a season ago.
This is a team that returns exactly one (Sam Cosmi) second-team All-Big 12 players from a season ago.
This is a team that returns exactly three honorable mention All-Big 12 players from a season ago.
It's pretty pathetic if we're being honest, especially when you consider that this will be another off-season in which everyone that follows the team will state emphatically that it's a "Big 12 title or Bust" type of year for Herman and his staff. Maybe pathetic is too strong of a word, but it sure feels close. All you have to do is look at the players that make the current top 10 to realize just how many players must make significant improvements this season in order for this team to achieve any of its goals beyond merely making a bowl game.
Again, Herman needs more playmakers.
Everywhere.
No. 25 - WR Marcus Washington (Sophomore)
Although he caught only two passes a season ago for 17 yards, there are growing expectations that he will emerge as one of the team's two starting outside receivers.
No. 24 - CB Chris Adimora (Sophomore)
Sometimes a good last impression is the best kind of impression and when Adimora came in for an injured Jalen Green in the Alamo Bowl against Utah, he chipped in with a real "attaboy" performance. His play against the Utes gets him on the list.
No. 23 - CB Josh Thompson (Junior)
I'm putting Thompson on the list purely because new defensive coordinator Chris Ash sang his praises in such a way that it felt like he needed a secure spot. Plus, I've always been incredibly high on Thompson and I like the notion that I might be proven right about him when it's all said and done.
No. 22 - TE Cade Brewer (Senior)
Brewer split out more times as a wide receiver last year than any other tight end on the roster, which speaks to the amount of love that Tom Herman has for him.
No. 21 - Ta'Quan Graham (Senior)
Had one of the worst snaps per production numbers on the team last season (16.9), but finally played in a position that fits his skill set in the Alamo Bowl and produced the best game of his career. The coaches think they might have something with him as a three-technique.
No. 20 - CB Anthony Cook (Junior)
I'm giving Cook some serious benefit of the doubt in ranking him this high because he did not have a good 2019 season, posting a snaps per production that was higher than anyone else on the team with 110 snaps or more.
No. 19 - RB Roschon Johnson (Sophomore)
Emerged as a viable running back threat as a true freshman after moving positions because of an injury crisis and he looks like a player that will prove to be a valuable contributor there for the rest of his career.
No. 18 - Moro Ojomo (Sophomore)
Played in 272 snaps a season ago and finished with a better snaps per production (8.37) than anyone on the defense that received more than 200 snaps.
No. 17 - Jordan Whittington (Redshirt freshman)
Coming off of an injury-plagued true freshman campaign, Whittington will likely move up this list quickly if he can simply find himself healthy for a bit.
No. 16 - WR Jake Smith (Sophomore)
Fumbles and confidence issues aside from the end of the year, this was a kid that averaged a touchdown every 4.25 touches in the passing game a season ago. It's very possible that he's too low on this list.
No. 15 - LB DeMarvion Overshown (Sophomore)
The sample size is smaller, but Overshown moves to a new position this spring having produced the best snaps per disruption (5.78) of anyone on the team by a wide margin (nearly 3 snaps better than Joseph Ossai last year). Just turn him loose because he'll get to the football.
No. 14 - Juwan Mitchell (Junior)
The end of his season, which featured him on the sidelines, overshadowed a pretty good debut season for Mitchell, one that saw him finish third on the team in terms of production.
No. 13 - CB Jalen Green (Junior)
While he didn't play extremely well last season and struggled to stay healthy enough to consistently be on the field, Green still possesses a ton of upside and playmaking ability going into his third season.
No. 12 - D'Shawn Jamison (Junior)
The dynamic Jamison has made plays in all three phases of the game, but now needs to prove he can do it consistently after starting five games a season ago.
No. 11 - OL Junior Angilau (Sophomore)
The worst-graded offensive lineman on the team from a year ago, there's no question that Angilau has the upside to rank much higher on this list, but he's not quite there yet. Finished his first season with a rating from Alex Dunlap that was higher than Zach Shackelford's junior season.
No. 10 - DB B.J. Foster (Junior)
His play from a season ago doesn't warrant a ranking this high, but I'm going to put all of last season on injuries. When this kid is healthy, he's as good of a football player as the Longhorns have.
No. 9 - S Caden Sterns (Junior)
Sterns is another player that didn't play well enough to claim a spot this high a season ago, but I'm choosing to blame the coaches for his lack of development from 2018 to 2019. Buy as much Sterns stock as you can right now while the prices are as low as they've ever been.
