Do you mean you think he'll win the starting job? I don't think he goes into the spring as the presumed starter. I think it'll be an open spot where no guy has an edge over anyone else if Carter enrolls early. Warren has had 2 years to establish himself but he hasn't. I know he wanted to enroll early at Georgia but I didn't see anything saying he would enroll early at Texas. It would be great if he did. I think that made a huge difference for Malik Jefferson, Shane Buechele and Zach Shackelford. Why would you think that Johnson might be better than Warren or Porter? He has 8 career rushing attempts at Texas and didn't really have a super great high school career to think that there is a lot of raw potential. Must have been 8 amazing runs It would be great to see this next year:
Ya unfortunately there isn't much to base it on. But remember him looking more explosive in the limited reps he got. He is also reportedly the best receiver of the bunch. But he will be coming out from knee surgery so hard to tell. Warren was a guy I was afraid was going to outgrow the position at some point. That is a one big dude which is pretty nice.
McCloskey had 23 receptions for 233 yards and 4 touchdowns this year. That's not a lot, but he was a target in certain situations, like checkdowns and red zone opportunities. McCloskey was also undersized at 6'2". It's unknown what Herman with a TE with prototypical size.
Kirk Johnson fits Herman's offense a lot better than Warren and about equally to Porter. I'm thinking Warren gets left behind. He has too much weight on him right now, and if he loses some explosiveness, he's pretty much a glorified fullback. He's not a good pass-catching RB, and he's not a good blocker. Johnson has some of those intangibles and explosiveness, he's just always injured. I can see Porter improving. It felt at times like Strong wasted Porter with runs that didn't fit his style. When they better matched what he could do, he could spring 10-20 yard runs. Porter fits the all-purpose mold and could do great things. He also looked like a nutcase at times, which is confusing considering he came from a well-disciplined Katy HS team. I blame Strong and/or the RBs coach, though maybe something else got to him.
Well, looking at this dude's tape, if he's a home run hitter like Jamaal Charles, then this would be awesome.
McCloskey was our FB. He's listed as TE (no idea why they changed that this year), but he was virtually never put at the line of scrimmage, nor used in any other traditional tightend set. He lined up in the backfield, blocked on max protect and sweeps, and was usually good for about one designed pass out of the backfield per game (typically a playaction wheel route that was extremely effective in the redzone). I'm not BSing you about Herman and TEs. He lost out on a few good TE recruits because of his reputation for not using them. Same at Ohio State.
Herman has offered more TEs since taking over at UT than any other position, including multiple JUCOs. He might not have used them at UH, but he clearly wants to.
Not that it really matters but that falls on Gilbert IMO. Him and Warren just didn't have that same burst as Foreman and the offense just stuttered completely without him in the game. As for Porter, I don't think the kid is cut from the same cloth as most. IIRC, he told Strong he didn't want to go to the basketball game with the other recruits during his OV and believe Strong ended up staying back with him. It actually sounded like the visit went terribly where Strong told him only call if you're going to commit (probably in a jokingly way) but he ended up calling and committing a few days later.
Maybe it's an Applewhite thing. Herman's "TEs" have always been more hybrid style in that they work out of the backfield, like James Casey.
How can you tell that when he has only had 8 runs in his entire career? I think the best case scenario for Texas is that Warren can come back strong but I agree that he looks more like a prototypical fullback but that's a pretty dead position in college football. It's not like you see teams run i-form. It's usually dual or single backs next to the QB who could be fast or big. USC is a great example with Bush and Lendale White. White was 6'1" and 270 lbs 247 is reporting that the RB and QB/OC have been unofficially hired but can't be announced until they have concluded their season with their respective teams. Tulsa Jenks TE Reese Leitao and Lake Travis TE Cade Brewer are two guys they are going for right now. Leitao is not committed anywhere. Brewer is committed to SMU which is where is QB teammate and former coach are. Who knows. Teams will also be allowed to hire an additional assistant coach sometime in the spring per rule changes. It would be nice to see a dedicated special teams coach. There was a lot of hype about hiring Florida St recruiter Tim Brewster but I'm guessing that's dead. The guy must have worked things out with Florida St since they are sending him all over the country.
Rumors that the OC will be Tim Beck, current co-OC at Ohio St, and RB coach will be Stan Drayton, former recruiting ace at Ohio St and now with the Bears.
Hmm. I'm guessing Tim doesn't call plays since he is listed as the co-cordinator and is listed as coordinator. Ohio St is still a good place to pull a guy from.
Seems like a solid staff. I don't know a ton about all of them and I know tOSU fans don't love beck, but there's no WTF hires like Strong had (Watson, Koenning, Chambers).
I believe Beck has been calling plays since Herman left. Big name hire but their offense has regressed statistically each year since he took over.
While this is true (and I think why some tOSU fans don't care for him), it's a high bar they have set for themselves. I think even in these 'down' years, they are close to being a top 10-15 offense. The B1G was also tougher the past couple seasons than it has been recently.
True but they have had some duds against not so good teams which gave teams like Northern Illinois and Northwestern a shot at a ridiculous upset. But then they'll turn around a roll on some of the better B1G teams so think it's a little of both.
That's a bummer. Although, I think they had the best offense in the Big 10. The quality of teams changes every season so it could be encouraging that they are still at the end of the bell curve. If Tim is the guy then we might not have an offensive coordinator until 3 weeks before signing day. It's not a great recruiting toll for offensive players to not be able to tell them who their coach is going to be. They might just hype up Herman as the true driver of the offense until they can get Tim officially on board. All of the announced coaches are from Houston: WR - Drew Mehringer TE - Corby Meekins OL - Derek Warhime DL - Oscar Giles LB/DC - Todd Orlando CB/ST - Jason Washington S - Craig Naivar Some Updates via 247 Spring Westfield running back Daniel Young de-committed from Houston last night. Texas offered Young a scholarship earlier this month. Young is expected to visit Texas in January. Texas assistant Corby Meekins is the former head coach at Westfield. Meekins is very familiar with Young and his family. What's more, Corby's brother, Matt, replaced him as head coach at Westfield. Outside of Young, Wylie East RB Eno Benjamin also has an offer from Texas. Benjamin is expected to announce his decision on Jan. 7. Anthony Cook is one of the top cornerbacks in the country. This is what he had to say about Texas, “Texas is still high. I feel like Coach (Tom) Herman is going to turn the program around. Texas lost to Kansas, man. I think Coach Herman get it right. Texas is always going to be around my top because I feel like home there. Based on what he did at Houston, I think he’s going to be good for Texas. I haven’t really gotten to know him a lot, but I was really excited about the hire. I feel like he is going to help them improve. I’m excited about it.”
Don't want to make it seem that I'm down on Beck. He is still the OC for Ohio State and pulling him out from Urban would be big news. Him and Stan Drayton (current Bears RB Coach) would be nice additions. Drayton is an ace recruiter who pulled in and coached Ezekiel Elliott, think a lot of recruits would like the sound of that.
