If you're looking for nothing but rosy reports on this Independence Day, you might want to just skip to the last paragraph of this update.
* Tip of the cap to Dakorien Moore for making things very interesting today. Moore, of course, is scheduled to announce tonight at 8 p.m. Formally, it's four schools in the race - Texas, Oregon, Ohio State and LSU. Realistically, this one seems to be down to the Longhorns and the Ducks.
Interestingly, we're hearing that there's confidence on both sides, which tells me that Moore likely has not informed the coaching staff of his final decision. Unfortunately, there seems to be a higher level of confidence on the Oregon side of things (coming from multiple sources) and one person with connections to Moore indicated this morning that he's expecting Oregon to be the pick tonight. I do feel confident in saying that Texas has presented a VERY attractive NIL offer. I can only assume Oregon is at that same level or even higher. Might Texas come back and sweeten the pot? Anything's possible over the next eight hours, I guess. My FutureCast is on Texas and I'm not going to move it right now because I honestly don't have a clear enough read, but I do find myself favoring Oregon as of this moment, based on some of the things I've heard today.
* We mentioned yesterday that we were hearing it was a Texas-Missouri battle for offensive lineman Lamont Rogers. We still believe that to be the case. I reported in the War Room last night that there was some confidence on the Mizzou side, and sourcing close to Rogers on Thursday think that's the way he's leaning ... for now. This one has had some late and swift twists and turns, and there's some thought that there's still room for some more movement in this one before Rogers announces on Saturday. But as things stand at lunchtime on Thursday, there's more smoke on the Missouri side of this one.
* Texas soft commitment Brandon Brown is fully expected to pick LSU tomorrow, per multiple sources who are close to the LSU program. We'll track that story, but it sounds like people in Baton Rouge are treating that one almost as if it's a foregone conclusion.
* The silver lining in the Dakorien Moore and Lamont Rogers news is that we've heard on both guys that no matter what happens today and Saturday, those recruitments are not over. That comes from people close to both prospects, and that comes from sources in Austin. Ideally, you'd probably prefer to have both guys commit to Texas and just shut things down, but we've seen before that this staff is relentless in its pursuit of its top targets, even if they're committed elsewhere, and this coaching staff has a pretty high success rate of flipping guys late.
* Tip of the cap to Dakorien Moore for making things very interesting today. Moore, of course, is scheduled to announce tonight at 8 p.m. Formally, it's four schools in the race - Texas, Oregon, Ohio State and LSU. Realistically, this one seems to be down to the Longhorns and the Ducks.
Interestingly, we're hearing that there's confidence on both sides, which tells me that Moore likely has not informed the coaching staff of his final decision. Unfortunately, there seems to be a higher level of confidence on the Oregon side of things (coming from multiple sources) and one person with connections to Moore indicated this morning that he's expecting Oregon to be the pick tonight. I do feel confident in saying that Texas has presented a VERY attractive NIL offer. I can only assume Oregon is at that same level or even higher. Might Texas come back and sweeten the pot? Anything's possible over the next eight hours, I guess. My FutureCast is on Texas and I'm not going to move it right now because I honestly don't have a clear enough read, but I do find myself favoring Oregon as of this moment, based on some of the things I've heard today.
* We mentioned yesterday that we were hearing it was a Texas-Missouri battle for offensive lineman Lamont Rogers. We still believe that to be the case. I reported in the War Room last night that there was some confidence on the Mizzou side, and sourcing close to Rogers on Thursday think that's the way he's leaning ... for now. This one has had some late and swift twists and turns, and there's some thought that there's still room for some more movement in this one before Rogers announces on Saturday. But as things stand at lunchtime on Thursday, there's more smoke on the Missouri side of this one.
* Texas soft commitment Brandon Brown is fully expected to pick LSU tomorrow, per multiple sources who are close to the LSU program. We'll track that story, but it sounds like people in Baton Rouge are treating that one almost as if it's a foregone conclusion.
* The silver lining in the Dakorien Moore and Lamont Rogers news is that we've heard on both guys that no matter what happens today and Saturday, those recruitments are not over. That comes from people close to both prospects, and that comes from sources in Austin. Ideally, you'd probably prefer to have both guys commit to Texas and just shut things down, but we've seen before that this staff is relentless in its pursuit of its top targets, even if they're committed elsewhere, and this coaching staff has a pretty high success rate of flipping guys late.
