THREE THINGS WE LEARNED
1. Jordon Thomas’s commitment to Texas was a family decision
I checked in with new Texas defensive end commitment Jordon Thomas on Sunday, and the Port Arthur Memorial standout gave me an interview while manning the BBQ grill for himself and his grandfather. My kind of kid. In talking to Thomas, who committed to Texas over Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon, it sounded like he was still sky-high from his commitment.
“It’s a lot of weight of my family’s shoulders since I made my big announcement. Now I can look past the commitment, I can focus more on my season,” Thomas said.
And what pushed Texas out in front of the Aggies?
“It was just the opportunity there. Me and my grandpa had talked about it. He said when the opportunity is in your face, you might as well take it because anything can happen,” Thomas said. “So I was thinking, there’s this big thing going on in the world, I might as well take it.
“Really, there were two reasons (that differentiated the in-state schools. One, I’m Muslim, so I have to make my pilgrimage to Mecca. They had told me they always do charity work there. That was a big thing for me. The other thing, their motto, state on your chest, family on your back. That really touched me.”
Thomas said his mind was pretty much made up after his visit to UT earlier this year, but he said there was a time when he was genuinely torn between the Longhorns and the Aggies. Ultimately, he felt Texas was the better fit and those close to him were fully supportive of his decision.
“It really hit me after my last visit with them. After that last visit, how they showed love to my grandpa and me, it was like ‘I’m going to like it here for the next four or five years,’” Thomas said. “It was very hard though. Very hard. I thought about it every day. I talked about it with my grandpa. He liked Texas. I talked about it with my mom. She liked it too. So there you go. Once the head people in charge like it, you can’t go against that.”
The 6-4, 235-pound Thomas is ranked as a three-star prospect, mostly because he missed his junior season with an injury. He plans to be back and better than ever next fall, and plans to take out some frustrations on opposing players.
“Ruthless aggression. A whole lot of ruthless aggression,” Thomas said when asked what he brings to the field. “I can hurt somebody for 60 minutes or more, that’s wonderful. I’m playing with a chip on my shoulder.”
2. This staff continues to impress with its recruiting plan
Once again, we’ve seen that this Texas recruiting staff has a plan in place to fill roster voids, and the current staff doesn’t mind thinking outside the box to bring in talented players. We’ve seen it before – in fact, we’ve seen it pretty much every year since this group has been in Austin – but last week was another reminder in the differences in this current Texas regime compared to the one that was here before Tom Herman and company took over.
Under Charlie Strong’s leadership, it seemed sometimes that Texas was basically just flying by the seat of its pants when it came to recruiting. In-state recruiting wasn’t always a priority, Texas had little to no social media presence, there wasn’t always a lot time and research put into prospects (Roland Jones, holla!) and that group never really tried to think of creative ways to fill out the roster. Even when Texas did take an unconventional route like signing Michael Dickson, it was because a coach from Prokick Australia literally contacted Texas unsolicited and tried to get Dickson a scholarship.
This current staff has shown from its first year in Austin that it will identify holes on the roster and be very aggressive in attempting to fill spots at need positions. A few weeks after settling in on the job in 2016, Herman and the recruiting staff landed a commitment from JUCO kicker Joshua Rowland (the play on the field didn’t pan out, but that’s not really the point here). Texas has landed key grad transfer products like Tre Watson, Calvin Anderson and Parker Braun. The staff has landed a ProKick Australia player of its own in Ryan Bujcevski.
Last week, the staff brought in two more key additions at positions of need by landing grad transfer receiver Tariq Black and 2020 DB signee Jahdae Barron, who was recently let out of his Baylor letter of intent. Be it traditional recruiting, transfers, Heat Wave pool parties, Stars at Night camps or anything else, you can’t say this current staff doesn’t do a terrific job of implementing fresh ideas to help solidify the roster.
3. Recent LB offer Andrew Jones has a strong interest in Texas
It was only a couple weeks ago that New Orleans John Ehret linebacker Andrew Jones released a top grouping of nine schools. The day after he put out that list, he picked up a Texas offer, and Jones says he’ll now have to re-do his favorites.
“I have to update that,” Jones said. “(Texas) will be in it. Definitely.”
The 6-1, 210-pound Jones said there’s a lot to like about the UT offer, including proximity and the relationship he’s built with Texas assistants Jay Valai and Coleman Hutzler.
“First, it’s their distance from home. They’re not too far, not too close. Mom can still get out there in a one-day trip, get home safely,” Jones said. “I know the playing time will be a big factor since they had so many seniors graduate. Coach Jay (Valai) has a different type of hype. He just gets me hyped. He just gives out good vibes, I’d love to have that in a coach.
“When I talked to him and coach Hutzler, it was just an instant bond. Some schools, it feels weird on the phone. It felt normal with them. It just felt like they were just calling to check on me, made me feel welcome rather than wanted.”
