Eric Nahlin
33 minutes ago
By: Justin and Eric
The story of how a player talented enough to pick up an offer as a freshman from Lane Kiffin, and then again as a junior, ended up signing as a preferred walk-on at Texas.
“Basically, Coach Beck, Coach Giles, and a few other coaches followed me back in sophomore year but I didn’t hear much from them.
The first time coach I heard from was Coach Larry Fedora as he was inviting me to camp. Then, Coach Beck started hitting me up about camp, and I ended up coming to the Austin and playing well. I could’ve played better, but I got to meet Coach Herman, Beck, and Fedora, who are all great coaches. Then, I came to a game during my junior year, where I got to know Coach John Michael Jones. That spring, my recruitment started to heat up and I received offers from many D1 schools.
At that point, Texas had Jalen Milroe committed, and wasn’t looking for anyone else. Once Jalen de-committed, I immediately hit up Coach Jones and told him that I wanted to be the QB at Texas. A few days later, they took Charles Wright, but JM Jones told me that I still could be a PWO there, they just don’t have an offer. Coach Herman actually offered me the PWO over FaceTime and I was fired up. Although I had many other offers, UT always had a special place in my heart and I kept them in mind.
Then, when Coach Herman got fired, I wasn’t sure if my PWO was still there or not. During this time, I was still talking to many schools that offered me scholarships, but my plan was to wait until Signing Day.
As Signing Day crept up, LSU continued to relentlessly pursue me and eventually, two days before Signing Day, they offered me an official scholarship offer. This was a huge deal to me and I was absolutely fired up, as my dad is an alum and I’ve grown up watching LSU. I’d been in touch with them throughout my entire recruitment, and felt like that was going to be the spot. One day before Signing Day, I received a late PWO offer at UCLA, which I was excited about, but still felt like it was between LSU and Texas. So, I called all of the coaches that I had been talking to and told them that I would not be attending their school.
I was down to LSU, Texas, and UCLA the night before signing day when Coach Sark gave me a call. I had already been talking a lot with JM Jones and Coach Milwee, but had not gotten to talk to Coach Sark yet. Our call went amazing, and really made me rethink if LSU was the best spot for me. The next morning, NSD, I was so conflicted, and decided I needed more time to decide. I had great talks with the coaches at both UT and LSU, and I was very confused. I texted Coach Sark to see if he could talk again and he immediately got on the phone to talk to me and my dad.
After that talk, I started feeling like UT was the right fit for me. I took the night to keep thinking and woke up today feeling the same way, when I finally decided that UT was going to be the place for me. I had three very tough calls to make to Coach Peetz, Coach Callaway, and Coach Ponamsky at LSU, as I have built such good relationships with them. I have no doubt they will be back playing at the championship level soon, but I needed to make the best decision for myself. No love lost for LSU, but I just knew Texas was the best fit for me. After these calls, I immediately FaceTimed JM Jones to break the news to him, as we have built such a great relationship and he is the reason why Texas initially stayed in my recruitment.
Then, I FaceTimed Coach Milwee and let him know, which he was fired up to hear and have me become part of the QB room. Then after that, I FaceTimed Coach Sark and let him know the news, which he was very excited to hear. And now, I’m a Longhorn.”
Lourd was extremely thankful for JM Jones, “I wouldn’t have signed with Texas if it wasn’t for him.”
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Finding a PWO as talented as Lourd is an outlier, but the standard from this story, aside Jones’ doggedness on the PWO trail, is Sarkisian’s proactive accessibility.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of Sarkisian getting a “you up?” text and being on the phone minutes later. Not only is Sarkisian’s level of involvement in recruiting impressing people, his relatability and demeanor is winning them over.
When we say there are the hints of a UT recruiting uprising in the making, it largely stems from his personal interactions with these blue-chip recruits and the excitement he’s creating with them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, “need some commits!” Yes, we know, the processes are in place to ensure the fan base is going to be quite happy with the results of the class.