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My Wi-Fi went out in the middle of Coffee & Football this morning, but I still had a few things left to say. First, universities need to spare us of the idea that they are strapped for cash. It’s a complete charade. When Indiana fully guarantees a coach $11.6mm per year or when Penn State, Florida or Texas A&M agree to fire coaches with $50m+ guaranteed left on their contracts, the schools have the revenue and the money. They just need to share more of it with the players. The entire Indiana football team is allegedly getting $15m of the school’s revenue share allotment in 2025. So a coach at Indiana is supposedly worth as much as almost his en…

I read yesterday’s Jeff Howe article on the 2021 recruiting class and its importance to the Texas program and Steve Sarkisian’s success with a lot of interest. There are a couple of reasons why: 1. The positive difference I see in the 2021 class compared to many previous ones is the “development” of the class itself. Guys like Gunnar Helm, Hayden Conner and Barryn Sorrell were not projected draft picks when enrolling at Texas. They had the right attitude, were put into a good system and they developed naturally. That development piece had been seemingly missing for far too long in Austin. Whether we give credit to the players themselves or to Torr…

News broke yesterday that Texas declined an invitation to play Ohio State on Sunday Aug. 31 instead of Saturday Aug. 30. Texas did so for many reasons: - No guarantee of a Sunday night game next year given that it’ll be on ESPN or ABC rather than Fox. - Fox has done themselves no favors with Texas brass. Remember, Fox leveraged Texas just a couple of years ago, requiring the Horns to switch the Michigan game to Ann Arbor in 2024 as a piece of the Big 12 departure. - Short turnaround for the next week, especially early in the season. Texas already moved one game on their schedule this year - A&M will now be played on a Friday. - Travel for fans…

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said the quiet part out loud yesterday afternoon. The SEC and the general quality of its teams, thereby the strengths of its schedules, are different than every other conference. He even provided media a 7-page document explaining exactly why. Only two of the conferences 16 schools have averaged being outside of the top 50 teams in college football over the past 10 years. Meanwhile, every other conference has at least twice as many, if not three times as many. What’s the net of all of it? While the Big 10 is trying to force the SEC into a 9-game conference schedule, I just don’t think it’s in the cards. The coaches simply don’t …

Winner takes all. Tonight at 7pm. Texas vs Texas Tech for the national championship. Tech tied the series at one game apiece last night with a 4-3 victory over Longhorns. Texas made a number of miscues and mental errors and the bats didn’t wake up until it was perhaps too late. Texas did not start ace Teagan Kavan last night, opting to rest her for game three tonight. NiJaree Canady went the distance for Tech and was downright dominating until the later innings. ** Some of you who aren’t quite so old finally got a taste of what being older feels like. That’s when former Texas All-American Brian Orakpo showed up at the Texas elite camp yesterd…

Texas sits at 13 commitments. It’s not an overwhelming class as yet. But there are 15+ visitors coming to town this weekend and the Horns have the no. 1 quarterback in the country committed. ** Dia Bell, the Texas quarterback pledge from South Florida, won the Elite 11 QB competition this week over a host of other elite, nationally-ranked quarterbacks. Bell is the first Longhorn to win the award. ** If you haven’t read CJ Vogel’s team update from yesterday, it’s worth your time. One of the notes that CJ Vogel slipped into his responses and not the original article is something he has heard about new receiver Emmett Mosley, the Stanford t…

Texas lost out on Ezavier Crowell last night; the Alabama native decided to stay home and play for the Crimson Tide. But life goes on. My dog still wanted to play tug of war after he ate this morning. The sun still rose in the East. And sure enough, my wife still asked me if I took out the trash and recycle last night. The same will happen multiple times over the next two weeks. Texas will likely lose more than they win. But as we’ve talked about, that’s the nature of this style of recruiting. At the end of the day, recruiting at this level is more about who you add, not about who you lose. ** I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Texas and i…

Given that much of the discussion yesterday on the site centered around revenue share/cap, I thought it would be informative to see how NFL teams spend their cash for rosters. Here’s the average percentage spent by position of an NFL team: QB - 8-12% RB - 3-5% WR - 8-12% TE - 2-5% OL - 15-20% DL (includes DT/Edge) - 15-20% LB - 8-12% DB - 12-18% ST - 1-2% ** Like every football team subject to a rev share/cap (be it NFL or college), Texas has soft-circled amounts for each of its positions. In other words, every time the Horns add a new recruit at a particular position, that number is essentially added to the position group overall.…

