2017 Texas Longhorns Football: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Bosoxen

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It's National Signing Day, so let's take a moment from watching the world burn and see how Tom Herman does in his first recruiting class. The Horns already have the all-important position of kicker sewn up, thanks to Juco transfer Josh Rowland already enrolling (he really can't be any worse than Domingue). I'm not seeing a ton of hype around this class, though, so I get the feeling we're going to be underwhelmed by it.

The world may end before football season starts but let's do this anyway:

First announcement is expected at 7:45 Central time in the person of Stephan Zabie - OT from Westlake.
 

Bosoxen

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The good news is Herman sewed up all of his commits without suffering any de-commits on signing day.

Seems that's where the good news ends. The player who was supposed to be their #1 target, K'Lavon Chaisson, is rumored to be leaning towards LSU. Were that to happen, that would mark the first time in their history that the Horns don't sign a Top 10 player from the state of Texas.

And that, kids, is how you destroy a program.
 

canderson

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Only 4 of Texas' top 20 players went to a Texas school.

When you don't win, you don't get high recruits. Texas has had great classes for a few years and been impersonating Donald Trump on the field. This class seems to fill some needs - they have talent on the roster, let's see if they can actually coach it now.
 

rguilmar

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Only 4 of Texas' top 20 players went to a Texas school.

When you don't win, you don't get high recruits. Texas has had great classes for a few years and been impersonating Donald Trump on the field. This class seems to fill some needs - they have talent on the roster, let's see if they can actually coach it now.
Yeah, a few of the top guys in this year's class were locked up before Herman came aboard. It's an underwhelming class for sure. But, like you said, there is lots of talent on the roster now (or the cake is baked like Charlie said). Hopefully they can be coached up and actually, you know, win games, bringing in better classes.

If the Horns can't win a lot of games over the next two years, we might be in a ton of trouble.

I do miss the Charlie years already where it felt like we were getting talent regardless of the on field performance. Hopefully Herman can win the games on the field...
 

Bosoxen

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I do miss the Charlie years already where it felt like we were getting talent regardless of the on field performance. Hopefully Herman can win the games on the field...
That really shouldn't be hard. A little attention to detail and actually acting like special teams are important and they win an extra 3-4 games over the past three years. Throw in an actual QB who will now have some experience and it's not hard to imagine them getting to a "here's your participation trophy" bowl this year. But since the expectations at Texas are generally higher - which at this point is really just a figment of our imagination - that feels kind of underwhelming.
 

ethangl

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I do miss the Charlie years already where it felt like we were getting talent regardless of the on field performance.
You have to show some kind of improvement over the course of three seasons for that stuff to continue.

This class is near the best that can reasonably be expected after 21 losses in three years. Would have been nice to get Little.
 

canderson

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They got a QB, that's really all you need. I've given up following recruiting because it's all bullshit and the majority of guys seem to flake out.
 

rguilmar

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That really shouldn't be hard. A little attention to detail and actually acting like special teams are important and they win an extra 3-4 games over the past three years. Throw in an actual QB who will now have some experience and it's not hard to imagine them getting to a "here's your participation trophy" bowl this year. But since the expectations at Texas are generally higher - which at this point is really just a figment of our imagination - that feels kind of underwhelming.
I actually think Texas will push for a decent bowl. Maybe I overestimate how good Charlie was at recruiting talent and how terrible he was at game management, but I really believe that now the horns have a very talented team and a coach who knows how to handle the Xs and Os of the game.

Of course, even a blue participation ribbon is better than the last couple of seasons.
 

Bosoxen

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I actually think Texas will push for a decent bowl. Maybe I overestimate how good Charlie was at recruiting talent and how terrible he was at game management, but I really believe that now the horns have a very talented team and a coach who knows how to handle the Xs and Os of the game.

Of course, even a blue participation ribbon is better than the last couple of seasons.
Are they that talented, though? The wide receivers are suspect, at best, the secondary is a dumpster fire and the defensive line shows up only once every 3-4 games between getting shoved around like they don't exist.

This team may look talented on paper but I have yet to see it translate onto the field in anything reassembling a consistent manner since 2009.
 

canderson

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Herman's bringing Bill Belichick to speak at the Texas head coaches clinic in early April.

Herman - who knows if he can coach at Texas - is showing he knows how to reach those he needs to be successful: HS coaches.