That's really awful and I feel terrible for D'Onta. I hope he succeeds in the NFL, he was the one bright spot in Longhorn football last year.
Strong signals pointing to Oklahoma based DE Ron Tatum will pick Texas today. I don't usually post recruiting updates until after the season since these kids change commitments so much but this would be another kick in the balls to OU.
Ron Tatum (DE) has committed to UT. He's the 4 star 3rd ranked SDE which is oddly specific. Who knows if he'll stay at Texas. I'm guessing he'll be a guy that still visits other schools and I'm sure the season success will have a big impact one way or another. He seems to like the defensive scheme and really likes the idea that he can play a lot as a freshman. UT has a lot of depth at DT but not DE. The reason I think this is significant because it's the second FU to Bob Stoops and OU. We took the QB that they already had committed to their 2018 class and now a highly regarded kid from Oklahoma. This is the 1st season that Kyler Murray will be eligible to play so I'm sure we'll see him come in at the end of games when OU is up by a lot. He could be the next Manziel. He might be too short to have the impact that RG3 had but you never know. This is a huge departure from Charlie's recruiting strategy. Strong would tell kids to wait to commit until later in the year until they were sure and usually went into December with an abysmal class while Herman seems like the opposite. We'll see how many kids he has in line by the start of the season. 247 said Beck talked to Thomas and he feels better but there could be an offer from Oregon to look out for. I try not to take recruiting that seriously until December but this is worth noting. I would absolutely look for a different program to go to that doesn't have another high QB recruit. It's unlikely Ehlinger is going to redshirt which is disappointing unless Texas can get a walk-on they feel really good about or a grad transfer but they seem to have struck out on most of those options. I don't see Ehlinger making it the whole season without playing if he is 2nd string. I really hope the new kid Rising works out because he has a last name that I don't have to google spellcheck every time I write it.
I'm sure they'll end up going after some of the A&M commits. That would be a war. Maybe Herman wants to wait a bit to establish himself before ruffling a lot of feathers within the state. Taking Brandon Jones from A&M after the GiGEm site made an entire doc on the kid was my favorite thing that Charlie did at Texas. Ultimately, the biggest test for Herman will be keeping the best Texas High School Football players in the state. Only 1 of them is already committed LSU. I think if UT can win 8 games this year then they'll have a good shot at landing a couple.
Very happy for Foreman going in the 3rd to the Texans. I'm glad he went sooner than I thought he would. Houston is a great situation for him. They already have a starting RB and backup so there won't be a lot of pressure for Foreman to come in and perform. He'll pretty much fly under the radar unlike Deshaun Watson. A number of UT players are headed to various places: Johnathan Gray gets invite to Giants rookie camp Paul Boyette headed to Raiders as undrafted free agent Caleb Bluiett agrees to UFA deal with Jacksonville Jaguars Dylan Haines reportedly set for rookie tryouts with Jets, Texans Kent Perkins lands with Bengals as a free agent Tyrone Swoopes signs free agent deal with the Seattle Seahawks I'm really rooting for Gray. Dude had a great career going and then tore his Achilles during the season and tore it again before the combine.
Ya Foreman was on my wishlist. Him and Miller could be a nice 1-2 punch. For the UDFA, a lot of these guys have a really tough path ahead of them but think Bluiett might have a shot. I liked him as a DE but apparently he graded out really well as a blocking TE too.
Agreed. In other news, Jamal Charles was cut by the Chiefs and signed with the Broncos for less than a million. I think that is close to the veteran minimum. He could make around 4 million more if he hits certain performance bonuses. You hear the number "28" when talking about the age decline of a NFL RB and that's exactly when Charles got hurt. He came back the next year and got hurt again. These guys take such a beating. I think Foster was 28 as well when he started to miss a ton of games and he's out of the league at 31.
Has anyone here listened to Foster's podcast on Joe Rogan's show? This is coming from a Cowboys fan but I thought it was excellent.