Bumping this post to say that UT is one win away from the championship game after beating Vanderbilt today!
Game Time Announcement Texas Longhorns baseball vs. Vanderbilt at 7 p.m. CT on ESPN. Winner advances to #CWS championship series.
YEAAA b****H!!!!!! What now college station? Strong picked up 3 star OL Garrett Thomas. Sumlin's days are numbered. http://www.burntorangenation.com/re...mits-texas-longhorns-football-recruiting-2015
Of all the stuff to whine about, the Longhorns were picking up 5 and 4 star offensive linemen and turning them into nothing special and had horrible lines in the McWhorter era, while Joe Wickline was taking 3 stars and less heralded types and turning out the top lines in the conference and first round picks. Guess who is handing out the scholarships now. OL is one of the positions that takes the most development and where coordination/coaching/teamwork vastly outweighs just getting a bunch of athletes and saying "do your thing" . It's also notoriously hard to evaluate. Maxed out HS athletes can look great exploiting a size advantage that just evaporates at the next level.
Agreed that I trust Wickline's takes, but I don't think he really pumped out a ton of 1st rounders (Okung being the exception). I think his secret sauce is that his guys sit on the bench/redshirt and don't start until later in their college careers. Results in an experienced line that minimizes mistakes and reloads fairly easily. Recruiting is a little slower than expected right now, but we have a solid enough class and a good season will turn some heads, especially on defense. a&m's locking up a lot of talent, but I think we can still have a top 10 (and definitely a top 15) class.
Yeah...I guess my point was that I'm impressed by his ability to field good lines without tons of NFL talent. Good lines and draft picks would, of course, be optimal.
Wickline had 3 o-lineman drafted during his time at Okie St. Okung and 2 6th rounders in 2007. I understand that Ok St always had a great offense and running game, but let's not act like Wickline has been churning out NFL lineman. Okung was obviously the exception.
He might be able to recruit up and coach up a little more talent in Austin than he could in Stillwater.
Searles actually left behind a fairly stocked cupboard at OL, so Wickline has good pieces to work with. It may take a season to get his schemes in place, but it's not the dumpster fire that MacWhorter left Searles. I expect a pretty solid running game, and there is talent on D (though lacking depth on DL)...If Ash stays healthy, it's not crazy to think we can win 10 games.
Both Blalock and Studdard were also drafted in 2007. And Tony Hills was drafted in 2008. So, he hasn't put 3 more in than UT, he's had the same number drafted.
Ash needs to seriously contemplate retirement. Obviously, we don't have any medical info and there's a lot of unknowns with concussions, but based on how the last one affected him, he seems to be a major hit away from a lifetime of potential problems. And if I understand correctly, college athletes don't get their medical expenses covered after their eligibility is up.
I agree with that. Without knowing details of his medical situation other than what's public, my non-expert opinion would be to recommend retirement for a kid with 2 major concussions. That said, he's been cleared by the medical staff and he seems to want to play, so all I can do is cheer for him to #1 (by a fair margin) stay healthy and #2 play well.
Not like Ash is gonna be an NFL QB anyways so why not let him play out his last year of big time football if hes aware of the risks and cleared by medical personnel
Actually it looks like there's 4, dating back to 06 which was actually the first time in 20 years an OL was drafted from OSU. It's also infinity times the amount Texas had plus 4 more than Texas has had since the immortal Tony Hills, 6 years ago. Frankly I don't really know why we're having this conversation. If you want to perform an analysis of the respective OL performance between Texas and Oklahoma state over the past 5 years or so - go ahead and see how that works out. Not really sure why anybody would want to go to war with McWhorter vs. Wickline, nor pitch a conniption fit about a lowly 3 star recruit take at the most notoriously difficult position to evaluate and the one position where coaching is probably the single biggest differentiator and where mere athletic ability crudely gauged by keyboard jockeys in star rating is perhaps least relevant. But that is the lot you have cast in with.
