Part 2 of 3 Parts

Recruiting Enters New Phase Saturday

College coaches get to start calling recruits again Saturday after a layoff
of more than three months, and that usually means good things will start to
happen again  for the Longhorns.
Coach Mack Brown and his staff have revolutionized recruiting in Texas with
the their early commitment blitz, and it worked again this year with an even
dozen early pleges by August 2, including six who have been mentioned on one
or more national top 100 lists.
There haven't been any new ones since DT Tully Janszen of Keller picked Texas
over Oklahoma and Texas A&M back on August 2.
Under NCAA rules, college coaches get to call each recruit one time in May,
then they get to start calling them once a week on September 1, which is this
Saturday.
Those weekly calls probably will produce at least one or two more commitments
in September.
WR Marquis Johnson of Champaign, Ill., had planned to come to New Mexico
State season opener, and he had said there was a good chance he would commit
on his visit.
He still strongly favors the Longhorns, but wants to take his official visit
before committing.
One important thing to note here is that out-of-state kids can take official
visits during the football season. Texas kids cannot take official visits
because the University Interscholastic League, the governing body for high
school sports in Texas, has ruled that any player who takes an expense-paid
trip prior to the conclusion of football season loses his eligibility for
that season.
That means the only kids making official visits to Texas and other in-state
schools in September, October or early November will be from other states.
The Longhorns will have a lot of fine high school prospects as their guests
at the New Mexico State game, but they will be in Austin unofficially, which
means UT can give them a ticket and they have to pay for everything else,
including their transportation, food and lodging.
Here are the Longhorns' 12 early commitments:
Quarterbacks (1)
Billy Don Malone, 6-2 1/2, 185, 4.7, Paris North Lamar
Tight Ends (1)
David Thomas, 6-3, 210, 4.55, Wolfforth Frenship
Wide Receivers (1)
Dustin Miksch, 6-0, 167, 4.35, Round Rock Westwood
Offensive Linemen (2)
Brett Valdez, 6-4, 310, 5.2, Brownwood
Neale Tweedie, 6-5, 255, 4.9, Allen
Defensive Linemen (4)
Sonny Davis, 6-1, 320, 5.0, Austin Lanier  and Gulf Coast, Miss., JC
Earl Anderson, 6-3, 265, 4.8, San Marcos
Lyle Sendlein, 6-4, 260, 4.8, Scottsdale Chaparral
Tully Jantzen, 6-4, 255, 4.8, Keller
Linebackers (2)
Brian Robison, 6-3, 243, 4.6, Splendora
Marcus Myers, 6-3, 220, 4.5 Pflugerville Connally
Athletes (1)
Clint Haney, 5-11, 185, 4.27, Smithson Valley
* * * *
The Longhorns probably won't get another quarterback. Vincent Young, the
great prospect at  Houston Madison, says he is going to go out of state.
The only running back still on the UT radar screen is Albert Hardy of Galena
Park, the state's top back.
At tight end, Texas is still trying to get Eric Winston of Midland Lee, but
he comes from Aggie stock and is a long shot.
The Longhorns hope to get two more wide receivers, headed by Marquis Johnson
and then probably Biren Ealy of Cypress Falls.
Robert Timmons of Flower Mound Marcus is the state's most talented wideout,
but he is serving a three-week suspension to start the season and he played
only two games last year because of eligibility problems arising from
switching schools.
A wild card here is DaBryan Blanton, the small but lightning fast running
back from Forney.  He could be a wide receiver in college. Texas is
recruiting him.
Texas is still recruiting two offensive line prospects and probably will try
to sign both Justin Blalock of Plano East and Tony Ugoh of Spring Westfield.
The defensive line crop is loaded this year, and Texas is trying to sign DEs
Chase Pittman of Shreveport Evangel, Bryan Pickryl of Jenks, Okla., Travis
Leitko of The Woodlands, Larry Dibbles of Lancaster and Dontriel Coates of
Anahuac.
The Horns won't get all of them, of course, but they hope to get several of
them.
The North Carolina game on Sept. 8 has been dedicated to the memory of Cole
Pittman, Chase Pittman's brother who was killed in a tragic automobile
accident while returning to UT in February. He was a promising sophomore DT.
The situation at DT is much like the one at DE. Roderique Wright of Alief
Hastings, Marco Martin of Mesquite, Joseph Edwards of Dayton, Tuaren Brown of
Katy Cinco Ranch, Kasey Studdard of Highlands Ranch, Colo., and Loren Howard
of Scottsdale, Ariz., are all being recruited, and, hopefully, at least two
or three of them will sign with Texas.
At linebacker, outstanding middle backer Aaron Harris of Mesquite and speedy
outside backers Garnett Smith of Arlington Lamar and Glenn Jackson of
Carrollton Turner are the main hopes.
Texas probably will try to sign one or two defensive backs and the top one
who is considering the Horns is Ricky Wilson of Port Arthur Lincoln.
Speedy Edorian McCullough of North Garland would be a fine cornerback, but he
wants to be a running back. He likes Oklahoma and Texas.
RECRUITING NOTES: LeKeldrick Bridges of Dallas Hillcrest, one of the state's
top athletes, has given up football to concentrate on basketball, so he will
be disappearing from all the football prospect lists, including mine. . . The
strength of the this year's recruiting class statewide is in the defensive
line. There are more outstanding defensive linemen in the state than in any
other year since I've been doing this.

