The 3-2-1 - Ja'Quinden Jackson, Lathan Ransom, team culture

THREE THINGS WE LEARNED

1. Texas getting a difference-maker in Ja’Quinden Jackson

There’s no need to get cute with this one … in landing a commitment from Ja’Quinden Jackson on Monday night, the Longhorns picked up an elite prospect who could impact the program in a number of ways. The Duncanville standout can play at a number of different positions and he’s also the type of player who can lift those around him with his work ethic and dedication to his craft. Having him and Hudson Card committed is an impressive achievement for the Texas staff to have secured early pledges from the top two quarterbacks in the state, and two players who could have picked up the phone and committed to pretty much any school in the country.

I caught up with Duncanville recruiting coordinator Eric Mims Sr. to get his thoughts on Jackson.

On what makes Jackson such a special player:

“His physical attributes are amazing. When you look at him, he’s 6-2 1/2, 225 pounds. When he gets in the weight room, he turns into a monster. He’s 500-pound squatter, 315-pound bencher. He has great weight room numbers. He’s a hard-working kid. Some kids who have the special talent and special abilities don’t have to work hard because they’ve been better than the competition their whole lives. He gets after it. Young guy see him and he shows that it’s not just about showing up on Friday night, running around and over people.”

On if he feels people are looking past Jackson’s abilities as a passer:

“They do. It’s just because of how we ran the offense last year. He’s a true dual-threat guy. He’s not one-dimensional where throwing is an issue. He has a really strong arm, throws it well. Every college coach that comes and sees him at practice, they all say ‘He can definitely can play quarterback at the next level.’ Sometimes the system just highlights certain attributes.”

On which other schools were recruiting him aggressively as a quarterback:

“Florida State came in pretty hard with Kendal Briles. He’d been to A&M a couple times. He had talked with Utah, had a visit set up to go out there. He had talked to Tennessee as well. He talked to Georgia, since (Jake) Fromm might be leaving after this year. With their quarterback situation, they spoke to him. He had a ton of offers, but those were the ones in the upper echelon of schools that have reached and talked about him playing quarterback.”

On if he expects Jackson to shut down the recruiting process now that he’s committed:

“I do. He’s pretty focused on football. We really don’t talk a lot of recruiting at the school. They’re just there to do what they need to do for Duncanville. If they need help, they ask advice, but they make decisions independently. He has a good support system around him. When he’s at Duncanville, he’s there to lead Duncanville day to day. He’s focused on being a Duncanville Panther.”

On Jackson in the locker room and as a team leader:

“He’s an all-around leader. The teammates flock to him, attract to him. He has the personality to lead. He does it in the weight room, on the field, off the field. He’s a high academic guy too. He does a great job in the class room, setting examples for younger guys on the field. If things aren’t going right, he’ll be vocal, step up and ahold teammates accountable. When he doesn’t do well, he’ll be the first one to step up, do extra running, accept consequences and do whatever is asked to lead the team.”

2. More on Ja’Quinden Jackson

In prepping for Ja’Quinden Jackson’s commitment, I also spoke with Rivals.com regional analyst Sam Spiegelman to get his thoughts on the four-star quarterback.

On if he thinks people are overlooking his ability as a passer:

“I absolutely do. I definitely think he has the arm strength. I think with more time, he’ll definitely progress as a passer. When I watched him throw downfield he was on point. The ball travels 60 yards with the flick of a wrist. He’ll need to work on some things, but I think it’s all things that can be fine-tuned. Tom Herman, giving his offensive background, it’s a great landing spot to see if his future is behind center. Playing in the shotgun, in that system, he has ability to air it out and it’s an encouraging spot for his development.”

On what other spots could be possibilities for Jackson if QB doesn’t work out:

With his frame and his measurables, I think he could make an impact at two or three other positions. He could play receiver, could be a puzzle piece, and H-back type, be a large slot receiver. He’s raw at receiver obviously, but you want to get him the ball in the open field, see what he can do. He could play safety, he’s big enough to play in the box at strong safety, maybe even outside linebacker. The strong safety or rover role fits him very well. But I wouldn’t give up on the quarterback position.”

On Jackson’s potential impact on teammate Chris Thompson Jr.’s decision:

“I think that Thompson is a slight Texas lean. I think if he was fully onboard he might have committed already. But he’s shown too much interest in other schools that I think he’ll explore first. Ja’Quinden is going to recruit friends and teammates, and there’s a Duncanville to Texas pipeline when you talk about the coaches and things. I think this is certainly a bonus for the Longhorns, but Chris might wind up at Texas regardless.”

On Jackson potentially helping rally other recruits to Texas:

“I don’t know if he’s the kind of outspoken recruiter that’s going to DM kids on Twitter, or tweet out things like ‘HookEm, who’s next?’ But I think in the Dallas area for sure, certainly given Duncanvilles’ mystique, there’s a ton of respect when it comes to Ja’Quinden Jackson. And players have an enormous amount of respect for what he does on the football field. I think there’s a desire from others to want to play with him. He’s that type of player. In the huddle, he’s a lead by example kid. He’s not going to whoop and holler and scream too much or give speeches. He’s going to lead by his play, and he’s very good at that.”

3. Texas is surging with Lathan Ransom following this weekend’s visit

The Longhorns hosted Rivals100 safety Lathan Ransom on an unofficial visit from Saturday until Monday, and in talking to the Tucson Salpointe standout’s father, it sounds like things could not have gone much better.

