Mark

Coach Sark & Company are building an iron curtain around the DFW metroplex in recruiting. Gone are the days where the best high school kids in the state were going to LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M. 👏🤘

Seems to be the case. Crazy to think that five years ago, Akana would have been a prospect that would have a starting job in his second season, but with the level of talent coming to the Forty Acres in the last three recruiting classes, someone with Akana's hype and athleticism is getting pushed to the bottom of the list by the team depth.

What's the scoop on Tausili Akana??? Akana came into the program in the 2023 class at 19 years old, 6'4" and 200 pounds. I follow him on social media and he's been one of the most active individuals in the Austin community when it comes to volunteering and putting together player-led charity events and even started his charity foundation. His sister is one of the vocal leaders and hardest workers in her third year on the volleyball team, so the Akana's are one of the new "power families" on the 40 Acres. I was really excited to see him throw up the horns during his commitment announcement in Hawaii when all the major recruiting outlets (including Wiltfong himself) had him crystal balled/ RPM'ed to Oklahoma, (along with Colton Vasek) which means we took the two highest ranked EDGE players that Oklahoma had their sights on in the 2023 class. Does he just need to pack on muscle and weight? Is Texas really that deep at the EDGE and SAM positions that the Rivals/ ESPN/ 247Sports consensus "2023 #1 player in the state of Utah" is just that overshadowed?? I realize we can't get "Colin Simmons / Arch Manning level coverage" on EVERY player on the roster, but I just wanted to see if there was anything noted going on with Akana.

He's the shoe-in for punt returner on special teams. From what I recall, he was the last receiver to join Texas' WR room during the last transfer period, so the team that he decided to join in January is still the same team we have in March.

I went with Connor Stroh. I met him and his family on their official visit at DKR in 2022. I'm 6'2" and next to him, I'm DWARFED. <blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/9tvDwKL" data-context="false" ><a href="//imgur.com/a/9tvDwKL"></a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

If you need a host with a TV gameshow voice, let me know. I can send you my voice demo.

oh yeah, I'm not shy to say Rodney Terry was an emotional hire coming off of an Elite Eight appearance with Chris Beard's team. We should have spent ANY amount of time looking around for another coach at the very least.

My thoughts exactly. Maybe a UTSA or a NMSU does this (promote an assistant coach to the head coaching position without much thought), but being one of the biggest brands in all of collegiate sports, Michigan would be stupid to quickly shoe in Moore without interviewing other big names around the country.

I gotcha, I'm all for it. Michigan and Texas are two of the biggest brands in college football, both programs coming together to play football against each other is a huge win for tv audiences and both fan bases. Texas beating ANY other major college football program is always good. I wouldn't ride on the coattails of that game if we get a win, but a win is a win is a win.

Awesome video, always one of my favorite videos of the week from OTF 🤘

Is it really feasible/ practical for college athletes in today's day and age to play TWO sports while in college? I would think the football program of an institution like Texas would require way too much time and energy, making it difficult for someone to try to play both baseball AND football while on the Forty Acres??

I don't care about bragging rights against Michigan. I only care about bragging rights against Oklahoma, the aggies, Alabama, and LSU. A win is a win against Michigan (the defending 2023 national champion).

Sucks to hear that, especially knowing Williams never even visited Austin. Arch and Ryan Williams had been texting each other as evident in a short video interview with Williams on twitter from a couple of days ago. Glad to hear Arch is doing what he can to recruit players to the Longhorns.

Not really, but I'm praying for a snowball effect to occur should Michigan decide to reach out to Brian Kelly to offer him the HC position in Ann Arbor. Kelly's departure from LSU would be the real win for Texas, seeing that LSU is one of the major recruiting players in the states of Texas and Louisiana, Brian Kelly leaving Baton Rouge would once again throw LSU into a bit of an uncertain period, which would mean one or two of their key players might decide to enter the portal as well as 2025 and 2026 recruits leaning to LSU would now open up their recruitment.

I'm literally on my hands and knees praying for Brian Kelly's phone to be ringing from a call from Ann Arbor right now. Is is more probable for Michigan to go after Brian Kelly? or for Michigan to promote someone within their own ranks to HC? Typically, it's an OC or DC that gets a head coaching promotion, and never anyone else on the staff, but I would expect Harbaugh to take with him both his DC and OC. I just really want to continue to see LSU take hits after their abysmal 2023 season (though they had the Heisman winner, who was the most forgettable winner in recent memory), Brian Kelly's departure from Baton Rouge, and uncertainty for the coming seasons, would mean further recruiting growth and expansion by Texas in the state of Louisiana and east Texas.

Last player I remember from Dallas Skyline was Mike Davis, the WR who had a decent college career with us.

If there's one coach on this staff that Sark cannot lose, it's Jeff Banks. Banks has been Sark's "consigliere" since coming with him from Alabama.

Texas is getting the the point where we're stacking talent and don't need to be promising any players a starting position. This is the best problem to have in college football: continually churning the bottom of the roster and making guys compete for the starting positions, making the team as a whole better. Like Bobby said this morning on Coffee and Football, Texas saw Muhammad as a luxury and not a "WE NEED HIM ASAP", whereas Oregon NEEDS him badly.

LSU definitely owes us a game in Baton Rouge after dodging our team in 2020 due to the covid pandemic. To march into Death Valley and get a win over the Bayou Bengals would be HUGE for Longhorn nation, as well as to further put the SEC on notice that this Sark era of Texas football is NOT the Tom Herman era or Charlie Strong era. Recruits would take notice as well.

We need to maintain a steady recruiting focus on Lance, he's in that northeast part of Texas where the communities in that area are HUGE fans of Arkansas. I was in Emory, Texas a few years ago for a fishing tournament at Lake Fork, and the night before the tournament, my buddies and I watched the Texas/ Arkansas game at a local sports bar where Casey Thompson and Company got torched by the Razorbacks. I could not believe the amount of Arkansas fans that were in that sports bar. (As far as sports bars go, the building was formally a small town Wal-Mart that had been converted into a sports bar and dance hall). 😂

The moment that Alabama and Auburn allow Texas and "Sark & Co" to go into their state and hand pick 5 ⭐ players away from both of those in-state major college football programs, is the moment both of those programs concede recruiting dominance in their own state, which would be a nightmare for them in terms of optics on the national recruiting stage. Both Alabama and Auburn had to make huge aggressive moves to not allow Ryan Williams to leave the state. Maybe if we had not just restocked our WR room, we'd be able to pitch to Williams that he'd have playing time very early. We're victims of our own success with Williams, which is never a bad problem to have. 🤘