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Inside Texas Football
Recruiting Intel LIVE (10/8): Red River Recruiting Battles, Texas vs. Oklahoma
Good afternoon and welcome to the Inside Texas football YouTube channel powered by InsideTexas.com. I'm Joe Cook. We got Justin Wells. We got Coach Dub. We're here for recruiting Intel like we always do on Tuesday afternoon. A lot of great recruiting topics to discuss this week as we are in Red River shootout week. But make sure you like this video. Subscribe to the channel. And if you haven't yet, head to InsideTexas.com. Use the promo code IT1 to get yourself two months of access for just one dollar. If you sign up today, I decided to look at my calendar real quick, I think you make it all the way to the SEC Championship game. Whoa, okay. Oh yeah, we're climbing that ladder. We're jumping off Jeff Hardy style, but not till December. So use that promo code IT1 to get yourself two months of access for just one dollar. And today, we're going to talk a little bit about some of the familiar faces that are over on the Oklahoma sideline, guys at Texas Pursued. Justin, you wrote about this the other day. We'll also talk a little bit about some of the new targets, new-ish targets that are popping up. Some guys in the 2025 class who Kenny Baker is keeping an eye on, especially as it pertains to defensive tackle. And of course, we will take your questions. So before we go into the guys wearing Crimson and Cream, we see Sarkeesian and maybe even Tom Herman wanted to wear burn orange. This is a really good question from John A. How does the Jackson Arnold situation affect Oklahoma's quarterback recruiting? Can't look good for elite quarterbacks, no development, no line, no receivers with the caveat of injuries. Justin, what are your thoughts on this one? Yeah, it's not going to really affect Oklahoma's quarterback recruiting. This is isolated, at least in this recruitment. Five-star quarterbacks will pay attention to this kind of stuff. No question. They're looking at this stuff, but they're also going to look at it and go, Oklahoma doesn't have an offensive line. They did nothing, which could have affected. Their receivers have been dinged up horribly. They're playing a true freshman at tailback. And so you have to think about the circumstances sometimes. And so here's the truth. Jackson Arnold could portal to another team next spring and be a great quarterback next year. Like he's got those tools. I wouldn't be surprised if he actually does that. What it does is it doesn't hurt you player to player. It may look negative. It gives other schools that are recruiting against you a little bit of ammunition. Hey, look what they did with Homeboy. They gave up on him in two two weeks. They had already put him on the bench. And so it really it really goes down to every single recruitment. Each one is different in their own way. They're still going to be able to, if Oklahoma wins, they're still going to get a five-star quarterback or an elite quarterback, high four-star. Somebody that fits really well. But the Jackson Arnold one, it's just an isolated thing. This happens at every single college in America, that they bring in a highly rated guy, doesn't work out, they move on to the next one. It doesn't make the, what's just the third OC? Vinnables has had our second OC, Vinnables has had. It could be third. Third likely on the way. Third could be on the way. That would have more of an effect with this Jackson Arnold stuff than would be being able to recruit a kid because you can sell a kid on look. We just, we need you. We didn't have it before. We need you to come in and be that guy. And we'll play you early. You saw we gave this guy a chance early. We gave Mikey Hawkins a chance early. Actually, you could spend this to where it would actually help you in recruiting. And that's the funniness about recruiting as a whole. To that point though, Charlie, with a true freshman quarterback playing, that's probably not going to entice an elite quarterback or it could to come to Norman right away. But with the struggles that offense has had, and as we well know from covering the fissucy recruitment, it does entice offensive linemen to want to go play real quick in Norman. Yeah, definitely. Like offensive lineman who want to play early, they're going to get the dev chart and look at the current state of the team's like, I can go in and contribute right away and play. Same thing with their freshman quarterback. Okay, this freshman guy, he's in there. Mikey Hawkins is in there. What if he doesn't do well? I got a chance to go compete against him and take his spot. So it really just depends. I think for the most part, they're probably looking at the offensive scheme, right? They want to know that OC is still going to be there, right? Can I play in this system or when I get there, if you're going to have the same wounds and struggles, come out of the players. Is this the player? Is it the coach? So, I mean, kids