Ketch's 10 Thoughts From The Weekend (You down with O.P.P.?)
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Sorry for your loss.
Nearly a generation ago, a mellifluous poet named Anthony "Treach" Criss from East Orange, New Jersey asked a question that will last for the ages.
"You down with O.P.P.?"
Somewhere this weekend, I imaged Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian bopping his head to the song with a cocksure smile on his face and gleefully singing, "Yeah, you know me!"
Other. People's. Players.
It might just be the thing that saves Sarkisian's tenure in Austin following a 5-7 season that still leaves a stench that the Texas football staff has been working to clear out of the 40 Acres for nearly two months.
As much as everyone loves the makeup of the crop of 2022 high school prospects that signed with the program five weeks ago, the reality is that it's not completely crazy to believe that the true program-shaping dividends of the class might not begin to occur until the 2024 season. Think about it ... when Mack Brown signed his infamous 2002 recruiting class, all of that historic group's firepower didn't change the outlook of the 2002 and 2003 seasons. It wasn't until Vince Young and Co.'s third season on campus that tangible strides towards the mountaintop took place.
Although the timeframe might not fulfill everyone's dire thirst to end the malice that has occurred in the football program's trophy case for the last decade-plus, it's not unrealistic.
The problem that Sarkisian had two months ago when looking towards the future was that the bridge between the 2021 season and the 2024 season in 33 months was ... dare I say ... a bit treacherous. With an unbalanced roster full of questions in all three phases of the game, Sarkisian has to win enough games that he can make it to 2024 without being on a scorching hot seat. Sarkisian was hired to take a program that was living in the eight- or nine-win land of unsatisfactory top-25 finishes to the next level. Not getting there in three years, let alone overseeing a regression, wasn't going to cut it.
Other. People's. Players.
Consider what has been added to a 5-7 team that was good enough to lead the likes of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Baylor in the second half of games, but bad enough to lose at home to Kansas:
* A quarterback in Quinn Ewers, who some people like Mike Farrell regard so highly that they believe he'll be the No. 1 overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, even though he's never thrown a pass in a game at the collegiate level. Even Ewers’ biggest detractors, which are very hard to find, believe that he's a future NFL quarterback, and only the details of his draft position are worthy of debate.
* A wide receiver in Isaiah Neyor who was a second-team All-Mountain West player in 2021 and gives the Longhorns arguably the most dynamic 1-2 receiver punch in all of college football.
* A tight end in Jahleel Billingsley, who has NFL upside, was good enough to play quite a bit for Alabama in each of the last two seasons and at the very least allows the Longhorns to upgrade a position that was held down by a less capable player a season ago.
* A defensive back in Ryan Watts who started the 2021 season-opener for Ohio State, played in 19 games as a young player for the Buckeyes and tied for the team lead (2) in interceptions as a sophomore.
This group of four represents a large infusion of talent that won't just improve the team's first-22, but it won't take three seasons to do so. By the time the Longhorns are done with the transfer portal this season, they hope to add an impact edge player, a starting-level safety and an inside linebacker. All told, this off-season might conclude with nearly 1/3 of the 2022 starting line-up being held down by incoming transfers.
It's impossible to know how all of this is going to end up. Maybe all these dudes have career years. Maybe there are injuries. Maybe they struggle in transition. This isn't a column about predictions. It's a column about acknowledging that we're watching this roster improve in a lot of key areas this off-season in instant fashion.
The combination of the portal and the flood of bodies that entered the portal in such quick fashion that the NCAA had to amend its rules related to the number of incoming players a school can add in a given year has opened the door for Sarkisian in a way that history has never allowed for any previous Texas head coach coming off of a poor season.
Taking advantage of it is paramount to Sarkisian's future and no one can argue that he's not doing so on paper with 7+ months until the start of the 2022 season.
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), you down with OPP (Yeah you know me)
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), who's down with OPP (Every last homie)
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), you down with OPP (Yeah you know me)
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), who's down with OPP (All the homies)
No. 2 - The two big questions for 2022 ...
a. Can the offensive line be good enough?
Texas seems absolutely loaded with weapons. It will enter the 2022 season with arguably the best running back in the nation, a 1-2 punch at wide receiver that Ohio State would approve of and possibly the most-talented tight end room I've ever seen on the 40 Acres. Hell, it might have a generational talent at quarterback.
Sarkisian has toys that Batman would be envious of.
On paper, it all looks pretty damn sexy, but then you look at the job Kyle Flood is going to be responsible for and ... hoo-boy. It's possible that multiple dudes that will be counted on to start games haven't graduated from high school. One of them might not even be publicly committed. Forgive me while I channel my inner Elmo.
b. Can this defense be good enough?
Perhaps the answer to this question will come in the form of a few more incoming transfers, but as things currently stand, it's still a team without a known plus-player off the edge as a pass rusher, has questions at inside linebacker and safety, lacks proven playmakers throughout the lineup and has a defensive coordinator (Pete Kwiatkowski) that must prove that he can take all of these parts and do something with them east of the Rocky Mountains.
No. 3 - When little birdies are only 85-percent correct ...
Can't really run away from it. Latavious Brini ain't going to Texas unless the coaches can pull a magic act pretty quickly and I had been reporting with gusto that the kid would likely end up in Austin.
I got it wrong on a projection.
It doesn't feel like it happens a ton because I don't remember having to write a ton of these mea culpas, but I'm writing one today.
Honestly, I can't blame little birdies from Saturday night because the vibes we were getting on Brini for the last few days were pointing to Texas as well. Our Arkansas sources were saying Texas. Texas folks seemed confident. Even people with no skin in the recruitment were hearing Texas. Hell, Brini kept answering our phone calls, which almost never happens with transfers.
Yet, here we are. Egg on my face and a still pretty large hole in the secondary for the Longhorns that still needs to be filled in the coming months.
So, what happened?
As of the moment I'm writing this, I'm not sure. There are two things that jump out to me.
a. Maybe he just couldn't leave the SEC once he started the final decision-making process, which seems to be the norm with kids transferring from SEC schools when they have SEC options.
b. Maybe Arkansas offered a better ... ahem ... set of NIL deals.
At the end of the day, the reasons don't really matter. You either win or lose in these situations. Ain't no one got time for excuses.
On to the next one ...
No. 4 - Scattershooting about the Scholarship Board ...
... The commitment of Neyor has the Longhorns sitting on 31 incoming players (27 high school players and 4 transfers) for the 2022 recruiting class, which means that they have two spots remaining before they hit the limit. Just to keep reminding everyone, for every player they go above 33, they will need to have one of the players that signed with the program in December take a gray/blue-shirt and reclassify for the 2023 recruiting year.
... With a running back that most figure to turn pro following this season, the Longhorns could be one transfer away from a senior class in 2023 that sits in single digits before a few potential transfers come in.
... 70.5% of the current pre-additional attrition roster is either a sophomore, redshirt freshman or true freshman.
... As a reminder, all super seniors are currently scheduled to be counted in the 85-man scholarship numbers. There's hope that all super seniors will be removed out of the 85-man accounting as they were a season ago, but multiple NCAA sources told me this week that it would be a mistake to take the idea that it will absolutely happen for granted. As things currently stand, the Longhorns will need five players to leave the program before August to get under the 85-man limit or six if they take the full 33 incoming players that are allowed, as expected.
... Losing players to attrition only allows the Longhorns to get under the 85-man number. It does not open up more room to take more players.
... It's interesting to remember that the Longhorns might have already settled this starting ILB question mark had they been able to close the deal with USC's Palaie Gaoteote, who chose Ohio State and was then kept from playing in 2021 by the NCAA.
View attachment 2104
No. 5 - The No Fireworks Junior Day ...
In a world where the expectations are numerous commitments from elite prospects, Saturday's Junior Day on the 40 Acres will be seen as a disappointment.
In a world where the expectations don't include numerous commitments from elite prospects because those types of early floods in February seem more and more unlikely to occur, the weekend can be seen as a low-key success.
