Adrian Colbert is awesome. Seriously. The Mineral Wells safety and 2012 signee combines blazing track speed with a striking ability rivaled only by LaDarrell McNeil last year in the state of Texas.
Throw in some humility, a strong work ethic, and a flat-out desire to succeed and even though he comes from a small school and may need some time to turn his upside into production on the football field at Texas, his words and actions following a track meet last week illustrate why he appears poised to put himself in a position to succeed when he does arrive in Austin.
After winning the 7-3A titles in the 400m and 200m on Thursday, Colbert addressed the district champion Decatur Eagles track teams:
With athletes from the Decatur boys and girls teams huddled near the track awaiting the spoils of their victories, the future Longhorn in his brilliant yellow shoes stepped up in front of the group and got their attention.
With eloquence and sincerity, he began to speak to the Eagles and Lady Eagles.
"I want to thank you for the competition the last two years," Colbert said.
He told them that helped drive him to be better. He also congratulated them on their victory and for culturing the key ingredient to their win.
"Y'all are a big family," he said. "That's what we want to be here."
Stirring and heartfelt words from Colbert, no doubt.
The result? Chants of his name from the Decatur athletes and some horns thrown up in his direction. Even from the son of an Aggie who had never done so before in his life.
Nice.
'Horn commits will participate in the Army All-American game. Invitations to the 2013 US Army All-American game are slowly emerging and Dallas Jesuit wide receiver Jake Oliver is the latest commit to join the fold. Sailor Ripley called Oliver a "savage blocking surface" for his efforts helping out in the running game -- a fitting description. He'll take those skills to San Antonio next January and is currently slated to be joined by fellow Texas commits Tyrone Swoopes, Ricky Seals-Jones, Kent Perkins, and Deoundrei Davis.
The non-Texas commit I'm most interested in seeing who is currently confirmed for the game is California linebacker Su'a Cravens, who should be a member of the West squad with the Texas kids.
Tyrone Swoopes Elite 11 profile.
Good stuff from ESPN/Horns Nation. The best news here continues to be that Swoopes will have a week at the Elite 11 camp to work with high-level instructors and if his learning curve can even approach that of his tryout/Nike NFTC camp work, he's going to emerge from that experience as a significantly better quarterback several steps closer to realizing his prodigious potential.
For a guy like Connor Brewer, who was able to attend numerous combines and similar events, being at Elite 11 was just further experience -- his polish coming in was such that any tweaks or advancements could only be relatively minor in a best-case scenario. That's simply an outgrowth of where he was on his developmental curve.
Swoopes provides a marked contrast, as he hasn't been in those setting often and even has limited 7on7 experience to boot. As a result, the opportunity for growth is much more pronounced for him than it was for Brewer.
If David Ash ends up starting for the next three years at Texas, Swoopes won't have a chance to compete for the job until the 2015 season, when he will most likely be a redshirt sophomore. The Whitewright star can start positioning himself to beat out Connor Brewer and any other contenders by taking advantage of his final year of high school and polishing his passing skills at events like the Elite 11 camp.
Shiro Davis adding weight, maintaining speed. The defensive end rotation at Texas will essentially be two deep when Jackson Jeffcoat returns from his injury, so the projected available playing time heading into the 2012 season looks pretty scarce for the incoming defensive ends.
Even if that's the case for LSU defector and Texas signee Torshiro Davis, the Shreveport product is successfully balancing the demands of Woodlawn's track season with the need to gain weight to defensive end in college.
In an interview with Longhorns Digest publisher Kevin Flaherty, Davis said that he's now up to around 235 pounds ($) after playing last year at just under 220 pounds. It doesn't seem like a stretch to project a fall camp weight of over 240 pounds for Davis, which will help provide him the mass to aid him holding up against the running game.
As Flaherty points out, Davis ran a 4.56 40 at The Opening last summer and with Davis maintaining that he's actually improved his overall speed, it's safe to say that Davis is rapidly closing in on an elite size/speed combination for his position.
He also remains the best possibility among the incoming freshman to have a package as an edge-rushing specialist and it's positive to see that he's doing the right things prior to his enrollment to make that happen.