Glass Joe

I’m pretty sure Cook was kicked out of Texas in the fall semester, and entered the Winter portal to transfer to Washington. He was subsequently kicked out of the UW program, and has now entered the Spring portal. The SEC rule applies to Spring portal entrants being prohibited from playing with another SEC school the following fall. It doesn’t apply to those who left their school in the Winter portal, for example Brad Spence from Arkansas to Texas. That is my understanding anyway.

Syracuse maybe? I recall Elijah Robinson almost landed him at A&M when he was coming out of high school.

Good, we need more from the corner outfielders with Belyeu on the mend.

Nico is welcome to transfer to and attend any school in the SEC, and any SEC school is welcome to pay him whatever amount they’d like to immediately. However, he will be ineligible to play football for another SEC in 2025. Nobody is limiting his ability to attend any schools nor his compensation, they’re limiting his ability to participate (in 2025) because he spent the previous semester playing for another school within the same conference…which provides a strategic advantage to the school accepting his transfer in. If you litigate the ability of an athlete to change schools from semester to semester within a conference, how do you prevent players transferring among schools within the SEC on a weekly basis?

Not that Tech wouldn’t love the publicity, but is Nico really an upgrade over Behren Morton? Morton isn’t great, but he’s a solid veteran who has gone through the offseason and Spring with Tech’s newly-hired OC. Nico has already demonstrated he’s a pretty average passing QB who is challenged by learning basic passing concepts. Tech may be an interesting case study of the money guys wanting one QB, while the coach may want his guy. Should be fun to watch this Nico saga.

Sam Leavitt’s market value just went up…a lot.

Here’s the interesting dynamic of the Nico situation for me. He’s being represented by his uncle (Cord Landers) and he tried the tactic of holding out of practice to force a better NIL deal. However, on the other side, Tennessee football has Jimmy Sexton (most powerful agent in college football) as both a huge program donor and a member of the Board of Trustees of the university. It’s like mortal combat of the agents here 😀. It is also telling that Nico / Uncle Cord are trying to pull this during the Spring portal when some of the deepest pockets programs in college football (SEC schools) can NOT even bid for Nico and have him eligible to play for them in the fall. That really trims down the list of programs that can pay big money for Nico. Memo to Cord Landers: learn the basics of supply and demand before advising your nephew / client to put himself on the market.

No, it’s the kids uncle and the kid’s father driving the drama, but the real question is what school do they have lined-up making a big NIL offer that prompted this game of chicken with Tennessee? I’m guessing USC. FYI, Nico’s uncle is none other than street agent wannabe “Coach” Cordell Landers…yes, the same guy who led the Damonic Williams NIL sweepstakes last year (which turned out to be a lousy investment for OU). “Coach Cord” is a SoCal guy (Fresno area) who got hired as a recruiting analyst by Florida a few years ago, and got immediately fired within months (due to alleged recruiting infractions). LOL. Since the beginning of the NIL era, he’s now playing the role of “agent” for kids he knows from SoCal area, including Nico (his nephew), Damonic Williams, and others.

I’m still thinking USC is behind all this Nico drama. He’s a SoCal kid, and Lincoln Riley has a track record with QBs who offer the run/pass option, even if they lack passing accuracy. USC can’t go into next season with J.Maiava at the starting QB, can they?

We refer to this phenomena as the “Aggie Guide to NIL”

Not again! 😂😉😉

There’s going to be a mass migration of players from the non-P2 conferences into the P2 conferences (SEC, Big Ten) this Spring portal cycle. The Spring portal is unique in that SEC teams can’t poach talent from other SEC teams (lest the player have to sit out the 2025 season), so all the SEC teams looking to plug talent gaps in their rosters will need to look outside the SEC to source those players. Of course, an SEC team can also poach from a Big Ten school (and vice versa) however the schools in these two conferences that actually care about football also typically have enough deep pockets to ward off fellow NIL suitors (tOSU, Michigan, PSU, Oregon, et al). So, where is the next level of talented football players that are available to be poached outside the P2? Well, numerically speaking, it is the ACC and Big12. These two conferences have more talent per capita on their rosters than G5 schools, and fewer of these schools can compete dollar-for-dollar on NIL deals with the SEC schools (note: there are a few exceptions..Tech, Clemson, Miami, etc). It’s interesting to me that there are some glaring talent gaps across the rosters of some of the perceived national powers (UGA, Texas, Ohio St, Michigan, Oregon, Tenn) that really need to be addressed in the Spring portal season. This dynamic, when combined with the timing of the House settlement, is going to set off an orgy of obscene NIL battles got talent. I wonder about Texas’ willingness to engage in the upcoming bloodbath. I support Sark in not wanting to engage in one-time silly NIL deals which may damage the culture and locker room, but I also acknowledge that our competitors will capture talented players that our roster needs to plug gaps (particularly at WR, OL, and TE). Should be interesting to see this play out.

Somewhere, Norman Watkins is very bitter.

Shemar Turner’s behavior makes some sense now. Good grief, what a culture over there.

@Gerry Hamilton does the unexpected early emergence of Nick Brooks as a guy on the two-deep at Offensive Tackle this season, change the number of the OTs Texas may take in the 2027 recruiting cycle? Goosby, B.Baker, N.Brooks, A.Cojoe sounds like a top 4 OTs, and all 4 players have 2-4 more seasons of eligibility (unless they leave early for the NFL)? Maybe we need only 2 true OTs in the 2026 cycle, and also considering how loaded the in-state 2027 class appears to be at Offensive Tackle?