Updates | OL Grad Transfer RJ Proctor & Alfred Collins

– CJ Vogel

I caught up with Virginia OL grad transfer RJ Proctor following Coach Herb Hand’s visit with him. Proctor said the visit went well.

Hand and the Texas staff envision Proctor as a plug-and-play at one of the guard positions with the positions left vacant by Patrick Vahe and Elijah Rodriguez’s departures. For Proctor, being able to play immediately is very important.

“[Immediate playing time] does impact my decision,” said Proctor. “A lot of schools blow smoke. I don’t want to go somewhere that wants me, I want to go somewhere that needs me.”

Proctor said he plans on visiting Ohio State and Florida State in the near future.

He will make a decision in March.

The recruiting process for 2020 DL Alfred Collins is really beginning to heat up.

Collins was on campus last week and is currently in Waco to visit the Baylor Bears this weekend. On his visit, Collins was joined by his mother and sisters. It is worth noting that Collins’ mother, Benita Pollard, was a member of the Texas Women’s Basketball team from 1990-1994.

Collins spent the visit all of the Texas coaching staff, with most time spent with Oscar Giles, Todd Orlando and Tom Herman.

While Collins doesn’t have a timeframe for a top group or commitment date, Texas is very high on his mind early on. His mother having gone to Texas does nothing but help the Longhorns case.

Quick Hitters | Weekend Reactions

– CJ Vogel

First and foremost, the big recruiting weekend on campus was a major success and ended in a new commitment via Carrington’s Shh tweet. The news of that commitment will likely be coming out sometime in the next week or so.

2020 OL Commit Logan Parr

Parr committed to the Longhorns late in October and has been completely solid since. Parr has been back to campus twice since his commitment and last night was big not only for him, but the big time targets Texas was hosting as well.

“I had a great time being around the staff and meeting some of the guys for the first time today,” said Parr.

“It was good to see Chad Lindberg, Jake Majors, Jaylen Garth and Hudson Card again in person even though I talk to all of them over Snapchat pretty much daily.”

Parr mentioned back in October that Lindberg was one of the main guys he wanted to play with at the next level and strengthening that relationship will only benefit the Longhorns moving forward.

Quick Hitters | More Weekend Reactions | Jones, Umanmielen, Evans

– Will Baizer

CB Jaylon Jones – 6’3″ 185lbs – Cibolo Steele HS

Hailing from the same alma mater as current Texas safety Caden Sterns, Jaylon Jones made his way back up to Texas. Once again it was a successful trip for both parties per Jaylon himself, “It was good. I had an amazing time up there with my family, the other recruits, and coaches.”

The family arrived on campus and met with Coach Washington where they were greeted by the staff and had dinner and chatted with a lot of elite prospects and their families. Afterward, they met briefly with Coach Herman, the players, and Matthew McConaughey (where the infamous speech happened, more on that below) and then went to the OU game. After all of that Coach Herman had one on one talks with many of the recruits, including Jaylon Jones and his family.

The talk with coaches Tom Herman and Jason Washington mainly revolved around “…how much they would love for Jaylon to come to UT and how he would be taken care of academically as well as athletically. They broke down where the need for him was and how they would use him.”

Jason Washington appears to be doing Jason Washington things and blowing another elite recruit’s expectations out of the water. Per Jaylon’s father, “We were very impressed with their vision for Jaylon, Coach Washington is an amazing Coach, there’s something about him that is so real as a person. I think the entire visit was more intimate than other visits, Jaylon was able to spend some quality time with Caden and other teammates.”

DE Princely Umanmielen – 6’4″ 240lbs – Manor HS

It shouldn’t be hard to get one of Texas’ top prospects in the home state to campus, especially not when they live 30-40 minutes down the road.

Umanmielen went on the same adventure that I described above for Jaylon Jones, but instead of Jason Washington, he was meeting with Oscar Giles. Again, it seems that the coaches have built a good relationship with Umanmielen and are doing their best to solidify their standing with the prospect.

