Not that there is any big one confirmed, but there are reports out of the blue this evening confirming that Nick Harvey (Rivals' #58 ranked bluechip in the nation, near-5-star DB from Richmond Travis) has reached Austin for a visit. He is one of the top 2014 commits at A&M. Apparently Charlie Strong had dropped by his school on Wednesday. Too early to say if it means anything, but it would be really nice to get a top guy to flip from aggy to us. It will also send a message to aggy that their 2-year party, of just sitting around singing SEC SEC without doing anything much on the field, may start to get disrupted soon. Keep working Charlie.
can't wait until feb 5. if mack was the snake oil salesman, what will coach strong be accused of if he gets aggy commits to flip?
Yes love to hear hear it. Thanks for the vine Jaya! I know there is so much more going on, just wish more info was available. I keep checking Rivals for potential flips. There has got to be a handful of kids whose interest is peaked. Best facilities, incredible weather, great academics, just seemed we were on the downturn. Now with a new coach, you have to think some eyebrows are raised. To include some parents who have influence on some of these prospects. Keep the inside stuff coming... Thanks again
Yes, there are guys who did get kinda interested, but very little time to do much this year, as it is tough when the kids have so much more comfort level with other schools' staff over much longer period. They may want to hear from Texas and would appreciate getting to visit etc, but as Charlie probably knows, most of them are probably not going to pull the trigger on a flip that easily in the end, anyway. So Charlie and staff seem to have focused mostly on trying to keep the kids in Mack's committed list stay in place rather than run around checking interest of too many people to flip to us. But there would surely also be some few guys who are known to have a liking for Texas who had gone elsewhere only because of what they perceived to be a sinking ship under Mack, and might pull the trigger even with a couple of visits with the new coaches. But our coaches would need to pick them carefully. It would be nice to see some flips like that happen, but I don't think we should expect too many of those though.
Aries, That is a good question and is tough for outsiders to answer since we are not privy to early grads, end of playing career choices, transfers, grade issues, Medical Hardship waivers, etc. On the surface, UT has more commits than Srs. leaving but that has been the case every year for a good way back. A quick look at the roster shows 14 Sr scholarships coming open. Add Jr Josh Cochran who has announced he is done playing. I included Demarco Cobbs, who has a year of eligiblilty left, in the Sr count but I really don't know his status after missing 2013 with an injury. There were a few players with suspected grade issues going into the bowl game and their status is unknown. Plus, unknown is how many will decide to leave or transfer once they see what the new coaching staff is like. Another factor is that only 25 scholarships are allowed to be assigned to a particular year but up to 28 new scholarship players can be taken on if a previous year's allotment of 25 is not full. Only 15 new scholarships were given out in 2013 not counting walkon scholarships that are often given if one is available under the 85 total limit. For example, McCrary and Boyer were walkons but got scholarships last year. A kicker (Rose) and possibly another Deep Snapper (Ashby) got them as well. Currently, 22 commits for 2014 are listed with one of them, Shorter, possibly/probably not counting against the limits under a medical scholarship after getting hurt in his senior HS season like Matt Nader had a few years ago. So, there are a lot of unkown factors and a few new offers have gone out recently so my GUESS is we will end up in the 23 to 25 range.
Tommy Grand don't need no stinkin scholarship. He is durn well larned up enuf already. Now, I cud use some of that thar free money to ade my edumacation. My BS ain't enuf.
Not even McWilliams was *generous* enough to offer me a scholarship. Apparently the Texas Longhorns defense did not require a hard-nosed, 5 foot 8, 165 pound MLB.
Aries, The magic number is 85 maximum scholarships total that the NCAA forces you to be in the August time frame before the regular season starts. The Statesman (AAS) did a count of the number of -ships this week of returning players, and reported it to be in the low 70's (71 ?). That means that Charlie Strong is over by about 8 scholarships with the 22 commits. This is a little higher than usual for this time period now. Making more offers to cover those six that do not make it to UT is the problem. The biggest unknown is how many of the 22 commits will exist on LOI day in about a week. Shorter is in that count because medical scholarships count against the 85 number for at least one year. Getting down to the number of 85 is where you get into all the considerations that Swoggler made above. Of the 22 commits, there are about 6 players that are "on the fence" because they are visiting other schools after Strong was hired. These are Alaka, Lorenzo, Bonney, Gray, and the 2 Foreman twins. There seem to be at least 3 offers out now. Those are P.Ford, C.Nelson, and Kolin Hill (the newest LB offer). There are also 2 other offers reported by 247Sports that were made before Strong was hired. I do not know where the old offers to Terry Ayeni and Darrion Johnson stand? Does anyone know about these two old ones that are not in the 22 commits?
Bevobeef are you sure about the injury counting for one year. Seems to me there was an OL hurt and he did not count.
