Played like a beast today. What are our chances? Our future defense, with Mack and a couple DB targets, would be stacked.
Doubt he goes to LSU with no DC. Have a feeling he goes to aggie, but Malik will get one last chance at him.
Yeah, tough to say much on our chances. It may be very high or it could be not much as well. It depends on how much Mack gets him to believe that the defensive class Charlie is putting together is simply unbelievable (and it is getting close to that), If Holton Hill and Kris Boyd also join at DB, then it is well near impossible for Mack to argue against it. He really likes Malik but had been an A&M commit for such a long time who never expected us to go gang-buster like this on recruiting. I think A&M really wants him to go there and somehow shake Malik into decommitting and going there (I just don't see it happening), and bringing Kris Boyd with them. But Boyd could also be peeved at A&M for the slow-playing they did on him for a while, and he may be a longer shot for them than they think. So I see no big chance for Mack to be able to do what a&M prays he can somehow do. But there are reports now that Mack is all excited about Chavis frm LSU becoming the aggy DC (and that probably eliminates LSU, sort of) - so a few different people need to put some sense into Mack and convince him that the DC is really not a&m's problem. Many others are convinced of that, but he may not be. In the middle of all this, he visited TCU and really liked that place and that is the closest for his whole family. That TCU defense is impressive too. Nobody should be surprised if he gets sick of everything and just goes to TCU! Another twist is that Mack's dad was quite upset at how things went when Mack decommitted from aggy and he is quite sold on Charlie. he may give aggy a chance but probably won't be too spirited in pushing his son that way anymore. So once again, the trust on Charlie might work there. So, as of now, it's anybody's guess where he ends up. I would say we have at least a 30-40% shot at him. Let us see how his OV to us goes in a couple of weeks. Malik should be there as a "host", as he shouls be just about enrolling in classes around then. But this is now crunch time in recruiting and things could all shake up. Hold on tight for the ride till the NSD. What we see now may not be what we see in 4 weeks.
Jay, I don't think it's an option at the point for Jefferson to decommit? Due to early enrollment he's already signed and enrolled to be on campus in a couple of weeks. Am I correct?
Wadster is precisely correct, as far as I know. The LOIs are for playing from fall onwards, and can be signed only on NSD or after (other than by the Juco transfers who signed them this month). Malik has done all the paperwork to enroll in January and it binds UT to the contract of giving him the financial aid for spring, but it doesn't bind Malik to any contract to enroll. Till he enrolls in classes (and actually sits in a class, if I am not mistaken), he can decide to go elsewhere, but he has to do the paperwork quickly at another place too. I think Jan 19th is the date of concern for UT this year. If you remember, Zaycoven Henderson was committed to us, was supposed to enroll at UT by Jan 16th or 17th, and may have come to Austin for that. But suddenly that Wednesday he went to Texas Tech and did paperwork to enroll there. Then right the next day, out of the blue, he decommitted from Tech and committed to A&M. Nobody knew he was ever even considering aggy (nor that he had a committable offer from aggy at that point). The dude flipped between 3 universities within 48 hours. My guess is that either he knew he wouldn't last with Charlie, or Charlie knew it was better to let him go (probably the former, as Charlie started recruiting only that Monday). Sure enough he has been in even Sumlin;s doghouse ever since. Packed up his stuff and left a&m during this season once, but may be back on the team still. So anyway, we need to hold tight for 2 more weeks. But I just don't think Malik's family will let him do any big stunts like that, though the a&m recruiting reporters keep on talking about Mack flipping Malik. If that was the case, we would have seen some reservations in Malik's mannerisms by now. You saw the announcement of Wheeler's commitment on TV yesterday. Immediately Malik's hand went up in a hookem, almost instinctively when he turned around. I'm not even sure he was aware of the camera on him. Those things don't happen if you are having any serious second thoughts of doing something crazy just 2 weeks later. He has been recruiting for us constantly, and that is also undisputed by any recruiting reporters. The aggy reporters are hoping for a sinister plan or something, which Malik has no reason to do. He's a horn. Meanwhile, multiple sources are reporting since last night that Kyler Murray is taking a visit to OU and could well go there. If true, and even Kyler is wavering, that pretty much ends the Kyler-Mack-Murray trio that was supposed to take aggy to the promised land. Mack may see the light and go elsewhere too. Meanwhile, the Malik-Elliott-Charles-Wheeler group is only gaining strength. I guess we'll wait and watch.
