Class of 2009
by Thor84 on Dec 29, 2011 12:36 PM CST
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Being home for the holidays certainly is something you take for granted as you get older. This year I have been trying to spend as much time with my parents as possible, and I recommend that each of you do the same.
During the game last night, my mom remarked to my dad that we only seem to have freshman/sophomore or seniors, on the team, and I suppose, that is something that I realized, but never really thought about. So I decided to look up the recruiting class that would be juniors/redshirt sophomores... more after the jump.
So here is the class of 2009, complete with *'s.
Tariq Allen LB Irving, TX 4 stars gone
Thomas Ashcraft OL Cedar Hill, TX 4 stars redshirt- so
Eryon Barnett DB, Euless, TX 4 stars redshirt
Marcus Davis DB League City, TX 4 stars gone
Garrett Gilbert QB Austin, TX 5 stars gone
Trey Graham TE Waco, TX 3 stars part of our black hole at te, redshirt
Calvin Howell DT San Antonio, TX 4 stars redshirt
Derrick Johnson DT Hoxie, AR 4 stars gone
Dominique Jones DE Kilgore, TX 3 stars prob gone?
Paden Kelley OL Austin, TX 3 stars redshirt
Kyle Kriegel DE Elysian Fields, TX 3 stars redshirt
Barrett Matthews TE Galena Park, TX 3 stars gets some looks at te, and h-back
Tevin Mims DE Round Rock, TX 4 stars gone
Patrick Nkwopara LB Grand Prairie, TX 3 stars gone
Alex Okafor DE Pflugerville, TX 5 stars starter, only player so far who has been a real asset
Garrett Porter OL Odessa, TX 4 stars redshirt... a lot of these lineman havent even ever cracked the 2deep...
Greg Timmons WR Aldine, TX 4 stars gone
Kenny Vaccaro DB Brownwood, TX 4 stars play maker on D, 2nd asset from this class
Mason Walters OL Wolfforth, TX 5 stars was injured early in his career, but has now become the leader of our OL, 3rd asset
Chris Whaley ATH Madisonville, TX 4 stars nonfactor at RB, but has really shown promise at DT, asset for next year for sure
So as you can see, a shockingly high number of players from this class did not end up the way we all hoped. Has there been another class with soo many 4* players that never contributed anything? I know they were recruited by the staff that was mostly fired, and some of the cases were just bad luck, but it is still shocking to see so few players from a class contribute anything.
I would love to analyze this more, but I am late for lunch with my parents. Living in DC for almost 5 years has also taught me to appreciate the value of good BBQ!
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Good points.
I think you are definitely correct that there were an abnormally high number of washouts in this class and that attrition happened at a faster-than-usual pace.
As always, there were a combination of factors at work here, from getting in trouble (Marcus Davis), to injuries (Trey Graham, Eryon Barnett), to grades (Tevin Mims) to homesickness (Derek Johnson). Some of these guys were poor evaluations (Patrick Nkwopara).
It looks like there will be only be five contributors from this class out of nearly 20 (not including Paden Kelley), which is an extremely poor hit rate that represents the confluence of factors above, but a lot of it falls on the former coaching staff.
Follow me on Twitter: @GhostofBigRoy
Burnt Orange Nation
by Wescott Eberts (GoBR) on Dec 29, 2011 12:43 PM CST reply actions
Eryon Barnett is still on the team for now...
but hearing rumors that he may get a medical if we need the space this year for two or more recruits, but if we don’t Barnett along with Kreigel will most probably graduate early since they will be in their 4th year as redshirt JRs (I guess Ashcraft, Porter, and Kelley could do the same if they can’t crack the depth chart either).
"We are who we are. People say what they say. The outcome is the outcome. We are proud of ourselves." -DeLoss Dodds 9/21/2011
Wow great post
Howell and Graham are gone too (medical I think)
So 6 out of the 9 offensive recruits are still on the roster, but only 4 of 11 defensive recruits are still here (Kriegel now on O and Whaley now on D)? Wow..
