THREE THINGS WE LEARNED
1. JD Coffey is closing in on a decision
I caught up with Kennedale safety JD Coffey over the weekend, and he informed me he was close to having a final decision and it would likely happen sometime in June. On Monday, Coffey announced he’ll be making a commitment on June 15, as will his 7-on-7 teammate Ishmael Ibraheem.
For Coffey, a Rivals250 member, four schools continue to stand out.
“I would say it’s still the top four - LSU, Texas, Washington and Oregon,” Coffey said.
The nation’s No. 112-ranked prospect broke down his four finalists.
LSU – “It’s a great school. It’s a school that competes hard, plays the best teams. If you play the best and make plays against the best, it’s no secret you know how to play. And I’m on the phone with coach O (Ed Orgeron) a lot. I just really like LSU.”
Texas – “It’s my home state. It’s a great school outside of football. It gives you every opportunity outside of football. I really like the new safeties coach, coach (Chris) Ash. I talk to coach (Tom) Herman a lot. I’m close to some of the players on the team, some of the safeties there.”
Washington – “I believe Washington is DBU. They put a lot of DBs in the NFL. That’s what I really like about that. I talk to their coaches a lot. I feel like I can just sit on the phone with them for a while, have a great relationship.”
Oregon – “With Oregon, I took a visit up there, just fell in love with the campus. I really enjoyed that. There are great opportunities there. I feel if I go there, I’ll have a chance to play pretty early.”
At 6-0 and 175 pounds, Coffey’s versatile defender who is effective in both coverage and run support. More than his strengths on the field, Coffey said he feels it’s his effort that sets him apart from most other safeties.
“I think I bring a great attitude. I’m a hard worker. I believe when I get in the system and get going, I can make a lot of plays,” Coffey said. “If I get the chance to make a starting position, I’m going to do whatever I can to get some Ws.”
2. New commitment Isaac Pearson has an interesting back story
Texas pulled off a recruiting surprise on Friday when Australian punter Isaac Pearson announced on Twitter that he had given the Longhorns a commitment. Pearson now makes it three times that the Longhorns have gone the Prokick Australia route for a punter, joining Michael Dickson and Ryan Bujcevski.
I was able to catch up with Pearson over the weekend for an interview (much easier task now than when Dickson committed … thanks Zoom). Pearson was still on cloud nine a couple days after his commitment was announced, and he detailed what led him to his decision.
Prokick handles things a bit differently than traditional recruitments. The coaches of that organization basically reach out to college programs when they think they have a punter who would be a suitable fit. For Pearson, that call was made to Texas and all the pieces fit for both sides.
“At Prokick, we don’t do much of the talking. We don’t do any of the talking to the coaches directly until they're practically offering us a scholarship,” Pearson said. “So my two coaches in Melbourne, Nathan Chapman and John Smith of Prokick Australia, they do all the communication and liaison with all the coaches in America. They take our film and distribute it to the coaches that they think will provide the best fit for us, whether that be from an athletic perspective, academic, lifestyle, or just a general school that they think will be a good fit for the young blokes they’re training.
“I had not spoken to anyone at Texas and I didn't think it was a reality as much as I would have dreamed. I woke up one morning at 2 a.m. to use the bathroom and saw a message from (special teams quality control) coach (Casey) Horny, and I’ve been walking on air since then.
The message from Horny detailed to Pearson that Texas would love him to continue the tradition that Dickson and Bujcevski have started. About a week later, Tom Herman reached out and things progressed pretty quickly from there.
“Eight days later, I got the call from coach Herman at about 6 a.m. I was at the gym with the guys and my coach pulled me aside and said ‘Hey mate we've got coach Herman on the phone. They’d like to offer you.’ I was extremely, extremely emotional,” Pearson said. I sort of sat on that for a while.”
The 22-year-old Pearson has been training with Prokick for 18 months. He began studying last year to gain eligibility in the U.S. and is now set to enroll at Texas in January of 2021. Prior to joining Prokick, Pearson said he was doing jobs like construction to make ends meet. Once he made the move to train full-time with Prokick, he continued to do construction jobs during his training, and his hard work has now officially paid off.
“Full-time (at Prokick) means that I had to move from my home in Newcastle which was sort of halfway up, it's a bit north of Sydney in Australia, halfway up the East Coast. I moved 600 miles south to Melbourne to train full-time,” Pearson said. “That was four punting sessions a week and four lifting sessions a week so it's a massive commitment. But it's all worth it. You get out what you put in.”
The timing of his being ready both physically and academically to come to the U.S. worked out well with Texas having a need for a punter in this class, and Pearson said he’s now living a dream knowing he’ll be a part of the UT program in January.
“It was a dream come true. I was just lucky enough that coach (Jay) Boulware, coach Horny and coach Herman were recruiting at the time and a point where I can fill the role. So it's a dream come true,” Pearson said.
3. Pearson to Texas feels like the perfect fit
Prokick is kind of a “placement” program in that its prospects don’t go through a courting process with several schools, but Pearson being committed to Texas was a perfect union. The Longhorn coaches obviously felt the need was there for a punter in this class, and Pearson actually became a Texas fan in recent years. He didn’t necessarily have his “pick” of schools the way most prospects do, but Pearson said if he was making the choice, Texas would have been the place he would have wanted to play above all other schools.
