Bobby Burton Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Barring something major - like the immediate unexpected exodus of a couple of linemen from Michigan - Texas is officially done with portal recruiting for the spring semester. In review, the Horns grabbed eight players who expect to contribute immediately, six of them heavily. Meanwhile, the Horns lost 15 players to the portal, of which I'd say four or five would have been contributors of some level. Perhaps one departure really, really hurt - Trill Carter (Auburn). Carter would have been immediate, helpful depth at a position of need. The others of note: safety Jerrin Thompson (Auburn), safety Kitan Crawford (Nevada), receiver Isaiah Neyor (Nebraksa) and quarterback Maalik Murphy (Duke). Thompson and Crawford would have provided a lot of experience in the secondary. Crawford was a demon on special teams; he will be missed there. So, yes, there were some losses. But overall, the portal is clearly a net gain. Three starter-level receivers, a starting TE from a college football playoff team, an edge rusher with 14.5 sacks, an experienced back-up linebacker, a defensive tackle with some starting experience, and a three-year starting DB from a nationally ranked team. Sark and his personnel staff yet again used the opportunity available to them to improve the roster. Ongoing improvement, piece by piece, continues to be perhaps the biggest theme of Sark's tenure. It's not his offense, or his quarterback tutelage, not merely his top-notch recruiting, it's been his pursuit of upping the ante, improving his team and roster, at every chance that has made him - and Texas - into a force to be reckoned with. If Texas keeps adding pieces to the puzzle, replacing ones that go to the NFL or portal out, then we're on a path of being a program, not just a We don't know where this will all end up for Texas. But the steady incline of the program is what we're seeing. View full news 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexShoe Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Bobby, anything you're able to share on why we weren't able to retain Carter? It seems like a good situation for him PT wise going into '24, and he's not going home. Was it just a $$ situation? Position coach related? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Burton Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 1 hour ago, TexShoe said: Bobby, anything you're able to share on why we weren't able to retain Carter? It seems like a good situation for him PT wise going into '24, and he's not going home. Was it just a $$ situation? Position coach related? 100-percent wanting to get back to being closer to home for family reasons. Two hour drive from home. It was going to be either Auburn or FSU for those reasons. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexShoe Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Thanks Bobby. I didn't do my homework, so didn't know he was from Georgia. I was still thinking he was from the midwest because of Minnesota. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dentonhorn Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 On the surface it looks like our biggest non get was the DT from UH. I would feel totally different if we had him and the Arizona DT. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTown Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 All in all very successful considering we didn't lose people that would truly hurt . Not that those few you mentioned wouldn't have helped, but not in a large scale like other teams. The only thing I still hate is the loss of Bo. Still haven't officially announced Baker. And as much as I want to be fair, I just can't bring myself to believe we couldn't have gotten a more veteran DL line coach that can recruit. But again time will tell. And I read positive things, but from an aspect of development, just don't see enough results yet. SEC DL recruiting is brutal, maybe that's why I worry too much ha 🤘 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Burton Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 23 minutes ago, dentonhorn said: On the surface it looks like our biggest non get was the DT from UH. I would feel totally different if we had him and the Arizona DT. Same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hix Green made the Catch Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 20 minutes ago, TTown said: All in all very successful considering we didn't lose people that would truly hurt . Not that those few you mentioned wouldn't have helped, but not in a large scale like other teams. The only thing I still hate is the loss of Bo. Still haven't officially announced Baker. And as much as I want to be fair, I just can't bring myself to believe we couldn't have gotten a more veteran DL line coach that can recruit. But again time will tell. And I read positive things, but from an aspect of development, just don't see enough results yet. SEC DL recruiting is brutal, maybe that's why I worry too much ha 🤘 21 minutes ago, dentonhorn said: On the surface it looks like our biggest non get was the DT from UH. I would feel totally different if we had him and the Arizona DT. I think in the short term Bo's leaving definitely hurt us...in the long term I'm hopeful that it will actually be a huge plus for the program. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Burton Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 Glad I mentioned what I did about Michigan. Here are the last four follows on Instagram of Kenneth Grant, DL, University of Michigan. 