Unbeknownst to me, I was stunned when TC Jones dropped me a ling about the random juke box and complained that he wanted to hear The Smithereens. Well, if that’s the way you want to get your Monday going, who am I to judge? Yes, I chose a version that will catch your eye.
Recruiting is weird. Yes, this is revolutionary theory. I dare say that I call it groundbreaking. But throughout this yearly journey with the dozens of prospects Baylor is pursuing – well, I guess is more than yearly since we’re so heavy into the 2017 scene – I’m always reminded how really deep people get into this thing. Of course, that’s why you’re here.
A day can be made when we learn if player X did or did not show up to visit Baylor. Saturday at Meet the Bears was a perfect example. There were plenty of big names who were there including Hope AR 2016 defensive end McTelvin Agim, Trophy Club Byron Nelson 2016 defensive end Brandon Bowen (apparently, he’s a Houston Astros fan because of the shirt he was wearing) and Galena Park North Shore 2017 defensive end K’Lavon Chaisson. Those are great little wins.
The disappointment was in those who did not show. Those were Houston MacArthur 2016 defensive end Isaiah Chambers, Euless Trinity 2016 DT Chris Daniels and Houston Westfield 2016 WR Tyrie Cleveland. Perhaps this was a make or break weekend between Baylor and those three. But don’t discount the idea that fall camp is starting for Class 6A and 5A programs across the state of Texas on Monday. Saturday could have been a media day. Saturday could have been some last-minute things that the recruits had to complete before workouts started before today. They’re busy too.
I may give you that on Chambers. Like I reported a couple of weeks ago, it does appear that TCU has a firm hold here. I do remember that at one of the 2014 camps in Waco, Chambers showed up and it looked like he was going to pull the trigger then. It just didn’t work out. But I’m not ready to pronounce the recruitment effort dead either. If Chambers likes TCU as much as we’re led to believe, why hasn’t he just announced it? I think we mentioned that there’s the belief that he’s fallen in love with the process and loves the love being thrown at him. If that’s the case, there are always going to be prospects shaped like this. He probably is well aware that as soon as he commits, the love machine gets turned off and everybody stops paying attention to him. He told me back at the Rivals camp in Cedar Hill that he was probably going to wait until Feb. 3, 2016. Maybe he’s going to stick with that.
But is he playing TCU? I don’t know. But we’ve seen that kind of scenario play out as well because where a recruit has interacted with a school so much and then flips. There’s just a part of me that thinks that Chambers could be holding out for another major program to make its move. Alabama and LSU have not offered him. The Crimson Tide has one DE commitment. The Tigers have two. I couldn’t tell you how much need in the recruiting classes either program has for 2016. This is just a theory.
As for Cleveland, I’m really not going to lose a lot of sleep over this one. I don’t think Baylor is either. Technically, the program has two receivers committed in Daingerfield’s Denzel Mims (remember he was there) and Mesquite Horn’s Jared Atkinson. Yes, Mims is considered an athlete. His role hasn’t been defined yet. But after watching what I watched two months ago in Marshall, there’s nothing that would suggest that he’s going to the defensive side of the ball. The young man can flat out get up in the air.
Now, Cleveland told me that he still considering taking an official visit to Baylor. All you can do is take him at his word. Baylor may be willing to go along for the ride just in case it doesn’t work out with Devin Duvernay (I still think Baylor is going to get Duvernay). This is such a different recruitment, though. Consider he was committed to Texas A&M and everything pointed to him sticking with the Aggies. So Baylor probably works off that knowledge and decides an offer probably isn’t worth it, necessary or whatever it may be. Then Cleveland decommits in the spring. So the Bears are right there with an offer. Now, Cleveland said at the time that the Baylor offer is one that he wanted. But there is this little game that recruits like to play in collecting offers just to collect them when there is no intention of giving a school serious consideration. Maybe that happened here. This is something to track. But this is something not to invest in.
I think the Daniels situation is different. I do believe that he is interested in Baylor. Don’t be discouraged by what happened. Matt Clare shared with me that Daniels was also considering going to College Station this weekend. That didn’t happen either. I do think once fall camp settles in and finds its rhythm, then you’ll see players find a moment to travel. I have no doubt that Daniels will get there. I also think this recruitment effort will go well into the off season. Just let this one unfold the way it should.
Now, I’m not going to spend too much time on Agim’s arrival because many of you know where I stand on this. If not, I’ll just say that this is a two-team race between Baylor and Arkansas. I really don’t think Texas A&M and Ole Miss are major players in this. This was Agim’s second visit to Baylor and first since the Jan. 31 junior day. There’s the relationship with Davion Hall and the growing relationship with the coaching staff. But when you live in one-horse state like Arkansas, your siblings went there and the pressure from within the state mounts for you to follow, that’s pretty tough. Baylor knows that and is going to have to find that niche. Apparently, Agim was deciding between visiting Baylor and Ole Miss this weekend. That should tell you something. In my judgment, Baylor is going to have to find a way to convince Agim to hold off on potentially announcing on Sept. 5, the time of his family reunion. If he moves forward with it, then he’s committing to Arkansas.
