Texas hosted its first recruiting weekend under the new staff, and by all accounts things went very well. We take a look at UT's recruiting efforts so far, including one key area in which the current staff is different than Charlie Strong.
We dive into three things we learned over the last week, two questions that are on our mind and one prediction. It's recruiting, recruiting and more recruiting in this week's edition of the 3-2-1 ...
1. It's dead period, but the UT coaches can still be very productive this week
Dead period began Sunday night at midnight, and the Texas coaches did a great job of maximizing as much time as they could before they had to avoid any and all face-to-face contact with prospects. Case in point, Texas actually hosted tight end Sal Cannella on his official visit all the way until Monday morning, but the staff said its goodbyes on Sunday night and had a car service take Canella to the airport on Monday morning to stay in compliance with NCAA rules.
This week, the coaches cannot have any in-person contact with recruits, be it on campus or off, but coaches are still allowed to contact prospects via phone calls, letters or through social media.
The last two weeks have been huge for the UT staff to get some facetime with most of the players on the Longhorns' recruiting radar, and those in-home and/or school meetings helped build quick relationships and enabled the coaches to hit the ground running, setting up last weekend's productive visit list. This week and next, the goal will be to continue to stay in touch with the players who visited, as well as the players who will be visiting in January. Included in that group is the current crop of Texas commitments. For the most part, the coaches have done a great job of solidifying those pledges, especially from a guy like Kobe Boyce who was considering taking other visits, but there's still work to be done. With Taquon Graham saying this week he'll like take a visit to Oklahoma in January, you can expect the coaches will be in close contact with him.
Already on Monday, the coaches have been working the phone lines to touch base with some key players, including a couple 2018 standouts, which should pay dividends down the road.
It's dead period, but the UT staff will still be very active and stay busy. Communication with top 2017 targets could set Texas up for a nice run in January, and calls to the state's top juniors could give Texas a nice push heading into junior days, which usually begin in February.
2. The first official visit weekend for the new staff went off without any hitches
We haven't tracked down all the guys who were on campus over the weekend - a lot of them have pretty much gone underground - but in talking to recruits and people close to them, we've heard nothing but positive reviews from the weekend.
Kicker Joshua Rowland obviously loved what he saw and he committed a few hours after leaving campus. The word from sources close to some of the others, like Cannella, Omar Manning and Eno Benjamin, is that things went very well.
Lake Travis tight end Cade Brewer, who picked up a UT offer earlier this month, took an unofficial visit to Texas on Sunday and told Orangebloods "it was a good overall visit" including the time spent talking to Tom Herman.
It wasn't necessarily a weekend filled with fireworks, but considering the UT staff had been in place less than two weeks when the visits began, you have to say it was a productive weekend overall, including a couple surprise visitors in Rowland and Tulsa Union linebacker Kyrei Fisher. The challenge now is to finish with some of the players who were in town to make sure it wasn't a wasted effort.
3. The commitment of kicker Joshua Rowland is more important than most realize
Most of us had not heard of Joshua Rowland before last weekend, but that doesn't mean his commitment wasn't a big pick-up for the Longhorns.
The Texas kicking game has pretty much been a disaster the past few years and Texas has very little on the roster in the way of experience returning in 2017. Mitchell Becker did connect on the only two attempts of his career in the season-ending loss to TCU, but those were short kicks and they didn't exactly bring back memories of Justin Tucker.
Texas needed to go out and find a place-kicker with some collegiate experience and the coaches did just that in landing Rowland, who has two seasons under his belt at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Adding an experienced leg to give the program more options is big, but perhaps even more than the commitment itself, I love the way the staff quickly identified an area of weakness and took swift action to address the issue.
Not to beat a dead horse and take a shot at Charlie Strong and his staff, but the proactive approach from the new Texas staff is the complete opposite of what fans saw from Strong, who seemed to let things come to him in special teams (and other areas) rather than force the issue. Finding a placekicker should have been a huge priority for Texas in all three years of Strong's tenure, but he put his faith in Nick Rose his first two years and after Rose graduated, inexplicably was very passive in his approach to finding a potential replacement for the 2016 season. Trent Domingue wound up falling Texas' way at the last minute, but he was never the answer and that was apparent early on.
