Yea saw s tweet on that. What HS was he playing for? I watched the games last wknd and saw him, but can't remember. Any chance Kyler bails on Aggies?
temple -- 8th best athlete in nation. That sbnation article, like much online, was not proofread. We shouldn't really point out writing snafus. All online journalism is guilty.
Burton said yestrerday that Texas was in touch with Chad president. I don't think it is anything that serious though. Our staff has no ego, and does not have any problem getting in touch with anybody. My suspicion is that if we go for a 3rd QB over Gentry and Merrick, it will be a polished product rather than a project. This dude is a terrific athlete though.
Let's be real. President didn't really decommit, he had his offer retracted by Briles. Briles wants Stidham, who lives with a Tech alum that is close friends with Briles from his days at Stephenville and Lubbock. The guy is playing street agent. Leaving Tech and Kingsbury? I have no problem with that since the kid will be there longer than Kliff. Who will the Hance Henchmen go after next? I'll at lest give Briles credit for cutting the kid loose in the tenth hour rather than at five minutes til midnight. He is good, but I'm not seeing anything that we don't already have, and that ain't working out so well. Hu, Yes Kyler is having second thoughts, but not about Texas in spite of all Calvin and another TexasEx close relative can do. Think tree huggers & whale kissers with a pathetic "wardrobe".
I should add that if we had anyone worth a damn as our OC, we had enough inside stroke that we have had a good shot at Kyler. Shawn Watson does not exactly excite any QB with an IQ larger than his jersey number. The kid from ABQ is on Mack not Chuck.
^^ Oh, I don't think that is true. Just the opposite, maybe. Every report I have seen is that the ONLY reason why Kyler's dad is asking his son to drop his mad love for aggy and look at us, is Shawn Watson and Shawn Watson alone. When we got Matthew Merrick (whose coach is Kevin Murray, as you may know) to agree to a greyshirt at QB, Shawn Watson was reportedly in Kevin Murray's office the whole day (or many many hours) talking offense and QB philosophy. Their minds seem to match on a lot of things, apparently. [Btw, Watson took Kevin Murray's advice, called Charlie at lunch time to convince him, and suddenly called Merrick with an offer, that surprised the hell out of the kid] The thing is that Kevin Murray is probably concerned about his son, who is terrific in a spread attack, but has all ingredients in pocket presence and passing abilities to be a Wilson-type pro quarterback. Kevin could be concerned about the pro aspirations (Kyler's height is an issue). Well, we don't know that for a fact, but it does make sense, as Kevin was a topnotch QB and is a QB coach/analyst himself. If your son were any lower-rated a QB, you would want the spread numbers for him to get a look from NFL (where spread QBs seem to be increasingly questioned now), but if you have somebody as good as Kyler as your son, it does make sense to try to send him to somebody who can indeed coach a pro-style QB, even if he is no more than a so-so play-caller and won't put up the numbers the Sumlins and Briles would. So much so, that this past weekend there were serious reports that Kevin was asking Malik Jefferson to talk to Kyler and get him to see the light and come to Texas. Reports at multiple recruiting sites got taken down immediately on this, so it now becomes "rumor". Kyler apparently can't see himself as a Longhorn, so I don't expect anything to come of it, at this time. But back to the point, in this particular case of a QB dad who knows his stuff, Shawn Watson is certainly not the stumbling block but rather the main positive. I am no expert, so if you know more, please comment. But you may be right that a reason why Kyler himself isn''t excited, could well be the uninteresting Watson offense, btw.
Most interesting, Jay. Thx for the compiled thoughts. I get the feeling there's potential for recognition & trust in this program's philosophy. Pay attention to what's succeeding, or not, in the NFL. Reality is beginning to set in on what it takes to be a success at that level,
Sabre: I guess you aren't the only one whose noticed that Watson hasn't produced an NFL caliber quarterback since he's been at UT and really only produced one at Louisville. As far a Gentry goes, if I were staking money on an incoming Big 12 quarterback being a franchise guy in the NFL, I'd bet on him. Briles has a more highly rated prospect coming in, but what little I've heard from and about the kid from Stephenville gives the impression of an inflated ego and strings attached. Head cases are difficult at every position. At QB, they are a team cancer.
