Tomorrow's press events mark the start of Spring Football Season for the UT Rockets, with the first practice slated for Thursday morning. That being the case, it may be a good time to clean out the recorder, including an interview with Coach Beckman on Signing Day this year.
The argument can be made that each of the recruiting classes of the Beckman era have gotten stronger. It's likely impossible to find a class more highly regarded out of high school than this one, and since it's the coaches' jobs to keep the talent coming, a certain amount of selling skills are required. "Our coaches, when we first got in here that first year, we were just scrambling. It was going, going, going, we had five guys that were recruiting at that time. So we're down, number-wise, but I think we have a fabulous staff that recruits extremely hard," says Beckman. "There's no egos. It's not about 'oh, I got this guy' or 'I got that guy'. It's about who WE got. They're TEAM recruiters and you don't see that all the time at different schools."
In remarks that many regular readers have already seen on the official site, Coach talked about filling needs, and I asked him to expand on that a bit, specifically in the area of kicking. "I probably should have hit on that a little bit more. The kicking situation isn't because we don't have some guys here that can kick. You don't want to use injuries as an excuse, but it is. When you lose one of your kickers, then you lose the next one, so you're kicking your 3rd guy...depth becomes an issue. J. D. Detmer is fabulous kicker. He's 97% kicker, kicking into the endzone, which we haven't had here, and it's been an Achilles heel for us in coverage. So we're excited about getting him here. Now we lost 4: we lost a guard and a center, an end, and a linebacker, and Westbrook played a lot too. So we got some big holes but some young men from the last class that we feel can come in, but there were definitely things we thought we needed to get with this recruiting class. Jordan Barnes should be one of those guys that can help where Archie Donald left. Tank Sturdevant is at end. He was right down to the wire. I've known Hank since he was a little guy. He understands us, he likes us, he likes the school, he likes the people, he likes the players and coaches that are here, and I think that was the final straw that made him say "you know, I can be successful at UT".
Beckman has preached competition since the day he started at UT, and this class is getting a full dose of it right through recruiting and signing day. There's no doubt it's been impressed upon each recruit from the beginning. "I can tell you our staff did a great job, but our kids did too; they recruited them too. They don't go home on weekends enjoying life. They stay and are involved in the recruiting process. So they're going to be here. And I always tell them that if there is anybody that they don't feel can be a part of this family, they need to text me, or let me know on Sunday. The first year that happened (was this year). I got a couple of texts that said 'I don't know if this young man is going to fit in our program'. And I did exactly what they said and told the young man they didn't have a scholarship (offer) anymore. Our players do an unbelievable job of recruiting. We have a mature team now. I'm very proud of how they've responded to losing Coach Court and so on."
There are 23 recruits in the class, but there are also some grayshirts. Matt Neal and Antwan Gilbert are the two players currently slated to grayshirt, with Neal coming in January. "They understand it's going to be a later time for them to come in."
The Rockets addressed some needs this year. The talent level appears to have improved yet again. Competition is still the key to playing time. The "young" label has been replaced by "mature". Certainly there are still a large number of underclassmen on the squad, but the maturity they've shown with recruiting alone, and the trust the coaches have shown in them, bodes well for the future.
The first wait is over. Spring practice begins this week. Can kickoff be far off?
