Texas Longhorn commits: State championship preview

We’ve finally reached the end of the Texas high school football season. The first of the U.I.L.’s ten 11-man football state championships was the 2A Division I final, played on Wednesday night between longtime small school powers Mart and Refugio. The games will continue through the rest of this week, concluding with the 6A Division II state championship on Saturday night.

All of the state championship games will be played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington and broadcast live on Fox Sports Southwest, and they will likely be re-played several times on FSSW in the coming weeks, so should you miss or forget to record a game when it’s live, there should be other opportunities to catch it.

Two future Longhorns are among the players who will be working to help their team to a state championship, with Keaontay Ingram’s Carthage team playing on Friday morning in the 4A Division I final, and Cameron Dicker and his Lake Travis teammates taking the field on Saturday afternoon in the 6A Division I championship. At least one state championship-winning team in every season since 1996 has had a future Texas Longhorn football player on its roster, and a win by Carthage or Lake Travis this weekend will ensure that the streak extends for a 22nd year.

Unlike in some past years I won’t attempt anything resembling a comprehensive preview of this year’s state championships, but I will have some fairly detailed notes on the state championship opponents for Carthage and Lake Travis. You can see the full schedule of state championship games on the U.I.L.’s website.

Also, my commit-by-commit notes in this post will include a few new names and are missing a familiar one. Louisville, Kentucky receiver Rondale Moore de-committed from Texas on Tuesday, the eve of the NCAA’s first early signing period. But the Longhorns ended up picking up new commitments from defensive back Anthony Cook, Juco offensive lineman Mikey Grandy, and Aussie punter Ryan Bujcevski.

Longhorn commits receive all-state honors

An annual tradition of state championship week is the unveiling of the first of the state’s All-State teams, those voted on by the Texas Associated Press Sports Editors. The APSE all-state teams are based on players’ regular season performance and placement on them is based much more on a player’s statistical accomplishments than their college football potential, and plenty of names appear on those teams who will never play a down of Division I football. But #RevolUTion18 was well-represented as well.

On the APSE’s 6A all-state team, Caden Sterns was named a first team defensive back, Cameron Dicker was an honorable mention kicker (which Dave Barry might say would be a good name for a rock band), Keondre Coburn was an honorable mention defensive lineman, and D’Shawn Jamison was an honorable mention defensive back.

Reese Moore was named to the 4A all-state second team as an offensive lineman, despite primarily playing tight end. The APSE’s all-state teams do not include tight ends, though the Texas Sports Writers Association’s all-state teams (which are usually announced in February) do. Moore has previously earned all-state honors as a punter and tight end. He is joined on the APSE’s 4A squad by Keaontay Ingram, who was a second team running back.

DeMarvion Overshown was named a first team defensive back on the 3A all-state team.

2018 Texas Longhorn football commits playing in the Texas state championships

RB Keaontay Ingram (Carthage)

Last week: Had 26 carries for 207 yards and 2 touchdowns, and caught one pass for ten yards in a 46-39 win over Waco La Vega in the semifinal round of the 4A Division I playoffs.

This week: Friday, December 22 at 11:00 am, vs. Kennedale in the 4A Division I state championship game.

Notes: ETSN published a good article this week on Keaontay Ingram’s development from a little-known sophomore who showed flashes of being a big-time prospect, to being widely acknowledged as the best running back in the state as a senior. It’s well worth reading.

Ingram’s two TD runs in last week’s state semifinals both came in the 4th quarter, as Carthage held off a rally in the game’s last 15 minutes by a talented and playoff-tested La Vega team that dug itself into an early hole that ended up being too deep to climb out of.

Carthage took a 7-0 lead barely three minutes into the game after scoring on their opening drive. Two La Vega turnovers (one of them a pick-six) led to two more 1st quarter scores for Carthage, and the Bulldogs held a 21-0 lead with 7:23 left in the 1st quarter. La Vega held onto the ball on the rest of their drives while forcing five Carthage turnovers on the night, and the Pirates outscored Carthage 39-25 over the last three and a half quarters of the game, but it wasn’t quite enough to complete the comeback.

Senior Mekhi Colbert scored three of Carthage’s first four TDs, one on a 27-yard interception return and the other two on short runs. The last of his three scores put Carthage ahead 28-7 with 5:55 left in the 2nd quarter, but the Pirates cut the deficit to 28-14 following a 29-yard TD run by junior running back John Richards with 2:46 left in the first half. Richards finished the game with 169 yards on 15 carries.