It seems to be working as that is the part of the entire trip that stood out to Umanmielen, “My favorite part of the visit was when Coach Herman pulled me into his office for a one on one, forty-minute conversation.” The conversation revolved around their vision for the defensive end and what getting him to Texas would take.

Overall, a win for Texas in central Texas as the trip for Princely Umanmielen, Jaylon Jones, and Logan Parr (as CJ pointed out) went about as well as expected. A great step in starting to solidify another big class.

RB Zach Evans – 6’0″ 205lbs – North Shore HS

We were not sure if Zach Evans would make it into Texas this weekend, and he almost did not make it. Luckily he and four-star offensive tackle Damieon George were able to get a ride from one of the North Shore coaches up to Austin in time to hear the speeches from Coach Herman, Sam Ehlinger, and Matthew McConaughey. Any time they can get this player on campus over A&M or Oklahoma, it is a win.

To make up for the missed time, Tom Herman made sure to put the main focus on the generational runningback by making sure he sat next to him and bonded with him during the OU basketball game and prioritized him in personal meetings.

We are told that the focus of the meetings was to make sure Evans understood the need for him at Texas and how they would go about utilizing his unique capabilities. This isn’t a new pitch to Evans, but same the depth of the pitch was impressive.

This recruitment will be a tough one, but Texas seems to be in a good position after the win in New Orleans.

The Rumors of Upset Recruits

As has been reported on multiple sites, there appears to have been some negative recruiting done by Texas against Texas A&M, the SEC, and Oklahoma. After asking around to people who are directly connected to the program or were there to witness the talks, I can conclude that the negative recruiting for Texas was overblown.

What was basically said by Tom Herman is that Texas recruits do not need to leave the state to win championships. He stated that Texas is built to win one and there is no need to go to the SEC to win one, referencing the recent win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. The whole premise was a counter-recruiting measure to the narrative that the SEC is the best conference and trying to break that narrative.

As it has been reported elsewhere as well, I can confirm that Sam Ehlinger and Matthew McConaughey (he can talk to recruits because he’s an employee of the university) took this narrative to another level, with Ehlinger making jokes at the expense of the Longhorns’ rivals and both pumping up their wins over the SEC.

One or two of these jokes might have been pointed toward Demon Demas, which probably had to do with some of the drama. Still, from what I understand, the jokes were nothing incredibly serious.

The whole story has been overblown and it comes with the territory of recruiting a guy like Demas.

Injury Update | Collin Johnson Knee Surgery

– Will Baizer

As we reported back in November, whether or not WR Collin Johnson played through his knee injury, he was going to need some surgery.

After the halftime festivities during of the OU basketball game on Saturday, Brian Davis of the Austin American-Statesman caught up with Herman.

During this, Herman revealed that receiver Collin Johnson had, in fact, had arthroscopic surgery to clean up knee damage suffered before the Texas Tech game.

The surgery was very minor and should have a relatively small recovery window of four to six weeks. This means he may miss some winter conditioning but be ready for Spring practices.

Per the report, Herman said no other player requires off-season surgery, including Sam Ehlinger.

OT Jake Majors Sets Commitment Date

– Andrew King

Could Texas be close to adding a commitment to the 2020 class following this weekend’s ‘Elite Day’? It sure is looking like it.

Prosper (TX) offensive lineman Jake Majors has set his commitment date for this Thursday.

Blessed and humbled to be in this position. pic.twitter.com/Kjpwcgovcy — Jake Majors (@jakob_majors) January 22, 2019

Majors holds some big offers from schools like Stanford, Oklahoma, TCU, and others along with Texas. Majors was in Austin this weekend and spent a lot of time with Texas offensive line commit Logan Parr. The Longhorns are in a good spot here, and it would give them a great duo along the offensive line committed to start the 2020 class. Majors plays tackle in high school, but could move inside to guard in college.

