Justin Wells - Recruiting Roundup - 1/17/18 (new coach, new offer, new day) Hand, Grad Transfer OL, Carson, OVs this weekend, Caleb O, Williams, V-Jack. The works. Spoiler Texas announced the hiring of new Co-OC and OL coach Herb Hand today. That makes 10 full-time coaches, until they decide how to handle Derek Warehime. I don’t think he’ll be let go, rather reassigned. To what specific position still remains. We know Herman still needs a play-caller not named Herman. They also aren't ready to pull recruiting assistant Bryan Carrington off the road yet. Until Hand dots the i’s and crosses the t’s, Texas is full within its scope to have Carrington remain on the trail. That's a really good thing. More on that in a minute. What about the grad transfer offensive linemen? At this moment, Texas looks good for both. Rice's Calvin Anderson is enjoying getting re-recruited, and Stanford's Casey Tucker is being thorough, because that’s what Stanford men do. Anderson is supposed to see OU and TCU soon. And Tucker left Austin with a smile on his face, I'm told. I don't think there's a timeline for either here. But it’s safe to say UT leads for both heading down the stretch. As I reported yesterday, Carrington and coach Giles were in Missouri to visit Daniel Carson. Texas would likely take Carson over Caleb Okechukwu, but still want to see Caleb on campus this weekend. With Nebraska landing Winged Beaver DE Casey Rogers (Avon, CT) last night, that’s another sign the Longhorns look good here. UT started this relationship with Carson last Spring, and hosted him on an OV in September. Sending in Dr. Carrington was just what the pharmacist ordered. As for Vernon Jackson, I feel as though the Horns would take one of V-Jack or Mike Williams, who is scheduled to take his official in Austin this weekend. He was offered this morning. Both are very similar in most regards; Jackson is slightly larger and more athletic, whereas Williams might be a little meaner and stronger. Both having played QB for their respective teams, they both display the versatility you love in a high school prospect. Tommy Blake-ish. Jackson has OVs set for Alabama and A&M remaining, with TCU still interested. I'm told the Jackson recruitment might go down to the wire. Texas is set to host Okechukwu, Williams, and Josh Moore this weekend. $#@!er the Kicker will be in attendance as well. The first two will be case studies. Moore is the easy one. If UT really wants the 6-foot-1 string bean athlete from Yoakum, they can get him. They envision Moore as an outside and slot receiver. They'd take both if Jaylen Waddle decides Austin his future home. UT is still hosting Moro Ojomo in two weeks, I believe. No matter how they finish 2018, I'd take Ojomo. He's got too much upside to disregard. It took too long to get on him in the first place. In conclusion, Hand is in, the grad transfers are looking salty, Carson and Texas are beginning to look like a couple, take one of V-Jack or Williams (both if you can, but I don't think that's likely), Texas might still get a slot named Moore, and keep pushing for Ojomo. Also, I really like Joseph Ossai. And trust the Herman, he has a plan. P.S. If you go to St. Thomas Aquinas HS in Florida and didn't get a Texas offer yesterday, go back to the gym.
All good news. We might not know about the grad transfers for a couple months. They don't have to commit by NSD2. Still no news on official visits for the nose tackle commit out of Houston Westfield Coburn which is really really good. I think that's still your #1 get out of all the remaining players out there. You really don't want to see an official visit come in to college station for the last weekend of the recruiting period.
Announced last night that he's taking one to Miami. Doesn't seem like they are a legitimate threat though. DT Moro Ojomo and WR Lawrence Keys announced they're taking an official visit this weekend. Ojomo would be a huge get.
Coburn is just taking fun visits at this point. The only serious contenders are in-state schools like TCU and Texas A&M. If Coburn leaves Texas to take visits on the West Coast next, we'll know he's going to sign with Texas. Keys III seems like more of a take now that the Duvernay brothers are rumoured to be gone. Not sure if we lead for Ojomo. He's looking at Notre Dame and OU along with Texas. It looks like Texas A&M is out of it now. They are blowing recruitments left and right.