It really comes down to your point of view.
On one hand, the elite of the elite 2023 recruits didn't arrive in droves.
On the other hand, it sure seemed like a lot of 2024 and 2025 names of note did show up in droves.
Personally, I view this weekend as chopping wood. As I've said numerous times, it has to be the goal of the Longhorns to get every in-state prospect they ever desire to make at least a half-dozen trips to the 40 Acres before they make eventual decisions. A lot of kids made one of those half-dozen trips on Saturday. Fifteen of those visitors were officially offered this weekend.
I'm not sure that we'll look back at Saturday as a shape-shifting moment, but when you consider that the sentiment from those in attendance was far from indifferent in the best way possible, I'm taking the overall net impact as a hugely positive one.
No. 6 - Gary Patterson is in da house ...
It's kind of shocking to see how seamlessly Gary Patterson has adjusted to life in burnt orange.
When he's not been the first person to arrive in the office, he's chilled with Chris Del Conte in a suite at the Erwin Center or been seen hamming it up with high school recruits at a Junior Day event in Texas gear.
It's just weird to see. It's even weirder that he's being used as a bit of a rock star upon his arrival. It felt like every time I refreshed Twitter on Saturday that someone was sharing a photo of Patterson sporting a huge grin with a prospect next to him on the 40 Acres.
I'm still not sure what his actual role is, but being everywhere seems to be part of whatever to-do-list exists.
A few random thoughts related to the Patterson phenomenon.
a. The football program is definitely better with him in IT. You can't have enough valuable assets and he's a valuable asset.
b. Chris Del Conte has to host Pete Kwiatkowski in his box in the next couple of weeks, right?
c. I'd love to know what Kwiatkowski thinks about all of this because it's not something any of us could describe as usual. I've been covering Texas athletics for 25+ years and I don't ever remember seeing a football assistant coach/special assistant to the head coach chilling with a Texas AD in his suite, mostly because they are just good friends. It's hard not to remember Tom Herman bringing in Chris Ash to audit the defense in October of 2019 as an analyst, only to see Herman replace Todd Orlando with Ash a couple of months later.
d. That Junior Day had to have been a dream come true for a recruiting junkie like Patterson, who has worked his entire career and never quite had a day with so many prospects in so many classes all on his campus in one setting. Welcome to Texas, Gary. It has some perks.
No. 7 – BUY or SELL …
(Buy) That is absolutely perfect.
(Sell) The Palaie Gaoteote recruitment last year had its share of twists and turns, The moral of the last week might be to remember that the most wild, wild West stuff happening in college football is happening with the kids in the portal. It's like a Penn and Teller magic trick. One moment, it looks like one thing and then the very next moment, it swings wildly.
(Buy) It seems important to remember that the coaches thought this last year as well.
(Sell) Neyor is a better immediate option, but I think he's only going to be in Austin for one season, while A&M will get three seasons of Stewart unless he eventually enters the Portal, which seems very possible.
(Buy) Oh yeah. It remains to be seen how some of these questions are going to be answered if the delay to enter the SEC goes beyond 2023. I'm curious to see if Sarkisian is asked about this on the next signing day.
(Sell) Nah.
(Buy) It seems like he's going to stay until he gets his business school degree and then all bets are off after that.
(Buy) Yeah, why not?
(Sell) I think it's Campbell and then continued shopping in the Portal.
(Sell) It has not crossed my mind. Not even once.
(Buy) It remains to be seen whether the Longhorns will have a better shot with the next DB prospect than they did with Brini.
No. 8 - Scattershooting on the sports weekend ...
... The Texas basketball team is about to go through the gauntlet in the Big 12 and it's anyone's guess how it turns out. Take a look at this upcoming schedule:
at TCU
vs. No.24 Tennessee
at No.19 Texas Tech
vs. No.15 Iowa State
vs. No.7 Kansas
at No.5 Baylor
at Oklahoma
vs. No.18 Texas Tech
vs. TCU
at West Virginia
vs. No.5 Baylor
at No.7 Kansas
... The NFL playoffs did not cheat us this weekend. Matt Stafford was better than Tom Brady. Jimmy Garoppolo might have ended the Packers career of Aaron Rodgers. The Bengals are in the AFC Championship game. Wow, what a weekend.
... I've been as big of a supporter of Aaron Rodgers in an all-time quarterbacks discussion as they come, but there's no getting around the fact that he's 0-4 all-time against the 49ers in the playoffs and was so ineffective on Saturday night. He's 0-2 against both Garoppolo and Colin Kaepernick when it matters most.
... I'd have quite a hard time getting over that loss in this off-season if I happened to be a Packers fan. Holy cow, talk about stealing defeat from the jaws of victory!
... Cooper. Freaking. Kupp. How do you give him single coverage in that situation?
... Ryan Tannehill just isn't good enough.
... Starting to feel like that was Tom Brady's last game.
... In the biggest game of his career to date, Stafford was pretty great.
... Debo Samuel can play on my team any time he wants to.
... If you had told me after Green Bay's opening drive that it would only score three more points the rest of the way, I just wouldn't have believed it.
... Maybe the Titans should have rolled with D'Onta Foreman...
... The Sixers better get something for Ben Simmons ... now. They cannot waste this Joel Embiid season. He's got the glow.
... I had no idea of what happened at UFC 270 until almost 6 p.m. on Sunday evening. That NFL shadow on Saturday night in January is large.
No. 9 - An early look at my Oscars favorites ...
I can't say that I've seen all of the favorites. I can't say that this will be anywhere close to what the final results in a couple of months.
What I can tell you is that I have seen enough movies in the last year that I feel confident in putting out my first Oscars rankings list of the year.
Feel free to tell me what I'm missing.
Best Picture
1. Dune
2. The Tragedy of Macbeth
3. CODA
4. The Lost Daughter
5. The Power of the Dog
Best Actor
1. Denzel Washington - The Tragedy of Macbeth
2. Andrew Garfield - Tick, Tick… Boom
3. Benedict Cumberbatch - The Power of the Dog
4. Leonardo DiCaprio - Don’t Look Up
Best Actress
1. Olivia Colman - The Lost Daughter
2. Frances McDormand - The Tragedy of Macbeth
3. Emilia Jones - CODA
4. Jennifer Lawrence - Don’t Look Up
5. Jodie Comer- The Last Duel
Best Supporting Actor
1. Kodi Smit-McPhee - The Power of the Dog
2. Ben Affleck - The Tender Bar
3. Troy Kotsure - CODA
4. Jonah Hill - Don’t Look Up
5. Ben Affleck - The Last Duel
Best Supporting Actress
1. Jessie Buckley - The Lost Daughter
2. Dakota Johnson - The Lost Daughter
3. Kirsten Dunst - The Power of the Dog
4. Marlee Matlin - CODA
5. Cate Blanchett - Don’t Look Up
Best Director
1. Denis Villeneuve - Dune
2. Joel Coen - The Tragedy of Macbeth
3. Jane Champion- The Power of the Dog
4. Maggie Gyllenhaal - The Lost Daughter
5. Sian Heder - CODA
No. 10 - And Finally...
I lost my dog this week.
My original plan was to dedicate a special section in this column to Bradie, my 15-year-old Weim, but I'm just not emotionally ready to do it. It would have wrecked me and made writing this rest of the column impossible.
I miss my best friend.
My wife jokes that we should name the dog after a Dallas Cowboys player because of my fandom.
The only player on the Cowboys with a name that could be used as both a she/he was Bradie James.
Bradie James was also one of the first recruits I ever interviewed on the phone, so there was a sentimental aspect of that as well.
So, that's how Bradie happened.
So very sorry to hear about Bradie. Takes time. Stay busy. Maybe a short road trip somewhere. I know your pain.
Nearly a generation ago, a mellifluous poet named Anthony "Treach" Criss from East Orange, New Jersey asked a question that will last for the ages.
"You down with O.P.P.?"