Carthage managed only a field goal in the 3rd quarter and led 31-20 going into the 4th. Ingram scored on a 3-yard TD in the first minute of the final frame to widen Carthage’s lead to 38-20. La Vega eventually cut the deficit to 38-32 after a TD pass from QB Jamal Williams with 3:44 left in regulation, but Ingram answered with a 46-yard TD run on Carthage’s next play to put the Bulldogs ahead 45-32 with 3:33 left. La Vega scored once more with 1:16 left in the game to pull within seven points, but Carthage recovered the ensuing onside kick.

With the win, Carthage advanced to the state championship game for the sixth time in ten years. They also got perhaps a small measure of revenge on La Vega, who blasted them 39-3 in the state semifinal round of the 2015 playoffs and gave them their most lopsided postseason loss since 1943.

La Vega ended its season with an overall record of 14-1. The Pirates are 43-2 over the past three seasons, and Jamal Williams, their four-year starter at QB, finished his career with 47 wins as a starting QB, which tied the state record held by former Bremond standout (and current Texas A&M receiver) Roshauud Paul. Williams’s father, Willie Williams, is a La Vega alum and has been the school’s head football coach since 1990. Last week’s state semifinal loss to Carthage may have been the final game of a coaching career that produced 214 wins and a 2015 state championship.

If not for La Vega’s early turnovers the game might well have had a different result, and Carthage head coach Scott Surratt said his team was “fortunate” to get away with a win over a team as good as La Vega despite committing five turnovers. In his postgame comments, Surratt, looking ahead to the Bulldogs’ state championship opponent, said his team would “get blown out of the stadium next week against Kennedale” if they were similarly turnover-prone.

Kennedale has been one of the top 4A teams in the Dallas-Fort Worth area over the past few years. Kennedale has reached the playoffs in 17 consecutive seasons, and in that time the Wildcats have reached at least the third round eight times and lost in the first round just twice, but until the 2016 season they had never advanced beyond the fourth round of the playoffs.

In 2016, Kennedale rolled through the first four rounds of the postseason before falling 21-13 in the state semifinals to eventual 4A Division I runner-up Abilene Wylie. This season Kennedale will go into its first-ever state title game appearance with a 14-1 overall record, and they’ll attempt to deny Carthage its sixth state crown in ten seasons. The one blemish on their ledger was a 23-20 loss on October 6 to West Orange-Stark, the two-time defending 4A Division II state champion and 2nd-ranked team in Class 4A. (WO-S will be playing Texarkana Pleasant Grove in the 4A Division II final on Friday afternoon after the Carthage-Gilmer Division I game.) Kennedale beat all of their other regular season foes by 36 points or more. For the season they have averaged 54 points per game and rushed for almost 400 yards per contest.

For those who haven’t seen Kennedale in action before and plan to watch Friday’s Carthage-Kennedale matchup, here’s a simpleton’s scouting report: Kennedale will run the football. Over the past four seasons the Wildcats have been among the most pass-averse teams in the state and have had four different players record 2,000-yard rushing seasons. Since the start of the 2014 season the Wildcats are 49-7 and have attempted an average of just under four passes per game.

Kennedale has opened up its passing game more this season - at least by its own standards - and junior QB Evan Jowers has completed 53 of 88 passes for 1,005 yards, 11 TDs and 3 interceptions, with a team-high 19 receptions and six of those TDs going to 6’6” junior receiver Jaden Smith. Those won’t look like big stats for a full season, and indeed Jowers has attempted barely one-fourth the number of passes that his Carthage counterpart Gunner Capps has this year (320), but those are Air Raid numbers compared with Kennedale’s 2014 offense, which attempted just 13 passes in as many games, according to the team’s MaxPreps page.

Pacing Kennedale’s wing-T attack is the backfield duo of junior running back D.J. Kirven and senior fullback Jaden Knowles, who both check in under 5’10” and weigh no more than 180 or so pounds, but who both have topped 2,100 rushing yards this season and have combined for an astounding 4,569 yards from scrimmage and 77 total touchdowns!

