I skipped ahead to knock out my review of the Longhorn class over at Inside Texas. It’s free so you can read the full breakdown just like all my other classes, it’s just hosted by Inside Texas where I do my Longhorn work.
Something I didn’t fit into that review is that like Matt Campbell or so many other smart and organized head coaches, Tom Herman has really been beefing up the preferred walk-on program at Texas.
It’s a tough deal since walk-ons have to get into the school and be able to pay their own way and getting into Texas can be tricky. However, I think preferred walk-ons probably get some degree of favoritism and Texas has cleverly used the program to bring in the children of past stars or locals from schools like Westlake that don’t lack for funds to pay for college.
For instance this group included Luke Brockermeyer, the son of Longhorn legend and NFL star Blake Brockermeyer. Unlike father, who was a big bruising OL, son Luke is a cat-quick OLB that could end up at any number of positions after he adds weight in strength and conditioning. I’d say there’s a good chance he plays someday and he’s as good a prospect as many in other B12 classes.
The upshot of this is that Texas will inevitably find a starter from their walk-on ranks in the future and their scout teams, practice squads, and depth will all be better. As I noted in my review of the elite 90’s Nebraska teams, a challenge to blue-chip recruiting is getting everyone to buy in and work hard enough to serve as role players when the eval of their talent had them pegged as stars. Well that can be mitigated if you have good, grinding walk-ons that don’t allow guys to fail to max out lest they risk losing their chance to play at all.
This is a particular concern at Texas which recruits players that have REALLY been praised by evals and come to campus often believing that they’ve already arrived at players or else eager to make the most of being a by God Texas Longhorn out on 6th street. Culture matters. A lot.
C’mon, man.
Michael Williams such a favorite of Herman he offered right before his first ever visit to Texas 3 weeks before NSD?
He’s a good take late in a cycle if you have room because he’s an incredibly fluid athlete for a 6-2, 250lb kid. Maybe he trims up a bit and becomes a Mike, maybe he stays the same size and learns to block and becomes an H/Full back, maybe he gains 20-30 more pounds while keeping his athleticism and becomes a 3-tech type. But it’s a serious exercise in projection because you’re going to be asking him do something he’s never done.
2 different LSU staffs worked him out over 2 years worth summer camps and decided they had better options in this class at every position he projects at.
Time will tell, I guess.
I know for a fact that he’s a Herman favorite, so we can argue based off arguments that demonstrate awareness, value, and market pressures or we could defer to what he’s said.
What Herman loves about him is his insane athleticism, he did a squat down to the ground with some obscene amount of weight in front of Herman, and the fact that this highly functional athleticism is packaged into a large person. The fact that he’s played QB to this point (and some DE) is a silly concern. That’s true of many of the best HS recruits, if you’re a transcendent athlete that often means your HS coach is going to play you wherever you can have maximal impact. And btw, his projection at Texas is currently as a 4i-technique and the possibility of him adding 20-30 pounds while maintaining athleticism is so likely as to be laughable as a concern. That’s the most normal thing in the world when it comes to recruiting.
I’m sympathetic to Orgeron’s trouble with the fact that the state of Louisiana produces a very high number of raw athletes so it’s hard to keep gems from slipping away every year, but it still seems as though he’s not hitting a passing mark even grading on a curve. When nearly every B12 class includes some stud athlete from Louisiana it’s going to be something I comment on, especially coupled with Orgeron’s misfires in recruiting and bizarre staff dynamics with Matt Canada. There’s a lot of smoke suggesting he’s not proving to be the most organized head man.
We’ll see on Williams. He’s a great athlete. He’s also kind of a tweener. Not ideal length for the DL. Maybe he can get bigger with no tradeoffs….maybe he’s maxed out already. It’s not like Dunham is some poor rural HS out in the country.
I certainly don’t have a problem with you questioning Coach O or his recruiting. He’s certainly not above reproach. It’s all the shallow, drive-by snark you (and Nahlin) seem to be directing toward LSU since the stupid summer camp thing went down that bugs me.
I do appreciate your analysis. That’s why I’m here. So do an analysis. Look at their roster. Look at their recruiting class and tell me who they should not have taken in order to pursue all these hidden gems that went to B12 schools. It kinda comes off as petty and agenda-driven when you guys just take pot-shots.
Look at Dare Rosenthal, Nelson Jenkins, and Davin Cotton (LSU’s likely 4is) and tell me which in-state kid LSU should not have taken for Michael Williams. Tell me why the two Texas guys Herman took to play Nose are better than the two Texas guys LSU took play nose.
I’m not going to break down the full LSU class, it’s hard enough to get through the B12.
As far as a rivalry goes, I don’t really feel that with LSU. I know there’s some overlap in targets but I haven’t hesitated to praise LSU in the past, this is more about me seeing a negative trend at LSU in the tea leave and pointing at it here and there.
As far as Williams goes, I think expecting a freak athlete to easily get to 280 is totally reasonable. As it happens tho, 4i is perfect for tweeners and both schools use that technique extensively. Maybe Louisiana was overflowing with 4i prospects and it wasn’t a big deal to pass on williams, we’ll see.
If Aranda sticks around I’m sure you’ll be fine.
A collection of mid-level recruits with rankings boosted by a biased media. According to Looch, only 2 of these guys had commitable Aggie offers.
A few nice players but if we are being honest nearly all of these kids would never see the field in the SEC.
Thank goodness General Fisher got the c/o 18 guys he needed before totally taking the lead on the 2019 class. Fisher will continue the dominance that the Aggies have had on the recruiting trail for the past decade.
General Fisher is one of only 4 active coaches to win a national championship. The man can identify and mold talent. Then he will coach the pants off of your coach.
Whoop whoop!
That’s high level trolling. Also kinda impressed you didn’t pull the “that’s a really nice 7on7 team you got there,” card since it doesn’t hold up as well in light of NSD2.
I look forward to General Fisher trying to replicate General Sherman’s march to Atlanta.
One of the difficulties of building a good walk-on program that you didn’t mention was allocation of coaching resources. If you really want to develop those guys, then your coaching staff really has to spend the time developing them, even though most of them will never be contributors on the field. That’s part of the reason Notre Dame and Brian Kelly have gotten away from that in comparison to prior years.
I think, overall, it is probably a strategic error because you need those practice squad-type guys playing at the highest level they can for them to meaningfully help your starters. Granted, I’m a bit biased since I grew up on the Lou Holtz philosophy that if your starters aren’t getting punched in the mouth everyday in practice, you’re doing it wrong. Also, you’re probably going to scare away some talented recruits if you’re honest about that aspect of your program.
But it’ll be interesting to see how much Herman can generate out of the preferred walk-ons in Austin.
I recently learned that the Texas walk-on program under Charlie was terrible, despite him inheriting a 3-year starter from what Mack left him. I wasn’t surprised.