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Recruiting Roundup
Tyler DB Matt Melton, 5-11, 190, 4.43, committed to Texas last week "because I knew I wanted to stay in state and, after visiting A&M and Texas (unofficially), I just like Texas better." He said he visited UT unofficially because he wants to take his official visit the December 14 weekend to attend the Longhorn football banquet. Melton, who has 40 tackles and two interceptions so far this year, said he had offers "from about 15 or 16 schools, including Texas, A&M, Purdue, TCU, Baylor and West Virginia." He is the 16th recruit to commit to Texas. He is a member of my Fabulous 50. The other recruits who have committed to Texas include nine recruits who are listed on one or more national top 100 teams. They are WR Marquis Johnson, 6-3, 200, 4.48, of Centennial High School in Champaign, Illinois; DE Chase Pittman, 6-5, 263, 4.7, of Shreveport Evangel; LB Garnet Smith, 6-3, 221, 4.54, of Arlington Lamar, DTs Sonny Davis, 6-1, 320, 5.0, of Gulf Coast JC in Mississippi and formerly of Austin Lanier, Earl Anderson, 6-4, 270, 4.8, of San Marcos, Lyle Sendlein, 6-4, 260, 4.8, of Scottsdale Chaparral, the two-time defending Class 4A champion in Arizona; OLs Brett Valdez, 6-4, 310, 5.1, of Brownwood and Neale Tweedie, 6-5, 260, 4.9, of Allen; and TE David Thomas, 6-3, 210, 4.6, of Wolfforth Frenship. Davis made all of the top national lists last year. The other Longhorn pledges are DT Tully Janszen, 6-4, 255, 4.78, of Keller; LBs Brian Robison, 6-3, 245, 4.6, of Splendora and Marcus Myers, 6-3, 220, 4.5, of Pflugerville Connally; WR Dustin Miksch, 6-0, 165, 4.4, of Round Rock Westwood; QB Billy Don Malone, 6-2 1/2, 185, 4.7, of Paris North Lamar, and RB/Ath Clint Haney, 5-11, 190, 4.27 of Smithson Valley. * * * * Michael Williams, the big and fast linebacker from Lindale I wrote about it my last issue, went to the Oklahoma-Baylor game Saturday and committed to the Sooners. When I talked to him Sunday night, he called it "a soft commitment," and said, "I'm still going to visit Texas on December 14 and I might visit Minnesota and Texas Tech, too." I think he's in about the same boat as Garnet Smith, the Arlington Lamar linebacker who is committed to Texas. Both say they are committed, but both want to look around a little bit to see if they find anything better. I always compare it to being engaged and dating other people, which makes getting married somewhat iffy. Williams probably will wind up at OU and Smith probably will wind up at Texas, but both cases will bear watching right up to and through signing day in February. Several top national recruits were in Austin for the Texas-Colorado game, including DE Bryan Pickryl of Jenks, Oklahoma, who was there on his official visit. He wasn't expected back at home until Monday, so I wasn't able to talk to him after his visit, but before his visit he told me he has narrowed his choices to Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri. Top Texas players who were at the game included RB Albert Hardy of Galena Park, MLB Aaron Harris of North Mesquite, DE Travis Leitko of The Woodlands and WR Robert Timmons of Flower Mound Marcus. Players already committed to UT who were there included Smith, Anderson, Thomas, Janszen, Myers and Miksch. This Longhorn recruiting class is already ranked No. 5 in the country by a couple of national recruiting services. The ranking will improve dramatically if the Horns hold what they have and add a few top national recruits like DT Rodrique Wright of Alief Hastings, QB Vincent Young of Houston Madison, DE Larry Dibbles of Lancaster, and some of the players who attended the game Saturday, like Pickryl, Hardy, Harris, Leitko and Timmons. The Horns won't get all of those guys, but they (continued on page 6) Recruiting . . (continued from page 3) will get several of them and their chances are very good with Wright, Dibbles, Harris, Hardy and Timmons, if he walks the straight and narrow path for the rest of the season. They also are close to 50-50 with Pickryl, Young, and Leitko. If Williams does follow through on his plans to visit Texas the Dec. 14 weekend, his pledge to OU might turn out to be really soft. Of course, the same could be said of Smith's commitment to Texas, if he follows through on his announced plans to take other visits. * * * * Texas has pledges from five players on my 25-man "difference maker" list, including No. 4 DT Anderson, No. 11 LB Smith, No. 17 LB Brian Robison of Splendora, No. 23 OL Brett Valdez of Brownwood and No. 24 QB Billy Don Malone of Paris