1841

No, Ohio State. ;-)

1842

Sounds pretty gay. Hope they don’t go to some redneck school that will ostracize them for their homosexuality.

1843

According to this it’s a done deal. That’s a great get for UT.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/highschool/01/29/jeffcoat-texas/index.html

1844

Fortunately not. :)

(Amusing anecdote: One of my Math TA’s did his undergraduate studies at Berkeley. When I asked him how UT’s politics compared to UC’s, he replied, “About the same.” I mean, we did have the fire-eating lesbians, after all.)

1845

It’s fantastic. Apparently Jeffcoat and Hicks both committed a week or so ago. Coupled with the rest of the guys we’ve picked up, this is far and away the best defensive recruiting class “Coach February” has ever picked up.

I’m stoked.

1846

Out of curiosity, how did Lache Seastrunk end up in Oregon? Were the 'Horns not too interested in him?

1847

Remember the stuff I said a while back about UT being very vigilant about following the rules?

Lache got a certain “friend” of his involved in his recruitment, someone who would take a role between Lache and the programs, someone for whom if a program did certain favors, they would gain access to Lache. Lache since ditched the baggage, but you can’t un-cross that line once you’ve crossed it. The coaches wouldn’t talk to him after that.

1848

Craziness. I wonder sometimes who advises some of these kids. There is a Georgia football blog that’s working on a series of articles that will cover the whole recruiting process in small, rural south Georgia towns and offering the perspectives of the coaches and players involved that I’m very much looking forward to reading. But one of the points made in the intro article to the series mentioned how many of the families and even some of the high school coaches don’t really have any idea what to expect out of the recruitment process and are oftentimes overwhelmed by it all.

1849

Source?

1850

It’s not the kind of thing you can get people to talk about on the record. Off the record, however, everyone knew what was going on. Look, at one point the guy was “seriously considering” Memphis for God’s sake. In football. When teams like LSU and USC were still actively recruiting him.

When LSU fans are saying, “Things are not on the up and up,” something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

Now IIRC (could be mistaken), he ditched the agent, figured out what was going on. That might’ve been a different player from this past year. But Texas is using this opportunity (and a few others like it that popped up over the past year or two) to show kids, “If you want to play here, if you even want us to talk to you, don’t do this.” And it’s sad, because usually these are good kids who are being played by some very street-smart older men in it only for themselves. And if you’re familiar with basketball and what goes on with the AAU circuit, you know all about this game.

The first post in that link above, the LSU poster gives a good summary of the game these assholes play:

This guy targets kids without fathers and moves in with the kid and tries to claim he is an uncle or cousin to keep from raising eyebrows. His first move is to be a trainer, that’s how he gets in with the kids at first. Then he will try to get the kid to distance himself from his closest friends. Thus causing isolation from everybody, but the “street agent.”

His comments about the colleges hiring is complete BS, though; these guys are only working for themselves.

1851

Lotsa rumors about Pitt to the Big 10. Verrry interesting…

1852

I wish we would join the Big 10.

1853

I wish we could join the Big 12.

1854

No. You don’t. Trust me on this.

1855

Imagine the possibilities!

UT Big Ten schedule:

Louisiana - Lafayette
UTEP
Wyoming
Rice
Northwestern
Wisconsin
Michigan St
Purdue
Minnesota
Indiana
Michigan
Illinois - big finish!

1856

You really think we’d let y’all off the hook? We didn’t when y’all were in the Big 8 and we were in the SWC, so why would we do it if we were to leave the Big XII?

1857

Please, they ain’t going anywhere. :)

1858

LET ME HAVE MY DREAMS

1859

I would like to see the Big Ten get a championship game. (I’d like to see the same for the Pac 10.) It would create sort of a quasi-first round of playoffs.

1860

Yep. Actually, I think that right there’s the main reason the Big 10 was looking to expand – championship game revenues.