Kevin C

Thought it was interesting to hear Tony Hills tell @Bobby Burton and @Gerry Hamilton on coffee and football (think it was two Wednesdays back) about how intense the GMs are about diving into each prospect’s character. One GM contacted Tony’s elementary school teachers to ask what kind of kid he was. Then a few days ago, Bobby posted that many teams had questions about Bond and were talking to Bama and Texas to learn more about his character, what kind of teammate he was, etc. Bobby seems to know a lot more about what was going on behind the scenes, given a few recent posts. On the very positive side, we have so many high character guys going into the draft. Loved seeing Bobby’s interview with Lance Zierlein on Saturday morning where he talked about the impressive turnaround in Longhorn Culture under Sark and how it’s translating at the draft. Overall, most Longhorns players show strong / tough / dependable character and other leadership traits needed to be successful in NFL. Guys like Golden, Barron, Banks, Sorrell, Makuba, Quinn, Broughton, Majors, Helm, the list goes on. Hook em!! 🧡🤘🏼🐂

Agree. Think a few of the other responses are missing the point of this thread/. In the biggest games down the stretch against Georgia, Arizona State and Ohio State, It seemed as if Bond gave up on routes, leading to several interceptions. Quinn seemed to stop trusting him. Then Bond is quoted by the media last week ‘guaranteeing’ he’d beat Worthy’s record only to come up significantly short while showing poor form. All of it adds up to big questions about football character, discipline, focus, commitment.

lol. 🙂 I was feeling inspired to go longer than the @Jeff Howe post from his first week at OTF. It’s hard work writing a title that long.,,,,🤪. May go even longer on the next post to see what’s the max on OTF site. Hook em! 🤘🏼🐂🧡

Awesome that 4 Longhorns had excellent sub-4.4 runs at the NFL Combine (thanks Bobby for pointing out that was a new NFLCombine record). Unfortunate that the buzz about both Blue and Bond seems a bit more negative than positive over the past 24 hours. Jaydon Blue was second fastest RB and Bond was in the Top 10 among all WRs but their trash talk against another Texas Longhorn Legend, guaranteeing they'd beat Worthy's record from last year. Why? In the 2% scenario, everything goes perfectly and one of them actually breaks the record, there's a 98% chance they fail. It seems like there is very little upside to calling your own shot (other than a few cheap headlines in advance of running) when these NFL Execs are looking at everything each player does on and off the field. Let others do the talking for you and more importantly, let your performance on the field speak for itself. Reminds me of Barry Sanders back in the day talking about how his dad instilled in him to 'be humble' and when you get to the endzone 'act like you've been there before'. Sanders was definitely old school even at that time back in the late 80s and early 90s. @CJ Vogel and @Jeff Howe, I completely agree with your take earlier today. Bond and Blue both had great runs but neither came even close to Xavier Worthy's record setting 40 last year. The prediction looks silly when they miss by .2 tenths. Worse, as @Bobby Burton pointed out earlier today, Bond's form raised eyebrows in the first 15-20 yards when he stood up quickly after first 3 steps. Raises questions about Bond's preparation for the 40 in advance, given he had one of the top-end speeds among all runners. With other questions about both Bond and Blue as teammates, character questions, etc, was this trash talk in advance of the 40 just one more example of bad judgement, lack of self awareness? Did they both hurt their draft stock? Good lesson for others in future years. Taking a completely different approach, love that Mathew Golden did his preparation over the past 2 months and ran with extreme precision, setting the record for all WRs and the fastest overall offensive player on the field (based on 40yd time). Same for Jahdae Barron as he ran a 4.39 and came in Top 7 fastest CBs. No trash talk in advance, they both just ran and let their times speak for itself. Realize top speed matters as much if not more when evaluating players ability to break away but the 40 seems to be the ultimate 'underwear olympics' medal each year. Golden and Barron...All Class. Congrats!! Hook em! 🐂🤘🏼🧡 https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/texas-wr-isaiah-bond-feels-hes-going-to-break-xavier-worthys-40-yard-dash-record-might-run-a-4-1/ https://athlonsports.com/college/texas-longhorns/xavier-worthy-sends-6-word-message-to-isaiah-bond-jaydon-blue-after-40-yard-dash

In CDC, we trust. Hook Em!

HAHAHAHAHAHA.... 🙂

Helm adding to his legacy for his toughness. That's crazy. Hope Helm is able to recover to full strength in time for pro day in 23 days.

Looking forward to seeing where Quinn gets drafted. Would love to see him go late in first round to a strong team with solid QB1 then sit for a year or two. Hook Em!

Cool to see the latest NFL Combine "NextGenStats" on NFL.com scoring only 5 players in this year's NFL Draft with "ELITE" scores after combining their performance / results / athleticism at the Combine with their on-field performance. Jahdae Baron made that list, coming in at #5 among the Elite player scores. Could Jahdae be drafted in the Top 15 of this year's draft? Hook Em!!

This is awesome! Love CDC.

Love seeing our Horns Baseball team getting off to strong start. Last year, we were 7-5 after first 12 games. We seem to be a strong trajectory heading into conference play this month. SEC gonna be tough, so many matchups will be fun to watch. Thank goodness for SEC+ and SEC Network.