Among the defenders who will attempt to slow down Keaontay Ingram and company when Carthage has the ball are: senior defensive back Larry Brooks, the team’s leading tackler and a Tulane commit, freshman defensive back JD Coffey, who leads the team with six interceptions and was named a Class 4A All-State first team defensive back this week by the Texas AP Sports Editors, senior linebacker Ector Rivera, who received honorable mention All-State honors this week, and senior defensive end Mayfield Hayes, who is tied for the team lead with 23 tackles for loss and was somehow named an honorable mention All-State pick at defensive back despite playing on the D-line.

If the game comes down to a Kennedale needing a field goal to win or tie the contest late, they’ll put their faith in senior kicker Kevin Tiero, who has missed on an uncomfortable percentage of PAT attempts this season but has made field goals when it counted, most notably nailing a game-winning 40-yarder with 0:12 left in regulation to lift the Wildcats to a 45-43 win over previously unbeaten Midlothian Heritage three weeks ago in the regional semifinals.

K Cameron Dicker (Lake Travis)

Last week: Made four of four PAT attempts in a 28-14 win over Katy in the semifinal round of the 6A Division I playoffs.

This week: Saturday, December 23 at 3:00, vs. Allen in the 6A Division I state championship game.

Notes: Lake Travis emerged victorious over Katy last week in a state semifinal battle between two titans of Texas high school football. The two schools own a combined 14 state titles, including the last two Class 6A Division I state championship trophies. The game was played on a cold and rainy day at San Antonio’s Alamo Stadium, and based on published accounts of the game it could easily have had another result had one or two plays gone differently.

With the scored tied at 7 late in the 2nd quarter, Katy had the ball in the red zone with a chance to take the lead, but when an open receiver failed to reel in a would-be TD pass in the end zone, Katy had to settle for a field goal attempt, but the kick was no good. Lake Travis scored on their ensuing drive to take a 14-7 lead with 1:54 left in the 2nd quarter.

Lake Travis soon afterward recovered a loose ball that resulted from a bad Katy snap, and with 35 seconds left in the half Ohio State commit Matthew Baldwin connected with senior tight end Kyle Wakefield on a 26-yard TD pass to give Lake Travis a 21-7 lead. Katy cut the deficit to 21-14 after a TD pass with 1:24 left in the 3rd quarter.

Baldwin was injured at some point in the second half, but his absence did not prevent Lake Travis from scoring one more, this time on a trick play in which junior receiver Garrett Wilson passed the ball to dynamic sophomore athlete Hudson Card for a 32-yard TD with 9:15 left in regulation. That score gave Lake Travis a 28-14 lead and turned out to be the game’s final points.

The win advanced Lake Travis to the state championship round for a third straight year and for the eighth time in eleven seasons. To claim their seventh state title the Cavaliers will have to defeat another of the state’s super-heavyweight programs in Saturday afternoon’s 6A Division I final: the Allen Eagles, who will be gunning for their fifth state title.

Allen, located near the heart of fast-growing Collin County in north Texas, has by far the highest enrollment of any high school in the state, recently reported to be in excess of 6,600 students. Its marching band alone has the student body of a Class 4A high school. Its huge numbers and a recent winning culture have resulted in a deep pool of talent that has made the Eagles an annual state championship contender over the past decade.

Allen was once small enough that its football teams played six-man ball until the early 1960s, and prior to 2001 the Eagles had never advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs. After reaching the state semifinals and losing to Southlake Carroll in 2003 and 2006, Allen finally broke through and reached the 5A Division II state championship game in 2008, beating Fort Bend Hightower 21-14 to win the school’s first state title. Facing tough Region I competition, Allen bowed out in the second round of the playoffs in each of the following three years to DFW powerhouses Southlake Carroll and Euless Trinity (twice), then with future Texas A&M-turned-Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray at the helm, the Eagles won three straight state crowns from 2012 to 2014.

In their first two post-Kyler Murray seasons the Eagles lost by single digits in the state semifinal round, but this year they’re back in the state championship for the fifth time in ten seasons.

Saturday afternoon’s Allen-Lake Travis game should feature plenty of offensive fireworks, especially if Matthew Baldwin is able to effectively play on the knee he injured last week. An Austin American-Statesman article from earlier this week said Lake Travis head coach Hank Carter expected Baldwin to play, but that the team would also be preparing sophomore receiver/backup QB Hudson Card just in case.