Somewhere this weekend, I imaged Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian bopping his head to the song with a cocksure smile on his face and gleefully singing, "Yeah, you know me!"
Other. People's. Players.
It might just be the thing that saves Sarkisian's tenure in Austin following a 5-7 season that still leaves a stench that the Texas football staff has been working to clear out of the 40 Acres for nearly two months.
As much as everyone loves the makeup of the crop of 2022 high school prospects that signed with the program five weeks ago, the reality is that it's not completely crazy to believe that the true program-shaping dividends of the class might not begin to occur until the 2024 season. Think about it ... when Mack Brown signed his infamous 2002 recruiting class, all of that historic group's firepower didn't change the outlook of the 2002 and 2003 seasons. It wasn't until Vince Young and Co.'s third season on campus that tangible strides towards the mountaintop took place.
Although the timeframe might not fulfill everyone's dire thirst to end the malice that has occurred in the football program's trophy case for the last decade-plus, it's not unrealistic.
The problem that Sarkisian had two months ago when looking towards the future was that the bridge between the 2021 season and the 2024 season in 33 months was ... dare I say ... a bit treacherous. With an unbalanced roster full of questions in all three phases of the game, Sarkisian has to win enough games that he can make it to 2024 without being on a scorching hot seat. Sarkisian was hired to take a program that was living in the eight- or nine-win land of unsatisfactory top-25 finishes to the next level. Not getting there in three years, let alone overseeing a regression, wasn't going to cut it.
Other. People's. Players.
Consider what has been added to a 5-7 team that was good enough to lead the likes of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Baylor in the second half of games, but bad enough to lose at home to Kansas:
* A quarterback in Quinn Ewers, who some people like Mike Farrell regard so highly that they believe he'll be the No. 1 overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, even though he's never thrown a pass in a game at the collegiate level. Even Ewers’ biggest detractors, which are very hard to find, believe that he's a future NFL quarterback, and only the details of his draft position are worthy of debate.
* A wide receiver in Isaiah Neyor who was a second-team All-Mountain West player in 2021 and gives the Longhorns arguably the most dynamic 1-2 receiver punch in all of college football.
* A tight end in Jahleel Billingsley, who has NFL upside, was good enough to play quite a bit for Alabama in each of the last two seasons and at the very least allows the Longhorns to upgrade a position that was held down by a less capable player a season ago.
* A defensive back in Ryan Watts who started the 2021 season-opener for Ohio State, played in 19 games as a young player for the Buckeyes and tied for the team lead (2) in interceptions as a sophomore.
This group of four represents a large infusion of talent that won't just improve the team's first-22, but it won't take three seasons to do so. By the time the Longhorns are done with the transfer portal this season, they hope to add an impact edge player, a starting-level safety and an inside linebacker. All told, this off-season might conclude with nearly 1/3 of the 2022 starting line-up being held down by incoming transfers.
It's impossible to know how all of this is going to end up. Maybe all these dudes have career years. Maybe there are injuries. Maybe they struggle in transition. This isn't a column about predictions. It's a column about acknowledging that we're watching this roster improve in a lot of key areas this off-season in instant fashion.
The combination of the portal and the flood of bodies that entered the portal in such quick fashion that the NCAA had to amend its rules related to the number of incoming players a school can add in a given year has opened the door for Sarkisian in a way that history has never allowed for any previous Texas head coach coming off of a poor season.
Taking advantage of it is paramount to Sarkisian's future and no one can argue that he's not doing so on paper with 7+ months until the start of the 2022 season.
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), you down with OPP (Yeah you know me)
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), who's down with OPP (Every last homie)
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), you down with OPP (Yeah you know me)
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), who's down with OPP (All the homies)
No. 2 - The two big questions for 2022 ...
a. Can the offensive line be good enough?
Texas seems absolutely loaded with weapons. It will enter the 2022 season with arguably the best running back in the nation, a 1-2 punch at wide receiver that Ohio State would approve of and possibly the most-talented tight end room I've ever seen on the 40 Acres. Hell, it might have a generational talent at quarterback.
Sarkisian has toys that Batman would be envious of.
On paper, it all looks pretty damn sexy, but then you look at the job Kyle Flood is going to be responsible for and ... hoo-boy. It's possible that multiple dudes that will be counted on to start games haven't graduated from high school. One of them might not even be publicly committed. Forgive me while I channel my inner Elmo.
b. Can this defense be good enough?
Perhaps the answer to this question will come in the form of a few more incoming transfers, but as things currently stand, it's still a team without a known plus-player off the edge as a pass rusher, has questions at inside linebacker and safety, lacks proven playmakers throughout the lineup and has a defensive coordinator (Pete Kwiatkowski) that must prove that he can take all of these parts and do something with them east of the Rocky Mountains.
No. 3 - When little birdies are only 85-percent correct ...
Can't really run away from it. Latavious Brini ain't going to Texas unless the coaches can pull a magic act pretty quickly and I had been reporting with gusto that the kid would likely end up in Austin.
I got it wrong on a projection.
It doesn't feel like it happens a ton because I don't remember having to write a ton of these mea culpas, but I'm writing one today.
Honestly, I can't blame little birdies from Saturday night because the vibes we were getting on Brini for the last few days were pointing to Texas as well. Our Arkansas sources were saying Texas. Texas folks seemed confident. Even people with no skin in the recruitment were hearing Texas. Hell, Brini kept answering our phone calls, which almost never happens with transfers.
Yet, here we are. Egg on my face and a still pretty large hole in the secondary for the Longhorns that still needs to be filled in the coming months.
So, what happened?
As of the moment I'm writing this, I'm not sure. There are two things that jump out to me.
a. Maybe he just couldn't leave the SEC once he started the final decision-making process, which seems to be the norm with kids transferring from SEC schools when they have SEC options.
b. Maybe Arkansas offered a better ... ahem ... set of NIL deals.
At the end of the day, the reasons don't really matter. You either win or lose in these situations. Ain't no one got time for excuses.
On to the next one ...
No. 4 - Scattershooting about the Scholarship Board ...
... The commitment of Neyor has the Longhorns sitting on 31 incoming players (27 high school players and 4 transfers) for the 2022 recruiting class, which means that they have two spots remaining before they hit the limit. Just to keep reminding everyone, for every player they go above 33, they will need to have one of the players that signed with the program in December take a gray/blue-shirt and reclassify for the 2023 recruiting year.
... With a running back that most figure to turn pro following this season, the Longhorns could be one transfer away from a senior class in 2023 that sits in single digits before a few potential transfers come in.
... 70.5% of the current pre-additional attrition roster is either a sophomore, redshirt freshman or true freshman.
... As a reminder, all super seniors are currently scheduled to be counted in the 85-man scholarship numbers. There's hope that all super seniors will be removed out of the 85-man accounting as they were a season ago, but multiple NCAA sources told me this week that it would be a mistake to take the idea that it will absolutely happen for granted. As things currently stand, the Longhorns will need five players to leave the program before August to get under the 85-man limit or six if they take the full 33 incoming players that are allowed, as expected.
... Losing players to attrition only allows the Longhorns to get under the 85-man number. It does not open up more room to take more players.
... It's interesting to remember that the Longhorns might have already settled this starting ILB question mark had they been able to close the deal with USC's Palaie Gaoteote, who chose Ohio State and was then kept from playing in 2021 by the NCAA.
View attachment 2104
No. 5 - The No Fireworks Junior Day ...
In a world where the expectations are numerous commitments from elite prospects, Saturday's Junior Day on the 40 Acres will be seen as a disappointment.
In a world where the expectations don't include numerous commitments from elite prospects because those types of early floods in February seem more and more unlikely to occur, the weekend can be seen as a low-key success.
It really comes down to your point of view.
On one hand, the elite of the elite 2023 recruits didn't arrive in droves.
On the other hand, it sure seemed like a lot of 2024 and 2025 names of note did show up in droves.