is looking for opportunity play early. Early you can play. If you don't like it, if you got early plan time, I can always hit the portal. Now I got great film as a freshman. So, opportunity outweighs everything in my opinion. And also with Mikey, like a five-star quarterback isn't going to be scared off by Mikey Hawkins. Nothing against him. I think he's a great young athlete and good for their system. That's not going to scare him off. You bring in year after year five-star quarterbacks and it starts stacking the room, that might be a little bit of scarce. But if you're thinking, "Well, that's a freshman playing," you know what they're telling them? Why don't you beat that freshman? Then why don't you beat that guy that we threw into the class last year? And so, I think Mikey, I don't think an elite quarterback would look at the Hawkins situation right now and think, "Oh, I got to stay away," just because Mikey Hawkins is playing. They may do it because, like Coach said, the scheme, the OC, the injuries, all the above. To that point, why do you think Cam Rising and Casey Thompson both signed in Texas 2018 class? Because they looked at the rotating door, the rotating game of musical chairs that was Sam Ellinger and Shane Buchel and thought, "There's no solid leader here." I think a lot of Texas fans and probably Tom Herman himself had a notion that Sam was going to take that job. But at the same time, if you're Cam Rising, oh man, still in college, if you are Casey Thompson, also still in college, you look at that situation and you're like, "Maybe I can fit myself in there." And so, without a firm guy at quarterback, that allows you to sell opportunity on the trail. Another thing, and Charlie, I'm curious about this, maybe from your perspective. In college, it may not matter a ton, but the type of scheme that what's his face, Seth LaTrail, is trying to run. There are sometimes where college or prospective college quarterbacks aren't interested in that scheme because it doesn't translate to the NFL. Is that something you've noticed when you're tracking? And it's been a while, basically, since art started that offense. But is that something you've noticed? Because I feel like we can look at Dylan Gabriel and see, "Hey, you don't have the measurements. That guy has stats out all the way to Hawaii in that." Yeah, he does. But he's still playing in college instead of playing in the NFL. Is that scheme something that may limit quarterbacks or hamper or use efforts to get quarterbacks because it's not very pro preparation-centric. I'd like to say this, I'm not even sure what scheme to run at this point. Thank you. But if they run an art system, I mean, every kid wants to throw it for yards. I mean, you look at some Baylor quarterbacks got drafted out of this scheme. Nobody can run an offense like Art did. I don't care what they do, try to duplicate it. Nobody's art. Even his son, which TCU is learning. Exactly. And so, it's hard to duplicate. We've seen multiple people try to do it, and it just doesn't not the same success. So, people can look at quarterback to see their measurable, see their arm strength, the throws they make, they can outweigh a whole bunch of things outside the scheme, because NFL is a copycat lead, too. And they're doing a bunch of college stuff in NFL now for a lot of quarterbacks so that they can develop and get acclimated a lot quicker. So, it really just depends on the scheme. Kids want to throw for a lot of yards, and I don't think it hurts them as much as it would maybe receiver to take plays off, because if they're not getting involved, not really running around. It goes and stops. Yes. They're not teaching them how to play quarterback. They're teaching them how to make one read. One read, and you look at it. It's a lot of it. It's a lot of one read quarterback. They're not comfortable, no matter the scheme, right? So, really, I don't think it hurts so much, but they just don't, I don't know what scheme they're actually running. That may hurt more than anything else. I don't think I know either. Seth LaTrell is an air raid guy, and he is running the Braille scheme. And Joe John Finley, I think, at best, in the course of his career has kind of been like the second or third guy. And we're going to go deep into scheme and stuff later this week. We're going to try to get this back to recruiting, but that does matter. You look at what Steve Starkesian is doing at quarterback. It's a pro-style scheme, and even if he does some half-field read stuff, it still reads that you're going to make at the pro level going back to front or deep to short. There's still pro-level stuff, even if it is simplified at a college level, and that's something that that Braille's scheme. And if you can't make those reads, you don't play. Exactly. Exactly. We'll go through a couple questions. Good question, John. We appreciate that. Yeah, that was a fun way to open up discussion. Justin, I'm going to go through this one. Putting you