I'm slammed all the way through late afternoon today, so you're on your own. One thing I'd encourage everyone to read is the transcript from Mack Brown's press conference yesterday.
Some of the highlights:
It’s also really, really important to remember that it’s most important to concern yourself with the guys you get and not the ones that did not come. One of the things about recruiting at Texas is that the majority of our guys are committed in the spring or by August. I think we only had one guy commit to us after August 1st. So our recruiting is hot in the spring and everybody gets excited about it then. We’re not going to be a splash in the end; that’s just not who we are and it doesn’t usually work that way for us. I’ll never forget Lou Holtz saying that you better not forget about the ones you sign because you’re around them every minute of every day for the next four or five years. The guys that did not come you’ll probably only see four or five times again and that’s if you play their team, if they’re healthy and if they play the day you play them. So you really need to concern yourself with the guys that did come
We try to replace our juniors, so again it’s a class of needs and if you look at it, it’s pretty broad-based by position. And at the same time, with two juniors coming out now for the first time in our program ever, we may have to look at starting to replace sophomores. Because if people are going to come out after their third year, you actually have a guy that redshirts, plays two years and then he goes to the NFL, it changes your numbers and it changes your needs much quicker than it might have in the past. So that’s something that we will definitely have to consider as we move forward.
We felt like versatility and speed were the two keys to this class. And you look for that every year, but some years you get it more than others and sometimes you think you’ve got it and then they get here and maybe they’re not as fast as you thought they were. But it’s evident in this film that we did a great job of getting speed. It’s also very evident that we’re trying to get back to the team concept and get really bright kids that understand that, that want to play for Texas, that want to be here and are excited about it.
Number one you look at a guy like Jermichael Finley who redshirts as a freshman, plays two years and is gone. We’re not into junior college ball so we want guys to be here for three or four years, and if they’re going to start a trend of being here for three, then we need to start playing them as freshman and not plan on waiting for them to play. The investment that you spend and the time you spend coaching a guy for two years makes it hard to lose him. So we feel like we’ll bring every guy in, throw them out there and try our best, and if they’re the best athlete, then we may have to simplify some of the things we’re doing, but if they’re ready to play, we’ll just play them sooner.
You’re always going to have violations by schools, and that’s in every profession not just ours, because some coaches are going to cheat. That’s the way they’ve made their living. You’re always going to have some families that buy into that and you’re always going to have a certain level of families that look you right in the face and lie to you, and our job is to make sure that we do not recruit a young guy that would be bought, not recruit a family that would be bought and not talk to a family that you think may lie to you. And about 98 percent of the time that works for you, but you’re always going to have people in every profession that are going to break rules. And I’ve talked to Joe Paterno about it because it really used to frustrate me a few years ago. So I said, "Joe, what do you do with guys that are being bought?" And he said, "Stay away from them." I said, "Do you turn them in?" And he said, "Nah, it doesn’t do any good. Just stay away from them." So we try to recruit guys that want to come to Texas, and if they don’t want to come, very honestly that’s okay. And if they don’t want to come and you try to force them into coming by over-recruiting them, it usually doesn’t work anyway. We like the ones we get. I think it’s bad every year. More tough decisions are made near the end of Signing Day, and that’s why I wish we had an early signing period, because more coaches panic and more families panic when the pressure gets on.