Apparently they aren't RKGs these days.
We have 4 kids on the roster from Texas:
Avery Davis
Brock Wright (who unfortunately went to Cy Fair)
Nana Osafo-Mensah
Hunter Spears
We need to do better, especially given how down Texas has been for a while now.
We currently have zero recruits from the Statesman's annual top 55.
Some schools on the list for those kids:
Purdue
Ohio State
Florida
Georgia
PSU
Michigan State
Auburn
So he’s maintaining the new status quo.
By contrast, Bob Davie’s 2000 team had 17 (!) players from Texas on it.
So, our strength in Texas was apparently pissed away by Willingham and Weis.
Edited to add:
- Ty’s 2004 roster (his 3rd/final year) had 9 players from Texas
- Weis’ 2009 roster (his 5th/final year) had 4 players from Texas
Weis seems to own most of the blame for this one.
The 2004 team inherited 2 fifth year seniors from the recruiting class of 2000 (Holiday and Curry), zero from Davie's class of 2001, and 2 from the class of 2002 (Leitko and Bobby Morton). Leitko committed to Ty late. I believe he was waiting for a Stanford offer that didn't come. Willingham signed a punter (Price) in 2003 and no one in 2004.
As an aside, he also had no one in 2005 when he was fired. Weis later got a three star 213 pound linebacker for the 2005 class that Ty presumably was recruiting before. But I know Weis picked up a few guys on his own that year.
By comparison, Davie's 2000 class also included Duff, Bible, and Omar Jenkins, who did not have eligibility in 2004 (5 total from that class). And in 1999, Davie signed 3 from Tx and 2 from OK. Willingham didn't target Texas.
Weis definitely focused more on the east coast, California, and Florida. East Coast was his strenght, like Texas was Davie's strength. Weis only had scholarship players in Chris Stewart, Tauch (kicker) and KLM. Kevin Washington had left the program by that point, like much of the 2005 class. That's similar to Willingham's attention.
It's been a long time since we gave Texas the time of day. But at least during Ty and Weis, UT had the state locked up by May of players' junior years. Kelly certainly had plenty of opportunity to get into Texas.
A disjointed effort.
Not just with Texas, but a lot of states and regions.
In the just completed 2020 NFL draft--there were 7 1st round selections that played their HS ball in Texas. Not one of them played for Texas or Texas A&M:
-Jeff Okudah: CB tOSU
-Ceedee Lamb: WR Oklahoma
-K'Lavon Chaisson: LB LSU
-Jaylen Reagor: WR TCU
-Kenneth Murray: LB Oklahoma
-Jordyn Brooks: LB texas Tech
-Jeff Gladney: CB TCU
Ohio State has made a priority of getting 1 elite player per year out of Texas.
It can be done. They are not all signing with Texas or Texas A&M.
In 2019 OSU signed 5 star WR Garrett Wilson out of Austin Lake Travis. He will be a 1st round pick when he comes out. In 2020 they signed a top S and this year they have a top OL committed.
I know ND can't be everywhere--but Texas is a State that deserves more attention than Kelly and his staff have given it over the past 10 years.
Not that Kelly really pays much attention to these things--but I don't think he has anyone on his staff with ties to Texas. That might be a start.
Like I said, we've sent a ton of kids to ND from Texas. Just not lately, but there is no reason for it, other than we haven't prioritized it, for reasons I'll never understand.
which is surprising to me and does not help ND from a pipeline perspective