Baldwin, an Ohio State commit, has passed for over 3,800 yards and 44 TDs in his first and only season as Lake Travis’s starting QB. The primary beneficiary of Baldwin’s passes has been junior receiver Garrett Wilson, a four-star recruit who holds over 20 offers and has caught 90 passes for 1,675 yards and 26 TDs this season, and he has also intercepted three passes while playing on defense. Also figuring to have a substantial impact when Lake Travis has the ball is aforementioned sophomore Hudson Card, who between his time at wide receiver (he’s second on the team with 69 receptions) and in spot duty at QB has produced over 1,900 total yards and had a hand in 23 total TDs.

Allen will counter that group with some D1-bound stars of its own. Under center for the Eagles is four-star junior Grant Tisdale, who will be handing the ball off to senior running back Brock Sturges, an Arizona State commit, and passing to a group of receivers headlined by five-star junior Theo Wease and senior Iowa State commit Carson Schleker.

Tisdale has been an effective if not especially prolific passer this year, completing 66% of his pass attempts and producing 1,994 yards, 28 TDs and just 3 interceptions, and he has also run for 945 yards and 14 TDs. Tisdale has topped the 200-yard passing mark in just three of Allen’s first 15 games, and he has thrown for less than 100 yards in three of the team’s five playoff games. Sturges has paced the team’s ground game, rushing for just shy of 2,000 yards and 27 TDs for the season. Wease leads the Eagles in nearly every receiving category, and has caught 53 passes for 852 yards and 14 TDs. The 5’9” Schleker has averaged 23 yards per catch and reached the end zone on nine receptions.

Allen is 29-1 during the tenure of second-year head coach Terry Gambill (whose former team, Waco Midway, will play against Cy-Fair in Saturday night’s 6A Division II state final) and has averaged 42 points per game this season. The 2017 Allen Eagles haven’t produced the gaudy yardage totals or quite the scoring figures seen in their last four years under former coach Tom Westerberg (whose 2012-2015 teams went 62-2 with three state championships), but they have been just as effective on offense by leaning on a punishing ground game (it helps to have an offensive line with at least four future FBS players) and by taking care of the football. The Eagles beat their first five playoff foes by an average margin of 22 points, and more impressively they have forced 11 turnovers in the postseason while committing just one of their own.

Allen doesn’t have the same level of star power on the defensive side, but its secondary boasts three seniors committed to Sun Belt Conference schools, and junior defensive tackle Jayden Jernigan reportedly holds four Big 12 offers.

In a weekend featuring a number of games between previous state champions, the Allen-Lake Travis matchup is the one with the most state championship experience between the two schools, though they have never previously faced each other in the playoffs due to competing in different divisions until very recently. If you want to see two well-coached teams with a lot of talent on their rosters and a history of winning titles, this will be the game to catch during state championship weekend.

Texas Longhorn football commits whose seasons have ended

QB Roschon Johnson (Port Neches-Groves) - 2019

Led his team to a 10-2 overall record and a berth in the state quarterfinals, where they lost 66-40 to eventual 5A Division II state finalist College Station (who will play Aledo on Saturday at 11:00 am in that bracket’s title game). Johnson ended his junior season with 2,918 yards and 35 TDs passing, and as well as 1,627 yards and 29 TDs rushing. He also caught a 43-yard TD pass on a trick play. He scored at least four touchdowns in every game this season except for PN-G’s 24-17 win over Texas City in the area round of the playoffs.

QB Cameron Rising (Newbury Park, California)

Rising suffered a season-ending knee injury late in Newbury Park’s October 27 loss to Moorpark. Newbury Park later lost in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 3 playoffs. Rising finished his senior season with 1,689 yards and 14 touchdowns and 6 interceptions passing, and 496 yards and 9 TDs rushing. He signed with Texas on Wednesday and is set to enroll in the spring.

QB Casey Thompson (Newcastle, Oklahoma)

Thompson finished his senior season with 3,217 yards, 37 TDs and 9 interceptions passing, and 884 yards and 8 TDs rushing. His Newcastle team finished 3-7 and did not qualify for Oklahoma’s Class 4A playoffs. He signed with Texas on Wednesday and will enroll in the spring.

