ArizonaLonghorn

Actually they were 11-0 with a win over Notre Dame at one point, before falling on their face against Texas and Miami to finish 11-2

Yep, Kenny was in charge when these guys came in from JUCO and from Colorado. BC is doing great, promoted to Assistant Head Coach and still a key recruiter.

Some nerdy data on the first round - 7 picks were 5* recruits, 13 were 4*, 10 were 3*, Fernando was the only 2* and Iheanachor was unranked in high school (no football team). These are from the 247 Composite. Pretty common to see roughly a third-third-third break out of 5-4-3 stars going in the first round (of course there are usually 30 or so 5* compared to thousands of 4 and 3 star guys in each class). Seven 5* and also seven ranked 920 and lower. Mendoza was the lowest ranked recruit (ranked 2,535) and Jordon Tyson, the # 8 pick, ranked # 920 out of high school.

I guess the tackle (Max Iheanachor) went to a nerd high school (the King/Drew Magnet High School of Medicine and Science) that didn't even have a football team, which explains the zero star ranking. His family emigrated from Nigeria when he was 13, he played soccer (goalie) and AAU basketball and the BB coach suggested he try football at a JUCO. So far under the radar you'd need sonar to find this one.

Tyson was rated the # 131 WR coming out of high school in Texas by 247 Composite, # 215 WR on 247 - a 3* ranked 920 overall (Composite). Texas would rarely even look at a guy like that and many on this board would be disgusted with our recruiting if we went after him. Our WR class that year consisted of Brenen Thompson and Savion Red (after missing on Evan Stewart lol). The tackle was a zero star in high school who had just started playing football, went to JUCO and was a middling recruit when ASU grabbed him, as they usually recruit poorly and are desperate for big bodies. They lucked out on him for sure. Basically the blue blood programs rarely even look hard at kids like these.

There are several reasons the Arizona Cardinals have never won a Super Bowl ... puzzling draft picks are high on the list

Pretty sure conference standings won't affect DC, need to do well in the NCAAs to gain points. I think the DC guy mentioned this recently (I could be wrong).

Basketball NIL also taking off. Article in today's Athletic titled "Want your men’s college basketball team to contend next year? It might take $10 million" (paywall). Top guy in this year's portal, Flory Bidunga (C), supposedly was asking for $5 million. Four years ago Nijel Pack, an All-Big 12 player at K-State but not considered a really big fish, signed with Miami for $800K over 2 years. In the current cycle a potential all-conference player could expect $3 million and above yearly (see screen grab below). Interesting article with a discussion about how the money is available but it's tricky to get it past the NIL Go clearinghouse auditors. Also, no evidence yet that the Big East will dominate given they don't need to spend most of the $20 million cap on football. Another tidbit - "Last July, when The Athletic polled 35 coaches, the average estimate to build a roster in the SEC was $9.7 million, and the other four high-major leagues were in the $8 million range." The part about how opaque the system is was interesting too, with too many poorly prepared 'agents' asking for outlandish numbers. Article mentions a blog by Evan Miya which "has data from 30 teams that input player salaries in his front office tool." He says NIL is up 65% for basketball this year over last year. This site is not behind a paywall, here's the link for those interested (I'm interested but haven't read it carefully yet, just skimmed it). Here's a screen grab from Athletic.

Trevor Goosby - wasn't he pretty good at basketball in high school?

All he needs is a Heisman and a Natty - ideally with a 16-0 record - and I'd put him on my list too 🙂

Same for me except I took Tommy Nobis instead of Ricky (I am an old guy) ... Ricky was my 4th and goal guy though 🤘 Wouldn't argue with anyone who had him top 4 behind Earl and Vince. Not sure why Street doesn't get more love ... 20-0 as a starter, beating Arky in the 15-14 classic and winning the Natty in 1969.

I think the poster said Kim (Mulkey) hates Texas, not Skim (Milkey) ... but could have read it wrong

I would calculate it differently ... football has higher gross income than BB ($63 million vs $39 million) but basketball has higher net income after expenses ($23 million BB vs $14 million FB). Which sounds crazy to me ...

I'm a little rusty on this (I have an EE degree from Texas from the 1970's lol - though I do hold six patents in computer design) but one of the things the certificate allows (as I understand it) is set up the encryption key for a https (secure) site (as opposed to a basic http site which is not secure), so a transaction like credit card data is secure with https. So it needs to be renewed ...

Yeah, I agree ... but still needs to be fixed.

I just renewed my subscription for year 3 yesterday, paying with a credit card. Today when I logged on I got a security warning from my Firefox browser. Seems OTF's "security certificate" expires today (4/9/26) and it would be possible for someone to spoof you and, as the warning below says, steal cc info etc. This should be easy enough for your sys admin to fix by renewing the security certificate. I'm bringing it to your attention because others will likely see it as well (and because I just paid with a credit card yesterday, so being a little careful). People may or may not see the warning, depending on their browser and security settings. Here's a screen grab of the warning - if you want more details let me know.

Why do you think we have the coach "to do it"? He was running a better program at Arizona, with NIL before NIL was legal (which is why he lost the job). The coach before him did much better (23 straight trips to the NCAA tournament, four Final Fours, one championship) and the coach who came after also took Zona to the Final Four, something Miller didn't do in a dozen years and seven trips to the tourney. Being objective, Miller has shown he's an excellent coach but he has yet to show he's ready "to do it" when it comes to competing for the national championship. Let's see him make a Final Four or two first ...

"Meh - I've seen worse" saith Jon Scheyer

Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

Hi Hank, Any chance you, CJ, Gerry and Bobby (or some combo thereof) could give us YOUR mock draft predictions for the Longhorns eligible to be drafted? The actual slot (not just round) the 6 - 8 guys assumed to be selected this year? I see the top six on almost every draft board, then Burke and Guilbeau are the two that are iffy on most boards. CJ did that last year and he nailed eight of them pretty closely (within half a round), was way too optimistic on the same two everyone else missed on (Quinn and Cam Williams) and was too pessimistic on Vernon Broughton (like most everyone else). But overall he did well. What do you say? Up for the challenge? The OTF staffer who comes closest wins the coveted Mel Kiper 2026 Award.

And tomorrow is April Fool's Day Wait until this summer

Funny, I read an ESPN article today that re-ranked the women's teams coming in to the FF and Texas is now ranked # 2 behind only UConn - "The time has come to elevate Texas. All the No. 1 seeds have been impressive, but the Longhorns have been thoroughly dominant."

"COMMUNISM !!!"

*I* remember Loni ...

As I said several days ago every season that Duke has injury problems prior to the tournament they lose early. Losing your starting point guard and starting center is tough to overcome. Both guys came back but were clearly not 100%. Still, blowing a 15 point half-time lead? # 1 seeds leading by 15 or more at the half were 134-0 prior to today ... Great comeback by UConn, tip of the cap to them. I'm now pulling for Arizona (lol) since Koa Peat is a local high school kid, but expecting three exciting games in the FF. Anybody else ready for the Masters and then NCAA football?