CJ Vogel

RT Christian Jones took a bit of a step back after a dominating day one performance. Probably went 50-50 with his 1-on-1 pass protection sets. Still, a very strong week of play being put on film for No. 70.

What a win by T'Vondre Sweat in 1-on-1's. Soon thereafter, Sweat whoops up on former Texas A&M OL Layden Robinson.

New Texas defensive line coach Kenny Baker is expected in Lufkin today. Lufkin is home to 2025 DL Zion Williams, one of the top interior defensive lineman in the state. Look for the 6-foot-4 interior defensive lineman to remain a priority for the Texas staff. View full news

Texas head football coach Steve Sarkisian has officially been inducted into the East-West Shrine Game Hall of Fame. Sarkisian was on hand at The Star this morning for the induction ceremony and to also check out draft hopefuls Ja'Tavion Sanders and Ryan Watts who are partaking in drills and workouts this week. After his two years of quarterbacking at BYU, Sarkisian played in the Shrine Bowl in 1997. Now, he returns to watch his former players continue on their path to the NFL. Congrats to Coach Sark! View full news

Very talented prospect who clearly was impacted by the Texas offer. Said it was an "experience that he had never felt before" when officially receiving the offer from Tashard Choice back on the Junior Day. That Texas offer meant a ton to him.

The Texas offer changed the perspective of Stewart’s recruitment and it goes without saying that it meant a lot to him. He mentioned there would be tough conversations about his pledge to SMU following the trip, today we see the first domino fall.

This will be one to watch. 2025 Chapel Hill RB Rickey Stewart has announced his recruitment has re-opened after previously being a member of the SMU class. Texas hosted the Chapel Hill running back for the Longhorns' Junior Day on January 20 where Stewart received his Texas offer. Stewart recounted the moment as one he will never forget. "It was an experience that I had never felt before," Stewart said after receiving the Texas offer. The visit to Austin made a monumental impact on the recruitment of Stewart. The Longhorns are in a great position to make a run for Stewart now that he has completely opened back up. View full news

I am really eager to see Xavier Worthy run in the 40. Could be a late riser as a result of a good time.

I’m with you!

Landon Rink was the first DL target that Kenny Baker was able to get out onto the road and see after taking the Texas job. I chatted briefly with Rink after the visit with Coach Baker; Rink said Baker brings great energy and that he came across as a really cool coach on the first visit. Positive notes here.

Good catch. I don't expect Texas to be interested here. Only 43 snaps in 2024. But, perhaps the beginning of the portal departures from UM? We'll see.

New Texas defensive line coach Kenny Baker is officially on the recruiting trail. Baker was originally expected to be in Mobile, Alabama for the Reese's Senior Bowl week of practices. However, the call was made and Baker is hitting the schools in the state of Texas with 2025 defensive line targets. A stop with 2025 Cy Fair DL Landon Rink was in store for Tuesday afternoon. View full news

That last sentence made me laugh but it's looking like it will have quite the graduation rate looking back in five years or so.

Texas took advantage of the early days of Brian Kelly at LSU, now with Saban out at Alabama, there are more in-roads to be made in prime SEC territory. Having a coach that you know won't have questions about his future is something Texas will finally get to benefit from.

Texas right tackle Christian Jones has been having a very strong day in Mobile for the first day of the Reese's Senior Bowl practices. A couple of 1-on-1 reps here against the following: Rep 1: Texas Tech's Myles Cole Rep 2: Missouri's Darius Robinson Rep 3: Texas Tech's Myles Cole Rep 4: Notre Dame's Javontae Jean-Baptiste Jones saw reps at both guard and tackle during the day of practice.

I am very excited to get to know most of the new faces on the board as we progress into the offseason. For those who are new to following my coverage of Texas Football, just know there are times where I get stuck in random rabbit holes looking for obscure facts and tidbits across both team coverage and the recruiting world. And for you all on this beautiful Tuesday afternoon, I have ventured back into a rabbit hole of recruiting. We have talked about the national approach we have seen Texas take in year's past, especially with the current staff. It will continue to be a focal point of the recruiting approach. Last July, I went through the offers extended by state to get an idea of where Texas is recruiting. I will touch on two points here in this article – 1. Where those offers are going and 2. When those are offers are handed out. I would not call this piece anything groundbreaking. Texas extends offers to where talent is present, that is no surprise. However, I was a bit surprise at how quickly they were able to identify that talent, with the staff clearly turning focus to the season in the mid-summer months. A look at the top ten states by offers extended by the Texas staff in the 2024 cycle: Texas (55) Florida (28) Georgia (25) California (21) Louisiana (8) Alabama (8) Mississippi (7) Arizona (6) Missouri (4) Washington (3) Off the bat, no surprises here. Texas is taking a heavy look in its backyard and extending into the recruiting hot spots of California, Florida and Georgia.I was a bit surprised to see only eight offers extended to Louisiana, however, the Longhorns have a much deeper impact in the state as a result of landing Arch Manning, Derek Williams, Wardell Mack and Melvin Hills in previous cycles. But this got me thinking. Of course, the origins of this thought process stemmed from the early July run of commitments. I originally went through this list during July of 2023 and the numbers then don't look all too different from the final numbers I posted from today. Offers by state from July 2023: Texas (53) Georgia (23) Florida (22) California (19) Louisiana (8) Alabama (7) Arizona (6) Missouri (4) Mississippi (3) Washington (2) Of the top ten states Texas extended offers to in the 2024 cycle, 91.5% of them were extended by essentially July 4th. Texas gets their out of state evaluations out early and often. I expect to see Texas much more active in the out of state recruiting in 2025 cycle as well. As a result of the Longhorns coming off of a College Football Playoff run, the Longhorns will be able to toss more lures in the water from a national perspective and see a few more nibbles of interest. Already in the 2025 cycle, the Longhorns have extended 149 offers right as we sit right at the end of January. In the entirety of the 2024 cycle, the Longhorn staff extended 191 offers with a pair of them going to specialists. Maybe later in the week I will dig into the position by position approach, but Texas offered 35 defensive linemen last cycle, something I expect to see changed from a philosophical approach now that Kenny Baker is on campus to take over for Bo Davis. At the end of the day, the player personnel department is doing a mighty fine job of finding talent early on and the Texas staff is active to extend offers. Feel free to dive into the rabbit hole with me and if you have any wild or wacky thoughts of your own you would like to see me jump into, feel free to let me know. View full news

Texas RB coach Tashard Choice continues his tour of the deep south with a stop in Quitman, MS this morning to see 2025 RB Akylin Dear. Dear received an offer from the Longhorns earlier this month on January 8th and now, Choice is doubling up with a stop at his high school to get some face time. Dear is an elite running back prospect. Tremendous film to back it up as well. Texas has approached the RB spot from a national perspective in previous cycles and 2025 already has Mater Dei RB Jordon Davison as a top prospect as well. Add Dear to that list. Take a look at the film: https://www.hudl.com/video/3/15267528/65265bf40427fe0af4358bd7 View full news

How I read it as well.

Looking forward to having you back on for the spring update! Thanks for the insight!