“Everything was top notch. They checked every box. Location, coaching staff, top notch football, top notch facilities, what its’ going to be in 2021 when it’s all done – when it comes to boxes, for me as a parent, UT checked every single box. It was a pretty cool visit,” said Nathan Ransom. “We got to talk to coach (Tom) Herman, got to build on that relationship. We spent some time with coach (Craig) Naivar, really got to bound with him.

“We got in late Friday so we spent a lot of time Saturday, Sunday and Monday with (Naivar). That was well-needed. Obviously we had a great relationship with him on the phone, but to get to spend time with him in person, I really enjoyed his company. We talked where he thinks Lathan fits on the team, the vision he has for him. It was good to get a lot of personal time because it was just us and him a lot of the time, so that was big.”

Ransom will be back in Austin the weekend of June 14-16 with not only his father, but his mother and sister as well. Prior to that visit, he’ll be at Notre Dame and the weekend after the UT visit he’ll be at Ohio State. Ransom has already taken official visits to LSU and Oklahoma.

In their conversations with Naivar over the weekend, it was shown to Ransom and his father how he’d have an opportunity to play early in the Texas defense. Nothing was promised, but with the way the depth chart could shake out over what would be Ransom’s first two years in Austin, it was an appealing discussion.

“He talked about how they have a possibility on some schemes where they have six DBs on the field. Regardless of where they have him, he’d have a good chance of being on the field. He can play up in the box, can play free, can play nickel,” Mr. Ransom said. “He just said they have a vision, with one senior graduating at safety, or once guys graduate after his first year or go to NFL, he’d have an opportunity at multiple positions. The free position could be open and they’d have two safeties fighting for that position. After that it opens up to a couple diff positions. He really just sold his vision of being able to play three different other positions, was very honest and open with him.”

With three official visits coming up in consecutive weeks, Ransom is on a fast track for a summer decision. Both LSU and Oklahoma set a high bar with Ransom’s first two visits, but Texas matched that experience on this visit, and will have a chance to really blow the doors open on an official visit in two weeks.

“For unofficial visit, it was definitely right up there with the official visits,” Mr. Ransom said. “You can only do so much with unofficial visits. But just spending time with Lathan – he has to see you care and want him in your program. That was the first step, building that relationship with coach Naivar. Over the next couple months, he’ll continue to do that with coach Herman too.”

Ransom is expected to release a list of favorites on Tuesday. According to his father, Texas will “100 percent” make the cut.

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TWO QUESTIONS

1. How much has the culture of the new staff taken hold?

There was a lot of talk last week about a certain wide receiver who decided to leave the UT program, and how he may not have been a fit with the culture that Texas is establishing under Tom Herman and staff. Caden Sterns was the first to make mention of it on Twitter in an apparent reference to the departure (“This program ain’t for everybody”), which could have been taken as a sign that Sterns is developing as a bit of a team leader and maybe even a spokesperson of sorts.

In talking to Lathan Ransom’s father about their visit, Sterns was very heavily involved and Ransom and his father both came away with a healthy amount of respect for the sophomore safety.

“We talked to Caden Sterns, spent a lot of time with him. He was awesome,” Mr. Ransom said. “He was just really honest with him. He just said ‘Hey man, come here, make this the real DBU.’ Thought that was really cool. (Lathan) hung out with him and two other safeties, but Caden was the guy who stood out, who he really, really talked to him. He even met up with the quarterback one night and said he was really nice to him and cool. To get those guys playing at that level, for them to take time to talk to a guy who is just thinking about coming, that was really cool.”

Speaking of “the quarterback,” Ransom and his father attended a team workout on Monday. The unity and consistency with every player’s approach was something they definitely noticed.

“It was intense. Talk about something I’ve never seen before on that level - that was really , really impressive,” Mr. Ransom said. “The strength coach is phenomenal. It was on another level. Everyone was in tune, nobody was off doing their own thing. Everyone was working for the same mission. The quarterback was in there. There wasn’t anyone in there where it was ‘hey that’s that guy’ and he was off on his own or was any different. It was impressive.”

2. How valuable are Hudson Card and his family to Texas’ recruiting efforts?

Most of the focus this week is on Ja’Quinden Jackson – I get it – but Longhorns quarterback commitment Hudson Card, who has been committed for more than a year, deserves a tip of the cap as well. Card doesn’t put himself out there in the media a ton and certainly doesn’t ask for a lot of public acknowledgement, but he and his family have been very involved in spending time/hosting recruits and their families during recruiting events. They did it again with Ransom and his father.

“We went to the lake with the quarterback commitment, Hudson Card, got to spend some time there. It was literally just me, Lathan, Hudson’s dad and Hudson,” Mr. Ransom said. “We really got to spend some time with them and go out there on the lake. That was awesome. That was the highlight of the fun part, going out there on the wakeboard and stuff. That was cool because we got away from it all, saw the city of Austin. That was really cool for him.”

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ONE PREDICTION – Texas gets at least one of the Tucson Salpointe duo, and could land both

I mentioned in the War Room last week that I believed the Longhorns were the team to beat for Tucson Salpointe running back Bijan Robinson based on some things I was hearing. Official visits to Ohio State and Texas this month could be big (in addition to possible visits to UCLA and USC), but Texas appears to be the team to beat heading into the summer.

With Ransom, most have felt like LSU had the inside track but I’m just not so sure after last weekend’s unofficial visit to UT. As I mentioned above, he’ll take three official visits to Notre Dame, Texas and Ohio State over the next few weekends, so there is room for movement in this one. But if Texas can impress Ransom and his mother the way it did Ransom’s father during last weekend’s visit, the Longhorns just might come out victorious in that one as well.

And don’t forget, Texas also has an offer out to 2021 Salpointe offensive lineman Jonah Miller, who recently told OB the Longhorns are high on his list.