You underestimate aggy, my friend. They will somehow claim some type of moral victory and slap that championship on that wall so fast it will make your head spin!
I always ask my aggy friends why the Manziel praise. He never won them a national championship, and SEC championship, or even beat lsu. They cannot explain it.
Quick Question. What class will each of the juco players and Johnson be considered in? (Frosh, Soph, Jr?) Sorry, but when they committed, I never caught how much eligibility each had left.
In reply to: "Our two-year run is over." THAT IS GOLD Texanne! Now about your venture over to texags... go get a shower!
A great job by a coaching staff that started off slowly in the recruiting game in Texas, worked their butts off, and came in with an outstanding class. Strong has likely gotten the attention of the high school coaches in the state as well as future recruits and their parents. Now he needs to focus on fixing the horribleness of the offense and special teams of 2014. If he can use the talent he recruited and the coaches he hired to significantly improve those parts of his team's play, he'll be here for a long time. With the momentum of this class, his evaluations skills, his ability to sell Texas, and his gaining respect in Texas high school coaching circles, I predict he'll have an even better class next year. That he bested aggy in the opinion of most of the recruiting rankings in his first year has got to attract the attention of the media and has got to send a lot of aggies running for the medicine cabinet and their Prozac. They know that their two-year high is at an end.
Great class for Coach this year - his first full year of recruiting. Now we need to keep perspective - the contributions of the bulk of this class of recruits won't be seen on the field for a couple of years. Coach needs (a) some real progress on the field next season and (b) another knockout recruiting class - then we will start to see real results. HHD
Correct HHD, but they will raise the level of competition at practice. I'm guessing guys like Santos and Jinkens look at Jefferson and Wheeler and know they need to lift their game in order to get on and stay on the field. Charlie and his staff aren't going to hesitate to play a freshman, especially after this recruiting class. Charlie's class is creating the competitive culture he wants from his team.
^Point well made. As for game situations we may see some of the newcomers on special teams or spot plays - but most of them won't be starters for a couple of years, and that's when we'll see the real payoff. When Coach puts two or three top-notch recruiting classes in a row, we should see the Horns back in the national hunt. HHD
I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a few of these true freshman get some playing time this year. Malik, Wheeler, Boyd, Hill, maybe others — these guys might be too good to keep off the field. Probably not starters but they could add some depth if coaches feel they’re ready for it.
Under Strong the increase in Frosh playing will be surprising for what we are used to with Mack. Brown was known to value time put in far above talent and ability when choosing vets over rookies. This coaching staff is of the winning mindset that the player who does things right and gives the team the best chance to win, will be the starter. Another angle is that the older talent we currently have was acquired during a down period in Longhorn recruiting. Meaning some of the guys walking in are more athletically gifted than some already here. Now with a coach who lets the best players win a spot, this talent increase should result in early playing time at an increased level. I'd be surprised if we didn't see a good amount of new faces on both offense and defense. RB, WR, OL,TE, LB, CB, S. Every one of those groups should have a Frosh in the 2-deep considering who we played with last year.
According to Watson around mid-season, Heard was still learning and coming along slowly. Towards the end of the season is when coaches said he was starting to make strides and show promise. By that point burning a shirt was pointless. So yeah, I'm sure Watson and Strong would both agree (from their mid-season comments) that Heard was behind Swoopes in the ability he gave us to win. Don't see a problem with a true Frosh QB needing a full redshirt season to pick up the nuances of the college game. But yeah, judging him compared to what a starting QB needs to be able to do on Saturday, I'd agree he likely sucked in practice from that viewpoint.
I wouldn't be surprised to not only see a number of freshmen on the field early, but to see them start, early. Now this is pure speculation based on film, hype and what we have read. But, why not throw guys like Jefferson, Wheeler, Cherry, Hill/Boyd and Warren into the rotation immediately? Unless there is a concern about destroying their confidence... Start them early and perhaps, by mid season, we might begin to see something special out there. Trial by fire. My hope is that, going into the 2016 campaign, we will be "firing" on all cylinders, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
Stole this from a poster on another site: Aggay will have to change their #wrts to We Almost Ran This State = #warts.
Here is the list of our brand new Longhorns!Early Enrollees1. Malik Jefferson, Poteet (Mesquite, TX) OLB 6-2.5/215 - ENROLLED2. Connor Williams, Coppell (Coppell, TX) OT 6-5/275 - ENROLLED3. Brandon Hodges, East Mississippi C.C. (Scooba, MS) OT 6-5/295 - ENROLLED4. Quincy Vasser, Navarro College (Corsicana, TX) SDE 6-4/260 - ENROLLED5. Garrett Thomas, Many (Many, LA) OG 6-5.5/306 - ENROLLED6. Tristan Nickelson, Navarro College (Corsicana, TX) OT 6-8.5/319 - ENROLLED[u]NSD LOIs:[/u][b][b]7. John Burt, Lincoln (Tallahassee, FL) WR 6-3/180 - [b]IN 8. Devonaire Clarington, Booker T. Washington (Miami, FL) TE 6-5/238 - IN[/b] 9. Kai Locksley, Gilman (Baltimore, MD) QB-DUAL 6-3/188 - IN[/b] 10. Du'Vonta Lampkin Cypress Falls (Houston, TX) DT 6-3/291 - IN[/b] 11. Breckyn Hager, Westlake (Austin, TX) WDE 6-4/220 - IN 12. Cameron Townsend, Ridge Point (Missouri City, TX) OLB 6-0.5/195 - IN 13. PJ Locke, Central Senior (Beaumont, TX) S 5-10/189 - IN 14. Davante Davis, Booker T. Washington (Miami, FL) CB 6-3/200 - IN 15. Gilbert Johnson, Georgia Prep Sports Academy (Atlanta, GA) WR 6-2/190 - IN 16. Charles Omenihu, Rowlett (Rowlett, TX) WDE 6-5/232 - IN 17. Patrick Vahe, Trinity (Euless, TX) OC 6-2.5/300 - IN 18. Cecil Cherry, Victory Christian Academy (Lakeland, FL) ILB 6-0/230 - IN 19. DeShon Elliott, Rockwall-Heath (Rockwall, TX) S 6-1/200 - IN 20. DeAndre McNeal, Poteet (Mesquite, TX) WR/ATH 6-2/228 - IN 21. Ronnie Major, Huntsville (Huntsville, TX) OT 6-6/290 - IN 22. Anthony Wheeler, Skyline (Dallas, TX) OLB 6-2/225 - IN 23. Chris Warren, Rockwall (Rockwall, TX) RB 6-2/240 - IN 24. Holton Hill, Lamar (Houston, TX) CB 6-2/184 - IN 25. Ryan Newsome, Aledo (Aledo, TX) WR/KR 5-8/170 - IN 26. Kris Boyd, Gilmer (Gilmer, TX) CB 5-11.5/185 - IN 27. Tristian Houston, North Shore (Houston, TX) RB 5-11/195 - IN 28. Kirk Johnson Valley Christian (San Jose, CA) RB/ATH 6-0/205 - IN EXPECTED (Probably signing later after deciding on whether it's for 2015 or 2016) 29. Matthew Merrick, Cistercian Prep (Irving, TX) QB-PRO 6-3/185 GO HORNS!!
Yesterday on LHN multiple coaches referenced Malik being on the field the first play next year the followed up with several players being able to contribute immediately. CS gushed that Malik is a game changer for this program.
