The weekend is over. Cam Coleman left Austin without signing. The Longhorns don’t yet have a running back. Pitchforks are out. Orangebloods Portal Kombat is taking place everywhere. breaks it all down for you.
Was this karma coming back to haunt me?
More than a quarter century ago, Bobby Burton and I were working together for the early version of Rivals.com and we were working together in an office on 53 street, across from where the Home Slice Pizza place sits today.
At the time, I was working as the owner/moderator at LoneStarRecruiting.com and some scoop had come across our desks that I was going to break at midnight on some random day in December, fairly late in the 2000 recruiting process. I was told to tease to Aggies everywhere that we were going to announce two commitments at midnight.
A&M websites went nuts. They started predicting that Roy Williams as going to flip from Texas. Maybe it was D.J. Williams, the No.1 player in the country who was not even looking at the Aggies. The guesses were out of control. I tried to tell anyone that would listen that the commitments weren’t going to be 5-stars or anything and that everyone should maybe relax a tad. Too late the hay was out of the barn. THEY WERE GETTING 2 5 STARS.
So, midnight rolls around and I personally announce to a world full of Aggies that a kicker by the name of Chris Simms and a punter by the name of Cody Scates had committed to the Aggies.
Minds melted. Anger spewed. Name-calling took place.
Deep down, I thought it was one of the funniest things I’d ever seen in my life. On Sunday night, the roles kind of reversed.
KARMA!!!!
Let’s talk about Issac Brown…
**** happens.
Let me tell you a little something about the stakes of trying to win a national title. It’s filled with tons of disappointment. Georgia and Alabama didn’t get EVERY player it wanted in their mini-dynasties. Just most of them. Yet, losses in recruiting at the highest levels sometimes happen.
Sometimes when you fly as close to the sun as the Texas football program is, you walk away with occasional sunburn. A lot of times you just look tanned as hell. Sometimes you look like John Candy in Summer Rental.
Let’s recap the last month or so as it relates to the reporting on Brown.
a. I mentioned for weeks that there was a big-time running back with a tremendous YPC that the Longhorns were chasing that no one was talking about. While Jaden Baugh was the name everyone was talking about, I kept saying there was another and that we all needed to take a wait and see attitude. Most never guessed the correct player I was talking about, but a few eventually figured it out.
b. After weeks of hinting about Brown and Texas playing footsy, the rest of the nation caught up and by the end of last week there were reports all over the nation that Brown was going to end up in Austin.
c. On Thursday, Brown announced his decision to transfer on social media and did so with a “do not call” tag on his entry.
d. Louisville didn’t give up. They refused to enter his name into the Portal until the full 2 full business day window they were allotted had expired. Brown listened to them. The thing just appeared to be stuck in the mud.
e. Sources indicated a loss of confidence.
f. Brown announces he’s staying.
You can blame sources. You can say that they don’t know what they are talking about, which seems like a silly notion to me given the detailing I’ve just provided about the situation over the course of the last month.
Texas swung and missed. It happens. Shooting for elite targets in the Portal instead of JAGs comes with serious risk. If it’s too much for some of you to handle, maybe just wait until January 15th before investing emotionally. Because let me let you in a secret… this won’t be the last player that Texas misses in this cycle. Perfect games aren’t easy to achieve and the Longhorns just gave up a crooked number in the bottom of the second inning. Yet, the show goes on. The next batter is up to bat.
Now what…
Let’s just look at this objectively.
No matter how much I personally favored Brown in a Brown vs. Baugh discussion, he was either 1a or 1b for everyone in the Texas football offices. The third guy I had mentioned to me weeks ago was Ole Miss star Kewan Lacy, who was listed behind the other two in terms of in-house preference before he went on this playoff heater.
Sooooo…..
1a. Brown/Baugh
1b. Baugh/Brown
3. Lacy
In order for this to not be a long-term L, the Longhorns have to land a back in that class. OR it’s an L. Those are the stakes. Perhaps they’ll sign someone who is very good, but the bar was to sign someone they believed was better than very good.
You don’t walk into the club aiming for Sydney Sweeney and then throw a parade when you walk out with her 7th cousin, twice removed from her mother’s side. From my perspective, this is what needs to happen.
a. Close the deal on Baugh, who suddenly has all the leverage in the world.
b. Go get Lacy after the playoffs.
c. Find a 4th guy that they believe is on their levels.
d. Sign someone less than that.
That’s what is left to do. Those are the four options and I don’t think anyone KNOWS how the final verdict will go. This thing is like the OJ jury. You think you know what they’ll do, but this thing might just come back “not guilty”. That possibility forever exists.
The special teams got better…
Hey, it wasn’t all bad.
The Longhorns got a proven place-kicker, punter and deep-snapper in one day. There will be no defaulting to an unproven true freshman at any of those positions, which is always a risk when Jeff Banks is calling the shots.
Sometimes Lance St. Louis starts as a true freshman and he’s the smartest man in the room. Sometimes the Michael Kern risks get taken.
Not in 2026. It’s not even something we have to think about again. Protection steps have been taken. In a world where you’re not stinging from the loss of an impact position player, you’d chalk that up as a win.
The next commit is…
When I asked for a confidence check yesterday on guys that a source thought the Longhorns would absolutely get.
Here’s the response…
Well, the hay is in the barn on the first two. We’re waiting on the Michigan guys. Getting those two would represent a major coup. I wonder how the mood of the board is today if a couple of projected starting offensive lineman had committed yesterday before the Brown news occurred.
It has to feel different, right?
What will today bring?
More visits. More news.
Rutgers cornerback Bo Mascoe is coveted and he’s in town. Cal linebacker Cade Uluave might be in Austin in the next 24 hours. Other targets, including those on playoff teams, will emerge.
Stay buckled up.