But I buried the lead. This was so big that the coaching staff that coaching staff got Bowen to visit on Saturday. Since I saw him play a playoff basketball game for Nelson in February, 2014, it was so easy to see how athletic he was. Then I saw it in fall camp and then again during the basketball season in 2015. You also don’t win the Class 6A state championship in the high jump because you bluffed your way through it. And Jason Howell saw that at the state track meet. Bowen went from a 3-star and 5.7 rated prospect to becoming the nation’s No. 50 prospect. Don’t me wrong. Chambers and Agim are great players. Baylor would love to get them. But if you’re asking me if I had to choose one of these three, I would say Bowen and not have to think about it. And I would have said that before the ratings explosion. This would be the one player that I would be disappointed if Baylor didn’t land him. And if USC and UCLA really don’t enter the picture (if they do, it’s going to be late and probably too late), Baylor should get him. For me, there’s just too much pointing in this direction. Yes, I understand that there isn’t a lot of information out what has been going on with him. But I wouldn’t put this in writing if I didn’t believe this.
****
I’m getting a little tired of Texas fans convincing themselves that they’re going to flip Baylor commits. That would be Grayland Arnold, Kameron Martin and probably Patrick Hudson. For three weeks Martin has expressed he’s not thinking of flipping and unveils a tattoo to bind himself to the Bear. Arnold then tweets on Sunday that he’s shutting things down and is 100 percent to Baylor. I have to think that Saturday’s visit pretty much made sure things would trend in that direction. But don’t you find it interesting that Texas has been pursuing Baylor commits and Baylor really hasn’t been pursuing Texas commits?
Now, the first thing is that there are different systems so there may be fits for Texas that aren’t fits for Baylor. Still, there’s plenty of crossover. This is partly why Texas is still looking up at Baylor. Charlie Strong recruits great defensive kids. But I still think he’s got a problem in two areas: 1. He’s not landing elite offensive players. 2. I still think they’re having a problem re-establishing ties in Texas. Look at Strong’s staff. There’s not a lot of deep ties to this state. Joe Wickline coached at Baylor in the late 1990s (but he was at Oklahoma State and OSU comes into Texas a lot) and Brick Haley was the DC at Baylor at the turn of the century. Overall, this is a problem. Now, Strong has attempted to fix this by hiring former Gilmer coach Jeff Traylor. When Strong got there, he had Bruce Chambers, a holdover from Mack Brown. Still, something was missing. Strong knows Florida and he made it a point to go after players in that state. That’s fine. But he and his staff have so much work ahead of them in Texas it’s not even funny.
All you have to look is look what happened at the 2017 quarterbacks. Kellen Mond commits to Baylor. Shawn Robinson commits to TCU. Chris Robison commits to Oklahoma. Now, Texas got Austin Westlake’s Sam Ehlinger. By no means is this a slight on Ehlinger. However, Texas fans are probably asking themselves why they weren’t in the running for Robinson. Maybe Robinson saw what was going on down in Austin with his predecessor Jerrod Heard and thought, “Maybe not”. Who knows? But ask yourself why Texas changed offenses to the spread. The Longhorns have to keep up and have to present something to offensive players that are attractive. But we haven’t seen the results yet. I don’t know how long this down cycle is going to continue for Texas. I really respect Charlie Strong. He’s a great coach. He appears to be a very principled man. I just don’t know if he’s going to have all of the support to succeed there. If you’re him, and you’re offered that job, you take it. And if you’re Baylor, that’s not your problem. That’s Texas’ problem. My biggest problem with Texas over the years is that it’s too big. You have too many factions with different agendas in play. And when you can’t get everybody at different levels to want the same things and to be unified in how to get there, you’re going to get a reputation of a program that has so much but has done so little with it. If we’re being real about Texas, this program should have more than four national titles.
Obviously, that’s more than Baylor. But when Baylor decided that it wasn’t going to stink at football anymore, it positioned itself to where Art Briles, Ian McCaw and Judge Starr wanted to move in the same direction. Maybe Baylor’s size played a part as well. Nothing is forever. What we do know is that Baylor is currently in a better position. Texas is in the middle of trying to catch up.
****
A couple more thoughts.
>The Rangers are definitely back in the AL Wild Card and AL West races. They have 30 more home games. We’ll see. Now, we just have to see if the Astros can hang on. They’ve looked a little ragged here.
