jhookem91

Thanks for the update. I hope he is our starting LT in 2027. Any word on why the coaches are playing Newman (who I also like a lot) at 2nd team LT while Turntine is at 2nd team RT? If for some reason the coaches want to move him inside, I think he would be a terrific C with his skill set and intelligence (although it would not fully utilize his elite agility like playing T would).

He might want a bigger role and/or a bigger NIL deal than we could afford. He would have been a nice role player to have back, but I'm not that too surprised by this. His playing time was cut down toward the end of the year. I will always remember the big shot he made to beat Gonzaga. I hope he lands in a great spot with plenty of playing time in his senior year.

Given this signing and news about Sikorski and Christian getting 1st team snaps at G, is there any news on how Chatman is looking this spring? I really liked him as a recruit and he has looked solid in limited snaps but has had bad injury luck. I hope he is healthy and having a good spring.

BTW - I’m skeptical of the Duke total. I think it is likely higher.

Great graphic. Thanks for posting. We need to get to the spending levels of other SEC football schools like Bama and Tenn.

That is remarkable gift that he shares with some of our greatest political figures. Like Alex wrote, I wish I had a little of that gift. FDR supposedly could do the same thing, except he could also remember all the names of someone’s family members that he met on the campaign trail several years earlier.

I like his film as well, and he gives us a good C prospect in addition to Miller, who I also really like. @Gerry HamiltonIs Ramsier supposed to OV on 6/19? He would give us an additional good C prospect.

Great article, Jeff. To further your point, Jonte Newman was listed at 275 lbs as a recruit but was listed on A&M's roster last year as a true freshman at 331 lbs. He is now listed on our roster at 302 lbs and looked good in the pictures I saw from yesterday's practice. I liked him (and his teammate Ryan Fodje) during the recruiting process. Even though he is a little shorter at 6'4", he has great length and moves really well. I hope he can make an impact for us at OT at some point. As I posted before, I am really interested to see how Jordan Coleman looks this spring. He has great height, length, and strength, but did not move as well as some others in his HS film. He has clearly dropped some bad weight (and added some good weight since he is still 354 lbs) based on the pictures I saw from yesterday. I am interested to see how he is moving now and whether he can stay at OT or needs to be moved inside to OG.

Exactly. It is not a coincidence that ambitious Big 12 and ACC schools are pushing for this option.

Still too many dumb fouls (especially early), but some of the best D we have played all year. And yes, Mark was huge. Big win!!

He could be an Aggie, although they supposedly prefer live sheep instead.

Agreed. I hope we can keep him next year, but it might be tough if he keeps playing this way.

Agreed. He is a member of the 2023 recruiting class and redshirted in 2023, so he has 2 years of eligibility remaining or three years if he gets a medical redshirt for 2025. Great update. We need him healthy by fall camp.

His elite speed really showed on the last highlight.

Princely is a pure EDGE player who went to Florida, then Ole Miss, then got drafted last year in the 3rd by Carolina. I think we backed off him, as he had a problem with Texas (according to a couple of his social media posts I saw on message boards if memory serves me correctly). Princewill is the younger brother who we did not offer. He was recruited to Nebraska as a LB and transferred to Ole Miss right when his brother graduated and went to the NFL.

I think this is a great pickup. He does not have the same size and length as Brooks (very few OL do), but he is a much, much better lateral mover (based on HS and camp film) compared to Brooks. We got a better and likely less expensive player. Newman was a much lighter player in HS. I'm interested to see how much of his weight gain is good weight and if it has impacted his movement skills at all. It will also be interesting to see if he has the length to stick at T or needs to switch to G. Regardless, we got a good one.

A&M signed Formby, who was really good (especially in pass blocking) for Bama when he switched from RT to RG this year. Damn.

Is Smith Orogbo not ready to play meaningful snaps yet? I know he was coming off a HS knee injury and needed some time to add weight. Should we be concerned about Orogbo potentially hitting the portal?

Based on Bobby’s comments today, Robertson is likely to come back in 2026, which would be great news for the team but not so great for Cruz. I hope he finds a good spot like Kibble did so quickly.

Great news. With this announcement and the addition of Mascoe, we should be set in the secondary - assuming no other outgoing portal announcements from the secondary.

I'm all for it if he does not require a big NIL expenditure. With Brevard and Shaw out of eligibility, we are light on over the ball players even if we get Geffrard and keep Sharma. Furthermore, we lost potential over the ball players in the 2026 class with the decommitments of Cleveland and C. Wells (although both had flexibility along the DL).

Texas

Tanook Hines looked great despite the USC loss. He’s really fast and pretty physical as well. Wish he was a Horn.

You would think so, but unfortunately the vast majority of the politicians will go along with it due to political pressure from voters. Most politicians (especially in the last 20 years) are the most financially irresponsible people around. They don't make pragmatic, financially sound decisions anymore because those decisions are unpopular.

Agreed. The financial mismanagement in the pros is bad enough, but the collegiate game is starting to look like a financial train wreck for most P4 schools. The collision will happen just about the time that TV contracts expire and the ACC's exit fee reaches its $75MM minimum (around 2030). IMO, at that point there could be a division of the haves and have nots. The haves will be most of the SEC, 5-7 from the Big 10, 3-4 schools from the ACC, and Tech from the Big 12. Does the SEC stay intact while the other haves form a football only conference, or is a 20-24 team football conference formed including the financially capable SEC teams? The rest of the schools will likely be waiving the white flag (to various extents) on NIL/rev share at that point. The Arkansas and Iowa St ADs have admitted as much. I'm sure the message from Iowa State's AD played a big part in Matt Campbell finally jumping ship, although Penn State is a great opportunity for him.