 
Mack Brown comments on the 2009 signees
Feb. 4, 2009
Tariq Allen: Tariq Allen is in school. He can play all three linebackers. We feel like Tariq's a big hitter, it will be a great advantage that he's in school. And we also feel like he's a guy that will be a great mic (middle) player. But you can see his ability to run. Running backs in high school carry the ball so much they usually have to try to work on pass protection. Linebackers attack the line of scrimmage so much in high school, their biggest thing is usually dropping and pass protection. You can see Tariq can run, he's really physical. Guys have been impressed with him so far in his ability at his size to move his feet in the off-season program. Very physical, very tough. Thomas Ashcraft: The eight young guys that came in early came because most of them want to have a better chance to play early. Thomas has great feet. He knocks down about six guys in a row here in this film. The players were hooping and hollering about him downstairs (in the team meeting). Thomas is from Cedar Hill. They won the state championship there in his earlier years. We think all four of these linemen can move their feet, but they're big guys. He can play any of the four places, guard or tackle we feel like up front. He will not be a center. This is the other thing about the diversity of this class. We hope there is enough flexibility that he can play any of the four. Eryon Barnett: Eryon Barnett is not in school. He's a corner, he's got the long arms and ability to cover. We think he can be a great man-to-man guy because he's tall, but still can run. He has excellent hands. In fact, he's caught the ball some for them as well, and he's very physical. Coming up and the corners now, especially the boundary type corners, need to be good enough and quick enough to cover man-to-man, but physical enough to come up on the run and take on the receiver, especially with alt flair screens that people are throwing out of the back field.
Garrett Gilbert: Garrett, you all have watched, Garrett's big and he's strong. He's not had any repercussions with his shoulder at all. He's so well taught because of his dad. The camps he went to at a young age. If he gets flushed out of the pocket, he has the ability to move. As he's running toward the line of scrimmage, two people are coming up, and he lifts and throws the ball on the mark. That's one thing that Colt and Vince both have been so good about, is going toward the line of scrimmage, drawing people from the secondary, and throwing the ball downfield. He still has the arm strength to get the ball deep. He's always in the shotgun. In fact, he's running the offense that Jevan Sneed ran, because Chad Morris was Jevan's coach at Stephenville. He's got the whole game. He can run, too. I mean, he's maybe 6-4. He's big and strong. Colt was probably 175 at this same age. I'd say Garrett is 205, 207, and very strong. He's not going to play baseball this spring, so he can really work on just his football. Garrett is also a four-point (GPA) student. Trey Graham: Trey Graham is a 4.0 student. Wants to be a doctor. He's out of Midway. He's a tight end. Their fullbacks got hurt, and he played fullback a lot of the year. He's probably about 235 now, and we feel like he can be a 250 H-back tight end. You can see he's got the ability to run after the catch. And we also like the fact that Midway played him at fullback some because he had to work on his toughness and blocking out of the backfield. But we've had so many injuries at tight end, and we've been so good at tight end here, it's been a go-to position for us that we've got to continue to work to get that position back to its strength. Calvin Howell: Calvin Howell, we feel can be an impact player in the defensive line. He and Trey are not in school. Calvin's really quick. He's got a great first step. He's 275, 280 pounds. He's in great shape. He can really run. And again, the defensive linemen in this class we'd like to see come in and play next year. He is not in school. You can see his ability to run. And this is what the spread offenses are doing to defenses. Calvin has the ability when there is a flair pass, a screen, a ball that bounces, to run it down. And that's hard to do at defensive tackle. So we're wanting our guys to run. Derek Johnson: Derek Johnson is not in school. I did not get to his school (in Jonesboro, Ark.) because of the ice storms. I couldn't get up there. I tried to go last week, and their town was shut down, their school was shut down. They just started school back today. When we called Derek last week, he was out trying to help people -- he is really big and strong. He was out there trying to help people get limbs out of their yards and get some sense back into it. Try to make some sense of the community. Derek's another one (who committed early). He had his coach call us back in the spring and say I'm from Texas, and I want to come to Texas. Dominique Jones: He had a shoulder operation. He hurt his shoulder in high school. He is in school. He can play defensive end or tight end. He's really a good pass-rusher. He should be ready for summer. But you can see his quickness off the corner. Dominique's also a really good student. We've been fortunate to get four good players from Kilgore High School. He's very impressive at tight end as well. He can stretch the middle of the field, and you'll see he can really block. We do not know where we'll play him yet. And we won't be able to watch him in the off-season or spring practice. So he'll be slowed a little bit. Since he's been here right now he wants to play defensive end, and that's where we're planning on playing him. But as you watch film, he could definitely be a tight end prospect if he wants to be. Paden Kelley: Paden Kelley grew up being a Texas football fan. He's not in school. He's from Lake Travis. His mom and dad went to school here. He's got great feet. He's really tall. He will be a young guy who will want to red-shirt as most offensive linemen do, because he wants to get stronger. But we liked his ability to run. He's another 4.0 student. There are five, six, seven of them in this group. But for a 6-6 guy, he can move his feet really, really well. And as people start getting quicker defensive tackles because of the spread, they're going to start -- we're going to have to have better athletes in the offensive line continually to block them. He will play tackle for us, that's what he wants to do. Kyle Kriegel: Kyle Kriegel is in school. He played defensive end, and defensive tackle in high school. He'll do the same for us. He