Horns247 Board

How long did it take for you to come up with that one?

Tells me more attrition on the way...especially now that the spring semester just ended

Tells me two things....one, Mack and staff are interested in winning NOW at all costs. Two, we're not feeling good about the recruitment of Manning, Prevot, and Mitchell. Both JUCOs that we're looking at are of the big DE / DT variety.

Which DT do you think?

It may have more with Howell messing up than anything.

I think on Taylor its that his eval isn't one that they feel is good enough. In other words-old staff he gets an offer. New staff-we are looking JUCO

Agree that there seems to be a marked shift towards huge linemen. Mack probably looked at Alabama's lines and liked what he saw. Wasn't Manny's wife quoted as asking where were Texas' big guys?

I don't see this having anything to do with this years class. By the time this upcoming class is ready to contribute these JUCO guys will be gone.

It wasn't just Manny's wife. It was a common refrain.

I agree it means transfers or more likely concerns that both Jeffcoat and Moore leave early.

I really don't understand how some of you leap to it means issues with HS recruits nor how you think it is a fix for that if there are issues. The JuCo and HS kids should only overlap for playing time the HS kids' RS FR year. Which is as it should be for linemen on both side of the ball in a healthy program. If your program is healthy those getting significant playing time on your lines should be RS SO or older unless they are a freak. Generally, 18 year old linemen facing 22 years old ones mean you've got serious line issues. Just take a look at the roster and see the gap in age groupings of the DL and ask what is the plan if both Jeffcoat and Moore leave early . http://insidetexas.com/football/football.php?pg=fb_roster

Your view would contradict that of some of the most competitive programs in college 'ball. Including one school we can't seem to beat: KSU. I don't hink you go after JUCOs exclusively or even heavily but having a selective mindset and not ruling out picking through the JUCO ranks when we have important holes is wise. Glad we got away from dogma.

I agree on Manning and Prevot is not that exciting to me personally because so many things have to go right for him to be a big contributor. From his quotes, if we offered Mitchell as a linebacker tomorrow he would commit tomorrow night. He doesn't fit Manny's vision for an OLB in this league apparently. If Mitchell comes off of LB only, we might see some action. Taylor always seemed a one way courtship to me. He really wanted to come to Texas, but he did not fit what they wanted in the position. That happens to about 10,000 kids a year that are pretty good football players in Texas. It even happened to me a 100 years ago. You move on and either choose to play for someone else or hang it up. These days there is so much money involved and school is so expensive, they have little choice but to play for another team.

JUCO players are by and large players who were not good enough to make it anywhere once either because of ability, grades, or attitude. It is a rare one that has improved or rehabilitated himself sufficiently to fit into a two deep that Texas usually has. The current few that we have are filling in for the failures of the past until it can be fixed from within. I look at them like I do the people I get from temp agencies and consulting firms. I don't mind going there occasionally, but I don't run the business long term with them either. Others (KState) don't have the ability to get top flight talent and would always be in development mode with who they get anyway. Why not let someone else pay for the first two years of development? It saves them money, keeps their team with some playing experience, and lessens the opportunity for boom/bust.

All of this is a verbose way of saying, I pretty much agree with you.

I'm not sure about the "most competitive programs" part. Teams that rely on JUCOs are in a never ending rebuilding mode. While I can see UT dipping into that pool every once in a while for a can't miss type player, for the vast majority of them, there was a real good reason they didn't sign with a D-1 program out of high school. I'll be disappointed if this becomes a habit for UT.