Personally, I view this weekend as chopping wood. As I've said numerous times, it has to be the goal of the Longhorns to get every in-state prospect they ever desire to make at least a half-dozen trips to the 40 Acres before they make eventual decisions. A lot of kids made one of those half-dozen trips on Saturday. Fifteen of those visitors were officially offered this weekend.
I'm not sure that we'll look back at Saturday as a shape-shifting moment, but when you consider that the sentiment from those in attendance was far from indifferent in the best way possible, I'm taking the overall net impact as a hugely positive one.
No. 6 - Gary Patterson is in da house ...
It's kind of shocking to see how seamlessly Gary Patterson has adjusted to life in burnt orange.
When he's not been the first person to arrive in the office, he's chilled with Chris Del Conte in a suite at the Erwin Center or been seen hamming it up with high school recruits at a Junior Day event in Texas gear.
It's just weird to see. It's even weirder that he's being used as a bit of a rock star upon his arrival. It felt like every time I refreshed Twitter on Saturday that someone was sharing a photo of Patterson sporting a huge grin with a prospect next to him on the 40 Acres.
I'm still not sure what his actual role is, but being everywhere seems to be part of whatever to-do-list exists.
A few random thoughts related to the Patterson phenomenon.
a. The football program is definitely better with him in IT. You can't have enough valuable assets and he's a valuable asset.
b. Chris Del Conte has to host Pete Kwiatkowski in his box in the next couple of weeks, right?
c. I'd love to know what Kwiatkowski thinks about all of this because it's not something any of us could describe as usual. I've been covering Texas athletics for 25+ years and I don't ever remember seeing a football assistant coach/special assistant to the head coach chilling with a Texas AD in his suite, mostly because they are just good friends. It's hard not to remember Tom Herman bringing in Chris Ash to audit the defense in October of 2019 as an analyst, only to see Herman replace Todd Orlando with Ash a couple of months later.
d. That Junior Day had to have been a dream come true for a recruiting junkie like Patterson, who has worked his entire career and never quite had a day with so many prospects in so many classes all on his campus in one setting. Welcome to Texas, Gary. It has some perks.
No. 7 – BUY or SELL …
(Buy) That is absolutely perfect.
(Sell) The Palaie Gaoteote recruitment last year had its share of twists and turns, The moral of the last week might be to remember that the most wild, wild West stuff happening in college football is happening with the kids in the portal. It's like a Penn and Teller magic trick. One moment, it looks like one thing and then the very next moment, it swings wildly.
(Buy) It seems important to remember that the coaches thought this last year as well.
(Sell) Neyor is a better immediate option, but I think he's only going to be in Austin for one season, while A&M will get three seasons of Stewart unless he eventually enters the Portal, which seems very possible.
(Buy) Oh yeah. It remains to be seen how some of these questions are going to be answered if the delay to enter the SEC goes beyond 2023. I'm curious to see if Sarkisian is asked about this on the next signing day.
(Sell) Nah.
(Buy) It seems like he's going to stay until he gets his business school degree and then all bets are off after that.
(Buy) Yeah, why not?
(Sell) I think it's Campbell and then continued shopping in the Portal.
(Sell) It has not crossed my mind. Not even once.
(Buy) It remains to be seen whether the Longhorns will have a better shot with the next DB prospect than they did with Brini.
No. 8 - Scattershooting on the sports weekend ...
... The Texas basketball team is about to go through the gauntlet in the Big 12 and it's anyone's guess how it turns out. Take a look at this upcoming schedule:
at TCU
vs. No.24 Tennessee
at No.19 Texas Tech
vs. No.15 Iowa State
vs. No.7 Kansas
at No.5 Baylor
at Oklahoma
vs. No.18 Texas Tech
vs. TCU
at West Virginia
vs. No.5 Baylor
at No.7 Kansas
... The NFL playoffs did not cheat us this weekend. Matt Stafford was better than Tom Brady. Jimmy Garoppolo might have ended the Packers career of Aaron Rodgers. The Bengals are in the AFC Championship game. Wow, what a weekend.
... I've been as big of a supporter of Aaron Rodgers in an all-time quarterbacks discussion as they come, but there's no getting around the fact that he's 0-4 all-time against the 49ers in the playoffs and was so ineffective on Saturday night. He's 0-2 against both Garoppolo and Colin Kaepernick when it matters most.
... I'd have quite a hard time getting over that loss in this off-season if I happened to be a Packers fan. Holy cow, talk about stealing defeat from the jaws of victory!
... Cooper. Freaking. Kupp. How do you give him single coverage in that situation?
... Ryan Tannehill just isn't good enough.
... Starting to feel like that was Tom Brady's last game.
... In the biggest game of his career to date, Stafford was pretty great.
... Debo Samuel can play on my team any time he wants to.
... If you had told me after Green Bay's opening drive that it would only score three more points the rest of the way, I just wouldn't have believed it.
... Maybe the Titans should have rolled with D'Onta Foreman...
... The Sixers better get something for Ben Simmons ... now. They cannot waste this Joel Embiid season. He's got the glow.
... I had no idea of what happened at UFC 270 until almost 6 p.m. on Sunday evening. That NFL shadow on Saturday night in January is large.
No. 9 - An early look at my Oscars favorites ...
I can't say that I've seen all of the favorites. I can't say that this will be anywhere close to what the final results in a couple of months.
What I can tell you is that I have seen enough movies in the last year that I feel confident in putting out my first Oscars rankings list of the year.
Feel free to tell me what I'm missing.
Best Picture
1. Dune
2. The Tragedy of Macbeth
3. CODA
4. The Lost Daughter
5. The Power of the Dog
Best Actor
1. Denzel Washington - The Tragedy of Macbeth
2. Andrew Garfield - Tick, Tick… Boom
3. Benedict Cumberbatch - The Power of the Dog
4. Leonardo DiCaprio - Don’t Look Up
Best Actress
1. Olivia Colman - The Lost Daughter
2. Frances McDormand - The Tragedy of Macbeth
3. Emilia Jones - CODA
4. Jennifer Lawrence - Don’t Look Up
5. Jodie Comer- The Last Duel
Best Supporting Actor
1. Kodi Smit-McPhee - The Power of the Dog
2. Ben Affleck - The Tender Bar
3. Troy Kotsure - CODA
4. Jonah Hill - Don’t Look Up
5. Ben Affleck - The Last Duel
Best Supporting Actress
1. Jessie Buckley - The Lost Daughter
2. Dakota Johnson - The Lost Daughter
3. Kirsten Dunst - The Power of the Dog
4. Marlee Matlin - CODA
5. Cate Blanchett - Don’t Look Up
Best Director
1. Denis Villeneuve - Dune
2. Joel Coen - The Tragedy of Macbeth
3. Jane Champion- The Power of the Dog
4. Maggie Gyllenhaal - The Lost Daughter
5. Sian Heder - CODA
No. 10 - And Finally...
I lost my dog this week.
My original plan was to dedicate a special section in this column to Bradie, my 15-year-old Weim, but I'm just not emotionally ready to do it. It would have wrecked me and made writing this rest of the column impossible.
I miss my best friend.
Ketch I am sorry about your dog. We lost our pair of 14 year old whippets 3 years ago only a couple of months apart. It’s tough. When people die we have funerals and obituaries and wakes. We get a little time to process when people pass. When a dog who is a core member of a family dies we just have to go on with life like nothing has happened. Three years later and we have 3 dogs who we love as much as our previous ones. It took some time but luckily there is no shortage of dogs To be had. When it feels right go out and find another dog. It won’t be the same but it will still be good. I tried to post this from a plane last night and it wouldn’t work. Fingers crossed it works today.
No, not all. ; ) Sorry about your little buddy. Hope all is well with the Ketchum’s otherwise.
Just the visual of that scholarship board makes my head hurt. We couldn't field a Tiddlywinks Team out of that Junior Class. Multiple position groups with zero juniors ... which means zero seniors in '23. And after Bijan bolts at the end of this year for the NFL that class will look even worse. And of course, the Senior Class isn't much better.
