How Texas narrowly avoided losing their talented DL to Texas A&M
By Wescott Eberts  @SBN_Wescott on Aug 20 2014, 5:15p
The 2014 Horns defensive line could have ended up looking quite different than it will this season.
So. Close.
Heading into the 2014 season, the Texas Longhorns will lean heavily on senior defensive end Cedric Reed and junior Malcom Brown, while sophomore defensive tackle Hassan Ridgeway tries to convert some of his massive potential into production.
But Reed, Brown, and Ridgeway could have easily ended up wearing the maroon and white for the Texas A&M Aggies and perhaps would have done so in the current environment.
A look at their individual recruitments explains why.
In April of 2010, the Horns and the Aggies were battling for star Cleveland defensive end Cedric Reed, a relatively raw but long and promising 6'6, 245-pounder with more than 20 scholarship offers from around the country, including LSU, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Stanford, and USC.
Announcing on his deceased mother's birthday, Reed cited the family atmosphere at Texas a major reason for his commitment to Orangebloods, but also told Inside Texas that he wanted to play for a national championship.
In what at the time still seemed like the glory days of Longhorns football, Texas was just coming off the title game appearance against Alabama.
Even after the disappointment there, the strong close to the 2010 recruiting class that featured the Five-Star Friday commitments of linebacker Jordan Hicks and defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat helped jumpstart the momentum for a 2011 class that came together with remarkable speed when Junior Days felt like Christmas and were orchestrated to the extent your parents orchestrated Christmas when you were a kid.
Remember when recruits actually seriously talked about the ability to win a national championship at Texas? It certainly feels like an incredible distance from flameout defensive tackle Taylor Bible's bold claim of four of them during his career and though the distance from more subdued claims about such wins isn't as great, it's significant nonetheless.
--MORE AT THE LINK--
By Wescott Eberts  @SBN_Wescott on Aug 20 2014, 5:15p
The 2014 Horns defensive line could have ended up looking quite different than it will this season.
So. Close.
Heading into the 2014 season, the Texas Longhorns will lean heavily on senior defensive end Cedric Reed and junior Malcom Brown, while sophomore defensive tackle Hassan Ridgeway tries to convert some of his massive potential into production.
But Reed, Brown, and Ridgeway could have easily ended up wearing the maroon and white for the Texas A&M Aggies and perhaps would have done so in the current environment.
A look at their individual recruitments explains why.
In April of 2010, the Horns and the Aggies were battling for star Cleveland defensive end Cedric Reed, a relatively raw but long and promising 6'6, 245-pounder with more than 20 scholarship offers from around the country, including LSU, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Stanford, and USC.
Announcing on his deceased mother's birthday, Reed cited the family atmosphere at Texas a major reason for his commitment to Orangebloods, but also told Inside Texas that he wanted to play for a national championship.
In what at the time still seemed like the glory days of Longhorns football, Texas was just coming off the title game appearance against Alabama.
Even after the disappointment there, the strong close to the 2010 recruiting class that featured the Five-Star Friday commitments of linebacker Jordan Hicks and defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat helped jumpstart the momentum for a 2011 class that came together with remarkable speed when Junior Days felt like Christmas and were orchestrated to the extent your parents orchestrated Christmas when you were a kid.
Remember when recruits actually seriously talked about the ability to win a national championship at Texas? It certainly feels like an incredible distance from flameout defensive tackle Taylor Bible's bold claim of four of them during his career and though the distance from more subdued claims about such wins isn't as great, it's significant nonetheless.
--MORE AT THE LINK--
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