WR Brennan Eagles (Alief Taylor)

Eagles missed his team’s last four games due to an unspecified injury. Taylor lost four of its final five games to finish with an overall record of 3-5 and did not qualify for the 6A playoffs. Eagles finished his senior season with 15 catches for 230 yards and 4 TDs. He was selected to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl on January 6, 2018 in San Antonio. He signed with Texas on Wednesday and plans to enroll early.

WR Al’Vonte Woodard (Houston Lamar)

Lamar finished 9-2 overall and reached the regional semifinals in the 6A Division I playoffs before losing to Galena Park North Shore. After a slow start in which he caught only nine passes and one touchdown in Lamar’s first five games, Woodard had some strong performances late in the season and ended his senior campaign with 30 catches for 628 yards and 7 TDs. He was one of four receivers voted to the All-District 18-6A first team. Woodard is one of eight current Longhorn commits who are scheduled to play in the Under Armor All-America Game, which will be played on January 4 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. He signed with Texas on Wednesday.

TE Malcolm Epps (Spring Dekaney)

Malcolm Epps finished his senior season with 27 catches for 508 yards and 7 TDs, and he was also credited with 11 tackles, 5 sacks, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery while playing defensive end in the season’s first three games. His team reached the 6A Division II playoffs but lost in the first round. Epps was voted to the All-District First Team at tight end by the coaches of District 16-6A. He will play in the Under Armor All-America Game in January. He signed with Texas on Wednesday.

After the conclusion of the football season, Epps made his customary switch to the hardwood and is currently starring for Dekaney’s basketball team, which is ranked #5 in Class 6A according to this week’s TABC poll. As of this writing, Epps has averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds per game.

OL Sione Angilau (East - Salt Lake City, Utah)

Angilau played left guard for an offense that averaged nearly 400 rushing yards per game, finished with an overall record of 11-3, and lost in Utah’s 6A state championship game to nationally-ranked Bingham. He was named to the Deseret News’ 6A all-state first team at guard, and will play in January’s U.S. Army All-American Bowl as a member of the West team. He signed with Texas on Wednesday.

OL Rafiti Ghirmai (Frisco Wakeland)

Ghirmai’s Wakeland team finished 7-4 overall and lost in the first round of the 5A Division I playoffs. He lined up at right tackle for Wakeland and was one of three offensive tackles voted to the All-District 13-5A first team. He signed with Texas on Wednesday.

OL Mikey Grandy (College of San Mateo - San Mateo, California)

Junior college offensive tackle and native Californian Michael “Mikey” Grandy committed to and signed with Texas on Wednesday. He was a team captain as a senior at Palo Alto High School in 2015. He signed with San Jose State on National Signing Day in 2016, but a few months later announced that he would attend a Juco and not report to SJSU. The 2017 season was his true freshman year in athletics, and after enrolling at Texas he will have four years to play three seasons of eligibility.

This fall he blocked for a balanced offense that averaged 214 yards rushing and 234 yards through the air. San Mateo averaged 41 points per game and had an overall record of 11-2, with their two losses coming by a combined five points, and the latter of the two being a 16-12 defeat to Fullerton in the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) State Championship on December 9.

OL Reese Moore (Seminole)

Moore’s Seminole team lost its season-opener, then rolled to an 11-game winning streak before their season ended in the regional semifinals of the 4A Division II playoffs. Moore primarily lined up at tight end but was voted Offensive Lineman of the Year by the coaches of District 2-4A Division II. He finished his senior season with a team-high 14 catches for 372 yards (26.6 yards per catch) and 5 TDs. He signed with Texas on Wednesday.

DT Keondre Coburn (Spring Westfield)

Coburn’s Westfield team was state-ranked early on in the season and won its first 11 games before losing 14-11 to Lufkin in the regional semifinal round of the 6A Division II playoffs. Coburn was voted his district’s Defensive MVP by the coaches of District 16-6A. He will play in the Under Armor All-America Game in January.

LB Ayodele Adeoye (IMG Academy - Bradenton, Florida)

Ayodele was credited with 25 tackles and one sack while playing for an IMG team that finished 8-0, beat multiple state- and nationally-ranked opponents, and spent the entire season as the #2 team in the USA Today Super 25 national expert rankings. He will play in the Under Armor All-America Game in January. He signed with Texas on Wednesday.