That's consistent with what The Football Brainiacs and Inside Texas have been saying since Early Signing Day. Nothing has changed.
Carson picked Texas over offers from Arkansas, Georgia, Miami, Nebraska, Oklahoma and others. He announced on Friday in honor of his birthday. At 6-foot-5, 260 pounds, Carson is ranked as the No. 23 strong-side defensive end in the country and No. 9 overall prospect in the state, according to 247Sports Composite. Texas now has 22 commits in its 2018 class.
247 reporting that Corburn is slated to to official visit TCU next weekend and likely A&M the following. Most still think he'll stick but we'll see. Wonder if Herman has done his in-home yet.
Not sure he has a future at RB in the league but his size and athleticism is intriguing. He had some impact at H-Back in limited time this season so hope a team finds a way to utilize him.
Spoiler: The Football Brainiacs – Calvin Anderson: Just spoke with Rice left tackle graduate transfer, Calvin Anderson. It sounds like the visit really couldn’t have gone any better. “I was as good as a visit can go. I’ve been to Texas a number of times but they did the extra stuff. It was nice. I appreciate the glamour. You know, the hotel set up, the food and all but really I loved talking to coach Hand and coach Herman and spending time with Breckyn [Hager] and Sam [Ehlinger]”. Anderson spoke so glowingly of coach Hand that it’s hard not to be optimistic, not only about Hand’s ability to potentially bring in Anderson, but for future recruiting efforts as well, “He’s one of the coolest coaches I’ve ever met. He’s going to be incredible for UT. He’s extremely intelligent. He’s not just a student of the game but a student of life as well”. While at Auburn, Hand recruited Anderson. In fact coach Hand was the first coach that Anderson actually met after he announced his decision to leave Rice. Anderson said that the time he spent reviewing film with the staff really stood out but said every aspect of the visit was top notch, “I went in with high expectations but they were all outdone. They exceeded my expectations down to the details. For example, in a previous conversation I guess I had mentioned that my favorite food is pickles. So, when I got to my hotel room they had jars of pickles everywhere”. While Anderson didn’t outright state that Texas is his leader, the Horns seem to have shaken things up in terms of his process, “I don’t know how much better it will get than Texas. There’s not much more I need to see. They checked a lot of boxes and created new boxes”. Anderson was originally planning on taking all five official visits but now says, “I’ll visit Michigan next weekend. After that I’m not sure. I may only end up taking two or three visits”. Auburn, Oklahoma and others are trying to get Anderson on a visit but so far he says he’s not certain which, if any, others schools outside of Michigan will get a visit. In terms of a decision timeline, Anderson originally said he wanted to be done by March 25th (his birthday) but it now sounds like he may make a decision far sooner than that. – (Super K) – Keondre Coburn: Texas DT Keondre Coburn took an official visit to Miami over the weekend. I will say that Miami isn’t a major threat here, at least IMO. If he takes visits to Texas A&M and TCU over the last two weekends before NSD then I’d be more worried if I was Texas. So that’s something I’ll be keeping a closer eye on. – (Andrew) – I checked in with head coach at West Rusk, where Texas A&M DL, Tyree Wilson plays ball and am told that Wilson will take a official visit to Texas this upcoming weekend. As I’ve previously noted, Wilson is an exceptional athlete and a very large human being. He really is the definition of a player where the coaching he receives will hit a ceiling before his ability does. – (Super K) – Also, spoke with the mother of star 2019 DT, DeMarvin Leal (Converse, TX). I’ll have more from my conversation with her later but wanted to note that coach Tom Herman went by to see Leal on Friday. That is two visits from the Texas staff in one week for Leal. Think he’s a high priority for Texas? – (Super K) – Caleb Okechukwu: Texas extended to weekend official visitor St. John’s (DC) DE Caleb Okechukwu. View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter Right now, Tennessee is the main competition for Okechukwu. Texas is in a prime position to land DE Michael Williams from Louisiana. If they want to take both Williams