Jay, I respect you and your sources. My information comes two weeks ago directly from the family. Only schools mentioned were Texas & the Ducks. Texas because of the close family connections. Don't forget that no one would touch Calvin's health issues and Gus took him. There's a second close family member who is a Horn. All there input aside, I'm was told his only interest is Eugene and it may be too late for the Ducks.
Yes, Saber, that matches with what I have generally seen reported. I had assumed that Kyler is not excited about Watson, and doesn't think on technical terms about it like his dad. He probably wants to continue to be in a kind of offense he's been running in HS, which is how kids are. Could he have come here if Charlie had hired a higher-scoring fast-tempo OC? I think the chance for that was very low anyway, because, despite uncle Calvin's influence and some in the family, I doubt that his dad (who after all is a former aggy great) would have advised him to come to Texas, barring it's being a really good OC of some kind. All said and done, for a fast-temp spread offense, Sumlin's team isn't exactly a proven bad choice despite this years so-so results. So, at this point, my feeling is that not too many other OCs at Texas could have managed to have us even in the discussion with Kyler's family, and Watson and his rep in the dad's eyes is probably the reason why we are even there. The kid has had his heart in the gang of players who had been so tight together for some two years, that thought they would be going to a high-flying a&m and taking it to the promised land. Kyler is probably having serious second thoughts and Watson being pretty solid in his dad's eyes is only a positive at this point. But yes, it may all be too late in any case, and he might just stick there, unless Daylon Mack and Demarcus Lodge decide to come to UT and Christian Kirk also decommits from aggy, but that is all pretty far-fetched and not gonna happen.
Jay, what's the word on why Sumlin is struggling to find his DC? The tweet was deleted, but Aggy defense, or lack of, appears to be a big concern for Kyler.
Add this to the knowledge base ... Bridgewater learned how to develop. Not many young ones in the nfl have. m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/blogpost?blogname=minnesota-vikings&id=11869
On the QB situation, AKA Murray, call me crazy but, with Gentry coming in, Heard developing and a possible juco in the conversation, would we want another recruit? Could it not just muddy the water, and possibly sour someone like Gentry? Just wondering. ..
Apparently the juco market is nothing great this year. Hubenak and Chad Kelly were the only ones. Kelly is a serious problem case who is bent on killing his future. Hubenak is not ultra talented either, it seems. There is nobody good who can finish courses and be a graduate transfer either. So, at this point it is Swoopes, Heard, Gentry next year (with grey shirt Merrick being available if we are left with a schol to give him; and he is actually quite good). Of course, for somebody like Kyler Murray, one would even risk Gentry decommitting. I wouldn't do it for anybody else but Josh Rosen or Kyler Murray. Gentry was aware that we were actively pursuing 4-star Kai Locksley of Maryland who went to FSU, and he seemed to be fine with it. Gentry is fully sold on Watson and was expected to stay even if Locksley were to come to Texas. But Kyler is a bigger threat and so he might feel differently. But I would do it, if it had to be done. On the other hand, I may be alone here, but I feel that we are not in such dire straits at the QB spot, with Swoopes, Heard, Gentry and Merrick in the fold. One of them will work out, I am sure. I still haven't given up on Swoopes. Considering the OL troubles, some of what he did this year is really impressive in my opinion, though he picked the last game to have his worst day. If he does well in the bowl game, I think Heard won't find it that easy to unseat him next year. Let's see.
Jay, I agree. With what we have in house and coming, the QB position might be in the best shape we have seen since 2009. We just need for the OL to evolve, which I fully expect. I just hope that we can survive the early part of the 2015 campaign, so that the offense can gel by the time we reach the meat of the schedule.
