AZ Longhorn

Thanks for the numbers! Do you think this kind of turnover makes it easier or harder (than pre-portal era) to predict how good teams will be? First instinct is it's harder, just with all the new faces. But on the other hand: in the old days, your unknowns were your own backups from the previous year(s), and you'd known their *names* and heard "we really like this guy", but didn't have any actual *college game experience or tape*. In this portal era, when we're talking about the top of the sport, teams' new faces likely already have real college experience and tape. So, perhaps there's more data now, to project how the top of the sport will perform, than in the pre-portal days. Thoughts?

IT WAS INEVITABLE! God I love Beck's consistent inconsistency hahaha

Miami's offense has now scored more points than Indiana's offense. Didn't expect that. Glad we have a close natty for once in the last 7 years!!

Felt very apt. As much as Indiana has outplayed Miami, the difference in the game is from: - That penalty on Miami that gave IU another shot at 3rd down from the 50. Instead of punting, they went down and scored their first TD. - Miami FG doinks out - Blocked punt for TD - Indiana PAT doinks in. Wild!

Not just the power, but Fletcher also won a 60 yard foot race. I'd argue we didn't have that ability this year either. Excited for Raleek and Hollywood on that front

Yes that last drive he looked great. My comment did not age well lol

For all the Bray Lynch truthers, know that I too am praying to all the gods that he chooses us over returning to IU. AND ALSO. He is getting smoked so far tonight. I know Miami's DTs are good, but they're not Bain and Mesidor level of exceptional. Let's hope it's because he's distracted and already has one foot out the door towards Austin?!

Ah you’re right! I mixed up my Brays with the bama safety 😂 Thanks

1. Bobby's original post at the top of the "Breaking: Saturday" thread. 2. Folks around here reading tea leaves think the guy who requested to portal late yesterday (see Bobby's OP) is a playable depth piece at CB like Kobe Black. 3. Our mysterious primary target at Guard, according to Bobby this morning: is not playing in the champ game (tho posters are still talking about Hubbard at IU), and we still didn't know if he decided to enter the portal before the deadline last night. 4. A couple other P4 programs signed starting portal Guards today; Texas wasn't involved with those "small game hunting" recruitments. 5. To my knowledge, only headline coming out of Junior Day is that we offered a '27 QB, Ty Knutson (Smithson Valley). Anything y'all would add?

Sark made the tough call to fire PK, a long time friend. So we know that Flood is still here because Sark thinks he’s the best option for the role, not because of history or personal relationship.

Agreed that failing to get guys into the portal is functionally the same as a "portal loss." Ultimately, the guy liked what another school had to offer more than what Texas had to offer.

My read: Sark and the roster construction team are committed to "big game hunting"... but big game hunting only has a chance of working if there's big game out there. Translation: no elite Guards have entered the portal, and Texas has not been willing to settle for what has actually hit the portal like other programs have. We have had no interest/involvement in the top of the market that has actually hit the portal (the guys from Maryland, West Virginia, Louisville). To combat the problem that no elite Guards were willingly entering the portal, we tried to "create some big game" by recruiting elite guys into the portal. They gave Guarnera a home run swing, but came up empty. Then they were reportedly trying to recruit another guy, the "mystery Guard", all the way up to the entry request deadline last night... but as of 11:15 this morning, Bobby didn't know whether that guy decided to enter or not. There is still line to play out here. But my answer to your question, is that it's possible Sark and staff kept holding out for an "elite Guard" market that never actually materialized.

100%. But that is only a possibility if the guy requested to enter the portal by midnight last night. Thus the interest in whether he did, so we know if this is even a possibility any more.

11:15 CST cross-update from Bobby’s Saturday thread (because it can be hard to find information here, topical threads are nice). This is all straight from Bobby at this time. 1. The mystery Guard we’ve been hearing about is NOT playing in the champ game. Hubbard from IU would obviously be nice, but that’s not what they’ve been talking about. 2. Bobby doesn’t know whether the Guard decided to request to enter or not. It’s not just that Bobby knows but can’t say publicly, but Bobby actually doesn’t know what this guy decided (at this time).

What do y’all think is a solution to the problem super-late entries pose to teams? For example, assume the Duke/Mensah thing didn’t have a contract dispute at play, and he asked to enter on the last day he could. That’s your whole season right there, if you’re Duke… and the QB market has already happened, and you have no time to entice others to enter. You are totally screwed. One suggestion could be for two distinct phases: one phase for entry, then that closes, and only then can you negotiate directly with players and sign guys. But that disables both players and teams from reacting in real time to what’s happening—a Bo Barnes wouldn’t be able to go find playing time elsewhere after we sign a Biles over him, for example. Players would be forced to choose between staying or entering the portal, before knowing what their team will do. And that would mean essentially everyone would enter the portal to keep their options open. Not a great solution or effect. Thoughts on a better solution?