Following the official visit, Texas moved into the pole position immediately for Tampa, Fla., cornerback Graceson Littleton. Littleton told coaches and players alike on the visit that Texas felt like the place he wanted to be. His commitment to Texas yesterday gives the Horns two cornerbacks in the class, and it also gives the secondary some much-needed versatility, too. Littleton just might be a fit at nickel, and that’s important. Heading into next season, after Jaylon Guilbeau, who is a junior, the nickel spot is wide open. Freshman Wardell Mack is getting some run at the spot already. But beyond that, no one else seems destined for the role, other than …

The Longhorns will make their way to College Station later today to prepare for a renewal of a rivalry that has been too long gone. Texas leads the all-time series 76-37-5, including winning the last one, 27-25. ** The renewal of this rivalry is part of all that has gone right for Texas football the last four years. Think about it. In the last four years, Texas has gone from 5-7 to perennial national contender. In just four short years, Texas has a roster that is the envy of much of college football and a team that has put itself in position to be one of the best in the sport. And they’ve also entered a new conference, the best in the land, with t…

Texas hosted two portal prospects on campus yesterday. Max Klare, a 6-foot-4, 240-pound tight end from Purdue, made the trip with his parents. He caught 51 pass for 685 yards and four TDs a season ago. It’s unclear at this time what other schools he is considering. Punter Jack Bouwmeester, who was second team All-Big 12 at Utah this season, was also on campus. Bouwmeester averaged 44.9 yards per boot this season and has two years of eligibility remaining. Bouwmeester, an Australian native, spoke to former Texas punter Michael Dickson via phone yesterday, according to CJ Vogel. Texas could potentially close out the recruitment of Bouwmeester as soon as toda…

I know there were some sick souls out there hoping Texas might lose yesterday in order to expedite the firing of men’s basketball coach Rodney Terry. All I’d say is this… There are few things sweeter in life than beating A&M. Very few. And yesterday, in the face of such a disappointing season overall, was particularly so. I still can’t believe Texas might make it into the NCAA with a 6-12 regular season conference record. I know people talk about Quad I wins. But I just find it antithetical that a team that lost 12 times in conference should be rewarded with post-season play. But that’s what it looks like. So I hope the Horns and Terry make the mo…

“I want to be the quarterback at the University of Texas. Sometimes it’s worth the wait.” That’s what Arch Manning said yesterday in response to the question why he never transferred from UT, or whether he even thought about transferring at all. With all the click bait and ballyhoo surrounding his every move since well before he arrived in Austin, two concise sentences explain so much about the new Texas quarterback. Manning is here with a specific purpose and that’s to lead the University of Texas football program. How he views this opportunity also strikes me. In his responses in yesterday’s media availability and previous ones at bowl games, Ma…

The Big 12, the ACC and others can bellyache all they want about the SEC and Big 10 pushing them around at the negotiating table when it comes to number of playoff spots and other aspects of the future of college football. But last night was a prime example of exactly why the two premier conferences feel justified in doing so. The SEC finished with 15 picks in the first round of the NFL draft. The Big 10 had 11. That’s 26 of 32 in the first round. The Big 12 and ACC had just 2 each. Hell, Texas alone, with three first-round picks, had more than those two entire conferences. Ohio State, Georgia and Michigan did, too. The message to recruits is…

With the Longhorns in the national semifinals, Texas is now playing with house money IMO. Anything beyond a final four finish is gravy. Hopefully, Texas players and coaches see it similarly and come out with nothing to lose against Ohio State. Beating the Buckeyes is going to take an inspired performance. ** Speaking of “inspired”, I can’t tell you how many different Longhorns (from some members of the administration to the parents of players, to football alums, etc.) that I have spoken with in the last 48 hours that have discussed the need for Texas fans to fill AT&T Stadium with burnt orange on gameday. Texas has the rare chance of making a …

After watching Notre Dame and Penn State last night, all I can say is the Longhorns would match up exceedingly well with either of those teams. Both teams played solid, physical defense, relied heavily on the run game and the pass just enough. But Texas has a little something extra to them compared to the Irish and Nittany Lions. The Horns can get the ball to playmakers more often in space by comparison. And that happens to be the exact same thing Ohio State can do with its offense. While ND and Penn State prefer to play in a phone booth, the Horns and Buckeyes like to mix things up. ** I think the game tonight will come down to execution and…

On Sunday, we talked about how Junior Day was just a starting place for recruiting for the Texas football staff, that it was just the beginning of the evaluation process for Texas. Well, this week, a time when Texas has extended double digit new scholarship offers, shows exactly what the Horns had planned. Texas coaches have been on the road, from California to Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Illinois, Virginia and more. It's abundantly clear that this recruiting class is going to take on a different construct. Rather than keying in on several elite players early and being forced to stay with those prospects throughout the recruiting process, the Texas staff is …