Agree with jay except for Swoops - no matter what he does in the bowl game. His future at Texas is either receiver or safety in 2016. He all but admitted that the KSU and TCU games got to him (and the turnovers and score reflect that). Also Strong mentioned on several occasions that he has had to remind Swoops to play like he practices. Gentry needs to red shirt in 2015 so Swops would have to QB unless another experienced QB is piked up - soon.
Heard may be an option next year. There have been some pretty salty redshirt freshman QB's breaking into the college scene the last few years: manziel and Winston for example. I don't expect Heard to be a Heisman winner, but he could well be an improvement over Swoopes. Just saying, let the best player win the job.
I am just hoping that the bad we saw from Swoopes against the 4 top-50 defenses will go away and the good we saw against 7 below-50 defenses will stay and will start working against better defenses also. I am just not willing to write him off, because I saw a lot of good things from him this year which he gets no credit for. But anyway, we at least know that there will be fair competition at the spot. Strong and Watson may not be as down on Swoopes as the fanbase is, but they are not sold on him either, for us to worry about them waiting too long for him to get better. If Heard is better, he will get the job, and the coaches seem realistic about all this. They don't so far appear to be the types who stick with anybody due to any strange hunches or anything, and neither do they promise any player the spot if he isn't performing. They will go with whoever proves it on the field. If it is very close in practice, I suppose they will try both of them in game situations and see. It will be interesting to see who wins out the job, but I won't be surprised if Swoopes indeed does better than what everybody expects. Another thing is that Watson doesn't have to worry about there being only one QB available, and can now add to the playbook with QB runs, which will be for both Swoopes and Heard, because if Swoopes isn't working out, he needs Heard to do it. But when he is on determined runs, Swoopes isn't bad with his mobility. They just couldn't afford to get him hurt this year. That will change in spring and summer practices next year. So, things could be different because of that too. We will see. Meanwhile, Chad President committed today to Tulsa U.
To succeed at any level, a quarterback must either possess transcendent skills or be able to process information very quickly. Philosophically, I tend to put VY in the former category, and Colt McCoy in the latter, althoug Colt had crazy skills as well. My concern with Swoopes is that, no matter how much they coach him up, he has to be able to process what he sees and make quick and correct decisions. Too often this year he was unable to do so. Usually, a player either has the cognitive skills or he doesn't. However there have been exceptioons. Let's hope that Swoopes develops into one of those exceptions.
Just my opinion trying to see in the future. I think Heard gets the starting position at QB and Swoopes moves to TE. Not sure how he is as a blocker but he's going to have to be able to get down after it to get playing time at that position.
Agree with the assessments on Swoopes. To me his instinctive reactions are delayed or slow. These are the qualities that a quarterback has regardless of how fast his head is spinning. Meaning that when he commits to do something to bail himself out, even if the wrong choice, he does it abruptly. Usually when younger they all have a strength and comfort aspect of their game they turn to when in trouble. With Swoopes I don't see him turn to anything in his bag of tricks abruptly. It all seems a half-second delayed and tentative. Coach him up all you want, but in the end in the hottest of fires against the best defenses, he will revert to this hesitation. Swoopes can improve some, but I see his ceiling and it's definitely not high enough for what we need at the position. Especially with the offense we run. His year as a game manager is over. Now he will be asked to make an impact on his own at times. Great teams have QB's who can make things happen. I don't see TS being the guy to do this. From all I've seen and heard from Gentry...this is our offensive leader 2 years from now. There's something about that kid's presence that looks/sounds a lot like the "IT" factor. He seems to have the makeup of a solid leader and team general. We'll see how that plays out on the next level, but no doubt I like him more than what we have now.
I think Heard not knowing the offense was the only thing keeping him from being our QB. Once we got into the season they just stuck with Swoopes with the time invested.
