RIP to the 'Texas doesn't develop' narrative
This is not a new death. The body has long been decomposed leaving us to guess the actual time of death. Call Dr. Michael Baden.
Despite the obvious dead body in front of us, in the dumbest corners of the college football internet you will still see dismissive remarks when a top prospect picks the University of Texas over schools that put more players in the NFL between 2012-2022. As if that has any current relevance.
When this staff was hired I wrote that coaches develop players, not buildings, not schools. Fans conflating Steve Sarkisian and Pete Kwiatkowski, two men with extensive track records for developing and deploying talent at previous stops, with late-stage Mack Brown, Charlie Strong, and Tom Herman, were demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of the basics of the sport. Or, maybe they were just being dishonest. Surely Aggie fans will understand the point I’m making when it comes to recognizing how Mike Elko is not to blame for the historical failure of A&M’s historical 2022 class.
A simple barometer for development is NFL Draft track record. Here’s a snapshot of Texas’ NFL Draft picks by year:
Even the most slack jawed rival fans among us will notice Texas’ last two drafts have put nearly the identical number of players in the NFL Draft as the seven drafts prior. And, we will see yet another burnt orange avalanche this spring.
Beyond the draft, the current roster is littered with examples of player development.
Jahdae Barron just won the Thorpe Award. He barely snuck in as a four-star but he was still vastly underrated. I distinctly remember many thinking he would be forced to move to safety. He has gotten better and better every year and the staff deserves credit for solidifying nickel with Barron before moving him back to corner where he could erase the opposing team’s boundary receiver.
Michael Taaffe was always poorly appreciated but even if he received the notice he deserved in high school, he would have been a middling three-star because reasons. He’s gone from walk-on to second-team All-American. He deserves a lot of respect for his own development but the coaches have brought him along more and more each year to help him flourish.
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Here’s where the author will eat some crow by adding Hayden Conner to the list. Conner, at left guard, is having by far his best season. Similar to Christian Jones, he kept developing through the slings and arrows. Jake Majors is another O-lineman who has improved each season. Funny how that works.
Yes, Anthony Hill came in as a five-star, and like Taaffe he has done a great job in taking ownership of his own development, but to already be one of the 2-3 best linebackers in the country as a sophomore is quite the feat. He’s benefitted from two good teachers.
Other trend lines: Barryn Sorrell, a former three-star that has gotten better every year at a grown man position. Alfred Collins and Vernon Broughton have improved drastically in each of the last two years.
The list goes on but you get the point.
There’s another component to maximizing talent that precedes development and even precedes signing talented players. It’s one that is on display every day during the portal window as we see true freshman entering the portal after just one year at their school. That’s evaluation. Nobody is perfect in that regard but the staff’s evaluation has made their job as developers much easier. It’s much harder to develop a roster that has negative turnover…like, I don’t know, Oklahoma?
We’ll look at evaluation next.