Weren't those pretty decent recruiting years for Herman? Where have all the players gone?
And I expect Sark to whip out the old "we're just so young" excuse when we lose some game midseason to a team that we should beat ... just like Herman did on occasions when he couldn't keep any producing upper classmen on the team.
Weren't those pretty decent recruiting years for Herman? Where have all the players gone?
And I expect Sark to whip out the old "we're just so young" excuse when we lose some game midseason to a team that we should beat ... just like Herman did on occasions when he couldn't keep any producing upper classmen on the team.
I think you will like them. What did you think of Nightmare Alley? That's probably the fourth or fifth best film I've seen all year. Guillermo del Toro never fails to deliver.
Great post.
Nearly a generation ago, a mellifluous poet named Anthony "Treach" Criss from East Orange, New Jersey asked a question that will last for the ages.
"You down with O.P.P.?"
Somewhere this weekend, I imaged Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian bopping his head to the song with a cocksure smile on his face and gleefully singing, "Yeah, you know me!"
Other. People's. Players.
It might just be the thing that saves Sarkisian's tenure in Austin following a 5-7 season that still leaves a stench that the Texas football staff has been working to clear out of the 40 Acres for nearly two months.
As much as everyone loves the makeup of the crop of 2022 high school prospects that signed with the program five weeks ago, the reality is that it's not completely crazy to believe that the true program-shaping dividends of the class might not begin to occur until the 2024 season. Think about it ... when Mack Brown signed his infamous 2002 recruiting class, all of that historic group's firepower didn't change the outlook of the 2002 and 2003 seasons. It wasn't until Vince Young and Co.'s third season on campus that tangible strides towards the mountaintop took place.
Although the timeframe might not fulfill everyone's dire thirst to end the malice that has occurred in the football program's trophy case for the last decade-plus, it's not unrealistic.
The problem that Sarkisian had two months ago when looking towards the future was that the bridge between the 2021 season and the 2024 season in 33 months was ... dare I say ... a bit treacherous. With an unbalanced roster full of questions in all three phases of the game, Sarkisian has to win enough games that he can make it to 2024 without being on a scorching hot seat. Sarkisian was hired to take a program that was living in the eight- or nine-win land of unsatisfactory top-25 finishes to the next level. Not getting there in three years, let alone overseeing a regression, wasn't going to cut it.
Other. People's. Players.
Consider what has been added to a 5-7 team that was good enough to lead the likes of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Baylor in the second half of games, but bad enough to lose at home to Kansas:
* A quarterback in Quinn Ewers, who some people like Mike Farrell regard so highly that they believe he'll be the No. 1 overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, even though he's never thrown a pass in a game at the collegiate level. Even Ewers’ biggest detractors, which are very hard to find, believe that he's a future NFL quarterback, and only the details of his draft position are worthy of debate.
* A wide receiver in Isaiah Neyor who was a second-team All-Mountain West player in 2021 and gives the Longhorns arguably the most dynamic 1-2 receiver punch in all of college football.
* A tight end in Jahleel Billingsley, who has NFL upside, was good enough to play quite a bit for Alabama in each of the last two seasons and at the very least allows the Longhorns to upgrade a position that was held down by a less capable player a season ago.
* A defensive back in Ryan Watts who started the 2021 season-opener for Ohio State, played in 19 games as a young player for the Buckeyes and tied for the team lead (2) in interceptions as a sophomore.
This group of four represents a large infusion of talent that won't just improve the team's first-22, but it won't take three seasons to do so. By the time the Longhorns are done with the transfer portal this season, they hope to add an impact edge player, a starting-level safety and an inside linebacker. All told, this off-season might conclude with nearly 1/3 of the 2022 starting line-up being held down by incoming transfers.
It's impossible to know how all of this is going to end up. Maybe all these dudes have career years. Maybe there are injuries. Maybe they struggle in transition. This isn't a column about predictions. It's a column about acknowledging that we're watching this roster improve in a lot of key areas this off-season in instant fashion.
The combination of the portal and the flood of bodies that entered the portal in such quick fashion that the NCAA had to amend its rules related to the number of incoming players a school can add in a given year has opened the door for Sarkisian in a way that history has never allowed for any previous Texas head coach coming off of a poor season.
Taking advantage of it is paramount to Sarkisian's future and no one can argue that he's not doing so on paper with 7+ months until the start of the 2022 season.
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), you down with OPP (Yeah you know me)
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), who's down with OPP (Every last homie)
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), you down with OPP (Yeah you know me)
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), who's down with OPP (All the homies)
No. 2 - The two big questions for 2022 ...
a. Can the offensive line be good enough?
Texas seems absolutely loaded with weapons. It will enter the 2022 season with arguably the best running back in the nation, a 1-2 punch at wide receiver that Ohio State would approve of and possibly the most-talented tight end room I've ever seen on the 40 Acres. Hell, it might have a generational talent at quarterback.
Sarkisian has toys that Batman would be envious of.
On paper, it all looks pretty damn sexy, but then you look at the job Kyle Flood is going to be responsible for and ... hoo-boy. It's possible that multiple dudes that will be counted on to start games haven't graduated from high school. One of them might not even be publicly committed. Forgive me while I channel my inner Elmo.
b. Can this defense be good enough?
Perhaps the answer to this question will come in the form of a few more incoming transfers, but as things currently stand, it's still a team without a known plus-player off the edge as a pass rusher, has questions at inside linebacker and safety, lacks proven playmakers throughout the lineup and has a defensive coordinator (Pete Kwiatkowski) that must prove that he can take all of these parts and do something with them east of the Rocky Mountains.
No. 3 - When little birdies are only 85-percent correct ...
Can't really run away from it. Latavious Brini ain't going to Texas unless the coaches can pull a magic act pretty quickly and I had been reporting with gusto that the kid would likely end up in Austin.
I got it wrong on a projection.
It doesn't feel like it happens a ton because I don't remember having to write a ton of these mea culpas, but I'm writing one today.
Honestly, I can't blame little birdies from Saturday night because the vibes we were getting on Brini for the last few days were pointing to Texas as well. Our Arkansas sources were saying Texas. Texas folks seemed confident. Even people with no skin in the recruitment were hearing Texas. Hell, Brini kept answering our phone calls, which almost never happens with transfers.
Yet, here we are. Egg on my face and a still pretty large hole in the secondary for the Longhorns that still needs to be filled in the coming months.
So, what happened?
As of the moment I'm writing this, I'm not sure. There are two things that jump out to me.
a. Maybe he just couldn't leave the SEC once he started the final decision-making process, which seems to be the norm with kids transferring from SEC schools when they have SEC options.
b. Maybe Arkansas offered a better ... ahem ... set of NIL deals.
At the end of the day, the reasons don't really matter. You either win or lose in these situations. Ain't no one got time for excuses.
On to the next one ...
No. 4 - Scattershooting about the Scholarship Board ...
... The commitment of Neyor has the Longhorns sitting on 31 incoming players (27 high school players and 4 transfers) for the 2022 recruiting class, which means that they have two spots remaining before they hit the limit. Just to keep reminding everyone, for every player they go above 33, they will need to have one of the players that signed with the program in December take a gray/blue-shirt and reclassify for the 2023 recruiting year.
... With a running back that most figure to turn pro following this season, the Longhorns could be one transfer away from a senior class in 2023 that sits in single digits before a few potential transfers come in.
... 70.5% of the current pre-additional attrition roster is either a sophomore, redshirt freshman or true freshman.
... As a reminder, all super seniors are currently scheduled to be counted in the 85-man scholarship numbers. There's hope that all super seniors will be removed out of the 85-man accounting as they were a season ago, but multiple NCAA sources told me this week that it would be a mistake to take the idea that it will absolutely happen for granted. As things currently stand, the Longhorns will need five players to leave the program before August to get under the 85-man limit or six if they take the full 33 incoming players that are allowed, as expected.