LB Byron Hobbs (Fort Worth Eastern Hills)

Hobbs was injured in his team’s second game this season and did not play again until seven weeks later. His team finished 4-6 and did not reach the 5A playoffs. Despite only playing in three of his team’s seven district games, Hobbs was unanimously voted as one of three outside linebackers on the All-District 8-5A first team. He signed with Texas on Wednesday.

DB Anthony Cook (Houston Lamar)

Anthony Cook became the latest Houston Lamar defensive back to join the Longhorn program when he committed to Texas on Wednesday. Cook is currently UT’s second-highest-rated commit behind B.J. Foster, according to 247Sports’ Composite Ratings. He will graduate early and is slated to enroll in the spring. He’ll join a select group of Lamar defensive backs who took their talents to the 40 Acres, a group that includes fellow 2018 signee D’Shawn Jamison, Holton Hill, John Bonney, and Drew Kelson. He will play on the West team in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl along with fellow signees Sione Angilau, Brennan Eagles, Jalen Green, and Caden Sterns.

DB B.J. Foster (Angleton)

After dominating their first 13 opponents by an average winning margin of 48 points and reaching the state semifinals for just the third time in school history, Angleton’s season came to a resounding end last week at the hands of an undefeated Manvel team with a roster chock-full of D1 prospects. Foster scored on a 4-yard TD run to tie the game 7-7 with 7:24 left in the 1st quarter, but Manvel took back the lead just ten seconds later on a 59-yard TD run by Texas A&M commit Deneric Prince, and they never trailed again. Manvel led 35-7 at halftime, and the only score by either team in the second half was a 32-yard Angleton field goal midway through the 3rd quarter.

Thus went a highly-anticipated matchup between Class 5A’s #2 (Manvel) and #5 (Angleton) team. Angleton’s usually-explosive run game was limited to 128 yards on 43 carries, and Foster himself gained just 66 yards from scrimmage on 24 touches.

Foster signed with Texas on Wednesday, and he is the latest in a line of Angleton Wildcats to sign with Texas, a group that most prominently includes Quentin Jammer, Quandre Diggs, D.J. Monroe, and Ahmard Hall.

DB Jalen Green (Houston Heights)

Green finished his senior season with 189 yards and 3 TDs passing, 29 carries for 347 yards and 8 TDs, 3 catches for 93 yards and 2 TDs, 13 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and a punt returned for a TD, all in just five games played. He suffered a broken collarbone in October and missed his team’s last four games. Heights finished 6-3 overall and lost in the first round of the 6A Division II playoffs. Green was one of six defensive backs voted to the All-District 18-6A first team. He signed with Texas on Wednesday and will play for the West team in January’s U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

DB D’Shawn Jamison (Houston Lamar)

The 5’10” 180-pound Jamison returned four kickoffs for touchdowns and also reached the end zone this season on a pick-six, a punt return, and an 8-yard run. On defense, he was credited with 30 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 3 interceptions, one forced fumble, and 8 passes defensed. He was one of six defensive backs voted to the All-District 18-6A first team. He signed with Texas on Wednesday and will play in the Under Armor All-America Game in January.

DB DeMarvion Overshown (Arp)

Arp finished 4-6 overall and lost to Newton (Class 3A’s 4th-ranked team) in the first round of the 3A Division II playoffs. Overshown was voted Defensive MVP of District 9-3A Division II. He signed with Texas on Wednesday and will play his last high school game on January 4 in Orlando at the Under Armor All-America Game.

DB Caden Sterns (Cibolo Steele)

Sterns led his team to a 9-5 overall record and a berth in the state quarterfinals before its season ended with a 28-14 loss to Austin Westlake. Sterns was unanimously voted to the All-District 27-6A first team at safety. He signed with Texas on Wednesday and will take the field one last time in his high school career on January 6 as a member of the West team in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, in which he will play before a hometown crowd at the Alamodome.

P Ryan Bujcevski (Australia)

In UT’s the most surprising signing on the first day of the early signing period, the Longhorns added Australian punter Ryan Bujcevski. He’s a punter and a cousin of Ray Guy-winning Longhorn punter Michael DIckson, who will forego his senior season and enter next spring’s NFL Draft. And that’s all I’ve got.

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I hope all of you readers have a happy and safe holiday and enjoy watching some high school, college, or pro football this weekend!