Raistlin

Agreed. I didn’t even consider him for that reason until a connected poster with a track record on OB mentioned that Gillespie was a name he had heard mentioned.

Carlos Locklyn (OSU), Robert Gillespie (Alabama), Tony Alford (Michigan), Jabbar Juluke (Florida), Kevin Smith (Ole Miss), Chris Gilbert (Texas), Samples (Oregon) This only includes names that I’ve heard as possibilities. Frank Wilson (LSU) and Deland McCullough (ND) would go to the top of the list.

For me, Samples is on the list but not at the top, which is significantly higher than a RB coach from Nebraska

No. Not on the list. 😁

NIL and Chris Gilbert got Justus Terry. He also lost two DL we already had committed and had to flip Sharma and Charles. It looked bleak in June. That’s what happens when you start a lap down in recruiting.

They need a coach that can land Osborne and an SEC power back. They are on a silver platter for the 2026 class. A non-recruiting NFL RB coach is not going to get that done.

Alabama’s RB and Assistant HC since 2021. Played in the NFL, coached throughout the SEC, originally from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. One of the top RB coaches in the country. I didn’t think he was in play and he may or may not be. The poster who heard the name is connected though.

BlueOctober on OB says “Gillespie is a name I’ve heard”. That would be a splash hire.

Former Dallas Cowboys RB stolen from Lincoln Riley, Choice was a bit of a splash. Recruits knew who he was.

We took Choice from Lincoln Riley and USC; that qualifies as a bit of a splash hire. That’s hardly the same as taking a RB coach from say Baylor.

I’d prefer Carlos Locklyn, but Kevin Smith makes a lot of sense.

Chris Jackson said that he was way behind for the 2024 class. Kenny Baker said the same thing when he was hired.

The position coach is “a reason” why recruits pick a school. The margins are thin in high profile recruitments, the kind we are thankfully in now. We are fighting the big boys for elite recruits. They all are winning, have great coaches who send kids to the NFL and massive NIL. You don’t want to go into that fight with a position coach “trying to catch up.”

Sark isn’t going to pay me $850,000 to coach running backs. That’s what Sark was paying Choice. Sark believed that he was getting something for that much money, a top of the line recruiter.

Does Khenon have a relationship with Osborne and Latimer and Crowell and Cooper? If so, he might work. But I doubt that a coach from Baylor has developed strong relationships with these recruits, especially from out of state.

Will the new RB coach sign Osborne and Latimer or Cooper without a reputation already established?

A no name RB coach is not going to “make it rain” in the short term, no matter how good he is as a coach.

Choice helped every other coach on the staff get into Georgia and Florida. Choice may not have been the “lead recruiter” but those recruits would not have signed with Texas without Choice. The same thing goes for Jeff Banks.

That was three years ago while the Sarks program was developing and we had time for coaches to develop. Now that development may cost us a Natty.

Dubose 3-star, Livingstone 3-star, Butler 4-star #165ish late flip when we missed on higher rated prospects and Ryan Wingo. Certainly not a Brian Hartline level group. Wingo was the only real stud and he was reeled in late by Sark and NIL; Jackson did his job on Wingo but was not why we won the recruitment. Now, Chris Jackson absolutely tore it up with the 2025 class, but Jackson admitted publicly that he started too far behind in 2024 to win the big time recruitments. The point is, no matter how good a recruiter you are, you won’t sign the big dogs if you don’t already have a relationship with them already. A splash hire is already recruiting the guys we want at his current job.

Even a great recruiter like Chris Jackson had a lackluster first year. Hall will likely be the same, which may cost us a 5-star RB. This is not the time to take a step back.

I’ll put out my 2 cents before the RB hire is announced. The principle qualities needed in a RB coach at Texas is to be a volume recruiter, to instill the Sark culture into the players in the RB room and to be a great developer of talent, in that order. The TE coach needs to same qualities; you can’t replace Jeff Banks with some TE coach no one has ever heard of. It must be a splash hire for an A grade. Of those speculated for the job, only Jabbar Juluke, Tony Alford, Carlos Locklyn and maybe Kevin Smith have all of the qualities we need. Khenon Hall might have been a great hire 3 years ago (and might turn out to be a fantastic RB coach in the long run), but Texas is right on the cusp of winning a Natty and a Javian Osborne or Amari Latimer or Ezavier Crowell or Derrek Cooper might make the difference in getting there. We need a splash hire to make sure that happens. Just my two cents.

He’s a take. Violent, aggressive, will deliver a blow to anyone trying to block him. OK speed. I like him at off ball LB rather than Edge.

He coached blocking TEs and Hbacks for OSU. Short yardage fix

The McEndoo hire is an acknowledgment that our TE’s can’t block. If our TE’s could block last season, we would have the natty