Jeff Howe

Casey Borba is officially back for 2027:

Today is the anniversary of the historic 2003 NBA Draft, which featured TJ Ford going No. 8 overall to the Milwaukee Bucks. A few years ago, I was listening to a Bill Simmons podcast with Chad Ford (ESPN’s draft guy in 2003), who told the following story about how Michael Jordan was in the process of buying the Bucks on draft night in ‘03. Ford said his sources in Milwaukee told him that the Bucks took the player MJ wanted with the eighth pick, which was TJ. MJ didn’t end up buying the team. Still, I think it’s a cool story:

Dylan Volantis and Sam Cozart were first-team selections. Aiden Robbins and Carson Tinney were named third-team All-Americans.

Ed Cunningham made meaningful contributions to Texas athletics long after his playing days:

Roger Roesler was underrated. As of a few years ago, he still held Round Rock High School's shot put record.

I can't confirm if there's been significant mutual interest between Texas and Alec Blair.

It feels like Texas is taking its strategy for recruiting interior defensive linemen and applying it to the offensive line. Target one or two true blue-chip prospects and then trust your evaluations to fill out the class, all while reserving the right to go into the portal if you need experience or an immediate impact guy as a stop-gap measure.

Unlike other positions within the program, Texas is still trying to find the sweet spot in balancing transfer portal acquisitions and high school recruits along the offensive line. The Longhorns didn’t go into the portal for trench help until last season’s results, or lack thereof, forced Steve Sarkisian’s hand. Still, while Texas came out of the most recent portal cycle with a plug-and-play tackle (Melvin Siani), a likely starter at guard (Laurence Seymore), a potential future starter on the interior (Dylan Sikorski), a developmental swing player (Jonte Newman) and a projected depth piece (Paris Patterson), Lucas Rhoa (Orange, Calif./Lutheran) committing to the Longhorns on Wednesday reinforces Sarkisian’s commitment to making high school recruiting the foundation of the offensive line on his watch. With Rhoa in the fold, the class Sarkisian and Kyle Flood have assembled from the 2027 high school ranks added a true swing player who can potentially manufacture depth at multiple positions. Rhoa joining a true tackle prospect (Dallas South Oak Cliff’s Brian Swanson) and two interior line recruits (Keyon Hemphill-Woods of Columbus and Austin Westlake’s Jackson Cook) should give the Texas faithful an idea of how Sarkisian and Flood will approach offensive line recruiting amid the current roster-building climate in college football. Obtaining the services of a top-end offensive tackle talent in the transfer portal isn’t cheap. Thankfully, Texas had a leg up on other programs on the hunt for tackles in the winter after Trevor Goosby decided to put off his NFL career until 2027 (at the earliest) and return for his redshirt junior season. The benefit of developing a legitimate NFL tackle (Goosby was ranked outside of the top 400 prospects nationally in the 2023 class and redshirted while playing behind Kelvin Banks Jr., Christian Jones and Cameron Williams) allowed the Longhorns to allocate their portal resources to filling out the talent around Arch Manning. Texas was also able to target Siani, whose arrival on the Forty Acres made it possible to slide Brandon Baker inside to guard, potentially improving the right side of the offensive line compared to 2025. Getting a future NFL tackle in the pipeline requires one of two approaches Texas has taken over the last decade. That's having the wherewithal to acquire premium talent like Banks (or Swanson, in the case of the 2027 recruiting class) or a keen eye for finding NFL-caliber tools and upside in prospects like Goosby, Jones, Williams, Connor Williams and Samuel Cosmi. Knowing how long it can take to get a return on an investment for a high school lineman, even a program with the resources Texas has would be smart to hone in on just one or two top-shelf prospects (Swanson and Gilmer’s Ismael Camara, for example) per cycle. While it’s unlikely to expect the Longhorns to put together another line class like the 2022 group (Banks, Williams and DJ Campbell left the program as NFL draft picks, with Connor Robertson on track to join Cole Hutson as a multiple-year starter), there are enough quality linemen in every recruiting cycle to get four or five capable prospects into the pipeline. It’s up to Sarkisian, Flood and the player personnel staff to identify projectable traits in prospects who might need more time in the incubator before they’re ready to help Texas win games. Like Cook and Hemphill-Woods, Rhoa is ranked outside of the top 450 prospects nationally (No. 602 in the Rivals Industry and No. 612 in the 247Sports Composite). Nevertheless, if those three get on similar trajectories like Jackson Christian, who was getting snaps with the first-team offense in spring practice before suffering a knee injury, and Jordan Coleman, who logged time as the offense’s No. 1 left tackle while Goosby spent the spring recovering from shoulder surgery, they’ll position themselves to outperform their recruiting ranking. Other than the handful of truly elite offensive line prospects in a given cycle (the tier where Swanson and Camara reside in 2027), beauty is in the eye of the beholder. While the transfer portal can fill gaps and address recruiting mishaps, Rhoa’s commitment is the latest example of how Texas continues to prioritize high school offensive line recruiting without putting all its eggs in one basket. View full news story

Not CJ, but Texas is on the hunt for a middle infielder. I haven't heard the exact plan regarding first base.

Finishing above .500 in the SEC is an accomplishment. Anything over 10 wins means you had a heck of a year.

Probably not, because Minor League Baseball should continue to operate independently of MLB, even in the event of a lockout. Contracts for draftees will be finalized long before the CBA expires and unless they're on a 40-man roster, they shouldn't be impacted by a work stoppage.

The key thing to remember in this portal cycle is that Texas doesn't want to get burned by the draft. The staff took Moroknek and (more so) Freeman at their word last year and got left holding the bag. They had a connection with Ashton Larson through Nolan Cain and scrambled to find Pendergrass, which ended up being pretty important last-minute pickups.