Glass Joe

This OL portal cycle feels more like a failure of execution, whereas last year’s OL portal failure was due to poor room evaluation / talent planning. I think the Texas staff had their eyes on a handful of P4 starter-caliber OGs going into this portal window, but miscalculated on those OGs actually entering the portal (current team retention efforts likely won out). Given the number of OGs that actually DID enter the portal which Texas seemingly passed on (Lockett, WKU Guard, etc), it would suggest Texas was confident their primary targets would be there, but alas…nope. I guess there is technically still some Bray Lynch hope, but he’s a replacement-level OG relative to Cole Hutson so we are not upgrading LG this cycle. So, we now appear to be in a situation where we are sorting through the secondary OGs currently available in the portal. My guess is our current situation is forcing the evaluation staff to look at A LOT more Guards than expected to find a decent 1-2 guys to recruit and sign. My assumption is once all our primary targets were not available, we had exhausted our Big Board at IOL, so now we have to evaluate to reset the available Board. A disappointing outcome, but not the end of the world. Their may be a replacement-level P4 OG in the portal, and that would effectively be a 1-for-1 swap with the level of play we got from Cole Hutson (and a big improvement over what we got from the other LGs in the first half of the season). Baker appears set to move inside to RG, which may provide better pass blocking than DJ Campbell, but not likely as good run blocking as DJ. Net-net: we aren’t improving the IOL play at all this offseason, and we lost some young depth pieces along the way (Kibble, Cruz). We better hope Jackson Christian and Sikorsky are ready to be in the Top 8 OL this season…or we are up a creek.

Ohio State’s defense was gutted by graduations and early NFL entries. They lose 7 starters, including 4 NFL first rounders…and all 4 played in the middle of the defense (Caleb Downs, Arvell Reese, S.Styles, and K. McDonald). Add losing both starting CBs, and one can see Arch / Cam / Wingo doing a lot of damage and scoring a bunch of points. On the flip side, Ohio State returns 8 starters on offense, including 4 OL. They have Sayin, J.Smith, and Bo Jackson as headliners at the skill positions (but also lose Carnell Tate and Max Klare). They will score some points on our defense too. Take the over. Texas wins 38-24.

Princely = older brother = Florida, then Ole Miss, now NFL Princewill = younger brother = Nebraska, then Ole Miss, now Portal

He just wants to serve his country. Good for him!

I’d love every part of that structure, but it ignores one really big reality…the conpensation is based on NIL (name, image, likeness) which is unique to each player’s commercial market appeal, and is a function of the market they play in (school) and the brand they represent (again, largely the school). This is NOT salary. Even the “revenue share” component (often referred to as a salary cap), is based on the NIL / marketing revenue of the players, NOT some salary determination based on employment services rendered. What is described above is a wage-for-common services approach which is great when dealing with employees / employers compensation structure. But that has nothing to do with the marketing appeal based compensation of NIL (which is the basis for all the hand wringing and changing landscape of college football).

All true. However, there is a third category “Players Texas could’ve acquired in the Portal anytime they wanted to”, and (conveniently) all of those players above would fall into this category. Problem solved! 😂

I’m keeping an eye on Green Bay to see if they let LaFleur go. If so, they move to the top of the list for Harbaugh. Great young QB signed long-term, elite pass rusher signed long-term, solid roster already in-place, and no maniacal owner to worry about. And great fan support.

Glasscock is at LSU, not Ole Miss.

I thought this guy was Tech bound

He needs to pay off the UGA NIL debts lawsuit 😂

I’d guess WR2 or WR3. They have Sategna back (WR1), and recent portal entrant Trell Harris is more accomplished than Livingstone.

Allegro makes me alegro

I had hoped we’d learned our lesson about Bo Davis’ half-assed evaluations, but I guess we need to be reminded.

Is football important to this guy?

Yep, although this was doubtless his agent’s narrative plan, not Parker’s necessarily. The Athletic story was embargoes well before the Citrus Bowl, so such BS for Mandel to make it a bigger issue (and Mandel certainly knew what he was doing). This was really just the Athletic / NYT / Mandel getting clicks off another Arch Manning story (particularly after the Citrus Bowl performance). The Livingstone angle was just the noise to get readers to look at an Arch story.