No. 8 - Keondre Coburn (Sophomore)
The team's best defensive lineman a season ago, Coburn ranks as the second-highest returning playmaker on the defense from a market-share standpoint, despite doing so at the most difficult position on the defense to rack up production. Has a chance to emerge into an All-Big 12 player in 2020.
No. 7 - OL Derek Kerstetter (Senior)
One of the most underrated players in the program, Kerstetter quietly had a very solid 2019 season and when you consider he can play any position along the offensive line, his value to the program becomes immense.
No. 6 - RB Keaontay Ingram (Junior)
Yes, he was inconsistent. Yes, there were times when he was outperformed by Roschon Johnson. Yes, the LSU game happened. Yet, Ingram still averaged 5.9 yards per carry in 2019 (third-best in the Big 12), had four games of 100+ rushing yards, scored 10 touchdowns (seventh-best in the Big 12) and didn't lose a fumble all year.
No. 5 - DB Chris Brown (Senior)
Another player that new defensive coordinator Chris Ash has raved about, Brown was surprisingly the best member of the secondary in my eyes until injuries curtailed his season to a degree. As crazy it might have sounded a year ago to suggest, Brown enters 2020 as the team's best and most trust-worthy defensive back.
No. 4 - WR Brennan Eagles (Junior)
Devin Duvernay's senior season overshadowed everyone at this position a year ago, but Eagles led the team in yards per catch (16.3), while finishing second in touchdown receptions (six) and third in receiving yards (522). Although he was in the doghouse at times a year ago, he was still the second-best weapon the team had at the wide receiver position and he's poised for a monster year in 2020.
No. 3 - OL Sam Cosmi (Junior)
He hasn't yet taken the final step in his college career to the point of domination, but he was a legit second-team All-Big 12 player a season ago and will compete for first-team honors in 2020.
No. 2 - DE Joseph Ossai (Junior)
The best player on the field in the Alamo Bowl vs. Utah, Ossai will be used in a position this fall that should allow him to post double-digit sacks and compete for Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year honors.
No.1 - QB Sam Ehlinger (Senior)
Even if he struggled at times last year with his consistency, he's still a big-time player that performs his best in the biggest games and he's going to finish his career as one of the top 5 or 6 best quarterbacks in the history of the school.
No. 2 - Real Important Stuff ...
A few days ago, I was surfing Twitter when I came across the following message from former Texas defensive back Aaron Williams.
Not really knowing what to think about Williams' admission about mental issues, I thought it was incredibly brave of him to be so open about such a difficult matter. My intention was to make a comment about his bravery this weekend, while mentioning that Mental Awareness month is in May.
With his mental health issues clearly at the forefront of his mind, Williams followed up on Friday with an even more open and revealing set of remarks, as he commented on an article that former NBA player Ben Gordon had written for The Player's Tribune titled "Where is my mind?"
Gordon's article is pretty hard-core. During a six-week period before his path to find a better place mentally had begun, Gordon considered suicide daily. At one point, he tried to hang himself. Gordon outlines a life as lost as a lost life can almost possibly get.
And Williams was commenting that his life had mirrored Gordon's in his post-NFL life.
Honestly, it scared the hell out of me, but again, it seemed like a good thing that Williams was so open about his own issues, which I hadn't ever remembered being mentioned before. The good news is that it seems like Williams is absolutely in a better place than he has previously been in. Thank goodness.
The whole ordeal seems like a good moment to remind everyone to not be afraid to get involved if they know someone that shows signs of depression. Don't just fail to get involved because you don't want to be a pain in the butt. Pick up the phone. Call them. Tell them you love them. Take them out to lunch. Listen to them. Make a difference.
That's it. Just make a difference if you can. Mental illness isn't to be taken lightly and sometimes all it takes is one person reaching out to another to make a world of difference.
Here's to Williams' continued path to a much better mental place.
No. 3 - The Mountain Gives a Hook'em ...
The Rivals Camp series came to Houston on Sunday and I'm going to let @Suchomel give you the full lowdown, but I thought this Tweet would provide enough smiles that it warranted its own section.
I give you permission to dream big.
No. 4 - A quick thought about Shaka's team ...
How is it that Shaka Smart seems to be doing his best coaching of the year after the season is basically over and all of his best players are seemingly unavailable?
With dudes on the floor that have barely played this season, Smart and Co. have built a modest two-game winning streak at a time that I truly believed they would be done winning games for the rest of the season.
p.,s. - If this team has anything left in the tank, it needs to give West Virginia a little "something something" on Monday night after the beatdown it took in Morgantown.