... Losing players to attrition only allows the Longhorns to get under the 85-man number. It does not open up more room to take more players.
... It's interesting to remember that the Longhorns might have already settled this starting ILB question mark had they been able to close the deal with USC's Palaie Gaoteote, who chose Ohio State and was then kept from playing in 2021 by the NCAA.
View attachment 2104
No. 5 - The No Fireworks Junior Day ...
In a world where the expectations are numerous commitments from elite prospects, Saturday's Junior Day on the 40 Acres will be seen as a disappointment.
In a world where the expectations don't include numerous commitments from elite prospects because those types of early floods in February seem more and more unlikely to occur, the weekend can be seen as a low-key success.
It really comes down to your point of view.
On one hand, the elite of the elite 2023 recruits didn't arrive in droves.
On the other hand, it sure seemed like a lot of 2024 and 2025 names of note did show up in droves.
Personally, I view this weekend as chopping wood. As I've said numerous times, it has to be the goal of the Longhorns to get every in-state prospect they ever desire to make at least a half-dozen trips to the 40 Acres before they make eventual decisions. A lot of kids made one of those half-dozen trips on Saturday. Fifteen of those visitors were officially offered this weekend.
I'm not sure that we'll look back at Saturday as a shape-shifting moment, but when you consider that the sentiment from those in attendance was far from indifferent in the best way possible, I'm taking the overall net impact as a hugely positive one.
No. 6 - Gary Patterson is in da house ...
It's kind of shocking to see how seamlessly Gary Patterson has adjusted to life in burnt orange.
When he's not been the first person to arrive in the office, he's chilled with Chris Del Conte in a suite at the Erwin Center or been seen hamming it up with high school recruits at a Junior Day event in Texas gear.
It's just weird to see. It's even weirder that he's being used as a bit of a rock star upon his arrival. It felt like every time I refreshed Twitter on Saturday that someone was sharing a photo of Patterson sporting a huge grin with a prospect next to him on the 40 Acres.
I'm still not sure what his actual role is, but being everywhere seems to be part of whatever to-do-list exists.
A few random thoughts related to the Patterson phenomenon.
a. The football program is definitely better with him in IT. You can't have enough valuable assets and he's a valuable asset.
b. Chris Del Conte has to host Pete Kwiatkowski in his box in the next couple of weeks, right?
c. I'd love to know what Kwiatkowski thinks about all of this because it's not something any of us could describe as usual. I've been covering Texas athletics for 25+ years and I don't ever remember seeing a football assistant coach/special assistant to the head coach chilling with a Texas AD in his suite, mostly because they are just good friends. It's hard not to remember Tom Herman bringing in Chris Ash to audit the defense in October of 2019 as an analyst, only to see Herman replace Todd Orlando with Ash a couple of months later.
d. That Junior Day had to have been a dream come true for a recruiting junkie like Patterson, who has worked his entire career and never quite had a day with so many prospects in so many classes all on his campus in one setting. Welcome to Texas, Gary. It has some perks.
No. 7 – BUY or SELL …
(Buy) That is absolutely perfect.
(Sell) The Palaie Gaoteote recruitment last year had its share of twists and turns, The moral of the last week might be to remember that the most wild, wild West stuff happening in college football is happening with the kids in the portal. It's like a Penn and Teller magic trick. One moment, it looks like one thing and then the very next moment, it swings wildly.
(Buy) It seems important to remember that the coaches thought this last year as well.
(Sell) Neyor is a better immediate option, but I think he's only going to be in Austin for one season, while A&M will get three seasons of Stewart unless he eventually enters the Portal, which seems very possible.
(Buy) Oh yeah. It remains to be seen how some of these questions are going to be answered if the delay to enter the SEC goes beyond 2023. I'm curious to see if Sarkisian is asked about this on the next signing day.
(Sell) Nah.
(Buy) It seems like he's going to stay until he gets his business school degree and then all bets are off after that.
(Buy) Yeah, why not?
(Sell) I think it's Campbell and then continued shopping in the Portal.
(Sell) It has not crossed my mind. Not even once.
(Buy) It remains to be seen whether the Longhorns will have a better shot with the next DB prospect than they did with Brini.
No. 8 - Scattershooting on the sports weekend ...
... The Texas basketball team is about to go through the gauntlet in the Big 12 and it's anyone's guess how it turns out. Take a look at this upcoming schedule:
at TCU
vs. No.24 Tennessee
at No.19 Texas Tech
vs. No.15 Iowa State
vs. No.7 Kansas
at No.5 Baylor
at Oklahoma
vs. No.18 Texas Tech
vs. TCU
at West Virginia
vs. No.5 Baylor
at No.7 Kansas
... The NFL playoffs did not cheat us this weekend. Matt Stafford was better than Tom Brady. Jimmy Garoppolo might have ended the Packers career of Aaron Rodgers. The Bengals are in the AFC Championship game. Wow, what a weekend.
... I've been as big of a supporter of Aaron Rodgers in an all-time quarterbacks discussion as they come, but there's no getting around the fact that he's 0-4 all-time against the 49ers in the playoffs and was so ineffective on Saturday night. He's 0-2 against both Garoppolo and Colin Kaepernick when it matters most.
... I'd have quite a hard time getting over that loss in this off-season if I happened to be a Packers fan. Holy cow, talk about stealing defeat from the jaws of victory!
... Cooper. Freaking. Kupp. How do you give him single coverage in that situation?
... Ryan Tannehill just isn't good enough.
... Starting to feel like that was Tom Brady's last game.
... In the biggest game of his career to date, Stafford was pretty great.
... Debo Samuel can play on my team any time he wants to.
... If you had told me after Green Bay's opening drive that it would only score three more points the rest of the way, I just wouldn't have believed it.
... Maybe the Titans should have rolled with D'Onta Foreman...
... The Sixers better get something for Ben Simmons ... now. They cannot waste this Joel Embiid season. He's got the glow.
... I had no idea of what happened at UFC 270 until almost 6 p.m. on Sunday evening. That NFL shadow on Saturday night in January is large.
No. 9 - An early look at my Oscars favorites ...
I can't say that I've seen all of the favorites. I can't say that this will be anywhere close to what the final results in a couple of months.
What I can tell you is that I have seen enough movies in the last year that I feel confident in putting out my first Oscars rankings list of the year.
Feel free to tell me what I'm missing.
Best Picture
1. Dune
2. The Tragedy of Macbeth
3. CODA
4. The Lost Daughter
5. The Power of the Dog
Best Actor
1. Denzel Washington - The Tragedy of Macbeth
2. Andrew Garfield - Tick, Tick… Boom
3. Benedict Cumberbatch - The Power of the Dog
4. Leonardo DiCaprio - Don’t Look Up
Best Actress
1. Olivia Colman - The Lost Daughter
2. Frances McDormand - The Tragedy of Macbeth
3. Emilia Jones - CODA
4. Jennifer Lawrence - Don’t Look Up
5. Jodie Comer- The Last Duel
Best Supporting Actor
1. Kodi Smit-McPhee - The Power of the Dog
2. Ben Affleck - The Tender Bar
3. Troy Kotsure - CODA
4. Jonah Hill - Don’t Look Up
5. Ben Affleck - The Last Duel
Best Supporting Actress
1. Jessie Buckley - The Lost Daughter
2. Dakota Johnson - The Lost Daughter
3. Kirsten Dunst - The Power of the Dog
4. Marlee Matlin - CODA
5. Cate Blanchett - Don’t Look Up
Best Director
1. Denis Villeneuve - Dune
2. Joel Coen - The Tragedy of Macbeth
3. Jane Champion- The Power of the Dog
4. Maggie Gyllenhaal - The Lost Daughter
5. Sian Heder - CODA
No. 10 - And Finally...
I lost my dog this week.
My original plan was to dedicate a special section in this column to Bradie, my 15-year-old Weim, but I'm just not emotionally ready to do it. It would have wrecked me and made writing this rest of the column impossible.