Do not underestimate aggy and the lengths to which they will go to gain an advantage. It is not limited to basketball and track.
This guy is a special player. With the defense already recruited (maybe best linebacker class ever and incredible DB as well), Mack would really shine under Strong/Bedford. I think he realizes Aggy would be a huge mistake even with Chavis. Way too many arrests and very little support. TCU has a lot of momentum with the bowl win, but it still is not the name of Texas, LSU or Alabama. I think he commits due to Malik and stars in one of the greatest college defenses ever.
Aggy won't admit it, but they are quite shell-shocked at what Charlie has done to them. They will say that he has only won 2 guys on straight head-to-head and lost 16, but they know inside that CS is beginning to run circles around them. I'm not sure where the 16 comes from, but probably they count every guy that both schools offered and they got. But they are right about the 2. More like 2-5 or something. But what is making them shell-shocked is that Charlie didn't even need to beat them directly and didn't even need a winning season to pull the rug from under them and establish the fact that they are still aggy and that Texas is still Texas, the University that owns the state that they thought they were running. They know that just when they learned the style of recruiting they admired Mack for doing, and started doing the same thing, Texas had moved on and is showing them the right way to recruit to win. They are beginning to realize that only some special coaches like Mack Borwn can win NCs by amassing massive talent and letting them loose on everybody else. And Sumlin is no Mack. Now Charlie is showing them what they should be doing to build an SEC-good team! Oh, the misery of being aggy. All the Johnny-come-lately swag is dead and buried already. Now they aren't even talking about air-raid and offense, and the lone talking point is a nearly 60 year old DC who is known not to recruit, who went there to get some fat paychecks and retire. Reality is hitting aggy and it's not a pretty sight. But having said that, they do have a top-10 ranked recruiting class in the Mack Brown class mode, based on a year-old player evaluations from services like rivals. Won't be enough for them to get anywhere though. There are still considerable talent and depth holes in the aggy team which won't be easily fixed.
Critical early enrollee date: UT first day of classes for Spring 2015 semester is Tues, Jan 20. Monday is MLKJr holiday. That is way later than I remember for my time at UT but that was in the Stone Ages. Anyone have a list of UT early enrollees? LB Jefferson, OL Hodges, DE Vasser, OL Nickelsen..... anyone else?
If I were Mack, TCU would be a definite target. I think TCU will be in the mix for championships as long as Patterson is there. He is a defensive guru and will probably be there for another decade. The only thing TCU lacks is the spotlight, the spotlight of a traditional big time football program (UT & LSU) or the ESPN/SEC axis spotlight (A&M & LSU). If he needs a spotlight, he will not go to TCU. It will be an interesting choice for the young man.
Given the obvious juggernaut that CS is putting together on D, I would think that any defensive prospect would be very interested, if not drooling. Who wouldn't want to be a part that "Department of Infliction?"
Also look at the schedules of the schools. Texas opens with ND next year. We have some great teams coming up. TCUs best game is against Minnesota. If he wants to play the tougher schedule that gets you to the playoffs, come to Texas. We get a QB and we'll be right there.
i wouldn't say we make the playoffs next year but i would say that you are going to see marked improvement on both sides of the ball with a team that is fun to watch and doesn't get blown out anymore. I do expect us to make some noise though toward the end of 2015 that crescendo's into a ground shaking rumble when 2016 season begins and beyond...... i am expecting CS to start bringing in offensive classes that are on par with the defense.