on the spot from our guy Quinton, does Texas have any silent commits over under one and a half? Take this where you want to take it to. Yeah, let's just have some fun with it, guys. It's Tuesday. Let's have some fun with it. Um, I like how do we have any silence, and then the over and under number. So he's already assuming I'm going to say yes. There's an assumption in that question, and that, okay, since there are, this is the number over under one and a half, um, my answer is sure. Sure. Good way to put it. There's some silent commits. Absolutely. If I were going to take an over and under, I'd probably go maybe over, but my answer is going to remain the same until those guys go public. Sure. Understand this too. The silent commit in 2024 is not the same silent commit that we love for Matt Brown in the 2000s, that we followed with Pete Carroll in 2000s and, and, and, and urban Meyer and, and, and then Bob Stoops and all those guys, it's not the same. Silent commits are not the same. Honestly, I think college coaches hate them to be completely, unless you're just like an elite of an elite, and they just want to make, make sure they did their job on that particular recruiting trip and made you happy. Like, I just silent commits guys, be careful with those, uh, because those, and, and I'm not, I don't think Sark's a big silent commit taker either. He's a get a, you know, get on the pot, either, you know what I mean, get in, get more kind of deal. And so, yeah, to answer your question, sure. Over. Silent commits don't last. Uh, no, they get louder. Who was jahari rogers? We wrote a kid that went to Florida. He went to Florida. I think he went somewhere else. I think he might be a portal right now or planning portal. Uh, but that, that commit story and commitment video collected a lot of dust. Uh, so, uh, silent commits are worth as much as they are, uh, to schools. Before the social media era, silent commits were like the buzzword to get you to click on a link. That was the buzzword to get you interested in recruiting that day. Oh, I'm hearing about a, but now with as much information and many platforms as you had to put out as much as you want there, the, the silent commit is, is, it's, it's a dying, dying thing. Artistically incredible. I'm going to get to that question in just a second before we get there though. Gotta give some love to our sponsor. Today's sponsor would be, I can find the right thing to click on. There we go. Game time. 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So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time, download the game time app, create an account and use the code on three. Oh, in three for $20 off your first purchase terms apply, but create an account use code on three for $20 off download game time today and go make a go make your way to the game. I don't think anybody will want to miss it if you are able to do it. Yeah, like Michael Taft did. Hey, when I was in school, the $100 handshake was still a thing and I know they scan tickets now. It was $20 back when I was there. The $20 would get derived through that slip through that little deal and inflation. The thing was, if I remember right, it's all like ROTC kids who are watching the gate. So they're like high schoolers and they're going to be serving our country, but they're there just to enjoy it as much as we are. So always, always an entertaining crowd. Artistically incredible wanted to get to this. Well, Texas go after the Alabama defensive tackle that entered the defense portal or entered the portal yesterday. I don't know. So here's the thing, the portal window is when you enter, because if you go in before it, unless you're a grad transfer, you're not going to be immediately eligible. So in the case of this guy and anybody else, basically that you're hearing about, they're declaring they're going to go into the portal, and most likely they are. They don't have to. They're probably not there yet. And guys like inside Texas, we will have that unlocked. If not Pete Naco, sit on three, we'll have that unlocked. Like you will know from us, from him, when those guys get into the portal. Right now, all he said, is that he's going to do it. That could definitely change. But Justin, I feel like in addition to taking a big defensive tackle class, they're still going to try to look for guys maybe like him in the portal. They're absolutely will. He would have gotten a strong look if this was last year at this time. He would have gotten a really strong look. Look, he's a big, big time prospect to think he was a five star at one time. But I think Texas is going to kick tires on a lot of these guys, the BPAs, the best player available, especially at D-line, because they are bringing in a big haul. They are losing a lot of guys. But also understand, Sark is very, very cautious with who he brings into this program at this moment. Like more so than he was in the first year of his season. And so this is a kid. If it's, you know, I'll just