would be in the Aaron Lewis type position where he plays a power end and plays tackle. He's 262, maybe is what he weighed in at the other day. He's about 6-5, and he can really run. So, again, he's a guy that we feel like can hold up against the run, but can also rush the passer. He's not skinny standing next to you, but he looks it on the film. He can be at 285 we think, 275, 285-pound guy. And we really liked how hard he played. He plays really, really hard every play. He plays with good pad level. Barrett Matthews: Barrett Matthews is the same hybrid at tight end, H-back, fullback that Trey Graham would be. Barrett can really run. In fact, I think he's run the 100 meters and he's involved with the track team at North Shore. Another really good student, but he has the ability to stretch the field and catch. But he's also a very good blocker. Very tough. Since fullbacks are so hard to find, we're really looking at finding the person that can play both. He can really run. So we think he gives us a lot of flexibility out of the backfield as an H-back or as a tight end. Great hands. And he's another one now. He walked in my office a year ago on Sunday, and this coming Sunday, and I said, "You ought to go home and think about this." He said, "No, I want to come. I've wanted to come to Texas my whole life and that's what I want to." Tevin Mims: Tevin Mims was a young guy who was 225 in the spring. He's 242 now, 245. You can watch the quickness that he has up front. Has the ability and this was Will Muschamp's school, and Will found him. And he and Bruce Chambers went to watch him play in a playoff game. He can really run, and is explosive up front. So we're excited about some of the guys that will play around the line of scrimmage for us. Patrick Nkwopara: Patrick Nkwopara is a young man that lost his mother to cancer right after he committed to us last year in the spring. And he's an excellent student again. He's got a very strong family, Nigerian family. He's a young guy that can really run. If you watch him, people have not said a lot about him because he's short. He's not the prototype to some of the other linebackers, but he's so quick, and he will really hit you. He's probably a little taller than (Rashad) Bobino. But you see his quickness. He just has great instincts. He's another one that Will saw on film and saw him workout, and was really excited about him after he first got here. Another 3.5 student or something. He's an excellent student. Alex Okafor: Alex has the ability to rush the passer. In fact, better than Brian Orakpo did at the same age. When we signed Brian, Brian was about 6-3, 211 pounds. And he ended up 260. Alex is probably 242 now, 245. So we think he can be a 265, 270 pass rusher. You can see him run right. The good thing about him is he's here. So we'll have 15 days this spring to have a real good evaluation. Most of these guys can rush the passer. The young defensive guys' problem is taking on Adam Ulatoski at 330 pounds on the run block. I mean, do they have the strength to do it? Garrett Porter: Garrett Porter, another 4.0 student from Odessa. They went deep in the playoffs. He's another guy that's really physical. Very impressed with these four offensive linemen, and we have found that by and large, the better the student, the more most of them have played. Especially in the offensive line. Garrett moves his feet. And stays after them. He's another one that can play a lot of positions. We would not think that we would put Garrett or Paden or Thomas Ashcraft at center right now because they haven't played it. We would play Mason at all five places, because mason was a center in high school. Greg Timmons: Greg Timmons is the single receiver that we signed. Greg can really run. He's probably 6-3, has excellent hands. And Greg's another one (who committed early). We were really surprised when he walked in the office and he and his mom sat there a year ago and he was one of the ones that committed on the first day -- he and Marcus Davis. We didn't have any idea that either one of them would want to commit when they walked in here. We like his height. He has really big hands, and he's a good ball catcher. Has the ability to use his body because he's so big. Kenny Vaccaro: Kenny had a knee operation about after his fourth game. He's another good student. This is at Brownwood, this would be junior film. He transferred over to Early (High School), and we do not have senior film on him. He can play all four positions in the secondary. He was in our camp last year. We thought he had the ability to play receiver if he wanted to. He's got really good hands. And last year, the real emphasis for next year will obviously be forcing more turnovers on defense. We did that as poorly as we've done it since we've been here. We've got to do a better job at catching the ball at linebacker and in the secondary. But Kenny is a big hitter. He is in school. He is working out, but he will not go through spring practice and will not be full speed because of the knee. Mason Walters: Mason is from is Frenship High School where David Thomas played for us. He's probably 310. You can see how well he runs for a guy to be as big as he is. Anybody that can play center can play anything else if he's 6-6 and 310, to have the ability to bend inside like that against smaller players is just really amazing. I've never seen a center that big that will play. And we really have talked about him playing all five positions. So we think he can play either tackle, either guard or center. Chris Whaley: Chris is a big back, obviously, at 225 pounds, 224. In fact, he may be 230 now. He's probably 6' 2.5", 6' 3", he's big. He's really fast, and he showed that on the screen in the All-Star Game. They lost all of their seniors last year. They had a really good team two years ago. And last year they were a really, really young team. He was one of the few seniors on the team, so they did not have a good year. Chris did not have the publicity. He is not big, he is built. He's strong. He's, in fact, he's in great shape. He's not heavy at all. You can see the ability to move his feet and change direction. When you ask about every-down back, the problem he's got is he was an every-down carrier. So he did not pass protect in high school. Now with our backs being around him this summer, we have a little better chance for him to understand what we do before we start. And that's not something that Cedric Benson or Mitchell or some of those guys had the ability to do because they weren't around. |
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