Whenever recruits are able to take visits again, Jones said Texas will definitely be on his list of stops. He also wants to hit up Louisville, Georgia, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Alabama and LSU. Could be a busy summer/fall. He had planned to commit this month, but said he’ll now push that date back.
“My original plan was to commit on my birthday, May 23. But my mom says she wants me to wait because my recruitment has gone up,” Jones said.
Florida State holds all the Rivals FutureCast picks and while the Seminoles will be a major factor in this one, Jones said people are reading too much into him liking FSU as a kid and he knows this is a business decision in the end.
“When I first got the FSU offer, they were my number one school. They were my dream school growing up, watched them play, Deion Sanders and Dalvin Cook had my attention, Jalen Ramsey. That was a school I wanted to go to growing up,” Jones said. “Of course, it’s my dream school, but at the end of the day, I can go to my dream school and not be happy.”
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TWO QUESTIONS
1. What are UT’s chances with OL Tristan Bounds?
It’s not often that Texas recruits the state of Connecticut, but offensive line coach Herb Hand has dropped a line in the water for offensive lineman Tristan Bounds, and he’s at least getting a nibble.
Bounds, out of Wallingford (CT) Choate Rosemary Hall, released a top eight earlier this week, and Texas made the cut. He’s been in contact with Hand for the last couple months and said that relationship is a part of the reason the Longhorns are in the mix.
“First, it’s a really good school. That’s super important for me,” Bounds said. “The football is strong, I really like coach Hand and the rest of their staff. It’s all that combined.”
Bounds checks in at 6-8 and 280 pounds, and says his length and athleticism are his biggest assets. As for areas on which he wants to continue to focus, Bounds listed strength and fine-tuning his technique.
“I want to get stronger, that’s big for me. I think the more weight I add, the bigger I get, the stronger I’ll be. And technique,” Bounds said. “My athleticism has taken me a long way, but if I can improve technically, that will be all the better for me.”
The other schools on Bounds’ list – Boston College, Michigan, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, Maryland, Virginia and Vanderbilt – are all closer in proximity than is Texas, but Bounds said distance is not a factor.
“I don’t think it’s a disadvantage at all,” Bounds said of UT being further from home than the other schools. “The playing field is equal. It just depends on what’s the best fit for me and family.”
Look for Texas to continue to work this one and there’s a good chance Bounds will take a UT visit at some point when college campuses open back up. His relationship with Hand, combined with UT’s academic reputation, should keep Texas in the race.
“He’s super down to earth, really an easy going guy,” Bounds said of Hand. “But he’s all about business too. We’ve done a couple Zooms, watched film. He really knows what he’s talking about and is really passionate, which I like.”
2. Has the tide turned on in-state recruiting?
The Longhorns picked up a big head-to-head win over Texas A&M on Saturday when Jordon Thomas committed, and it’s yet another example of top talent in the 2021 class favoring Texas over A&M.
So far in this year’s recruiting class, Texas has landed eight in-state commitments. Seven of those eight commitments hold scholarship offers from A&M, and the number should probably be eight out of eight unless you think the Aggies wouldn’t take Billy Bowman. By contrast, Texas A&M has only two in-state commitments, one of which held a UT offer (Shadrach Banks).
If we’re talking about top-ranked players in the state and where they might land, Texas would appear to be in a much better spot than their in-state rivals there as well. Whereas in 2019 and 2020, Texas A&M held the clear upper-hand in landing top-10 ranked players from the Lone Star State (5 total for A&M, 1 for Texas), that trend appears to have flipped. Texas already has 3 players committed from the state top 10 this year. A&M’s has zero.
The Aggies are in contention for top-10 guys like Bryce Foster and LJ Johnson, but those are players that are also high on Texas and the Longhorns are also within striking distance for other top-10 prospects like Camar Wheaton and Tommy Brockermeyer (not to mention UT could have had a commitment from Quay Davis if the staff wanted to push there). Texas A&M is recruiting very well out of state, much like Texas did two years ago, with four of the Aggies’ six commitments coming from beyond the bounds of the Lone Star State. But I’m not sure that’s a recipe for sustainable success.
It’s an interesting dynamic what’s happening in the state of Texas. The Longhorns are more than holding their own, and you can really make a case that UT’s biggest competition in this cycle could come from out-of-state schools. If Texas can take care of business on the field this fall (if there is a season this fall), look out.
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ONE PREDICTION – Texas lands AT LEAST three out of the following players: JD Coffey, Ishmael Ibraheem, Andrew Mukuba and Deuce Harmon
I’m going out on a bit of a limb here since none of these players have publicly proclaimed Texas as their leader, and the Longhorns might be playing catch-up with a couple of them, but I like UT’s chances to land JD Coffey sometime this summer and if that happens, I’m expecting a sort or ripple effect that improves Texas chances with Ibraheem, Harmon and even Mukuba.