say this, they're going to look at him. They're going to kick the tires. They're going to see what they can see. They're going to do all their research. But why is he leaving Alabama? That defense just had a much, just truly atrocious showing in Nashville. Their leaders lost their mind on the field. And then you see a guy that instantly wants to leave. Well, that's a sign. And I will say this about Sark. He has had no problems with Alabama guys. And for good reason, you want to give those guys a shot outside of Isaiah Bond. Tell me in Alabama, a kid that's worked out in Austin, because you can't. And there's one with Kielan, Kielan, not the rich man, but I got to give Kielan a sample size. Yes, Kielan, Kielan, absolutely. Got to give him that. It's just all the other ones. And they were all for similar reasons. And I think Otis is going in there as well. And so just be careful of who you wish for. Just because he's a big, great looking defensive lineman from an Alabama, a Georgian LSU does not mean he's to take. But Texas will be, they'll always kick the tires on these guys, especially defensive linemen coming up in this winter window. One other thing at this point, teams are going to, or players are going to kick the tires on Texas. And on Texas, maybe, to see if they want to reciprocate that. David Kielan is just to see what that prof tag is. Exactly. Let's get Coach Williams involved. I agree completely. And I'm going to throw this one to him. Let me see if I can find it. From Kenny Joe, where are we at in defensive tackle recruiting? You have a little bit of an update. We'll go into more detail on inside Texas later. But someone from the SEC footprint is getting a little bit more attention from the Longhorns. Look, if you look at recruiting, it's a ton of guys from the Georgia area getting a lot of attention from Texas right now. And for good reason. But I spoke to a four-star defensive lineman out of Tennessee, man. A big kid who just decommitted from Georgia, right? Now, he's interested in Texas, big time. He got it off the back of March, but he's been watching Texas from afar. Mr. Steven Shivers, big 6'4", 350 pound deepest lineman. Well, look, watching this film, the first player lined him up and running back. And he goes 60 to the house, hurt him and over people. I was like, all right, I love this kid instantly, man. But he launched up and running back quite often. But a big athletic kid. I know Kenny Baker offered him back in March, like I said, they're still evaluating him. But just another name to answer the board. They're attacking a defensive line heavy in this class. You can never have too many big guys. And so just add this kid to the list of guys they're evaluating. That is a pretty solid program. I think it was the one for Dilfer went to UAB. He was there, I think. And that's a private school within the national area, gets a lot of quality players. I think they even have another defensive tackle that Texas kind of kicked the tires on to keep using that term earlier in the cycle. So it's one of the talent rich programs in the city of Nashville, in the state of Tennessee, committed to Georgia, decommitted recently, and has that big human size that we know Steve Sarkeesian looks for. Going to go to this one from South KMX. Justin, what's the latest on Michael Terry, and did Texas lose all hope with Ben Ferriimo? Michael Terry is still steady as it goes. Texas is the leader in that recruitment. Nebraska continues to push. I think Oregon's backed off a little. They're still in contact. They still like to get him on campus. But I think they realize this might come down to Texas and Nebraska. He's going to be on campus October 19th for Texas and Georgia. He's been looking forward to that game. Actually caught up with him four or five days ago just to kind of check in. I thought the coaches might be swinging by there. And he said, man, he's just enjoying his senior year. He's not stressing his families enjoying it. And actually, when you're in this part of the recruiting process and you're at that level, that's a blessing. And I think that's because I think they know where they're going to go. And I think they love what they see and what they hear from Texas. And so I love where Texas and Terry are. That hasn't changed. Ben Ferriimo, did we lose all hope? Look here, I'm a hope guy. I don't think there's any loss and hope there. I mean, you could have asked that about Raleigh Petajon a few months ago and look what he's going to be doing next Saturday. And here's the thing. They're going to continue to recruit him. But Notre Dame and USC, I feel like have stronger foundations with him. When he got to Austin, great visit. I don't know if they could have done a better job with him and his family on that visit. I mean, it really opened his eyes. It made him slow down the process to a brand. But since then he hasn't been back. And since been the contact's been minimal. He's been back to Notre Dame. I believe he's going to USC