Recruiting tidbits from the all-star games

Discussion in 'Recruiting' started by jayakris, Dec 29, 2014.

  1. jayakris

    jayakris 2,500+ Posts

    Just some items I saw at various sites, in connection with recruits going to the all-star games this week, like Under-armour, Army, etc...

    1) Near 5-star WR Demarcus Lodge says that he was in a plane with Malik Jefferson for 3 hours to Orlando and got as much Texas recruiting as he could possibly get, from Malik who is going hard after him. Good! Still only a low chance for Lodge, I think. Kyler Murray is also at the same game, but not sure if he was on the plane [​IMG]

    2) There are a bunch of Florida guys that are high on us, who are all talking to each other, and some are set to commit on their all-star game day. top150 4-star TE Devonaire Clarington, 4-star top-300 athlete Tim Irvin (probably a safety later) and 4-star top-300 CB Davante Davis are all possible. The first two a bit more probable. That lovable loudmouth Cecil Cherry is our player-recruiting coordinator for Florida, you know [​IMG]

    3) The hotel room assignment shows Deshon Elliott as the room mate for our top-125 WR commit John Burt. Deshon wavered on us for a long time and said this week that he has fully decided to stick with us. John Burt has been wavering too, with many thinking he would switch to Auburn in the end because his dad wants him there while his mom wants him in Austin. I think Deshon will help recruit.

    4) Anthony Wheeler, top-175 4-star LB recruit was in the same plane as Deshon Elliott. He is set to announce this friday between OU and us, and it is rather surprising that we may not be out of it, even after some 5-star and 4-star LB commits we have. Wheeler will do OVs to schools only after committing to one, it seems. Weird. I think he will end up at OU but keep an eye on this....

    5) The hotel room-mate for bigtime 5-star DT recruit Daylon Mack is none other than Malik Jefferson, his close friend. Be assured that Mack won;t be left alone. He is set to visit us on Jan 23rd. He is still willing to give A&M another look when they hire a new DC, but for now TCU, LSU and Texas are all he is looking at. Reel him in, Malik!

    6) Top-100 4-star RB Chris Warren is still showing no sign of cooling on Texas and is the most probable RB commit for us from now on, but committing only by NSD. Meanwhile, top-150 4-star LSU commit Nick Brossette of LA and top-50 five-star RB Soso Jamabo are showing more signs that we are not out of it for them.

    7) Kai Locksley, 4-star QB from Maryland, who is among 3 QB commits at FSU said he may still do an OV to Texas in January. That's a bit of a surprise that. I thought he was all done, but our staff doesn't stop recruiting it seems. Hmm.... Apparently he says the coach he talks to most often is still Charlie!

    8) Coach Chris Vaughn has been absolutely killing it in recruiting, all the way from Louisiana to Florida (and Texas too, as he is the one who is supposed to have brought in Kris Boyd as a solid lean to Texas). Even guys like 4-star top-150 LSU DB commit Xavier Lewis of LA. He says he will visit us. Vaughn is the reason that RB Brossette (LA) is still looking at us. Same with all the Florida commits, though Charlie's name is big in FL.
     
  2. BevoJoe

    BevoJoe 10,000+ Posts

    Good stuff here!! Got to love Malik for going after recruits. Beating Arky tonight will go a long way totward getting the attention of some recruits, but I don't think it is that critical from a recruiting standpoint. Thank for posting.
     
  3. jayakris

    jayakris 2,500+ Posts

    Winning today may not help a lot. Losing today would kinda dampen things a bit, because finishing with a losing season at 6-7 would look bad. Bur probably not a big deal after a couple of weeks, because nobody is coming to Texas because of the season record this year anyway...

    One other new item to add above -

    9) Five-star national top-50 OL Drew Richmond, an Ole Miss commit, came out of left field and said this weekend that he will do an OV with us! He is from Memphis, TN, and I believe yet another guy that Chris Vaughn is after. He had gone up and visited him on Dec 3rd. Would be a big catch if Vaughn and Wick can flip him to us!
     