>Heaven help me but I was so ready for football I pretty much watch all of the Hall of Fame game Sunday. Well, it was the Vikings.
Let’s make it a great week.
Recruiting is weird. Yes, this is revolutionary theory. I dare say that I call it groundbreaking. But throughout this yearly journey with the dozens of prospects Baylor is pursuing – well, I guess is more than yearly since we’re so heavy into the 2017 scene – I’m always reminded how really deep people get into this thing. Of course, that’s why you’re here.
A day can be made when we learn if player X did or did not show up to visit Baylor. Saturday at Meet the Bears was a perfect example. There were plenty of big names who were there including Hope AR 2016 defensive end McTelvin Agim, Trophy Club Byron Nelson 2016 defensive end Brandon Bowen (apparently, he’s a Houston Astros fan because of the shirt he was wearing) and Galena Park North Shore 2017 defensive end K’Lavon Chaisson. Those are great little wins.
The disappointment was in those who did not show. Those were Houston MacArthur 2016 defensive end Isaiah Chambers, Euless Trinity 2016 DT Chris Daniels and Houston Westfield 2016 WR Tyrie Cleveland. Perhaps this was a make or break weekend between Baylor and those three. But don’t discount the idea that fall camp is starting for Class 6A and 5A programs across the state of Texas on Monday. Saturday could have been a media day. Saturday could have been some last-minute things that the recruits had to complete before workouts started before today. They’re busy too.
I may give you that on Chambers. Like I reported a couple of weeks ago, it does appear that TCU has a firm hold here. I do remember that at one of the 2014 camps in Waco, Chambers showed up and it looked like he was going to pull the trigger then. It just didn’t work out. But I’m not ready to pronounce the recruitment effort dead either. If Chambers likes TCU as much as we’re led to believe, why hasn’t he just announced it? I think we mentioned that there’s the belief that he’s fallen in love with the process and loves the love being thrown at him. If that’s the case, there are always going to be prospects shaped like this. He probably is well aware that as soon as he commits, the love machine gets turned off and everybody stops paying attention to him. He told me back at the Rivals camp in Cedar Hill that he was probably going to wait until Feb. 3, 2016. Maybe he’s going to stick with that.
But is he playing TCU? I don’t know. But we’ve seen that kind of scenario play out as well because where a recruit has interacted with a school so much and then flips. There’s just a part of me that thinks that Chambers could be holding out for another major program to make its move. Alabama and LSU have not offered him. The Crimson Tide has one DE commitment. The Tigers have two. I couldn’t tell you how much need in the recruiting classes either program has for 2016. This is just a theory.
As for Cleveland, I’m really not going to lose a lot of sleep over this one. I don’t think Baylor is either. Technically, the program has two receivers committed in Daingerfield’s Denzel Mims (remember he was there) and Mesquite Horn’s Jared Atkinson. Yes, Mims is considered an athlete. His role hasn’t been defined yet. But after watching what I watched two months ago in Marshall, there’s nothing that would suggest that he’s going to the defensive side of the ball. The young man can flat out get up in the air.
Now, Cleveland told me that he still considering taking an official visit to Baylor. All you can do is take him at his word. Baylor may be willing to go along for the ride just in case it doesn’t work out with Devin Duvernay (I still think Baylor is going to get Duvernay). This is such a different recruitment, though. Consider he was committed to Texas A&M and everything pointed to him sticking with the Aggies. So Baylor probably works off that knowledge and decides an offer probably isn’t worth it, necessary or whatever it may be. Then Cleveland decommits in the spring. So the Bears are right there with an offer. Now, Cleveland said at the time that the Baylor offer is one that he wanted. But there is this little game that recruits like to play in collecting offers just to collect them when there is no intention of giving a school serious consideration. Maybe that happened here. This is something to track. But this is something not to invest in.
I think the Daniels situation is different. I do believe that he is interested in Baylor. Don’t be discouraged by what happened. Matt Clare shared with me that Daniels was also considering going to College Station this weekend. That didn’t happen either. I do think once fall camp settles in and finds its rhythm, then you’ll see players find a moment to travel. I have no doubt that Daniels will get there. I also think this recruitment effort will go well into the off season. Just let this one unfold the way it should.
Now, I’m not going to spend too much time on Agim’s arrival because many of you know where I stand on this. If not, I’ll just say that this is a two-team race between Baylor and Arkansas. I really don’t think Texas A&M and Ole Miss are major players in this. This was Agim’s second visit to Baylor and first since the Jan. 31 junior day. There’s the relationship with Davion Hall and the growing relationship with the coaching staff. But when you live in one-horse state like Arkansas, your siblings went there and the pressure from within the state mounts for you to follow, that’s pretty tough. Baylor knows that and is going to have to find that niche. Apparently, Agim was deciding between visiting Baylor and Ole Miss this weekend. That should tell you something. In my judgment, Baylor is going to have to find a way to convince Agim to hold off on potentially announcing on Sept. 5, the time of his family reunion. If he moves forward with it, then he’s committing to Arkansas.
