Tilting at Windmills

Much to the chagrin of Big 12 fans who wanted no more part of Jeff Capel in their league, current USC head coach, former Iowa State coach and NBA two-time loser Tim Floyd will be the next head basketball coach at the University of Arizona.

It’s an annual rite of passage that teams (college and pro) around the country will sniff around Norman to try and pick up a football or basketball coach to help out their floundering, but once-glorious program. Joe Castiglione has all but kept those dogs at bay by paying Bob Stoops the equivalent of a South Pacific island nation’s GNP, although some people still can’t help themselves dreaming a little dream every year that Stoops will move on. Kelvin Sampson was rumored for nearly every job opening for 10 years until finally taking his antique rollover minutes to Indiana.

The latest in the “will somebody please take this guy off our schedule” tilting is Jeff Capel, who was first rumored for the Georgia job. There’s no way Capel goes to coach in that barn, especially after Mike Anderson turned them down, but we’ll probably still have to put up with this rumor crap until they hire some mid-major sucker coach. Then it was rumored he would go to Virginia. Didn’t happen. Finally, a little story in some Super Saver weekly picked up steam yesterday and people like Austin’s ESPN sports radio flailed at the drumbeat of Capel going to Arizona. Again … wishful thinking.

Seriously ... Georgia?

Capel, who as we all know pulled OU’s program out of the ditch and put them into the Elite 8 three years later, apparently likes the idea of coaching three McDonald’s All-Americans next year. One of them, Keith “Tiny” Gallon, has dropped about six months’ worth of quarter pounders and looked great in last night’s all-star fest.

So, welcome back from wherever people had already sent you, Jeff. We’re not naïve enough to think we’ll have you forever at OU, but we’re sure glad you’re our guy right now.

Like a really bad horror movie, UT rolled out their quick sequel to their first Junior recruiting weekend. And like most horror sequels, the second version is not quite as good as the original, but still managed to draw a decent box office result.

"Moves well, lightning quick, great hands."

So UT is now up to 19 verbals which even for UT might be a record. So who did UT get this weekend?

Ross Apo. Very good WR prospect that OU was still evaluating

Ashton Dorsey. Kind of surprise that UT picked up a 3rd DT prospect. Dorsey was starting to get real national attention. Not sure where he falls in the DT order probably somewhere after Taylor Bible. Dorsey’s brother attends ATM so ATM must be really annoyed by this. 

Bryant Jackson. Safety prospect. I think he might be related to OU’s Brian Jackson. Not highly rated right now, but seems like a good compliment to Ahman Dixon.

Traylon Shead. Seems like a good RB, but might be the 4th best RB in Texas at best behind Seastrunk, DJ Jones, and Dontae Williams. 

Greg Daniels. DE prospect that’s about all anyone knows about him right now

Chris Jones. WR prospect. Again, something of a surprise. 

Dominic Espinosa. Probably the best verbal of the weekend. Great OC/OG prospect. 

So a good weekend for UT, but not a great weekend.  None of the elite top ten from Texas added, and UT would seem to have filled several slots such as WR while they are still some elite prospects out there. Again, it’s early March. Evaluations of kids has barely started, so it might be a bigger weekend for UT  than it appears today.

Course, how many ships UT has to give is a matter of some debate. So I’m going to indulge in some blatant UT rumor mongering. I have no idea what’s true/what’s false. So anyone with actual details please correct me. 

Rumor 1: Their top DT prospect from last year Humphrey is out for Spring and maybe longer with a kidney issue. This might have prompted the additional DT offer 

Rumor 2: UT maybe losing one of their recent DT signees to grades. Again, prompting the additional DTs offers out there. 

Rumor 3: UT may be losing 3 folks to transferring out, and DJ Monroe might not make back academically. 

So all this might indicate that UT has as many 25 ships to give out. At the very least, you have to figure that UT has 3 ships left for Seastrunk, Wilson and Jeffcoat. Everyone in the country would.