  4. jayakris

    jayakris 2,500+ Posts

    To add to what I said about Coach Vaughn's work in Florida, Louisiana, and on guys like Kris Boyd (Gilmer TX) and Drew Richmond (Memphis, TN), I just found something Bobby Burton posted at 247 in early December on Chris Vaughn's schedule -

    Tallahassee on Sunday
    Miami on Monday
    Miami and Gilmer, Texas on Tuesday
    Memphis and Houston on Wednesday
    He'll make his way over to Baton Rouge and New Orleans later in the week


    Coach Vaughn made an impression everywhere. Earning his paycheck with hard work!
     
  5. BevoJoe

    BevoJoe 10,000+ Posts


     
  6. dukesteer

    dukesteer 5,000+ Posts

    Jay, great stuff. Thanks.
     
  7. I35

    I35 5,000+ Posts

    4). OU's game tonight can't help this decisions for them.
     
  8. jayakris

    jayakris 2,500+ Posts

    ^^^ And seeing that our D really needs immediate help in depth while still looking rather well-coached in fundamentals, is also probably helpful. But anyway, to me, Wheeler is not such a big priority because we have picked up some 4 good LBs. If we can get one more DL (Daylon mack would be fantastic), I would be happy. At this point only Mack is left on the board. But he may have been turned off by a 6-7 record for all I know and Malik may be able to do only so much.

    Charlie's job just got a bit harder for the last 5 weeks of recruiting. But he can probably sell immediate playing time and get the remaining 10 odd targets, and we have picked up 20 good players to be somewhat out of danger already. We will anyway have a top-12 quality class quite surely (but that could go up to even top-6 if it all falls in place). So, I'm not expecting any disaster because of this bowl game loss, but it certainly doesn't help.
     
  9. I35

    I35 5,000+ Posts

    Jay, I hope we can get him. After last night I feel we can't get enough good recruits on the 40.
     
  10. l00p

    l00p 10,000+ Posts

    jayakaris, thanks for this thread and other posts throughout the past. Good info to read and encouraging as well. Have a safe New Years.
     
  11. jayakris

    jayakris 2,500+ Posts

    Happy new years to you too, l00p.

    Couple more items frm today.

    10) Our commit Deshon Elliott is apparently saying that he's confident that we will land 4-star LB Wheeler this week.

    11) Guys like Daylon Mack who had seen Arkansas nearly beat A&M and Alabama, aren't that concerned about our loss yesterday, as per reports. Not sure of his own commitment, as A&M seems to be seriously getting ready to hire Chavis from LSU as their DC, giving the highest paycheck for any DC. He was between TCU and LSU with a visit planned to us too, but he could recommit to A&M as well, or he may have sufficiently soured on A&M already to just go to TCU or us. Nobody knows but Malik is still working on him. Can't talk about our chances till he visits us but we are still in it.

    12) The one casualty from yesterday could really be John Burt the top-150 WR commit we have. He has been expected to decommit and go to Auburn, as per everybody and his uncle. He said he was concerned about our O, and he may have got extra reason to ward off Mom in favor of Dad and go to Auburn. But since we knew that he might anyway decommit by February, we have been hard after 2-3 good WRs like top-150 4-star Carlos Strickland (Dallas Skyline, Tech commit) and top-250 4-star WR Ryan Newsome (a smaller speed guy from Aledo), the latter being very probable. An underrated 3-star, Gilbert Johnson from Florida is also available if we want to take him. So we won't fall to danger territory on WR and will have 3 guys committed in the end anyway, including Deandre McNeal who committed already (but he may move position later). We had a big bunch committed last year at WR, so the depth will be there even after Shipley and Harris leave.
     
  12. I35

    I35 5,000+ Posts

    I can get to the Alamo Dome in about 25 minutes from my home. But I want to watch the NFL playoffs so I guess I'll stay home and go back and forth between the channels to see both. But it would be nice to go to the game with my burnt orange on to show support for our commits and perhaps future commit.
     
  13. Olehornfan

    Olehornfan 2,500+ Posts

    I have worn my oranges and been to most of the Army games. I remember Reggie Bush. Great game usually but all of the hat games detract. It is just fun to see so many of these kids do so well in college and I saw them when.
     
  14. dillohorn

    dillohorn Guest

    Great info. Thanks.
     