Yesterday was bittersweet for me. Blake Gideon is someone I consider a Lifetime Longhorn. From the very minute he stepped on campus 16 years ago as a freshman from nearby Leander, Gideon was determined to make a positive impact for the Longhorns. Despite other recruits being ranked higher and pundits like me not giving him much of a chance, Gideon was determined to succeed. And succeed he did. He simply would not be denied despite others possibly being more athletic, faster, etc. He started as a true freshman, and then all four years as a Longhorn, helping Texas become one of the best teams in all of college football. He even recorded an interception in the…

Texas football coaches are back in the office. The coaches, the majority of them, actually returned yesterday morning from vacation. That’s when Tashard Choice told his peers and others in the building he was headed to the NFL. While it caught us off guard, Choice’s move was not entirely surprising. There was some thought he would go to Dallas just a week ago after speaking with the Cowboys. But Dallas’ contract offer didn’t even meet what Choice was making financially with the Longhorns. Detroit came calling. They valued Choice differently. So he’s off to the NFL. ** There’s no easy way to put it. Losing Choice is a definite loss for the Lon…

Yesterday was awesome. Why? It was the ultimate news dump by Steve Sarkisian. - As we’ve speculated for several weeks, Sark confirmed there will be no spring game. Choosing instead to use a more NFL-style format of OTAs, Sark did not say if any practices would be open to the public though he left that door open. - In an interview, Sark also said that Arch Manning is the “starter” at Texas and his recruitment was “normal” despite obvious extenuating circumstances that come with the Manning name. - In that same Kay Adams interview, we learned that Sark has given his remaining staff members extensions. - Then later yesterday, Texas Football announced…

Over in San Marcos last night, Texas State almost pulled off the biggest upset in school history. Arizona State held off the Bobcats for a 31-28 win. At one point, Texas State was up 21-7 in the second quarter, but only scored one TD the rest of the way. I mention that game because this weekend the Horns play Texas State's previous opponent, UTSA. I'm not much for the transitive properties of college football scores or stats, but Texas State beat UTSA 49-10 and amassed more than 500 yards of offense against the Roadrunners. UTSA meanwhile averaged just 2.7 yards per carry on the ground and completed fewer than 50-percent of its pass attempts against th…

The Longhorns have looked dominant this season. The entire three-game stretch has been complete domination. Texas has outscored opponents 139-19. No team has even been within two scores of Texas during a single second half, not even defending national champ, Michigan. At some point, I don't know when and I am not predicting it will be against ULM this weekend, the Horns have to come down from this high. Right? Or are these Horns just that good, because they're able to execute on such a high plane on offense with the type and style of defense that makes it hard on teams to play catch up? I struggle with those questions a bit. Yes, I think Texas can be t…

If you saw the latest injury report, running back Colin Page and safety Derrick Williams have been downgraded from questionable to out. I conjectured earlier in the week that Page, the effective walk-on who has added some depth to a depleted RB room, might have suffered a concussion on his final run against UTSA. I was wrong. Instead, I am told that it was a pretty difficult ankle sprain that he is trying to overcome and that's why he is marked out for Mississippi State. Williams continues to be hampered by a hamstring that has tightened up on him. ** On the flip side, both Jelani McDonald and Tre Wisner have been upgraded to probable. McDonald, a…

Good morning! Sark has already gotten into a helicopter this morning and is headed toward Houston for a long day of recruiting. Gerry has chronicled all the places he’ll go, from Spring Dekaney, to Galveston Ball, to Hitchcock, to Conroe, and perhaps one other stop. And Sark isn’t the only one on the road. The Texas coaching staff is fanned out across various parts of the state and country. Tashard Choice, Kenny Baker and Kyle Flood are all in Georgia. They got there yesterday so they could get a full day on the road starting this morning. Texas currently sits at 20 commitments. It’s a top ~5 class. What happens on the road this week with coa…

The festivities have begun. Gerry Hamilton and I are out here at Firewheel Golf Course in Garland this morning for the annual Get Teed Off at OU golf tournament benefitting the Dallas Texas-Exes scholarship fund. It's going to be a fun day. More than 250 Longhorns are participating in the event and they're coming from all over the state and country. ** The commit of Daylan McCutcheon caught many by surprise but not us. We began hearing about a week before his visit for the Mississippi State game that conversations with the Longhorns were turning more serious and that his thoughts on the situation at Florida State had become more dire. While o…