I miss my best friend.
So sorry about the dog.
No Time to Die was a way better film than Dune.
Can't let that dude be the one who runs wide open in the middle of the field with no help.
Sorry to hear about your dog. It’s one of the hardest things to go through. We had to put our Labrador down on Thanksgiving weekend. We had him for 13.5 years and now the house feels empty.
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Man, really sorry to hear this, Ketch. I have two little munchkins that just turned 5 and I can't imagine my life without them. Gonna hug em a little closer and give em some extra treats tonight for Bradie and will keep you and him in our thoughts.
Sorry for your loss....danhorn.
Nearly a generation ago, a mellifluous poet named Anthony "Treach" Criss from East Orange, New Jersey asked a question that will last for the ages.
"You down with O.P.P.?"
Somewhere this weekend, I imaged Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian bopping his head to the song with a cocksure smile on his face and gleefully singing, "Yeah, you know me!"
Other. People's. Players.
It might just be the thing that saves Sarkisian's tenure in Austin following a 5-7 season that still leaves a stench that the Texas football staff has been working to clear out of the 40 Acres for nearly two months.
As much as everyone loves the makeup of the crop of 2022 high school prospects that signed with the program five weeks ago, the reality is that it's not completely crazy to believe that the true program-shaping dividends of the class might not begin to occur until the 2024 season. Think about it ... when Mack Brown signed his infamous 2002 recruiting class, all of that historic group's firepower didn't change the outlook of the 2002 and 2003 seasons. It wasn't until Vince Young and Co.'s third season on campus that tangible strides towards the mountaintop took place.
Although the timeframe might not fulfill everyone's dire thirst to end the malice that has occurred in the football program's trophy case for the last decade-plus, it's not unrealistic.
The problem that Sarkisian had two months ago when looking towards the future was that the bridge between the 2021 season and the 2024 season in 33 months was ... dare I say ... a bit treacherous. With an unbalanced roster full of questions in all three phases of the game, Sarkisian has to win enough games that he can make it to 2024 without being on a scorching hot seat. Sarkisian was hired to take a program that was living in the eight- or nine-win land of unsatisfactory top-25 finishes to the next level. Not getting there in three years, let alone overseeing a regression, wasn't going to cut it.
Other. People's. Players.
Consider what has been added to a 5-7 team that was good enough to lead the likes of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Baylor in the second half of games, but bad enough to lose at home to Kansas:
* A quarterback in Quinn Ewers, who some people like Mike Farrell regard so highly that they believe he'll be the No. 1 overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, even though he's never thrown a pass in a game at the collegiate level. Even Ewers’ biggest detractors, which are very hard to find, believe that he's a future NFL quarterback, and only the details of his draft position are worthy of debate.
* A wide receiver in Isaiah Neyor who was a second-team All-Mountain West player in 2021 and gives the Longhorns arguably the most dynamic 1-2 receiver punch in all of college football.
* A tight end in Jahleel Billingsley, who has NFL upside, was good enough to play quite a bit for Alabama in each of the last two seasons and at the very least allows the Longhorns to upgrade a position that was held down by a less capable player a season ago.
* A defensive back in Ryan Watts who started the 2021 season-opener for Ohio State, played in 19 games as a young player for the Buckeyes and tied for the team lead (2) in interceptions as a sophomore.
This group of four represents a large infusion of talent that won't just improve the team's first-22, but it won't take three seasons to do so. By the time the Longhorns are done with the transfer portal this season, they hope to add an impact edge player, a starting-level safety and an inside linebacker. All told, this off-season might conclude with nearly 1/3 of the 2022 starting line-up being held down by incoming transfers.
It's impossible to know how all of this is going to end up. Maybe all these dudes have career years. Maybe there are injuries. Maybe they struggle in transition. This isn't a column about predictions. It's a column about acknowledging that we're watching this roster improve in a lot of key areas this off-season in instant fashion.
The combination of the portal and the flood of bodies that entered the portal in such quick fashion that the NCAA had to amend its rules related to the number of incoming players a school can add in a given year has opened the door for Sarkisian in a way that history has never allowed for any previous Texas head coach coming off of a poor season.
Taking advantage of it is paramount to Sarkisian's future and no one can argue that he's not doing so on paper with 7+ months until the start of the 2022 season.
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), you down with OPP (Yeah you know me)
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), who's down with OPP (Every last homie)
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), you down with OPP (Yeah you know me)
You down with OPP (Yeah you know me), who's down with OPP (All the homies)
No. 2 - The two big questions for 2022 ...
a. Can the offensive line be good enough?
Texas seems absolutely loaded with weapons. It will enter the 2022 season with arguably the best running back in the nation, a 1-2 punch at wide receiver that Ohio State would approve of and possibly the most-talented tight end room I've ever seen on the 40 Acres. Hell, it might have a generational talent at quarterback.
Sarkisian has toys that Batman would be envious of.
On paper, it all looks pretty damn sexy, but then you look at the job Kyle Flood is going to be responsible for and ... hoo-boy. It's possible that multiple dudes that will be counted on to start games haven't graduated from high school. One of them might not even be publicly committed. Forgive me while I channel my inner Elmo.
b. Can this defense be good enough?
Perhaps the answer to this question will come in the form of a few more incoming transfers, but as things currently stand, it's still a team without a known plus-player off the edge as a pass rusher, has questions at inside linebacker and safety, lacks proven playmakers throughout the lineup and has a defensive coordinator (Pete Kwiatkowski) that must prove that he can take all of these parts and do something with them east of the Rocky Mountains.
No. 3 - When little birdies are only 85-percent correct ...
Can't really run away from it. Latavious Brini ain't going to Texas unless the coaches can pull a magic act pretty quickly and I had been reporting with gusto that the kid would likely end up in Austin.
I got it wrong on a projection.
It doesn't feel like it happens a ton because I don't remember having to write a ton of these mea culpas, but I'm writing one today.
Honestly, I can't blame little birdies from Saturday night because the vibes we were getting on Brini for the last few days were pointing to Texas as well. Our Arkansas sources were saying Texas. Texas folks seemed confident. Even people with no skin in the recruitment were hearing Texas. Hell, Brini kept answering our phone calls, which almost never happens with transfers.
Yet, here we are. Egg on my face and a still pretty large hole in the secondary for the Longhorns that still needs to be filled in the coming months.
So, what happened?
As of the moment I'm writing this, I'm not sure. There are two things that jump out to me.
a. Maybe he just couldn't leave the SEC once he started the final decision-making process, which seems to be the norm with kids transferring from SEC schools when they have SEC options.
b. Maybe Arkansas offered a better ... ahem ... set of NIL deals.
At the end of the day, the reasons don't really matter. You either win or lose in these situations. Ain't no one got time for excuses.
On to the next one ...
No. 4 - Scattershooting about the Scholarship Board ...
... The commitment of Neyor has the Longhorns sitting on 31 incoming players (27 high school players and 4 transfers) for the 2022 recruiting class, which means that they have two spots remaining before they hit the limit. Just to keep reminding everyone, for every player they go above 33, they will need to have one of the players that signed with the program in December take a gray/blue-shirt and reclassify for the 2023 recruiting year.
... With a running back that most figure to turn pro following this season, the Longhorns could be one transfer away from a senior class in 2023 that sits in single digits before a few potential transfers come in.
... 70.5% of the current pre-additional attrition roster is either a sophomore, redshirt freshman or true freshman.
... As a reminder, all super seniors are currently scheduled to be counted in the 85-man scholarship numbers. There's hope that all super seniors will be removed out of the 85-man accounting as they were a season ago, but multiple NCAA sources told me this week that it would be a mistake to take the idea that it will absolutely happen for granted. As things currently stand, the Longhorns will need five players to leave the program before August to get under the 85-man limit or six if they take the full 33 incoming players that are allowed, as expected.
... Losing players to attrition only allows the Longhorns to get under the 85-man number. It does not open up more room to take more players.