I don't think a scholarship given to a committed HS player who is injured before signing a Letter of Intent and is unable to or decides not to play counts against the 85 limit. This would be a non-player scholarship funded by the athletic department. It is a completely discretionary decision by the school and is not required by any rule. A Medical Hardship Waiver where a player on a college team is injured and as a result plays in less than 30% of the schedule (for football) in a season can receive a "replacement" year of eligibility. The added scholarship year counts against the 85 limit. The extra year is petitioned for and not guaranteed. Examples are Hicks and Ash (assuming his petition is granted for last year). From NCAA Manual: 15.5.1.3 Counter Who Becomes Injured or Ill. A counter who becomes injured or ill to the point that he or she apparently never again will be able to participate in intercollegiate athletics shall not be considered a counter beginning with the academic year following the incapacitating injury or illness. 15.5.1.3.1 Incapacitating Injury or Illness. If an incapacitating injury or illness occurs prior to a prospective student-athlete’s or a student-athlete’s participation in athletically related activities and results in the student-athlete’s inability to compete ever again, the student-athlete shall not be counted within the institution’s maximum financial aid award limitations for the current, as well as later, academic years. However, if the incapacitating injury or illness occurs on or after the student-athlete’s participation in countable athletically related activities in the sport, the student-athlete shall be counted in the institution’s maximum financial aid limitations for the current academic year but need not be counted in later academic years. (Adopted: 1/10/91, Revised: 3/26/04, 9/18/07)
eastexhorn, Matt Nader, OL from Austin Westlake, had a heart problem on the field at a HS game after he had committed to UT. He was no longer able to play but UT honored his scholarship which did not count against annual or total scholarship limits.
According to 247Sports, T.Ayeni committed to Iowa State today. Their timeline for Darrion Johnson does not go past April of last year. Something must have happened to his football career for this coming year. H.Swoggler, thanks for the research time spent. What I read was in an article in the context of Shorter, but there was no definition of what was counted for a single scholarship year.
BB, no problemo. I have a hard time keeping the recruiting rules straight so I keep a link to the manual handy but you almost need to be a legal scholar to interpret it.
I think I am just going to sit back and wait till next Wednesday.... by then all this madness should have resolved itself. This years recruiting class may be a disappointment in terms of star ratings... etc. But I am more interested in this coming season and how the culture change impacts on field performance. I want to see our program full of 3 star talent produce at 5 star levels. I know years past recruiting classes had higher star ratings but I just didn't see the output on the field... so 3 stars for everyone.
I would rather have the 5 stars and 4 stars. They are usually better, which is why they are rated higher. Just that I would worry a little less about it than when Mack and staff were doing it, because they had not shown a tremendous ability to pick 3s and make them 4's and 5's later. Mostly because they never had to do that work. Which also gave them problems at times. The current staff is more used to doing the coach-up work, because they have had to, in the past. So I worry a little less in the upcoming 2 seasons because there are a good number of 4-star recruits on campus right now - certainly good enough to have near top-10 results in the next year and perhaps the year after. But I don't want to see us becoming just a "3-stars and coach up" Univ, because such teams rarely win NCs. That work helps one go to the top-15 or top-10, not to top-3. You do need to get enough 4s and 5s and coach them to up to win the NCs. So, as far as the 2015 class is concerned, I do want to see our staff getting some 5s and a lot of 4s. Minimum 10 to 15 of those each year, not 6 or 7 like we will end up with this year. We will in the end have a top-15 class in 2014, in quality and quantity. Good enough not to give CS too much trouble, because of some solid talent among the 2011 and 2012 recruits (some still to be coached up) in the program. But 2013 was so-so. Going more than 2 years without at least 10-12 four-star guys each, is not going to cut it, to win NCs later, however good the staff is in coaching people up. We are not trying to be Oklahoma State or Baylor here. We are trying to be Texas (2004-2009).
There is not a general recruiting thread, so I'll post this here. From 24/7: -after visiting Baylor over the weekend, the word on S John Bonney was he'd flip to Baylor before National Signing Day. However, a high school teammate of his is saying this morning he expects Bonney to remain a Longhorn. -DT Poona Ford will take one last official visit to Missouri this weekend after visiting Purdue last weekend. His coach is expecting a National Signing Day decision, but thinks Texas leads.
I watched Bonney play a couple of times in person last season. He was just a guy, I am not sure why he is a notable recruit.
There is news today, about a couple of potential flips... There is report of an in-state player who is committed elsewhere to have told a recruiting site that he is coming this weekend, asking his identity to be kept strictly a secret because he doesn't want media attention, also adding that he wouldn't visit unless he is serious about a possible flip. We will see where that goes, and who this is, later... Also, Texas offered a 4-star DE, Demetrius Jackson (Booker T. Washington HS, Miami), a U.Miami commit, yesterday. Then there was a report that his coach said this morning that he is visiting this weekend. The interesting story was that Demetrius had just tweeted that "he is not visiting Texas" ans is "relaxing with his teammates". But by then what his coach said had hit the site, and DJ deleted his tweet a a couple of minutes later. Too late, the way the recruiting-crazies follow tweets Everybody saw it, and that he deleted it. May be he did that not to upset the coach by immediately refuting him while he really has no plans to come. Or he did that because he realized that it was too late to cover up what he was planning to do, which was to visit. Either way, we don't know if he is coming or not, but it's interesting stuff!
I know a PI in Miami that I can get to check on Jackson's activities for the next few days. If he heads out to the airport we will know. Just need a little help with the cost if you guys want to pitch in. Jackson was previously offered by Louisville so I suspect Strong knew him well.
The news this evening is that Jackson isn't coming. I am glad to see the coaches looking all over the place, though they haven't managed to land anybody. This will all help in the next recruiting classes, if not this class. From what we know the staff has been tirelessly working the last few days.