and Okechukwu, they both could very well end up in Texas’ 2018 class. – (Andrew) – Weekend Official Visitors: Texas hosted a few official visitors over the weekend. St. John’s (DC) DE Caleb Okechukwu Durham School (LA) DE Mike Williams Lake Travis (TX) K Cameron Dicker Yoakum (TX) WR Joshua Moore Rice Grad Transfer OT Calvin Anderson It sounds like it was a very positive weekend all-around for Texas. And a possible commitment could be coming soon. As hinted by Director of Player Personnel Bryan Carrington. Look for something to happen on this front as early as today. My guess would be ATH/DE Michael Williams ~BB007 – Arjei Henderson: One of the top WR’s in the nation in 2019 is FB Travis (TX) 5-star WR Arjei Henderson. His recruitment has been an interesting one so far. He made early commitments to both Oklahoma, then Oregon, but backed out of both pledges. He has told me he’s going to wait awhile before he makes his final decision but it looks like he’s going to take his official visits before the season begins. Texas A&M, Texas, Oklahoma, TCU, and Ole Miss are the schools that will get visits from him as of today. Oklahoma made a surge in this recruitment during the season. And I think it ends up being a battle between the Sooners and Longhorns for Arjei Henderson. – (Andrew)
Spoiler: Inside Texas Part 1 The goal is 3-4 guys every cycle. Then redshirt and forget about them and reap the rewards down the pipeline. It's also instructive to understand if there's one position on the roster the coaches are less concerned about stars it's the defensive line. That doesn't mean they don't want five-star types, it just means the defense can function at a high level without them. In fact, we saw that this year. But what happens when a three-star has five-star potential? Bah gawd they're playing Moro Ojomo's music. MORO OJOMO I was BS'ing with a rival school's coach last week about recruiting. We do this dance often. I try and get intel from him. He tries to get intel from me. We give each other just enough to get the other one talking. I mentioned if they stole Texas commit Keondre Coburn (not that it's likely) Texas would be perfectly fine provided they landed Katy defensive lineman Moro Ojomo. He stated his staff has Ojomo as the better prospect. I can't say Texas feels that exact way as well, but as Tom Herman and Craig Naivar made the rounds through Katy last week it became evident they felt similarly to the Texas recruiting internet. The staff is in absolute awe of Ojomo. This is good information because the three-star needs to be recruited like the five-star he might be if he was a junior in high school rather than senior. Ojomo made his way to South Bend this weekend. Returns there were informative. The Domer staff was impressed by his family's interest in education. They were also impressed by his physical structure and length. They, like everyone else I've heard from, view him as a sure-fire NFL player. While education is said to be important, the Notre Dame staff got the same feeling we did; Ojomo really likes Oklahoma. That's the visit Texas coaches will have to contend with next weekend. I like UT's chances but there's work to be done. The staff will have its chance beginning Friday. For now, here's Katy head coach, Gary Joseph, on his prized pupil: “He’s one of those kids who plays every down very hard. He’s a high-motor kid. He’s about 6-2, 270. He plays interior defensive line. He’s got long arms, which helps him in the pass rush. He’s got good quickness. The positive a lot of people see about the kid is he’ll graduate in May and he’ll be 16 years old. He won’t turn 17 until August. I don’t think the kid has finished growing and I don’t think anybody else does either. His dad is 6-7. I just think he’s going to get bigger and stronger. He was much better his senior year than he was his junior year because he matured. He’s still got a lot of upside because he’s so young.” “He’s a very, very quiet kid in the locker room. He became more assertive this year encouraging kids and pushing them. He’s one of those kids who is very academically-oriented. He’s very concerned about his grades. He’s a 3.45-student or something. He’s got a great GPA. He doesn’t mind studying. He’s one of those kids who works at it and wants to do well in the classroom.” “He had some offers last spring, but he blew up his senior year. He got better his senior year. I knew this was going to happen once his film got out. He