North Lamar. The Horns have a pretty good shot at everyone in the top seven on that list - No. 1 DT Wright, No. 2 QB Young, No. 3 DE Dibbles, No. 5 DE Leitko, No. 6 RB Hardy and No. 7 LB Harris . They won't get all of that group, but they might get most of them. * * * * I think the Longhorns will sign at least four players from the eight-member group of superstars that includes Wright, Dibbles, Harris, Hardy, Pickryl, Young, Lietko and Timmons. If they do, this class will rank very high nationally, probably in the top 3. That would give the Longhorns four straight super classes heading into next season and, for the first time, the oldest group of that foursome would be seniors or juniors who have redshirted. * * * * The Longhorns, with 16 commitments already, have a couple of shaky ones in Smith, who plans to take other visits, and one player who has an uphill battle to qualify. They can take more than the normal 25 limit in a single year because Pittman plans to graduate from Shreveport Evangel in December and enroll at Texas in January, which will let him count against last year's total. Pickryl also plans to graduate early, so he also could be counted back to last year if he signs with Texas. I expect the Longhorns to take commitments from another 10 to 12 recruits. The number will be on the low side if Smith stays solid and Pickryl goes alsewhere, but it will rise if Smith strays and Pickryl comes aboard. * * * * Sonny Davis suffered a torn ACL in a recent game at Gulf Coast JC in Mississippi and is due to undergo knee surgery this week. His mother told me he still hopes to graduate early and enroll at Texas in January. The surgery probably would knock him out of most or all of the contact work, but should allow him to be fully recovered by the start of next season. Game Quotes . . "We played poorly. We turned the ball over and could not overcome the adversity we created for ourselves. I give Texas a lot of credit. They have good players who are well coached. I feel bad that we didn't give them a better game." - Colorado head coach Gary Barnett * * * * "We did not want to be one dimensional. We knew it wouldn't be easy to run on Colorado, but we knew we had to keep at it. I thought the offensive line did a good job and Cedric (Benson) did a great job." - Texas offensive coordinator Greg Davis * * * * "We worked all week against two tight ends and I think in this game they ran two tight ends maybe four times. They did a great job of coming and doing exactly what we weren't planning on. But our guys did a pretty good job of improvising." - UT defensive coordinator Carl Reese * * * * "We forced some turnovers today, and when you got most of the turnovers, you usually win the game." - UT linebacker De'Andre Lewis * * * * "Sloan Thomas is probably the most underrated wide receiver in the country." - Longhorn QB Chris Simms, talking about the backup wide receiver who has scored two touchdowns in each of the last two games * * * * "We did self destruct a little bit, but I don't want to take anything away from Texas. They came out ready to play on both sides of the ball, as well as on special teams. We made a lot of mistakes today and they had us on our heels throughout the second half." - Colorado linebacker Joey Johnson * * * * "He's an unbelievable running back. He runs hard and that move he put on to break that long gain on the shovel pass at the end of the first half was unbelievable." - Simms, talking about Longhorn freshman running back Cedric Benson * * * * "They beat us in every phase of the game. I don't think it was one particular thing. We had some turnovers and they put together some long drives. They also did a nice job in the punt return game." - Buff linebacker Robbie Robinson * * * * "We can't keep our defense on the field that long. We let the defense down. We self-destructed and Texas took advantage of everything." - Colorado running back Cortlen Johnson * * * * "We not only won, but we dominated, and Colorado is a good football team." - UT head coach Mack Brown Texas-Colorado Statistics Scoring Summary Texas 7 17 10 7 - 41 Colorado 0 7 0 0 - 7 UT - R. Williams 3 pass from Simms (Mangum kick) 9:09 1Q (7 plays 60 yds) UT - Mangum 21 FG 11:47 2Q (7 plays, 16 yds) CU - C. Johnson 9 run (Flores kick) 8:32 2Q (7 plays, 65 yds) UT - Benson 12 run (Mangum kick) 3:22 2Q (4 plays, 35 yds) UT - Benson 4 run (Mangum kick) 1:10 2Q (5 plays, 85 yds) UT - Thomas 24 pass from Simms (Mangum kick) 6:47 3Q (8 plays, 69 yds) UT - Mangum 34 FG 3:53 3Q (4 plays, 1 yd) UT - Thomas 29 pass from Simms (Mangum kick) 