In fact, Texas is extremely fortunate to have all-American punter Michael Dickson on the roster, and his place on the team had very little to do with Strong. Dickson worked out for Prokick Australia, and members of that organization actively reached out to Chris Vaughn and Brick Haley, which put the wheels in motion for a quick commitment to Texas. Had Dickson and his coaches not gone out of their way to get in touch with a couple UT assistants, Dickson is never on UT's radar and is punting for another school.
Don't even get me started on quarterbacks, including Jerod Evans, who led Virginia Tech to the ACC Championship game this year ...
Bottom line ... adding Rowland should help fill a big hole on the Texas roster, and the way the new staff went out and attacked an area of weakness should have Texas fans excited.
TWO QUESTIONS
1. What would Walker Little's commitment to Texas mean?
If Texas can reel in a commitment from Houston Episcopal offensive lineman Walker Little on Friday morning, it will be big for a number of reasons.
Obviously, securing a pledge from a five-star prospect is always a big development for any program, especially one like Texas that is in need of some elite-level talent if it's going to get back to competing for championships. As good as Little is, Texas does have some young talent on the offensive line so it's not a foregone conclusion that he'd walk right into the UT program and contribute right away, but he has that kind of talent if he's needed as a true freshman. In a perfect world, some of the young players Texas signed in 2016 are able to step up and Little is allowed a chance to redshirt and then be a multi-year starter at one of the tackle spots.
On top of the obvious that is the acquisition of talent, Little's pledge would be the first real shot in the arm for Texas under Herman, with all due respect to Rowland's commitment. A five-star prospect joining the fold will make headlines in-state and nationally, and other prospects on UT's radar would certainly take notice. Little's a pretty quiet guy who keeps his head down and goes about his business, so he's probably not going to create the buzz that a guy like Malik Jefferson did, but his pledge would still have a positive impact for the Longhorns as the coaches work to close strong in January and February.
One more factor to take away from Little's decision ... it's Herman's first chance to flex his muscles at Texas and really show he can close on key recruits. The current Texas staff didn't have much of a relationship with Little and his family while at Houston, so if Little chooses the Longhorns, that's a pretty big feather in the hat of Herman and the assistants for being able to close this one so quickly and emphatically.
2. How many Houston recruits will Texas actively pursue now that Major Applewhite has been named head coach?
If you would have asked me this question late last week, I would have thought it would have been a large number of Houston commitments that would be eventually flipping to Texas, probably in the range of 3-5.
Now, that number goes down considerably. A couple Houston commitments have already reaffirmed their pledge to the Cougars, including quarterback Bryson Smith. With Applewhite taking over the UofH program, I would expect most of the Cougars' commitments to stick because he's proven to be an effective recruiter and the prospects will like that there's some continuity in the program. Also, you have to wonder if Texas might back off some of the Houston commitments to some degree, although it looks like UT will still actively pursue LB/DE Marqez Bimage and with the needs at running back, I would think Daniel Young will still be a priority as well.
ONE PREDICTION - Texas misses with one and hits with one recruit this week
Two players - Sal Cannella and Walker Little - are planning to announce their decisions this week, on Wednesday and Friday, respectively. Both players have done a good job of keeping people guessing.
Cannella is down to Texas, Auburn and Maryland. Prior to last weekend's visits to UT and Auburn, Maryland was the team to beat, but most people believe he'll now choose either the Longhorns or the Tigers. A UT source told me this week that Texas is cautiously optimistic coming out of the weekend visit, but a source close to the Auburn program tells me Auburn feels the same way. This one feels close to 50/50 and Cannella spoke very highly of both is Texas and Auburn visits, but I did hear that Auburn cancelled an in-home with another tight end on its radar on Sunday, so that could be a bit of a sign. Tough one to call, but I lean ever so slightly to Auburn.
On Little, he hasn't publicly narrowed his focus to two, but it's believed to be a race between the Longhorns and Stanford. Maybe I'm misreading this one, but it just feels to me like Little has wanted to be at UT and has been looking for a reason to be a Longhorn, I'm going with proximity on this one.