or if he has been last week or he's going to in the next few weeks, he's going to be doing that. I want to also say he's been injured. So I think that's also a little bit part of what it's been going on with him. But there's no, there's no lost hope. Texas loves Ferriimo. They would love to get him on campus. They've got really one more linebacker spot. So they're just taking swings at a Ferriimo at Nathaniel and Woucha-Boutang. And of course, Riley Petajon will be on campus next Saturday. Kind of to that extent, Charlie, this is one of those recruitments where we have not gotten a ton of info. And part of that is because he's from California, you know, Austin, East Texas, Dallas, like, you know, it's hard to get out there. At the same time, he just is not someone who talks with a lot of media. From a football program perspective, when you have a kid who may not talk to media, is it normally similar with how he talks to coaches? Is it different? Like, what's that dynamic typically like? Maybe not in Ferriimo's sense, but like, how might things look different behind the scenes compared to what's out in front? Yeah, a lot of times the kids who don't want to be in a media and want to everybody know anything. They tell the coach of staff, "Hey, look, this is between us," whatever I say. You know, I want to keep my recruitment kind of quiet. But if you offer the kid and he has a relationship with you and you have a relationship with him, they're talking off either by text or phone calls or he's probably making small, you know, visits without anybody even knowing going to campus and going around the facilities and being around practice, you just never know it. So, yeah, coach of staffs have relationships with these kids if you got to offer from him and he's really interested in your program. It just may not be out of the media because they just don't want to share it because the kid probably just comes from a family who wants to keep everything private and not really caught up in all. I want to hype one of my names around him every story and every team out there. And so, you get that a ton and then rather just keep it quiet. They don't want all the, you know, the extra media attention and you see it really, really often, honestly. You know, who seems like a good example of that? KJ Lacey. Like, we didn't know until it was about 10 minutes before KJ Lacey was coming to Texas and he hadn't done a ton of interviews. That's despite being from like the Birmingham area in the middle of Auburn and Alabama recruiting grounds with Ryan Williams on his team, 17, by the way, like we didn't get it. Sometimes just kids don't talk to recruiting media, even though we just scroll and scroll and scroll and we type and type and type. Like, sometimes the kids don't do the same. And that's, that's their prerogative. And I feel like Ferre Emo is one of the same way. We'll get to a couple more questions. I do want to go through some of the recruiting battles of old that just, I mean, I want to say something real quick about Josh Marquette's statement, just to kind of, he's got a good little thing right up here. He's saying, should we really kick the tires on a guy who quays? I'm at Otis. That doesn't seem good, good from culture. Kicking tires on a player is not taking a player. Kicking tires on a player is doing homework, is doing research. You don't know that story. You see one side of it. You don't know what the other side of it is. And trust me, there are always two sides. So Josh, just to understand, if anything, that's what I meant by, Sark is being very particular, especially right now at this time. He's only going to bring in guys that are going to help from that locker room standpoint. If Otis doesn't seem like a good fit in that regard, he won't be in Austin. It's as simple as that. So don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, misconstrue kicking tires as you want desire or pursue your kicking tires. Do out, do we want to purchase this? Do we want to take a test drive? Do we want to get this out on the road to see what it can do? And that's what you want Sark to do. You don't want it to be so rigid into not looking at those guys. You got through some ones real quick. Leonard Cliff, why did Raseen Guillory from Alito recommit? He wants to go through the rest of the recruiting process. Yeah. Kids are more than welcome to do that. He's a high quality running back, there are a lot of high quality running backs in Texas. But he didn't want to go through the rest of his recruiting process with kind of, as it is for the prospect, the tether of being committed to a school fair to him. Yeah, it doesn't seem like Texas is going to pursue two Texas is not pursuing. So they know Texas has who they on the big board, who they want. JB and Osborne, KJ Edwards, Amari Latimer, still talking to Tradarian ball. Yeah. Raseen, good luck, brother. Is Texas the home team and will they have recruits in the game? No, they're the away team. Oklahoma is able