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wabi Sabi Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 10 minutes ago, Bobby Burton said: Glad I mentioned what I did about Michigan. Here are the last four follows on Instagram of Kenneth Grant, DL, University of Michigan. Don't go getting our hopes up, Bobby! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hix Green made the Catch Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 11 minutes ago, Bobby Burton said: Glad I mentioned what I did about Michigan. Here are the last four follows on Instagram of Kenneth Grant, DL, University of Michigan. This is too cool. Would love to have Mr. Grant on our team. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Burton Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 In this day and age, you just never know. It seems a little weird that he'd be following Sark/Texas Football/T Sweat all out of coincidence. But maybe he's just doing some recon. 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTown Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTown Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Seems that there are big name Michigan players looking at leaving now. All over Michigan Boards. Lot of dysfunction in that Athletic Dept. The unexpected loss of S&C coach may have been last straw. Plus AD talking about not ever buying players at Michigan lol. Grant followed Sark on social media. Time to pounce, still have til 31 St here to add. After that I'm not sure , but worth a shot. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceCityWrangler Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Here’s to an uneventful off-season Tomorrow is the last day to enroll. Unless I missed something, we’re done until mid-April. Off-season workouts are in full effect. Players are hitting the weight room and field to improve their speed, strength, conditioning and skill. This is the time where culture wins. I’m under the belief that this group has fully embraced Sark ‘n staff vision, values, etc. Everything from eating right to staying on top their studies and how to do it has been outlined for them. So take a minute, bend a knee and pray to the College Football Gods for an uneventful offseason if that’s your thing. From what I can see and believe, it’s all there for the taking in ‘24. We’re in for a wonderful ride this fall. Hook ‘em! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTown Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 31 st is the last day to add with permission . After that I don't know if it is possible. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Burton Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 Michigan has 48 hours to put them in the portal, too 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Eneman Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 I LOVE what Sark and co. do addressing needs in the portal. They don't reach for guys early on in the portal who might not completely fit what they're looking for like they were forced to do when they first arrived and almost always end up getting someone later on that was as good or better than what they could have done right off. And while I think the UH DT was a loss, I do believe there were extenuating circumstances there more than just losing Bo Davis that might have hurt us there. And they still were able to fill a need there and will more than likely keep looking at Michigan guys if they portal or guys after the spring that come available. In addition to that, Sark does an awesome job of finding portal guys that don't always hurt us with the younger talent that might be on campus. Getting portal adds that could come in for one year and then leave for the draft because of productivity just improves everyone around them in the long run. If a younger guy ends up leaving because we brought someone in and they aren't on the field, then there's a pretty good chance that they aren't someone who Sark necessarily wants to keep around if they're not willing to put the work in. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Alfeche Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Glad to see these "Weekday" posts again! They were the highlight of when I was a 247 subscriber. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UtBlaw Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 On 1/29/2024 at 10:38 AM, TTown said: All in all very successful considering we didn't lose people that would truly hurt . Not that those few you mentioned wouldn't have helped, but not in a large scale like other teams. The only thing I still hate is the loss of Bo. Still haven't officially announced Baker. And as much as I want to be fair, I just can't bring myself to believe we couldn't have gotten a more veteran DL line coach that can recruit. But again time will tell. And I read positive things, but from an aspect of development, just don't see enough results yet. SEC DL recruiting is brutal, maybe that's why I worry too much ha 🤘 Glad Bo left. He developed Herman’s recruits well but he recruited far too few IDLs. We haven’t seen much of any and none were highly ranked. The likelihood of hitting on all three he recruited the past two years is low. IDL’s in the portal that weigh over 300 are very rare. We’re gonna be stuck with some JAGs a couple years in the future unless we go young. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.