12:49 4Q (4 plays 47 yds) Official Attendance: 83,156 Team Statistics Texas Colorado First Downs 25 12 Rushing 8 5 Passing 12 7 Penalty 5 0 Rushing Attempts, Net Yards 40-161 32-124 Net Yards Passing 264 165 Passes Comp., Att., Int. 21-33-0 15-28-1 Total Plays, Offense 73-425 60-289 Avg. Gain per Play 5.8 4.8 Fumbles Lost 0 of 1 3 of 4 Penalties, Yards 5-40 9-57 Punts, Avg. 6-35.5 8-33 Time of Possession 33:33 26:27 Third-Down Conversions 3 of 12 2 of 14 Fourth-Down Conversions 0 of 1 0 of 1 Sacks by Team, Yds Lost 1-7 2-16 Individual Statistics Texas Rushing - Benson 23-100, 2 TDs; B. J. Johnson 2-46; Mock 2-10; Jeffery 1-7; I. Williams 3-6; Team 1-minus 2; Ike 3-minus 3; Simms 5-m inus 3. Passing - Simms 17-28, 234 yds, 3 TD, 0 Int.; Applewhite 4-5, 30 yds, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving - S. Thomas 3-63, 2 TD; Benson 3-59; B. J. Johnson 4-52; R. Williams 4-45, 1 TD; Shanahan 3-26; Scaife 1-7; Ike 1-5; Matthews 1-4; Trissel 1-3. Colorado Rushing - Purify 7-51; C. Brown 8-26; C. Johnson 6-22, 1 TD; Hodge 2-13; Hollowell 1-12; HYouston 7-7; Pesavento 1-minus 7. Passing - Pesavento 15-27, 165 yds, 0TD, 1 Int.; Hodge 0-1, 0 yds, 0 TD, 0 Int. Receiving - Graham 5-58; C. Johnson 2-28; Cormier 1-20; McCoy 2-19; Brunson 2-15; C. Brown 1-10; Purify 1-8; Sypniewski 1-7. Tackles by Texas Players, Unasst., Asst., Total Lewis 3-5-8; Brooks 5-2-7; Rawls 3-4-7; Pearson 4-2-6; Thornton 4-1-5; Jammer 3-1-4; Vasher 3-0-3; Babers 3-0-3; T. Jones 3-0-3; Tubbs 2-0-2; Boyd 0-2-2; Anderson 1-0-1; Wilkins 1-0-1; Ungar 1-0-1; Hill 1-0-1; D. Johnson 1-0-1; Redding 0-1-1; Doiron 0-1-1; Hightower 0-1-1; Gordon 0-1-1; Trahan 0-1-1. Tackles for Losses: Babers 1-minus 6; Tubbs 1-minus 3; Wilkins 1-minus 2; Doiron 1-minus 1; Lewis 1-minus 1. Sacks: Lewis 1-minus 7. Key Statistics Colorado had 244 yards offensively in the first half, but managed only 45 net yards and just two first downs in the second half. Subscribe To The E-Mail/Fax To Get Year-Round Football & Recruiting Scoops ! Save Big As An Internet Subscriber ! Whether you live close to Austin or far away, the True Orange E-Mail/Fax Service is the way to keep up with Longhorn football and Longhorn recruiting - instantly. It has about 110 to 120 timely e-mail/faxes a year, primarily about football and football recruiting. To subscribe, send your check to True Orange, Box 26530, Austin, Texas 78755, and copy or clip the coupon below and fill in the blanks. If you want it mailed, or by E-Mail, just include the right numbers. o I'm enclosing $99 for the 99-fax package for the next year o I'm enclosing $130 (an $11 saving) to renew my subscription to True Orange and to subscribe to the 99 faxes. o I'm enclosing $79 for the 99-fax package for the next year by E-Mail (a $20 saving) o Here's $110 to renew my subscription to True Orange and to subscribe to the 99 faxes by E-Mail (a $31 saving) o Here's $99 to subscribe to True Orange via the Internet and to subscribe to the 99 faxes by E-Mail (a $42 saving) Name Fax No. (or E-Mail or mailing address) First BCS Standings Due Today The first Bowl Championship Series standings are going to be released today (Monday) and the Longhorns should rank just about seventh, which, coincidentally, is where they are in both major polls this week. What that mean is that Texas has a very good chance to land one of the four major BCS bowl spots if they take care of business and win their final four games to finish the regular season at 10-1. Upsets have thinned the ranks of unbeaten teams in the last two weeks, leaving only eight teams in major college football with perfect records. They are No. 1 Miami, No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Nebraska, No. 4 UCLA, No. 5 Virginia Tech, No. 10 Maryland, No. 14 Washington State and No. 16 Brigham Young. At least two of those teams will lose in the near future because Oklahoma and Nebraska clash this week and Washington State and UCLA meet in early November. The top two teams in the final BCS standings will play for the national title in the Rose Bowl on January 3. Texas coach Mack Brown and his Longhorns hope to be in that game, but their chances are somewhere between very slim and none because Oklahoma would have to lose twice in the regular season for that to happen and then the Horns would have to beat the Big 12 North winner, probably Nebraska. But, by winning out and finishing 10-1, the Longhorns would have a great chance to play in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans in the post-season.
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