wanted to make sure he did a fair evaluation of what he wanted to do. His parents wanted to be involved, so they wanted to go with him [on visits].” “I know he’s going to visit Texas. He’s been to Oklahoma. I don’t know where his fourth one is going to be.” When you look at how Texas deploys its defensive linemen, Ojomo makes perfect sense. Here's the sell, "your ceiling is Ed Oliver, your floor is Poona Ford, the Big 12 defensive lineman of the year." Ojomo is athletic enough to moonlight at 4i if need be. I'm not as certain he has to redshirt as some others because of his raw power. If you previously never heard of him and watched his tape and I told you he turned 19 in November and has his own apartment he affords by working the door at Moe's you wouldn't doubt me. He can play next fall. That might not be ideal, but he could do it. TOMMY BUSH When you can slow play a raw talent like Bush you must like where you sit with wide receivers. Texas checked back in on the Schertz Clemens home run threat last week and was met with tepid interest. Had Texas been on Bush the whole time it would have been game blouses. That's not to deride the staff at all, it's just important to know the staff felt like it would be able to get in late if it wanted to. It appears they want to. I have good reason to believe Texas has an outside shot to pull the late signature, but it will have to recruit all out from this point forward. Last week in one day alone, Bush was visited by Texas, Georgia, Michigan State, and Baylor. When it's this late numbers matter. I'd bet good money Josh Moore selects Texas. That means Texas wants someone in the event the Jaylen Waddle dream doesn't materialize. Numbers are a bit low at the position. Bush's upside and work ethic is such that I'd be all over it. Texas will have to contend with Arkansas, Baylor, and Florida for the final visit. If Texas gets that visit and recruits him like they recruited Brennan Eagles and Al'Vonte Woodard, it might be time to break out the calculator. ORLANDO CHECKING ON A LEGACY Last May I attended the Fort Worth All Saints spring game. I went by to talk with Longhorn great Blake Brockermeyer as much as anything. I also had enough time to hook @Sneezybeltran up with a bartender at Hooters but I don't know if he ever took advantage of me being such a thoughtful friend. Brokermeyer's 2021 son, Tommy, is the headliner at All Saints, but they have other talent including Luke. I'm not a big fan of the feel good legacy story so keep that in mind when I tell you this kid has real ability. He's terrifically fluid and if linebacker didn't work out he could be a Cade Brewer type tight end. He's certainly a D1 football player. Todd Orlando went by last week and is supposed to go by again this week. Every possibility is still on the table from a legitimate late offer to walk-on status. I have my doubts Luke would accept a preferred walk-on role but if academic money made up the difference maybe there's a chance. Luke loves UT as much as you'd expect a Brockermeyer to. Luke is committed to Rice but Oregon State is pushing incredibly hard and telling him he's the #1 outside linebacker on their board. It's worth noting Oregon State's defensive coordinator is former Wisconsin linebackers coach, Tim Tibesar. Texas needs another linebacker, ideally someone with the fluidity to play Rover. Luke is worth a mention. He's currently a shade under 6-foot-3, and 210 pounds. WALK-ON RUNNING BACK We're getting close to the big reveal. It's somewhat funny to me a walk-on running back has taken on somewhat of a life of its own, but damn, the dude is a baller. I'm not saying he's going to displace scholarship runners, but you watch much lesser talents every Saturday. This is a match made in heaven. The kid is smart (he's turning down Ivy's) and wants to be at Texas. Texas wants him just as bad. He visited for a couple of games and was treated like a scholarship player. Stan Drayton went by his school just last week. It says a lot about the program when you see this type of effort going into a walk-on. This thing should be wrapped up soon. I plan to do a full interview with this kid because his circumstances are so unique. Turning down Ivy League money and a couple of Division I offers to walk on at Texas? Pretty cool. FINAL TIDBIT Texas coach Derek Warehime's Twitter bio now reads Tight Ends coach at Texas. So there's that. CALVIN ANDERSON When word started trickling out that Rice