There is really nothing wrong with this class on offense either, by the way. In fact we were way ahead on recruiting for offense, and I was beginning to wonder when we would pick up the defensive recruits like we thought Charlie could (and it happened only late, that's all). We got the OLs way early, and got the OL jucos needed too. All of them are Wickline picks, on whom I wouldn't put much weight on star ratings. In any case, OL is the spot where recruiting rating are the worst because coaching and corn feeding means a lot on those guys. Unlike on D, Mack had actually left Charlie with a few good O recruits and leans last year and Charlie nicely held on to them and rounded it out with an offer to D'onta to grab Aramanti etc. So we got a few skill guys last year. Mack also left him with Heard, and he wrapped up Gentry and Burt early this year as well. Then don't forget that we got Kirk Johnson who is super-talented and may stick at RB, now that we have enough D guys. Then Clarington, Johnson, McNeal etc for receiving. And we're still after RBs Warren and Brossette, QB Kai Locksley, super-OL Drew Richmond, and WRs Strickland and Newsome, about 3 of whom will be joining for sure. So we will have enough play-makers on offense too. Not much of holes at all. I am not seeing offensive talent as too shabby at all, once the OL big uglies are all fed corn and coached on a war-footing. If the OL gets up to par, we have players for offense. How Watson uses them will depend on how much he will tweak his system, and for which QB of promise those tweaks will be made. Keep your fingers crossed.
Back to D Mack, I'm guessing CS and long others are putting the full court press on him until he names a team. Let's hope Charlie can convince him that he is the final piece of the puzzle to be the most dominant def in college football. Maybe not the first year, but anything after that we will be stacked at def. I think we are going to be good on offense. But it can't be with Swoopes. Unless they hire him a sports psychologist to get his head on straight, nothing changes with him for our offense.
Is #99 positively gone, crossed the line already? If not, and if things could be worked out to support his family til next January (after that he could get financial support based on being drafted and not disrupt his status)... if Big Malcolm would stay and be on hand to shepherd through the new defensive line... take that leadership roll... be a "Ricky Williams" to the team...
i think mack ends up back in college station. i think the chavis hiring put A&M over the top. i think texas is a lock for holton hill boyd is a wildcard. i think he's leaning texas, but i think A&M still has a punchers chance with him. i really don't think malik flips. i think he and his family both love charlie strong. that being said, if i were in position to influence him i'd encourage him not to flip even if he wanted to. flipping at this point would be terrible for his reputation and he'd carry the lable of being a benedict arnold (especially after they did a feature on him during the texas bowl). as a fan i'd love to have him. as a dad i dont want any college kid to carry that burden/scrutiny.
^^^ I agree with your thoughts there. I also still think that Mack will end up in a&m. Similar thoughts on others too.
Mack said if he had to pick today, it would be TCU. He likes LSU a lot but his parents don't want him going out of state, so LSU is kind of a distant 2nd unless his parents like the campus during his Jan 16th visit this is a quote from 247sports
^^ Don't put much stock on what Mack says because every recruit guru says there is pretty big gap between what he publicly says and what he feels and privately shows. He still hasn't said that a&M is even back in the picture, for that matter. He tweeted that he was only looking at TCU and LSU after decommiting, but told recruiting gurus that Texas was also there (and set a visit date). Later he dropped LSU and tweeted yesterday that TCU is the leader. He officially refuses to say that a&m is back in at least the top-3 if not as the leader and refuses to say that Texas is under real consideration either. He says TCU, because that is the safest thing to say. He wants a&ma and Texas to not assume anything, and recruit him hard all the way. He does not want to speak well of A&M because he will look like a big flip-flopper. He does not want to speak well of Texas because he will look like a Malik-follower. So he will publicly only say he is unconvinced of both places. But both a&m and us are very much in it, and from putting 2 and 2 together, a&m leads, and UT needs to really work hard to turn him our way during his OV. Also, though a&m may lead, both a&m and UT will need to convince him why TCU is not a better place for him, because TCU after all is the best team among the three, with very good coaches and with the least number of question marks, that is closest to home too. Don't pay attention to all the stuff Daylon Mack says