Injury Update

Senior starting LB Lee Jackson has a turf toe and probably will miss the
opener, with Tyrone Jones replacing him. Jackson is expected back for the
second game, but toe injuries sometimes are tough to shake off.
Junior DE O. J. McClintock is out indefinitely after suffering severe hand
and arm cuts in a household accident. The coaches hope he'll be back by
mid-season.
Junior WR Kyle Shanahan, a walk-on who is one of the Longhorns top four
receivers, is still recovering from a puncture wound in his leg. He tried to
jump a fence and didn't make it. He will miss the opener, but might be back
for the second game.

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Horns on Short List
Five Longhorn football players - senior OT Mike Williams, junior DE Cory
Redding, senior CB Quentin Jammer, senior MLB De'Andre Lewis and junior QB
Chris Simms - have been named to the watch lists for three of the nation's
most prestigious post-season awards.
Williams and Redding were named to the Rotary Lombardi Award Watch List,
Jammer was tabbed for the Jim Thorpe Award Watch List. Lewis was selected for
the Dick Butkus Award Watch List and Simms was chosen to the Davey O'Brien
National Quarterback Award Watch List.
Established in 1970, the Lombardi Award honors the nation's outstanding
linemanwho best exemplifies the character and discipline of  Vince Lombardi,
the legendary head coach of the Green Bay Packers.
Established in 1986, the Thorpe Award honors the nation's outstanding
defensive back. The award is named after the legendary Jim Thorpe, who was a
first-team Walter Camp Football Foundation All-American in 1911 and '12.
Thorpe also won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912
Summer Olympics, played professional baseball and was elected the first
president of what would later become the National Football League in 1920.
The Butkus Award goes to the nation's top linebacker and is named for former
University of Illinois and NFL Hall of Famer Dick Butkus.
Simms was named as one of 30 candidates for the O'Brien award.
The O'Brien Award is named in honor of the late Davey O'Brien, the
All-American and Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback for TCU in the late 1930s.

Hayter Will Transfer

Junior RB Kenny Hayter plans to transfer to another school to try to get more
playing time. he has been granted a release.
With backup DE Adam McConathy transferring earlier and two freshmen, CB Adam
Ross of Tyler and LB Yamil LeBron of Killeen Ellison, failing to enroll for
academic reasons, the Longhorns are down to 79 scholarship players.
Ross was practicing with the team last week when it was determined that he
had problems with the NCAA Clearinghouse. He plans to return in January.
LeBron says he will attend junior college and then return to Texas.