starting OL Calvin Anderson was going to graduate early and look for another school to finish off his collegiate career, the bat signal came down from Westlake HS. Upon arriving on campus Saturday, Anderson received the red carpet treatment with Westlake alums and current Horns, Breckyn Hager and Sam Ehlinger. Sticking the 6-foot-5, 305-pound left tackle with Hager and Ehlinger was pure genius, Tom. After getting the full tour of the 40 Acres, he went out with the guys and coach's Herb Hand and Tim Beck to watch the NFL playoffs. Anderson speaks very highly of the new UT OL coach Hand. Then the coaches headed home and he got to enjoy the Austin life on Saturday and Sunday night. Anderson has a bigger decision to make than he anticipated. Notre Dame, Michigan, Auburn, OU, TCU, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and Louisville have all been by to see the graduate transfer in the last week. But after this weekend, it's safe to say Texas holds all the cards. He was loved at Westlake. He played a huge role in helping the Westlake underclassmen. He was the hype man in practice. he pushed teammates, which included Hager, who he helped develop his pass rushing skills and how to be a great teammate. He was known as one of the most intelligent players in the game, on and off the field. He was a leader and still possesses those attributes. Some in the program think he could be the left tackle this offense sorely needs to compete in the Big 12 next fall. With UT in great standing with Stanford grad transfer, Casey Tucker, and now Anderson, this offseason couldn't be off to a better start. Then there's the whole 'finishing up 2018's class is fantastic fashion....
Spoiler: Inside Texas Part 2 JOSHUA MOORE It was almost like he never left. But this time, things were slightly different. “Definitely," Moore said about if he noticed any differences since his last trip to Austin. "The facilities look amazing. The new locker room is incredible. The family vibe is still here. I talked to Vince Young, Michael Huff all those all time greats that came through here, I’ve been hanging with them." Moore was hosted by John Burt and Kobe Boyce. If Texas didn't have the slight lead before Saturday, they do now. But what really stood out on this visit? “Just the family environment here, man," said Moore. "I feel as if I’ve been here for years. Opportunities are everywhere here for me. It’s a great place, man. I just got word that they will let me play both sides if I choose to. That was really cool." The 6-foot-1 plus+ athlete still has officials set for Florida State (1/26) and Oregon (2/3), places he's seen before. But those schools don't feel like home. And aren't 2.5 hours from Austin. Mom wants to see both her boys play on Saturdays - Jordan, his twin, signed with A&M. With Joshua related to Oscar Giles and coach Washington doing a tremendous job keeping the Horns in play, the Moores feel most comfortable on the 40 Acres. “I think everybody in my home town wants me here," said Moore, on what he hears from those closest to him. Texas leads here. But let him take those final two OVs and we'll reassess. So is the recruitment of Joshua Moore. MIKE WILLIAMS We felt fairly confident of UT's chances of landing the 6-foot-2, 245-pound wrecking ball from Baton Rouge before last weekend. Today, we feel even more confident. Of all the visitors this trip, Mike Williams might’ve had the most fun. After picking up an offer earlier in the week, Williams arrived in Austin with high expectations. I’m told Texas fulfilled most, if not all. Williams was enamored with the vibe and family atmosphere on the 40 Acres. He's building a great relationship with Oscar Giles and can see himself playing that 4i spot in Todd Orlando's defense. He still has a trip scheduled to Tennessee next weekend, but I've been told he could shut down his recruitment sooner than that. The questions about his grades are just that, speculation. Right now, the jumbo athlete is a definite take, and the Horns want him. This weekend couldn't have gone much better for the Texas Football program. Now, we shift focus to this weekend's visitor list that includes Moro Ojomo, Lawrence Keys, and Tyree Wilson.
Herman did some shuffling around today with Warehime moving to TE coach. No word on what happens with Meekins though. Pretty surprising since I thought he did a good job with a very young TE group plus as well as pretty much locking down Houston for Herman.