  15. Dionysus

    Dionysus Idoit Admin

    Great post jay, thanks for the updates!
     
  16. Handler XIII

    Handler XIII 1,000+ Posts

    Agree on Burt, seems he's been gone awhile and with our horrible performances on offense I don't see how anything changes his concerns. Look like he was the only play maker we have committed on offense, is there anyone else that can come in and play next year (and make a difference) on offense?

    I'd like to see at least one more QB commit as well, wish we would go after President but doesn't seem like Charlie and Watson are looking for a dual threat QB to run our offense. I'm a little concerned we could lose Heard if our offense doesn't change to show his strengths.
     
  17. jayakris

    jayakris 2,500+ Posts

    Not sure what you mean by a playmaker, but yes, Devonaire Clarington at TE is a real playmaker at that spot (good shot for him to commit this week). Newsome at WR (generally expected to commit) is one of the speediest small guys we have had, pretty much in the Tony Jones style. Chris Warren at RB (also expected to commit) is a very good one, but only very few RB recruits are ever called "playmakers" and they are the few shifty ones, I suppose. He is not one. he is a replacement for Malcolm Brown but an excellent one. Vahe on OL is absolutely a monster and pretty much a playmaker at OL. To land the other big WR playmaker remaining on the board, WR Demarcus Lodge, some interesting things need to happen (but we will see if there is anything to some rumors).

    But if you want a straight replacement for Burt, that would be Carlos Strickland. He has considerably warmed up on us, from all I see. We will need to flip him from Tech and it may be possible.

    At QB, I won't be surprised if we flip Kai Locksley, who is dual-threat. Probably a 40-50% chance already for it. But Gentry is really really good. As always, any QB will need the right system, and Watson just has to dust off the stuff he knows and just do it, or get replaced during or after this year [​IMG]
     
  18. ViperHorn

    ViperHorn 10,000+ Posts


     
  19. mojo17

    mojo17 1,000+ Posts

    With Chavis to a&m I see Malik gone
     
  20. jayakris

    jayakris 2,500+ Posts

    ^^ No. He has said enough times that he will stick to the commitment, today. He said somethig like "if Sumlin wants to calle me, I will talk to him, but I am committed to Texas". His dad was pretty firm to multiple sources that "a word is a word" and stuff like that. I just don't think his dad/mom and brothers would let him go to A&M. Yeah, there is always a 10% chance for all these things, but he will stick.

    He has to attend class in a just over 2 weeks, and he has signed his scholarship papers but that only binds Texas to honor the scholarship. Early enrollees do not sign LOIs to attend till February and so he can technically switch to A&M all the way till he enrolls in classes at Texas which may be around the 19th. I don't expect him to switch.

    I don't think a DC was really his top concern at A&M. He is well-schooled by his family about WHY their defense never flourish under Sumlin's offense. He was giving the DC excuse to Sumlin and Sumlin didn't have an answer. Now he may have to give some other excuse on why he is not attending (which may be like, "my dad won't let me!"). That's all.

    But I would have preferred not to have this situation. Even a 10% chance is scary! Malik going to A&M will be devastating.

    Meanwhile, our top DB target 4-star Kris Boyd is getting serious pressure from A&M. He was ready to commit on the 25th to us but aggy managed to get him to hold off and now he may be giving them a serious look again. They are on hot pursuit already, selling Chavis and saying Daylon Mack may recommit etc. Ah, these kids..... His younger brother Demarco Boyd who is totally sold on Texas (a 2016 recruit) just has to come through for us on this and keep him from committing to A&M. If a&m goes and offers Demarco also, I am not sure what will happen. Charlie has some work to do on Kris Boyd.
     
  21. jayakris

    jayakris 2,500+ Posts

    One other note, on what Sabre asked on WR playmakers. My mention of Carlos Strickland above as a potential replacement for a John Burt decommitment may have been timely. Just saw a report that Strickland said at the all-star game in California that he will do two OVs - to UCLA and Texas - though he is committed to Tech (whatever that means. the kids say all these things). Anyway, he is a soft commit to Tech, and if we manage to sell immediate need and keep him away from UCLA, we may get him. Will keep an eye.
     

Share This Page