to host recruits. It's like sometimes not to the team's benefit to host people in Dallas, unless they're like DFW kids who can go because you want to sell in the experience of being in Austin, of being in Norman. Oh, you will have players there, I'm sure. And we will track that over on inside Texas, also with the help of sooner scoop. Charlie, here's a good one for you. Do recruits read the news? And this is kind of in the context of Georgia speeding, doing bad citizen things, story that broke overnight. If you want to get arrested for speeding again? Yeah. And some other worse stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Or they need to go on to the lawyer. So Charlie, do recruits read the news? Charlie coaches use that to negative recruit. All is fair in love and recruiting, but do you read the news? Yeah, definitely they read the news. Look, if most of these kids, they know they probably know half the kids on the team. They know what to do before they get there and just kind of get caught and it gets out in the public. But I tell you who it really worries, it worries the parents, especially as the moms. I don't want my son, I don't want my, you know, and they ever refer to him as my baby. I don't want my baby going to a program like that where they seem that they're out of control, you know. So yeah, it's, it's another program is going to use it. I've seen other programs use way worse things than this, you know, to get, to try to get a kid to flip or get a kid's attention. So yeah, they're definitely going to negative recruit against Georgia like this. Trust me, trust me, trust me. And they don't care what they say or what they use. They just try to win. Most programs, but yeah. Right. But we also know if Georgia starts using a bondsman for their NIL, buddy, that's an opportunity that you have got to pounce on. If you can get a bell bondsman to do your NILs, Hey, you take care of this problem. What is it? Chico's bail bonds, let freedom ring, whatever it is, but you know, somebody's in, in, in, in, and Athens, Georgia's like, let's do an NIL Kirby. Come on, you know, four or five or more of these kids just don't be in here in a month. Come on, let's get this Andre, the lawyer practice law in Georgia. I don't know how the ball hurts, but Mike, but we'll go to this from our buddy, Dave Williams. Thank you, mate. I said, javian hillson's recruitment is beginning to take too many twists and turns. Could you elaborate, Justin, you wrote about him the other day, curious what your thoughts on him are? Yeah, I don't think there's too many twists and turns with him to actually evaluate. That's, that's off the field stuff on the field. He's phenomenal. He's had two de commitments to him. And when you see kids de commit, I honestly think if they do it twice, the third is that is really the charm. It usually is. Okay, that's is where they're usually signed the third time because, I mean, if you're doing it anytime past three, I just don't know if anybody's buying anymore. But yeah, there's no, there's nothing to elaborate on. I don't, I don't think there's too many twists or turns. I just think javians, he wanted to go to Alabama, Nick Saban wanted to retire. So that changed his plans. When you go to Florida State, Florida State decided they did not want to win football games in 2024. So that kind of helped him decide. He'll be in Texas in two weeks on October 19th. I think that's going to be no, no, no, it'll be an unofficial. He took his official during June. He'll be there for his unofficial and I feel fantastic about Texas and javian hilton. The top competition right now is central Florida. So there's no twists and turns. Listen, if he jumps in the class, you got him smith the rogbo and lance Jackson and buddy, you can, you can call it a day at the edge position with that trio. How many times did Aaron Hampton commit? Uh, Justin, I want to keep you above ground today. So right. No comment. All right. Let's play. This was safe. Yeah. Let's get to something that Justin you wrote. Whenever you're talking about the Red River shootout, you're always talking about a lot of players who know each other. We've had Drew Kelson even Brian Robinson was on this channel this morning talking about these players know each other and there may not be a better example than like, look at Kyler Murray, someone who might be the best high school football player in this history of the state of Texas going to play in Oklahoma. Guys like Charles Omena who've hit the home run against Kyler Murray, they know what they're facing. So there is a lot of connections here on the Red River shootout. And so Justin, you wrote about this. David Stone, Texas recruited him, not a ton of traction. Guy was from Oklahoma City. Right. Didn't he go to IMG Academy for a year and then had to come back or something? You remember that, Charlie? Yeah, I do. He did. He was, you know, he was always going to stay in state and I think Texas do that. And then going through more