We dive into three things we learned over the last week, two questions that are on our mind and one prediction. It's recruiting, recruiting and more recruiting in this week's edition of the 3-2-1 ...
1. It's dead period, but the UT coaches can still be very productive this week
Dead period began Sunday night at midnight, and the Texas coaches did a great job of maximizing as much time as they could before they had to avoid any and all face-to-face contact with prospects. Case in point, Texas actually hosted tight end Sal Cannella on his official visit all the way until Monday morning, but the staff said its goodbyes on Sunday night and had a car service take Canella to the airport on Monday morning to stay in compliance with NCAA rules.
This week, the coaches cannot have any in-person contact with recruits, be it on campus or off, but coaches are still allowed to contact prospects via phone calls, letters or through social media.
The last two weeks have been huge for the UT staff to get some facetime with most of the players on the Longhorns' recruiting radar, and those in-home and/or school meetings helped build quick relationships and enabled the coaches to hit the ground running, setting up last weekend's productive visit list. This week and next, the goal will be to continue to stay in touch with the players who visited, as well as the players who will be visiting in January. Included in that group is the current crop of Texas commitments. For the most part, the coaches have done a great job of solidifying those pledges, especially from a guy like Kobe Boyce who was considering taking other visits, but there's still work to be done. With Taquon Graham saying this week he'll like take a visit to Oklahoma in January, you can expect the coaches will be in close contact with him.
Already on Monday, the coaches have been working the phone lines to touch base with some key players, including a couple 2018 standouts, which should pay dividends down the road.
It's dead period, but the UT staff will still be very active and stay busy. Communication with top 2017 targets could set Texas up for a nice run in January, and calls to the state's top juniors could give Texas a nice push heading into junior days, which usually begin in February.
2. The first official visit weekend for the new staff went off without any hitches
We haven't tracked down all the guys who were on campus over the weekend - a lot of them have pretty much gone underground - but in talking to recruits and people close to them, we've heard nothing but positive reviews from the weekend.
Kicker Joshua Rowland obviously loved what he saw and he committed a few hours after leaving campus. The word from sources close to some of the others, like Cannella, Omar Manning and Eno Benjamin, is that things went very well.
Lake Travis tight end Cade Brewer, who picked up a UT offer earlier this month, took an unofficial visit to Texas on Sunday and told Orangebloods "it was a good overall visit" including the time spent talking to Tom Herman.
It wasn't necessarily a weekend filled with fireworks, but considering the UT staff had been in place less than two weeks when the visits began, you have to say it was a productive weekend overall, including a couple surprise visitors in Rowland and Tulsa Union linebacker Kyrei Fisher. The challenge now is to finish with some of the players who were in town to make sure it wasn't a wasted effort.
3. The commitment of kicker Joshua Rowland is more important than most realize
Most of us had not heard of Joshua Rowland before last weekend, but that doesn't mean his commitment wasn't a big pick-up for the Longhorns.
The Texas kicking game has pretty much been a disaster the past few years and Texas has very little on the roster in the way of experience returning in 2017. Mitchell Becker did connect on the only two attempts of his career in the season-ending loss to TCU, but those were short kicks and they didn't exactly bring back memories of Justin Tucker.
Texas needed to go out and find a place-kicker with some collegiate experience and the coaches did just that in landing Rowland, who has two seasons under his belt at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Adding an experienced leg to give the program more options is big, but perhaps even more than the commitment itself, I love the way the staff quickly identified an area of weakness and took swift action to address the issue.
Not to beat a dead horse and take a shot at Charlie Strong and his staff, but the proactive approach from the new Texas staff is the complete opposite of what fans saw from Strong, who seemed to let things come to him in special teams (and other areas) rather than force the issue. Finding a placekicker should have been a huge priority for Texas in all three years of Strong's tenure, but he put his faith in Nick Rose his first two years and after Rose graduated, inexplicably was very passive in his approach to finding a potential replacement for the 2016 season. Trent Domingue wound up falling Texas' way at the last minute, but he was never the answer and that was apparent early on.