“I've been a massive Longhorns fan for years now. When I first learned about college sports, I picked that team to follow. I didn’t actually know Michael (Dickson) was punting for them at the time. I Googled something like the coolest college teams because I needed to pick one to support, and the top of the list was Texas and I thought ‘You know what? That’s about as American as it gets, playing football in Texas,’” Pearson said. “I bought right into that whole culture and started following them on social media and really getting around them and watching their games on the weekends. And I learned that Michael was there and I was following his career pretty closely for the years he was at Texas and then when he made it to the pros, that was groundbreaking and he's doing a great job in Seattle.”
Prior to joining Prokick, Pearson played Australian-rules football, which is how he was discovered by the Prokick coaches. He came to the U.S. last year with the Prokick group and attended a few camps in Kentucky, Pittsburgh and Mississippi, and will take an official visit to Texas at some point later this year. Pearson said he’s equally comfortable with the rugby-style of punts or the more traditional kicks and he feels his accuracy is one of his strengths.
It was an interesting journey that led Pearson to his Texas commitment, but he said the support he’s received from those close to him and the Texas fan base have him confident he made the right decision.
“It's been a roller coaster, that's for sure. I mean, flashback to a few years ago when I was working the mines and dreaming of playing college sports. There are some long days and difficult times while you're training and things are not so much uncertain, but it's a long, long hard road ahead of you,” Pearson said. “To get here, and to publicly announce it and have all my family and friends show this love support has just been overwhelming to say the least. It's a dream come true. I can't think of a better spot to go and play more football and study for the next four years.”
******
TWO QUESTIONS
1. Where does Texas stand with recent safety offer Devin Lemear?
Texas put an offer on the table for Manor safety Devin Lemear on Saturday. The former TCU commitment said he’s been hoping for that offer ever since he started talking to the UT staff a couple months ago.
“The Texas staff never knew about me until my decommitment from TCU because it’s a new staff. The Texas staff used to come to my school a lot because of Princely, but he had most of their attention so they never knew about me until my decommitment from TCU,” Lemear said. “That’s when they really started recruiting me.”
The 6-0, 170-pound Lemear said he stays in contact with Texas defensive coordinator Chris Ash, and it was Ash that extended the offer.
“Coach Ash called me. He just said I’m a player they want there at Texas,” Lemear said. “He sees a player that’s physical, can cover and has the mindset to want to win, and doesn’t back down from anybody.”
Lemear was committed to TCU from January to early April. Once he opened up his recruitment, more schools entered the race and while he’s keeping an open mind, he said there are a handful of schools that are recruiting him more aggressively than the others.
“Ever since my decommitment, things have picked up. I haven’t really gone deep into my top schools, but some of the schools I’m interested in and speak to the most would be Baylor, Texas Tech, K-State, Mississippi State, Texas,” Lemear said. “I’d say those are the main ones I talk to on the regular.”
Lemear’s plan was to try to take some visits this summer and then have a decision made before his senior season began. With visits shut down for the summer, he said he may alter his timeline and slow things down. As for Texas, Lemear said there’s a lot to like.
“To be honest, Texas is always a highly-regarded football school. But not only that. It’s a prestigious all-around school,” Lemear said. “They have some of the top education programs in the country. It’s 20 minutes from my house, so my family could come watch my game every week.”
2. Which recruits are the most important for Texas in the 2021 class?
Texas continues to chase some of the country’s top prospects … I thought I’d change things up this week and rank the top-10 players in terms of how badly they’re needed. These rankings take into account the players’ talent level and how critical they would be should they choose Texas …
1. Tommy Brockermeyer/James Brockermeyer – The obvious choice for the top spot. Texas’ offensive line class needs a major shot in the arm and the Brockermeyer brothers are guys Texas absolutely cannot afford to miss.
2. Ishmael Ibraheem – He’s the top corner in the state and Texas doesn’t have a ton of other options at the position right now.
3. Bryce Foster – He’s near the top of the list because he’s such a rare talent.
4. Savion Byrd – A year ago, this looked like it could be an all-time offensive line class. Now, things are touch-and-go with Texas’ top remaining targets. Getting Byrd to commit would be a huge development.
5. Ketron Jackson – He’s an elite talent at a need position, and Texas’ wide receiver recruiting overall is lukewarm right now.
6. Camar Wheaton – He’d be much higher on this list if we’re talking pure talent, but with Texas signing Bijan Robinson last year and already having one RB commitment, it bumps Wheaton down the list a bit.
7. Jaden Alexis – He’s a lot like Ketron Jackson … wide receiver recruiting needs some momentum and a commitment from Alexis would certainly help.
8. Shemar Turner – A case could be made he should be higher on this list because he’d be a nice head-to-head win over some tough competition, but with guys like Alfred Collins and Vernon Broughton set to join the program, Turner gets bumped down a bit.
9. JD Coffey - He’ll decide in a couple weeks and landing a player just outside the Rivals100 is always a welcome development.
10. Terrence Cooks – Texas already has two linebacker commitments, but Cooks would be a key piece to this class.
******
ONE PREDICTION – Texas lands JD Coffey and Ishmael Ibraheem on June 15
This one feels pretty easy to predict. Both players are committing on the same day, they want to play together and Texas is really the only school that’s high on both of their lists, unless they wanted to pull a shock and go to LSU. These two have been trending UT’s way for a while and if it goes the way everyone thinks, it’ll give the Longhorn class some much-needed momentum.
