closetojumping

I got to watch NOLA Isidore Newman play St. John’s (Houston) last Friday night. It was eye-opening in that the level of competition really is insanely low. My son plays for SJS, so I’ve watched them plenty in 3 years. They’ve had a couple of guys that went on to play college ball, but not a FBS one among them that I recall. Watching Newman, they didn’t look like many, if any, either. It makes sense for SJS as they’re an academic power and sports aren’t a priority. I assume that could be the case with Newman. Point is, yeah, even if Manning has all of the tools and the mind for everything, I think everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, vastly underestimated his learning curve starting point for big time college ball. The good news is that ratcheting up a learning curve on a subject matter in which someone is both invested and bright can often be non-linear. In QB terms, Joe Burrow’s journey and performance in college reflects that perfectly. I feel like we’re witnessing something in that same form with Manning. Saturday will tell me how right or wrong that notion for him is, I guess. Here’s hoping. Good article, nonetheless.

I wouldn’t give Baker Mayfield the heat of my piss, but sure, that’s a nice move and smart donation.

OU will be playing this weekend without Fodje, maybe Maikkula and maybe Fasusi. Three starting OLs with significant injuries. They’ve been poopooing Fasusi’s shoulder injury all camp and then he had to be pulled against UTEP because he was ineffective due to the pain. The other two guys both have knee injuries. OU always talks up their health heading into a game and then multiple guys are out, strangely. Okoye has an oblique injury and will also be out, leaving them playing either the 5 star bust or a true Freshman against the Michigan tackles. OU has OL and running game issues. People are overreacting to Michigan’s outlook due to a bad game against a good G6 team.

Thanks for the update. Red Five had been telling me that this guy was this cycle’s TJ Shanahan and just wasn’t good enough to start at Westlake but could play for anyone in the P4. Whew.

That's awesome. Congrats to Bobby, Gerry, and everyone else. I'm happy for you guys.

To each their own, but I wasn’t calling out your post. I get why Boyd was listed, but felt like Broughton was an omission. I’ve been avidly watching or listening to Texas football since the early 80’s, so I don’t think it’s a recency bias thing for me. For those that follow, I think Broughton was his senior class’s “Russell Gaskamp Award” winner, which also amused me. Anyway, fun stuff.

There isn’t an alternate universe, much less this one, in which I would take Reid Boyd over Vernon Broughton.

6 ducks 5 longhorns 4 domers 2 buckeyes I like PFF and this was a fun list, but it certainly has limited utility in certain areas. As an example, I don't trust their CFB CB ratings at all. They're always sketchy and don't usually translate to how CBs are valued in the draft, or even how they're schemed for during the season at the CFB level.

Their mods have been talking for months that this was going to be a small class. They went really big in the last two cycles and like what they have in those groups, so they’re not spending heavy in this cycle and plan to focus a lot of their spend on retention. I guess that can work for schools with less money and excellent coaching and maybe that is Bama now. I am not sure their fanbase has that kind of patience. Bama is staring down the barrel of a shockingly bad season if they start slow. They have nothing proven at QB, an inexperienced OL, no depth at RB, a shaky overall running game, a star WR who is soft as charmin. The defense is in need of a rebuild across the board and the schedule is unforgiving. I know DeBoer is an excellent coach, but if the dude goes 8-5 or worse, that idiotic fanbase isn’t grounded enough to be patient. They’re also poor, so maybe that new extension and buyout simply make Deboer bulletproof for how he wants to build his roster, as long as the players buy into it, I guess.

It's unfortunate, but as Texas fans, we're better off this year, and years going forward, if USC is actually competitive in the Big 10. Riley is damned near 0-fer against any well-coached team that USC has played since his 2022 inaugural season. 0-3 against Utah. 0-2 against Oregon, 0-2 against UW, 1-3 against ND. Those games almost all factored into the playoff landscape. This year, Riley bravely sought to eliminate one of those match-ups for his schedule by getting the Notre Dame game removed. I guess since his teams are so soft, it probably doesn't matter, but it would have been helpful to see Notre Dame have at least one other speed bump on their schedule besides Miami. Instead of a non-con that includes the domers, USC gets to play SJSU, Fresno State and Louisiana. Now, Fresno and Louisiana will actually field good teams in their conferences, but I doubt they'll handle USC. It would be funny, nonetheless. In conference, USC finally plays Ohio State while also getting UW, Oregon, at Penn State, and at Indiana plus a few bottomfeeders. I see a path for 8-4 due to the soft non-con, but assuming the team still takes on the personality of its HC, the prospects of USC going more than 1-4 against their top 5 Big 10 opponents seem unlikely. USC returns a lot on offense, but not a lot of it is high level NFL talent. The same is true on defense, where they look good on returning starts, but are those quality starts by difference makers? Overall, writers and analysts who have been by the USC lockerroom still claim a lack of "dudes" ready to start for them. The sentiments I've read and heard remind me a lot of what we had to hear from national guys during the Strong and Herman eras. I know Patterson is an excellent coach, but a DC in an offensively biased program run by a soft as pudding HC can only do so much. As to buying the guy out after another flop of a year? Good luck finding $80M+ between those couch cushions.

While I am glad that they're lending credence to the big women's sports having major value, and treating baseball with the respect it is growing to deserve at the college level, I can't help but honestly say that I would 100% trade Indiana's or Michigan's titles in FB or MBB for UT's finish. Still, I am happy to see Texas excelling, and taking pride in doing so, at almost every sport on campus.

I assumed originally that your handle implied you graduated from Texas in '75. If so, congrats! I've been following Texas since I was a kid, and doing so religiously as an adult. That spans many decades, so pulling the age rank card is a nonfactor. It's clear understanding the enemy isn't important to you, and that's your prerogative. I stand by my original position that admonishing others who actually do care about what longhorn rivals are up to, on a board where all of these sports are actively followed, is a head scratcher. Other adult longhorn fans don't need this kind of attempted gatekeeping on content.

This kind of post has always been a head scratcher for me. The guy posted news about a rival’s coaching change in a Director’s Cup sport that many of us do, in fact, care about and try to follow. The better question is why you felt threatened by the original post to the level of needing post an admonishment of it. You may have noticed that there are mod threads created for all kinds of Texas sports, and Bobby and his team never lack in commentary about non-football sports as well.

Make some noise at UK? If he does, he'll be in the portal the first day it opens. Hell, he'll probably be in the portal the first day it opens irrespective of how he performs at Kentucky, who am I kidding?

This is simply outstanding. I actually laughed out loud reading it.