In fact, Texas is extremely fortunate to have all-American punter Michael Dickson on the roster, and his place on the team had very little to do with Strong. Dickson worked out for Prokick Australia, and members of that organization actively reached out to Chris Vaughn and Brick Haley, which put the wheels in motion for a quick commitment to Texas. Had Dickson and his coaches not gone out of their way to get in touch with a couple UT assistants, Dickson is never on UT's radar and is punting for another school.
Don't even get me started on quarterbacks, including Jerod Evans, who led Virginia Tech to the ACC Championship game this year ...
Bottom line ... adding Rowland should help fill a big hole on the Texas roster, and the way the new staff went out and attacked an area of weakness should have Texas fans excited.
TWO QUESTIONS
1. What would Walker Little's commitment to Texas mean?
If Texas can reel in a commitment from Houston Episcopal offensive lineman Walker Little on Friday morning, it will be big for a number of reasons.
Obviously, securing a pledge from a five-star prospect is always a big development for any program, especially one like Texas that is in need of some elite-level talent if it's going to get back to competing for championships. As good as Little is, Texas does have some young talent on the offensive line so it's not a foregone conclusion that he'd walk right into the UT program and contribute right away, but he has that kind of talent if he's needed as a true freshman. In a perfect world, some of the young players Texas signed in 2016 are able to step up and Little is allowed a chance to redshirt and then be a multi-year starter at one of the tackle spots.
On top of the obvious that is the acquisition of talent, Little's pledge would be the first real shot in the arm for Texas under Herman, with all due respect to Rowland's commitment. A five-star prospect joining the fold will make headlines in-state and nationally, and other prospects on UT's radar would certainly take notice. Little's a pretty quiet guy who keeps his head down and goes about his business, so he's probably not going to create the buzz that a guy like Malik Jefferson did, but his pledge would still have a positive impact for the Longhorns as the coaches work to close strong in January and February.
One more factor to take away from Little's decision ... it's Herman's first chance to flex his muscles at Texas and really show he can close on key recruits. The current Texas staff didn't have much of a relationship with Little and his family while at Houston, so if Little chooses the Longhorns, that's a pretty big feather in the hat of Herman and the assistants for being able to close this one so quickly and emphatically.
2. How many Houston recruits will Texas actively pursue now that Major Applewhite has been named head coach?
If you would have asked me this question late last week, I would have thought it would have been a large number of Houston commitments that would be eventually flipping to Texas, probably in the range of 3-5.
Now, that number goes down considerably. A couple Houston commitments have already reaffirmed their pledge to the Cougars, including quarterback Bryson Smith. With Applewhite taking over the UofH program, I would expect most of the Cougars' commitments to stick because he's proven to be an effective recruiter and the prospects will like that there's some continuity in the program. Also, you have to wonder if Texas might back off some of the Houston commitments to some degree, although it looks like UT will still actively pursue LB/DE Marqez Bimage and with the needs at running back, I would think Daniel Young will still be a priority as well.
ONE PREDICTION - Texas misses with one and hits with one recruit this week
Two players - Sal Cannella and Walker Little - are planning to announce their decisions this week, on Wednesday and Friday, respectively. Both players have done a good job of keeping people guessing.
Cannella is down to Texas, Auburn and Maryland. Prior to last weekend's visits to UT and Auburn, Maryland was the team to beat, but most people believe he'll now choose either the Longhorns or the Tigers. A UT source told me this week that Texas is cautiously optimistic coming out of the weekend visit, but a source close to the Auburn program tells me Auburn feels the same way. This one feels close to 50/50 and Cannella spoke very highly of both is Texas and Auburn visits, but I did hear that Auburn cancelled an in-home with another tight end on its radar on Sunday, so that could be a bit of a sign. Tough one to call, but I lean ever so slightly to Auburn.
On Little, he hasn't publicly narrowed his focus to two, but it's believed to be a race between the Longhorns and Stanford. Maybe I'm misreading this one, but it just feels to me like Little has wanted to be at UT and has been looking for a reason to be a Longhorn, I'm going with proximity on this one.