Thus the caveat. That would be a big clue... let's see if we don't receive a straight answer from the mods over the weekend or on Monday before the game.

Do you say this because we have heard from legit sources that he definitely didn't? Or is this the rumor going around? Or is this a statement based on the lack positive evidence that he did? Just curious, thanks

Well, here we are. Past the deadline for players to request to enter the portal (unless they're on one of the two teams playing for a natty). Our mysterious Guard has either requested to enter the portal, or he didn't. And if he didn't, there's no going back now. Yes, there would be many other things that have to happen before he could wind up on the 40. His previous team can delay two business days before fulfilling his request, which would put us into late Wednesday or early Thursday (sorry guys). And of course, even if he requested to enter, at any point he could decide to stay where he was. Then, if he does officially get entered into the portal, Texas would have to sign him against all other teams, including his original team. But we are past a significant branching of possibilities. If he has not already requested to enter the portal, all other possibilities are off the table. There are only two possible worlds at this point, and I want to know which one we're in! So: did he request to enter?

Is it reasonable for each of the 10,000 kids in the portal to have a certified agent? I ask just because I hear this suggestion a lot, but I don't know if it's scalable; this isn't the NFL with only 30 teams. As a locked-in horns fan, I spend most of my time thinking about the top 5% of the sport. But this thing is a whole lot bigger than whether some former 4-star recruit who's a backup at an SEC school is getting good advice on transferring to a Big 12 school. Outside of what concerns "us" and the very top of the sport, is it actually realistic (1) to require that every "agent" be certified, in the first place, much less (2) to enforce that? —— My proposal is actually to do nothing on the "agents issue." Maybe this is too much free market fundamentalism, but I am not concerned about the bad advice. These are legal adults 18+, and they get to make decisions that impact them. If as a player you tell teams to work through Uncle Joe, and he's a clown that schools won't deal with, that comes back and hurts you—just like the 18 year old who decides classes aren't important or whatever. Or maybe you're good enough that teams are willing to deal with the BS, then congrats. Everyone has free will here. It's just not worth creating a regulatory market on representation and trying to enforce that at the unwieldy scale that makes college football categorically different than, say, the NFL.

GOATed. Thank you!!

And that makes you the Jett walker?!

@Gerry Hamilton would love your take on this Devil's advocate thesis: the portal is dangerous for a lot of programs. But for Texas, with a proven commitment to spending top 5 resources in the market, the portal's radical liquidity (and entailed better information) is the absolute best thing that could have happened to us. Background: Markets are most efficient with the most information and the most ability to change course based on that information. Bad information and low liquidity creates losers out of most... but also, big winners for those who can "divine" the future before others see it and/or can act on it. Example in College Football (proof of concept): Taking advantage of these dynamics is exactly how Cignetti has pulled off the biggest turnaround in coaching history, dominating at a place without the resources of Texas (or Ohio St, or Oregon, or...): (1) he is a preternatural evaluator of talent who sees the "information" before others do, and (2) unlike previous "golden eyes for talent", he happened to exist at the dawn of a new system where he could combine that information advantage with the liquidity of the portal (while the "big fish" like UGA and UT were slow to adapt). Outlook: The coming (present?) reality of a Majors / AAA / AA etc. system — where each year maybe up to half (who knows?) of all college football players are moving up/down levels, or to better fits within their level — provides such better information to the "Majors" programs. Instead of the Majors having to evaluate and project a guy out of HS, they can pass that risk (bad information) on the farm system. This lessens the information gap that used to exist between genius evaluators (Cignetti) and the conventional evaluators at the "big fish" programs. And the portal combined with one-year contracts gives everyone the liquidity to act on that new and better information every. single. year! How this applies to Texas, a "big fish": Ironically, the same system that enabled Cignetti's unprecedented rise is going to just as quickly allow the "big fish" to overtake Indiana (unless the system changes or Mark Cuban ponies up to fund Indiana at the level of the top 5 NIL programs). Texas' information (evaluation) disadvantage against a Cignetti will be greatly decreased, the portal provides the liquidity to act on that ever-changing information on a yearly basis, and our "big fish" bags dominate acquisition in a market for talent that is less mysterious than ever before. Conclusion: This new reality tilts the scales, unequivocally, to the schools who have the biggest NIL funds. Texas should be among the 5 happiest programs for this new era.

@CJ Vogel check my math here but to end up with 10-12 in the OL room, as you suggest, we will see several more departures from our current room. We only have 4/7 playable depth (and please don't consider Chatman or Cojoe "playable depth" in a championship caliber top 7 lol) That means we need to add 3 more playable pieces. Current room is 12 guys 12+3=15 Based on your argument here, could we really see 3-5 more departures from the current room?

Marked with the "crimson letter" 🤣

He's absolutely electric. Needed some "between the ears" training as much as anything else. Excited for him to show his growth!