The funny part is that that besides replacing Muschamp that we only changed one position coach on D, and yet we replaced 3 on offense…
Not sure its fair to pile on Kelley, Ashcraft, and Porter just yet but your point is apt…this is very disappointing.
"We are who we are. People say what they say. The outcome is the outcome. We are proud of ourselves." -DeLoss Dodds 9/21/2011
opps not Howell...was thinking of Cotton
"We are who we are. People say what they say. The outcome is the outcome. We are proud of ourselves." -DeLoss Dodds 9/21/2011
Very interesting
This can’t be typical, right? It helps to account for the team’s struggles over the last couple of years. A snakebit recruiting class can clearly set a team back.
I am on Twitter @jeffchaley
Burnt Orange Nation
Hoop-Math
Definitely not typical.
Follow me on Twitter: @GhostofBigRoy
Burnt Orange Nation
by Wescott Eberts (GoBR) on Dec 30, 2011 1:45 PM CST up reply actions
Good Post Thor84
but the big question I have is where’d you go to eat?
"Nobody leaves this field until we beat the hell out of them".................... L.J."Louis"Jordan in 1913 before kickoff of the Texas/ou game.
Very disappointing class
Especially to be coming off a national title game appearance.
As always, I think a lot of it goes back to poor player development
A lot of these guys haven’t lived up to their recruiting evals or Texas standards, but it’s not the only year, and such systematic underachievement really points more toward poor player development than poor evaluation. The recruiting sites are certainly wrong at times, but they’re not that wrong, that often..
"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"
― Isaac Asimov
by burntorangehorn on Dec 30, 2011 12:43 PM CST reply actions
+1
Interesting to note that the other 5* QB in 2009 was Matt Barkley, who has been already annointed the Heisman winner for next year. So was the evaluation right for MB, and wrong for GG? Or did one develop in college and one didn’t?
Also, watching the BYU – Tulsa game, I have to wonder if Kinne transfers if GG hadn’t been signed? Could be that GG cost us in multiple ways.
Matt Barkley also
has WR’s who’re catching the ball. It certainly made him look better simply by not having all the dropped balls losing the team yards.
TEXAS FIGHT
That's also a consideration, but...
…why are the receivers still not catching the ball at Texas? Don’t think that I am saying Wyatt’s not a proven coach, but it looks like Kennedy wasn’t the biggest problem for Texas. In fact, Mike Davis actually took a big step backwards after the coaching switch. Again, with so many highly-touted WRs turning into total duds, you’d think it’d be easy to chalk the bad performances up to coaching, but in this case we’re also talking about two WR coaches who had established histories of developing talent into productive players (Shipley, Sweed, Jones, Pittman, Cosby, etc. in Kennedy’s case, and Kelly, Broyles, Iglesias, Johnson, etc. in Wyatt’s).
With Ash drops often seem to be a case of the ball’s not being where it needs to be. With Gilber the ball was there a fair bit, but often with no touch or a defender sitting on the route.
There were numerous differences in the situations Gilbert and Barkley faced as they began their careers, but it’s hard to pin down exactly what made the biggest differences in their contrasting careers.
"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"
― Isaac Asimov
by burntorangehorn on Dec 31, 2011 12:04 PM CST up reply actions
Some good info . . .
but we redshirted 14 of the 21 players from that class (you left out WR Marquis Goodwin). . . . That means a big chunk of the class has two years eligibility remaining. In other words, still time to prove their worth.
Muschamp blew it on the 2 linebackers, GG was a bust (but the sinking ship around him contributed) . . . Mims was a reach, Whaley is going to be an impact player now that we’ve put him where he belongs, a couple of those O-linemen who redshirted (Walters, Kelley) can still be major contributors.
And you can’t hold injuries to Graham and Barnett against those who recruited them. Some injuries heal (Vaccaro), some don’t (Barnett).
longer
Good info, but I suspect the problem goes back much further. We got close in 2009 with recruits from 2005. I think after the NC in 05 the old staff got a little lacksadaisical.
Not sure, but I think we’re also getting more early (Junior) commits. If so, that requires even more careful evaluation.
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