But I buried the lead. This was so big that the coaching staff that coaching staff got Bowen to visit on Saturday. Since I saw him play a playoff basketball game for Nelson in February, 2014, it was so easy to see how athletic he was. Then I saw it in fall camp and then again during the basketball season in 2015. You also don’t win the Class 6A state championship in the high jump because you bluffed your way through it. And Jason Howell saw that at the state track meet. Bowen went from a 3-star and 5.7 rated prospect to becoming the nation’s No. 50 prospect. Don’t me wrong. Chambers and Agim are great players. Baylor would love to get them. But if you’re asking me if I had to choose one of these three, I would say Bowen and not have to think about it. And I would have said that before the ratings explosion. This would be the one player that I would be disappointed if Baylor didn’t land him. And if USC and UCLA really don’t enter the picture (if they do, it’s going to be late and probably too late), Baylor should get him. For me, there’s just too much pointing in this direction. Yes, I understand that there isn’t a lot of information out what has been going on with him. But I wouldn’t put this in writing if I didn’t believe this.
****
I’m getting a little tired of Texas fans convincing themselves that they’re going to flip Baylor commits. That would be Grayland Arnold, Kameron Martin and probably Patrick Hudson. For three weeks Martin has expressed he’s not thinking of flipping and unveils a tattoo to bind himself to the Bear. Arnold then tweets on Sunday that he’s shutting things down and is 100 percent to Baylor. I have to think that Saturday’s visit pretty much made sure things would trend in that direction. But don’t you find it interesting that Texas has been pursuing Baylor commits and Baylor really hasn’t been pursuing Texas commits?
Now, the first thing is that there are different systems so there may be fits for Texas that aren’t fits for Baylor. Still, there’s plenty of crossover. This is partly why Texas is still looking up at Baylor. Charlie Strong recruits great defensive kids. But I still think he’s got a problem in two areas: 1. He’s not landing elite offensive players. 2. I still think they’re having a problem re-establishing ties in Texas. Look at Strong’s staff. There’s not a lot of deep ties to this state. Joe Wickline coached at Baylor in the late 1990s (but he was at Oklahoma State and OSU comes into Texas a lot) and Brick Haley was the DC at Baylor at the turn of the century. Overall, this is a problem. Now, Strong has attempted to fix this by hiring former Gilmer coach Jeff Traylor. When Strong got there, he had Bruce Chambers, a holdover from Mack Brown. Still, something was missing. Strong knows Florida and he made it a point to go after players in that state. That’s fine. But he and his staff have so much work ahead of them in Texas it’s not even funny.
All you have to look is look what happened at the 2017 quarterbacks. Kellen Mond commits to Baylor. Shawn Robinson commits to TCU. Chris Robison commits to Oklahoma. Now, Texas got Austin Westlake’s Sam Ehlinger. By no means is this a slight on Ehlinger. However, Texas fans are probably asking themselves why they weren’t in the running for Robinson. Maybe Robinson saw what was going on down in Austin with his predecessor Jerrod Heard and thought, “Maybe not”. Who knows? But ask yourself why Texas changed offenses to the spread. The Longhorns have to keep up and have to present something to offensive players that are attractive. But we haven’t seen the results yet. I don’t know how long this down cycle is going to continue for Texas. I really respect Charlie Strong. He’s a great coach. He appears to be a very principled man. I just don’t know if he’s going to have all of the support to succeed there. If you’re him, and you’re offered that job, you take it. And if you’re Baylor, that’s not your problem. That’s Texas’ problem. My biggest problem with Texas over the years is that it’s too big. You have too many factions with different agendas in play. And when you can’t get everybody at different levels to want the same things and to be unified in how to get there, you’re going to get a reputation of a program that has so much but has done so little with it. If we’re being real about Texas, this program should have more than four national titles.
Obviously, that’s more than Baylor. But when Baylor decided that it wasn’t going to stink at football anymore, it positioned itself to where Art Briles, Ian McCaw and Judge Starr wanted to move in the same direction. Maybe Baylor’s size played a part as well. Nothing is forever. What we do know is that Baylor is currently in a better position. Texas is in the middle of trying to catch up.
****
A couple more thoughts.
>The Rangers are definitely back in the AL Wild Card and AL West races. They have 30 more home games. We’ll see. Now, we just have to see if the Astros can hang on. They’ve looked a little ragged here.
>Heaven help me but I was so ready for football I pretty much watch all of the Hall of Fame game Sunday. Well, it was the Vikings.
Let’s make it a great week.