Or they are getting good advice…you’ve maxxed out your value at Texas and you’re looking at a lesser on-field role as Texas upgrades the roster this off-season. Since you’re not likely to ever be a high round NFL pick (and certainly not so as a back-up at Texas), NOW is the best time to leave Texas for a bigger NIL paycheck elsewhere and get a better opportunity to show something on-field for NFL scouts. This is certainly the best path to maximize both current football earnings, and at least marginally increase the chance of a post-college paycheck from the NFL. If either Livingstone or Wisner gets a bigger NIL paycheck elsewhere and more on-field snaps elsewhere, than it was the best financial decision for them. The only downside is not being a Longhorn graduate for life and the benefits that provides later in life, but football is the immediate issue (not the longer term issue). This is just business now. I wish them both well and thank them for their efforts over the past few years.

All 7 of A&M’s wins in the SEC this season came against the bottom 8 teams in the SEC, and not a single one of these 7 teams had a winning SEC record: Arkansas, S Carolina, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Miss State, and Mizzou. A&M only played ONE SEC team in the top half of the conference, and they lost by double digits (Texas). A&M’s best SEC win was against Mizzou with their 3rd string QB making his first career start. Against the two very worst teams in the SEC, A&M gave up 42 pts to Arkansas (but won), and were down by 27 pts against South Carolina at home (but won). A&M had the most fraudulent 11-2 season in college football history (says me 😂).

The majority of Indiana’s starters are transfers (13 of 22), and all but one of their starting 22 is an upperclassmen (3rd year or more in college football). So, using high school recruiting rankings as a barometer of “talent” isn’t a particularly accurate measure of the talent Indiana is putting on the field. They are specifically selecting players from the portal who have already proven their ability at the collegiate level, so high school recruiting rankings are relevant to Indiana when selecting collegiate transfers. Further, Cignetti brought 11-12 upperclass players with him from JMU when he was hired 2 years ago, which means those players know the exact schemes and techniques that Cignetti coaches. While many of those players are gone now and only a few from JMU are on this years Indiana roster, the current players benefitted from a season of learning their positions from teammates who were experts in the techniques. As everyone could see this afternoon, Cignetti obsesses on every minute detail of his program, and roster construction is no different. He realizes that competing with other programs for highly ranked high school recruits may not be best for Indiana, which emphasizes upperclass players with years of development at the collegiate level (even if elsewhere). I don’t think Cignetti’s system would be optimized by bringing in 25 highly ranked high school players and expecting them to wait around for 2-3 years before getting on the field …. and particularly so in this Portal / NIL era when players will look around for better situations and paychecks every season. Personally, I think Cignetti’s approach to roster construction and having upperclassmen across the 2-deep depth chart is both unique and provocative. It reminds me of Bill Snyder at KSU back in the 1990s when he built that program from nothing to heights they’d never dreamed of. Cignetti is said to have a particularly expertise is evaluating players with specific traits (that fit his system), so add it all up and you get what we saw today at the Rose Bowl.

Who on that roster scares an opposing Defensive Coordinator? Which skill position player has elite athletic ability? Who scores TDs from distance without J.Love and J.Price on that offense? While ND has plenty of returning starters, they’re stuck with plodding skill position players who don’t win 1-on-1s against elite defensive talent.

The Aggies believe they have a big offer outstanding to Cam Coleman as well. It looks like they’re pursuing WRs with massive catch radius since Marcel Reed is so wildly inaccurate 😂

There goes any pass rush Michigan is going to generate against Arch. Huge advantage Texas.

I just KNEW Texas was getting Baugh!

Traded for Collin Klein?

We are going to “honor” the Ohio St and Michigan games because they are both to be televised by Disney / ESPN, who expects a huge ratings windfall for these games in the September inventory. The first two games against Ohio St and Michigan were televised by Fox, so now it’s time for Disney to get its cut. It’s also worth recalling that Disney paid a big “transition” fee to assist Texas and OU when we were leaving the Big 12 (negotiating the exit fees), and part of that transition negotiation was allowing Fox to televise the first two Texas vs tOSU and Michigan games on their network. So, I don’t think Texas is really in a position to not “honor” these return games and deny our benefactor (Disney) a huge payday. Not to mention, Disney owns the CFB Playoffs and its structure / committee process, so Texas shouldn’t be whining too loud about the CFB Playoffs (however justified).

Sorsby is the better QB.