... It's interesting to remember that the Longhorns might have already settled this starting ILB question mark had they been able to close the deal with USC's Palaie Gaoteote, who chose Ohio State and was then kept from playing in 2021 by the NCAA.
View attachment 2104
No. 5 - The No Fireworks Junior Day ...
In a world where the expectations are numerous commitments from elite prospects, Saturday's Junior Day on the 40 Acres will be seen as a disappointment.
In a world where the expectations don't include numerous commitments from elite prospects because those types of early floods in February seem more and more unlikely to occur, the weekend can be seen as a low-key success.
It really comes down to your point of view.
On one hand, the elite of the elite 2023 recruits didn't arrive in droves.
On the other hand, it sure seemed like a lot of 2024 and 2025 names of note did show up in droves.
Personally, I view this weekend as chopping wood. As I've said numerous times, it has to be the goal of the Longhorns to get every in-state prospect they ever desire to make at least a half-dozen trips to the 40 Acres before they make eventual decisions. A lot of kids made one of those half-dozen trips on Saturday. Fifteen of those visitors were officially offered this weekend.
I'm not sure that we'll look back at Saturday as a shape-shifting moment, but when you consider that the sentiment from those in attendance was far from indifferent in the best way possible, I'm taking the overall net impact as a hugely positive one.
No. 6 - Gary Patterson is in da house ...
It's kind of shocking to see how seamlessly Gary Patterson has adjusted to life in burnt orange.
When he's not been the first person to arrive in the office, he's chilled with Chris Del Conte in a suite at the Erwin Center or been seen hamming it up with high school recruits at a Junior Day event in Texas gear.
It's just weird to see. It's even weirder that he's being used as a bit of a rock star upon his arrival. It felt like every time I refreshed Twitter on Saturday that someone was sharing a photo of Patterson sporting a huge grin with a prospect next to him on the 40 Acres.
I'm still not sure what his actual role is, but being everywhere seems to be part of whatever to-do-list exists.
A few random thoughts related to the Patterson phenomenon.
a. The football program is definitely better with him in IT. You can't have enough valuable assets and he's a valuable asset.
b. Chris Del Conte has to host Pete Kwiatkowski in his box in the next couple of weeks, right?
c. I'd love to know what Kwiatkowski thinks about all of this because it's not something any of us could describe as usual. I've been covering Texas athletics for 25+ years and I don't ever remember seeing a football assistant coach/special assistant to the head coach chilling with a Texas AD in his suite, mostly because they are just good friends. It's hard not to remember Tom Herman bringing in Chris Ash to audit the defense in October of 2019 as an analyst, only to see Herman replace Todd Orlando with Ash a couple of months later.
d. That Junior Day had to have been a dream come true for a recruiting junkie like Patterson, who has worked his entire career and never quite had a day with so many prospects in so many classes all on his campus in one setting. Welcome to Texas, Gary. It has some perks.
No. 7 – BUY or SELL …
(Buy) That is absolutely perfect.
(Sell) The Palaie Gaoteote recruitment last year had its share of twists and turns, The moral of the last week might be to remember that the most wild, wild West stuff happening in college football is happening with the kids in the portal. It's like a Penn and Teller magic trick. One moment, it looks like one thing and then the very next moment, it swings wildly.
(Buy) It seems important to remember that the coaches thought this last year as well.
(Sell) Neyor is a better immediate option, but I think he's only going to be in Austin for one season, while A&M will get three seasons of Stewart unless he eventually enters the Portal, which seems very possible.
(Buy) Oh yeah. It remains to be seen how some of these questions are going to be answered if the delay to enter the SEC goes beyond 2023. I'm curious to see if Sarkisian is asked about this on the next signing day.
(Sell) Nah.
(Buy) It seems like he's going to stay until he gets his business school degree and then all bets are off after that.
(Buy) Yeah, why not?
(Sell) I think it's Campbell and then continued shopping in the Portal.
(Sell) It has not crossed my mind. Not even once.
(Buy) It remains to be seen whether the Longhorns will have a better shot with the next DB prospect than they did with Brini.
No. 8 - Scattershooting on the sports weekend ...
... The Texas basketball team is about to go through the gauntlet in the Big 12 and it's anyone's guess how it turns out. Take a look at this upcoming schedule:
at TCU
vs. No.24 Tennessee
at No.19 Texas Tech
vs. No.15 Iowa State
vs. No.7 Kansas
at No.5 Baylor
at Oklahoma
vs. No.18 Texas Tech
vs. TCU
at West Virginia
vs. No.5 Baylor
at No.7 Kansas
... The NFL playoffs did not cheat us this weekend. Matt Stafford was better than Tom Brady. Jimmy Garoppolo might have ended the Packers career of Aaron Rodgers. The Bengals are in the AFC Championship game. Wow, what a weekend.
... I've been as big of a supporter of Aaron Rodgers in an all-time quarterbacks discussion as they come, but there's no getting around the fact that he's 0-4 all-time against the 49ers in the playoffs and was so ineffective on Saturday night. He's 0-2 against both Garoppolo and Colin Kaepernick when it matters most.
... I'd have quite a hard time getting over that loss in this off-season if I happened to be a Packers fan. Holy cow, talk about stealing defeat from the jaws of victory!
... Cooper. Freaking. Kupp. How do you give him single coverage in that situation?
... Ryan Tannehill just isn't good enough.
... Starting to feel like that was Tom Brady's last game.
... In the biggest game of his career to date, Stafford was pretty great.
... Debo Samuel can play on my team any time he wants to.
... If you had told me after Green Bay's opening drive that it would only score three more points the rest of the way, I just wouldn't have believed it.
... Maybe the Titans should have rolled with D'Onta Foreman...
... The Sixers better get something for Ben Simmons ... now. They cannot waste this Joel Embiid season. He's got the glow.
... I had no idea of what happened at UFC 270 until almost 6 p.m. on Sunday evening. That NFL shadow on Saturday night in January is large.
No. 9 - An early look at my Oscars favorites ...
I can't say that I've seen all of the favorites. I can't say that this will be anywhere close to what the final results in a couple of months.
What I can tell you is that I have seen enough movies in the last year that I feel confident in putting out my first Oscars rankings list of the year.
Feel free to tell me what I'm missing.
Best Picture
1. Dune
2. The Tragedy of Macbeth
3. CODA
4. The Lost Daughter
5. The Power of the Dog
Best Actor
1. Denzel Washington - The Tragedy of Macbeth
2. Andrew Garfield - Tick, Tick… Boom
3. Benedict Cumberbatch - The Power of the Dog
4. Leonardo DiCaprio - Don’t Look Up
Best Actress
1. Olivia Colman - The Lost Daughter
2. Frances McDormand - The Tragedy of Macbeth
3. Emilia Jones - CODA
4. Jennifer Lawrence - Don’t Look Up
5. Jodie Comer- The Last Duel
Best Supporting Actor
1. Kodi Smit-McPhee - The Power of the Dog
2. Ben Affleck - The Tender Bar
3. Troy Kotsure - CODA
4. Jonah Hill - Don’t Look Up
5. Ben Affleck - The Last Duel
Best Supporting Actress
1. Jessie Buckley - The Lost Daughter
2. Dakota Johnson - The Lost Daughter
3. Kirsten Dunst - The Power of the Dog
4. Marlee Matlin - CODA
5. Cate Blanchett - Don’t Look Up
Best Director
1. Denis Villeneuve - Dune
2. Joel Coen - The Tragedy of Macbeth
3. Jane Champion- The Power of the Dog
4. Maggie Gyllenhaal - The Lost Daughter
5. Sian Heder - CODA
No. 10 - And Finally...
I lost my dog this week.
My original plan was to dedicate a special section in this column to Bradie, my 15-year-old Weim, but I'm just not emotionally ready to do it. It would have wrecked me and made writing this rest of the column impossible.
I miss my best friend.
i never really thought about it but there are going to be some players requesting 3 year NIL deals.
- Status