design. I actually saw McCullough. I actually watched this kid, man, it was like three or four years ago at seven on seven, his dad was a coach for the Kansas City Chiefs at the time. I don't know where he's at now. He's at Notre Dame. He's at Notre Dame. Oh, that's exactly right. It's at Notre Dame. This was a kid that was playing safety in high school and he was like six four. Yep. And we kept asking him, are you going to play safety? Oh, yeah, this is my spot. This is my spot. And his dad would say, man, he's going to move down the box. That's going to happen. That was a big fan of McCullough. He's kind of bounced around a little bit. He committed Ohio State. He signed with Indiana, I believe, and then obviously he's in Oklahoma now. I think he's actually a little dinged up, but he was a very, very intriguing prospect in high school. Yeah, I think he was a five star athlete, but he was, he had some sick skills. We all know this guy. Oh, really bro? My girlfriend. Then a girlfriend. You see that time? I see that a lot, right? But it's a love. Yeah. This is better high school athletes that we were able to watch during that class. Can you imagine him playing star right now? Oh, God, amazing. That's what he was supposed to do. Yes, what he's supposed to do. Charlie, how much did y'all know about a Javonte Barnes out in the desert? He got out of there before I had a chance to get to the UNLV. But I mean, I know he was a highly recruited kid. That's a, well, that's a tough program that he comes from from Desert Pines now. You come out of there and you kind of rough around the edge. You didn't really take no mess. But yeah, Javonte Barnes, you come out of that school and you're highly rated, man. You really got to be, you're, you're Mr. Everything, trust me. Las Vegas isn't all lights and glamour. There's some different parts to it. Yeah. There's some holes in the desert. He off the, don't go away from the strip, don't. Nick Anderson, Texas offered, but always was going to follow his brother, correct? They, I don't remember them pushing too hard for this kid. Plus Katie, receiver, I mean, really? Charlie, he's a pupil of one of the better trainers in Texas, correct? Yeah, yeah, he trained with margin hooks. So, yeah, maybe I had something to do with it. I mean, he's a good friends with a former receiver, which is now USC. So, yeah, he probably had that all lined up. Who knows? Nigel Smith, I think there are some cases here where like Oklahoma one head to head straight up. This is just one of those cases where Texas offered, and it's just kind of fizzled out. Remember, Texas was in the top five, top six, but they were always number five and number six in that recruitment. I think he liked Texas. He visited a number of times, but I, they didn't push. There was somebody close to him and his family or in his circle that was very pro Texas, but it just never, never materialized. All right, Justin, Taylor Tatum. Hey, Tashar choice fell in love with him the night that they went to go see Jalen Hill play for long view in a playoff game. And they're like, oh man, this Taylor Tatum got holy crap. They recruited him. They loved him. They brought him in on campus. They took him over to the baseball facilities. Everything was great. And then choice decided that he had two tailbacks. He really wanted in the cycle and they said, sign our and he had no problem jumping into that Oklahoma boat and he will be playing some stick ball for the Sooners as well. Love some Taylor Tatum. Yeah, he also, he made that pick six six. Yeah. And he was the guy that stuffed Texas at the goal one last year in Texas. Oh, you love kid Lewis better person than he is football player. And he's a pretty dang good football player. Really, really great kid. I like to see him do well, not this Saturday, but every other Saturday. Charlie, do you remember this recruitment? God, I do my guys like I'm going to be home social media Instagram hoopla around this kid and trying to recruit others to come to Texas. Then he flips on a while. Okay. That was a wild one because I think it happened and we were all kind of like sitting in the last, is it? Well, didn't his, it wasn't he adopted and his adopted parents were Sooners. And when they found out he committed to Texas, they like lost their mind. It's like, we adopted you and then you're going to go over the red river and so that one of that recruitment lasts like six days. Six days and it was like, Oh, Kobe, you better head to you know what, he was a fun player to evaluate in high school. But I always thought he was a little too big already. So I don't think Texas felt like they missed anything. JJ was a dude too. Esther was a ball player. I don't remember a ton about him. Jaden Hardy. I also don't remember a lot about him. Jaden, the thing about Jaden is he played for four years at Louisville. He started as a true freshman, as a true freshman, as a freshman on varsity at Louisville. His dad was an all SEC football player for Tennessee