No. 5 - Still undefeated ...
Maybe the Texas baseball team has done enough to earn a ranking this week?
Maybe?
We'll have to see what Baseball America or D1Baseball.com does this week, but David Pierce's young team just keeps winning at the start of the season, including a three-game sweep of Boise State over the weekend. The thing that this team continues to do is play well in multiple phases of the game. This isn't a team that's living on its arms or bats alone.
Given that the schedule has been pretty soft thus far, we'll know more about this group after it faces two top 15 teams in LSU and Arkansas on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
Let's see what they're made of.
No. 6- Surprise of the Weekend
Let's give credit where credit is due. Nice job, Peyton St. George.
For those that don’'t know who St. George is, she's an All-ACC pitcher from Duke who did something on Saturday that no one else has been able to do this season - beat the Texas softball team. Over seven innings, she struck out only one, but she kept the Longhorns from touching home plate in a 1-0 win in the Texas Invitational.
Other than that lone blip on the map, the Longhorns took care of their business this weekend, winning four out of five games and scoring 43 runs over 26 innings in the process.
It seems like the looming battle between Texas and Oklahoma for the Big 12 title is going to be a doozy. Conference play begins on March 20 in Norman with a three-game set against the Sooners.
No. 7 – BUY or SELL …
[QUOTE="kwdamp, post: 13613075, member: 15458"]A true freshman not named Bijan makes an impact on the football field next year?[/QUOTE]
(Buy) Alfred Collins, Vernon Broughton, Prince Dorbah and one of those defensive backs could all end up playing important roles. Plus, don't discount the possibility that Hudson Card could start a game if Sam Ehlinger misses a game due to injury.
[QUOTE="McLovin327, post: 13613159, member: 9736"]If Texas pulls a miracle and makes the NCAA tournament, Shaka saves his job.[/QUOTE]
(Buy) That would probably mean winning the Big 12 Tournament? Yeah, that feels like an absolute miracle and that might do it.
[QUOTE="kwdamp, post: 13613355, member: 15458"]B/S: Shaka wants his tenure here to be over as much as we do.[/QUOTE]
(Sell) If he knew for certain that he had a comfortable landing spot (I don't believe that exists yet), my answer would likely change.
[QUOTE="Fronkensteen16, post: 13613270, member: 125547"]We have a Thorpe award finalist on the roster.[/QUOTE]
(Sell) Not based on actual play thus far.
(Sell) The fact that the new coaches seem to be indicating they don't have enough linemen or enough quality linemen to run as much four-man fronts is an indication of the state of affairs on the defensive side of the ball.
(Sell) Crazy talk at this point.
(Sell) He does have first-team All-Big 12 upside.
Houston. Too many Sooners in Dallas.
No. 8 - Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind ...
... Tyson Fury sure as hell did the damn thing on Saturday night against Deontay Wilder, knocking him down three times on the way to a seventh-round TKO. Wilder was never even in the fight. It's time we give Fury some damn respect.
... Kansas looked like a team that has a legit Final Four run in it with its win over Baylor on Saturday.
... Colorado ended up with Karl Dorrell. Yikes.
... The Astros really need to suck it up and realize that this entire season is going to feature them on the wrong end of taunts all year. Part of the price they'll have to play is letting each team and city take their swings.
... My television was on a couple of XFL games this weekend, but I don't really remember much about them. They made for good background noise, though.
... Before the NBA season began, I picked my Sixers to play in the NBA Finals. Pure confirmation bias.
... The Corona virus is getting closer and closer to home. Barcelona players will actually take Corona tests upon entry into Italy to face Naples on Tuesday due to the rash of outbreaks in northern Italy.
No. 9 - The List: Top 10 Fictional Deaths ...
I saw this Tweet over the weekend and thought it would potentially make for some interesting discussion.
Here's my Top 10
10. Mark Greene (ER)
9. Jenny (Forest Gump)
8. Mufasa (The Lion King)
7. Lucy Knight (ER)
6. Bambi's Mom (Bambi)
5. Littlefoot's Mom (The Land Before Time)
4. Charlotte (Charlotte's Webb)
3. Wallace (The Wire)
2. Old Yeller (Old Yeller)
1. Old Dan and Little Anne (Where The Red Fern Grows)
No.10 - And finally...
It took a while before I could get in for an appointment, but I finally went in for a physical this week.
Outside of needing to keep an eye on my blood pressure, everything tested just fine.
Fellas, get in and see your doctor and get a check up. We've lost too many Orangebloods lately to take any chances.
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