Is there a strong possibility Kelvin Banks ends up being first OT off the board, following the NFL Combine? Given KB's incredibly strong performance on the field consistently over 3 years, his strong character and measurables, it's hard to understand why some boards list him 3rd behind Campbell and Josh SImmons. Not only do Kelvin's measurables look stronger than Will Campbell's but his performance on the field by most standards was much stronger. See PFF as one example where Banks scored a 86.2 overall and a 89.9 pass blocking grade for the season compared to Campbell's PFF of 72.2. Why is Will Campbell being projected ahead of Campbell by many? Simmons seems tough to evaluate, given he tore his ACL after 5 1/2 games so much of his tape is against lesser teams, inflating his result. It also sounds like Simmons injury is worse than originally thought so he could potentially fall out of first round, following reports from the Combine. Given what an incredible person, player, teammate Kelvin Banks has been the past 3 seasons, I'm cheering for him to go Top 10 and be the first OT taken next month. Hook Em! PFF BigBoard https://www.pff.com/draft/big-board?season=2025 PFF Pressure Rate by OT https://www.pff.com/news/draft-2025-nfl-draft-ranking-offensive-tackles-pressure-rate-allowed#:~:text=PFF Big Board Rank%3A 19&text=Banks' 89.9 PFF pass-blocking,93.7 PFF pass-blocking grade.

This is such a fun time of the year to see all our guys who are moving on, build momentum in advance of the NFL Draft. Seems like Golden, Barron, Ewers, Sorrel and Makuba really helped themselves at the Combine. It's extremely cool to see a player like Mathew Golden, who wasn't on anyone's Top 150 Board before this season started, now being projected in the first round and running the fastest time of all WRs. That's crazy. Shows significant discipline and precision. The more I read about Cam Williams projection, really wish he would have come back for a second year as starter. Perhaps it could have benefitted him, similar to how Jahdae jumped up the draft boards after coming back for one more season. Surprised to see the latest projection had Blue as an UDFA. That seems hard to believe. Either way, wish all our guys the best. Cheering for them at the next level. Hook em!

When CDC was interviewed by Newy Scruggs a few weeks ago, he talked about the high standard set for all sports and when he’s evaluating who he wants to pursue as next HC in any of UT’s sports, CDC builds 3 lists. 1. The Ultimate Wish List 2. The Guys You know you can get 3. Guys to Avoid (He called it the ‘poop list’) With all the new resources UT has for basketball, including new state of the art arena, plus the fact that Wonens basketball has turned around quickly over past few years under coach Schaefer and reality that men’s basketball is one of two legit revenue generating sports for the university, betting this time around, CDC will only be looking at 1 list and its who are the Top 3-5 guys on his ultimate Wish List. Basketball Coaches who have proven they can quickly turn a program around &/or they’ve consistently won at highest level: Ultimate Wish List: 1a) Nate Oats, 1b) Scott Drew, 2) TJ Otzelberger, 3) Grant McCasland Other Dark horse options that could be interesting: 4) Pat Kelsey, 5) Royal Ivey SI COTY candidates includes a few other interesting potential targets https://www.si.com/college-basketball/mens-college-basketball-coach-of-the-year-candidates

Losing 7 of last 9 with ugly losses 2 of the worst teams in SEC this month, can’t wait to see who CDC hires as our new head coach. Has to be much better than this. My best wish list for Longhorns new head coach is: 1) Scott Drew - 2021 natty and 3 consecutive Big12 COTY. After 22 seasons, it’s time for Drew to make the jump and help put Texas on top of SEC. Austin is a much better longterm home versus Waco or Bloomington, Ind. Better resources, better weather, much better university. Drew is even more proven than Beard with high character, sustained success. 2) Nate Oats - Obvious top choice for lots of reasons but cost of contract buyout makes this less likely 3) Royal Ivey is much less traditional but shows lots of upside. Think this is too risky and unproven for CDC. hook em! 🤘🏼🐂🧡

Love that Texas has fastest WR clocked at combine in back to back years. hook em! 🤘🏼🐂🧡

Wow, that’s awesome for Golden. Says a lot about both guys when Golden sets fastest time and chose to be humble in advance while Bond called his shot, with guarantee in interviews yesterday that he’d run 4.19 or better and set new record. Very cool for Golden to be fastest WR after round 1.

Awesome. Our guys came ready to show out. Love it. Can't wait to see what Bond and Blue put up tomorrow in the 40.

Barryn is killing it. Love to see he is maximizing results at the Combine. Awesome!!!! Hook em!

In CDC, I trust he'll set the bar high and the Horns will have a top-tier HC for men's basketball in the next 2 months. Love how all other Longhorn sports are positioned with strong leadership and impressive results from Football, Baseball, Swim/Dive, Golf, Women's Basketball, Volleyball, the list goes on. It's awesome. Men's basketball has regressed the past 2 seasons and seems to be the one sport that we're not in top tier of all major sports. CDC talks about "the standard" set for all sports across the university. Look forward to seeing the path ahead. Hook Em!

Congrats to Jahdae. In the interview today, JB sounded disappointed with his time.

Awesome!!

4.68 in the 40. Good for Barryn Sorrell! Hook em!! 🧡🐂🤘🏼

Florida should get more respect. Glad we play them in Sept. I hope our new OL gets quickly.

Every time I watch / listen to Sark in an interview, it makes me grateful to have him as our head coach. All class! Yes, Sark is proving to be one of the elite head coaches in college football (recruiting, game plan strategist, player development, culture, etc) but he also shows a consistent high character that demands respect, whether it’s in these interviews or in other settings. It comes across so authentically when he talks and it doesn’t just sound like BS coach speak. I hope Sark stays at UT for the next decade. Realize that’s likely wishful thinking but he’s got our team rolling. Don’t slow down coach!! Hook em! 🤘🏼🧡🐂