back in the day. Texas really liked him. They recruited him hard for a couple of years, but Oklahoma kind of at that point by the end of his senior year, he was so tired of high school football and recruiting. It sort of just became a notness. Oklahoma was a good spot for Jaden. Good kid. Joe, why don't you touch on Brendan Thompson? You touch on Brendan. There's one thing that I very much remember about Brendan Thompson. And I don't fault a kid for doing track and football, but I'm also going to be honest about what it does for his development as a football player. Texas listed Brendan, I think at like 5, 10, 160, something like that. He gets to Oklahoma and is listed at 5, 8, like 155. And then Seth LaTrell has him being a lead blocker on a screenplay that went disastrous. So I mean, one of the fastest guys I've ever seen, I was lucky enough to watch him do the 100 and 200 double for Spearman. He fits that Viren shoot. But I don't know if they're running the Viren shoot. And he has found himself playing a lot more now. There's been a lot more injuries to the senior receiver court. I don't know if we'll see him or a ton, probably a little bit though. Hey, it's sometimes it's okay to just run track. Yeah, I agree. There's nothing wrong with that. Danny Akoye, Justin, sometimes you get close to kids that are awesome, but aren't going to the school you cover. Pretty much. That's Danny. Fantastic kid. You know what was funny? He threw up that entire recruitment. He kept knocking Oklahoma because his mom went to Oklahoma State. They couldn't talk about Oklahoma positively in that house for over a year. And then when it came down to it, boom, or sooner. Hey, they got him a good one. I love Danny Akoye, a freak athlete. I watched him throw a football 70 yards just jacking around one time at a home school practice. And so I love Danny and I wish the best for him every Saturday except this Saturday. We'll go real quick after this one. Y'all know this guy? Oh, Tom, he is one of the he is one of the few players, I think in Texas history, maybe one of two players to have six touchdown passes in the game. And now he's on school one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. This might be the this might be Sesame Street. That's the that's the way Casey Thompson learned how to count was how many times he transferred. What if he plays? All right, he plays the amount of the commentators that have a good one at that. They probably got a story written. They're ready to talk about that, I'm sure. He's hey, if he plays, his dad's gonna be so sad he'll jump out of a jumpsuit. Go through some quick ones, pet away, Peyton Bowen and Eli Bowen. Hey, the Bowen brothers were dudes, man. They are dudes. Texas was in on pretty early. It just, Eli was probably always going to follow Peyton and Peyton's recruitment was a story in it of itself. And I'm so thankful Texas was not involved in that one, because there were people that were going crazy. The last part of that recruitment, didn't Peyton have something similar to Billy Bowen for how to follow his girlfriend as well? There's a little Notre Dame. And then there was one other school involved, but then he went back to the game in Oklahoma. And it was a S show to the extreme and poor Peyton. If you were to ask Peyton, Peyton's like, I don't want to do any of this, poor Peyton didn't want to do any of that, but it is what it is. Both of them are ball players. Peyton's really good. Eli had some of the best feet I had seen at corner that year. I'm gonna go down real quick and then up Devon Mitchell, they offered, but I think he reclassified and that kind of took Texas interest away. Jacob Sexton, I'm pretty sure that was a Hermann staff offer. Yeah, that was, that was with him. Yeah, good player. I don't think he's anything special, but he's, he's a guy right there. The next guy. Not that. No, not the demon. Hey, both these guys are probably going to be seeing a lot of snaps for the Sooners on Saturday. Jake Jackson is a future all-conference player. Yeah, he is one of the first. That's a loss. Texas really wanted that kid. And, and Jayden Jackson starting as a true freshman there at Oklahoma, Dominic Williams, a loss. It was Oklahoma won that recruitment, but I don't think Texas is feeling like the ill effect of it at this point. Some losses feel like wins, Joe. Some losses feel like wins. That might be the perfect way to put it as we go through recruiting. Got a lot of good intel. Thank you for joining. Make sure you like this video. Subscribe to the channel, help us get to 10,000 subscribers. And of course, head to insidetexas.com, use a promo code IT1. Get yourself two months of access for just one dollar. Everybody, thank you for joining. Appreciate y'all for watching here on a Tuesday afternoon. Charlie, Justin appreciate y'all as always. We'll see you next time on the inside Texas football YouTube channel, followed by insidetexas.com.
Let's talk recruiting ahead of the Red River Shootout.