Recruiting Strategy And Future Outlook

This is the locked on podcast network celebrating ten years of your team every day . With my Sapphire preferred cart, we took a trip to a desert oasis earning five times the points on chase travel, two times the points on all other travel plus a hundred dollars hotel credit. Chase Sati preferred, a car that's preferred for a reason. Cards issued by JP Morgan Jays bank and a member of the DC subject to credit approval terms apply. If you, your parent or sp,ouse served in the military, you could join our family. Our members saved an average of seventy dollars a month on auto insurance when they switched. Tap the banner or visit usa dot com slash join today to check your eligibility. Restrictions applied . Steve Sarquesian is on fire. Texas just landed another commitment for the class of twenty twenty seven and this is a big one. Literally, we're talking about it coming up on Locked On Long Horns and Tro y. You are Locked On Long Horns, your daily podcast on the Texas Long H orns, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day . Welcome in. You are locked on to the Texas Long Horns. I'm your host B. K. Brad Kellner, breaking news, breaking news within the last hour here on a Thursday morning , the Texas Longhorns have landed yet another commitment for the class of twenty twenty seven. Lucas Roa is a long horn the three star offensive lineman out of Orange Lutheran in California just committed to Texas over UCLA, Oregon and Penn State. Those were the three other finalists. He had a number of other offers from around the country as well. And this is a really nice win for Kyle Flood. We talked about Roa a little bit this morning. We said there was a chance that Texas had made a real move coming out of his official visit this past weekend . Well, the Longhorns did more than just make a move . They closed. I don't know what they're doing on these visits but whatever it is, it is working . And this was not an easy recruitment for Texas to win. This is not a Texas kid who grew up rooting for the Longhorns and dreaming of playing on the forty acres. This was not a recruitment where Texas had every built in advantage. This is a California out of state offensive lineman from one of the best high school football areas in the country. Obviously UCLA right there in Southern California, Oregon was involved. They get a bunch of Callie kids every year. And oh by the way, Lucas Roa is a Pinn State legacy. That's where his dad went. He had a number of other families go to Penn State as well. Sometimes when you grow up around that kind of family connection, that can sway your ultimate decision despite all of those things seemingly working against the Lornonghs, Texas still won . That tells you a lot about the job that Kyle Flood and Steve Sarkesian and the entire staff did here. And for Rowa, it seems like the official visit was the difference. He got around the players. He got around the offensive line room. He sat in meetings with Kyle Flood. He saw the development track record with Texas and a big thing that the Longhorns did. They got Lucas Roa on the phone with K elvin Banks. Yes, that Kelvin Banks. And that is a big deal. If you're an offensive lineman at Texas and you get the chance to chop it up with that guy, what a powerful recruiting tool. That's not just a coach telling you, hey, we can develop you. This is a full first hand account of a guy who got developed who played at Texas, who played for Kyle Flood, who became one of the best offensive linemen in the country who ended up being a top ten pick in the NFL draft . That's a guy who could talk about how exactly the process looks like that resonates talking to the coach is one thing, but again, talking to a player who plays your position and has been there and done that. That is a whole nother level right there that clearly resonated with Lucas Rowa. He even talked about it himself saying it was crazy to learn about the track record of development that Kyle Flood has. There's proof. There's a real plan in place for Lucas Roa and clearly he bought into it. What is Texas getting with their newest offensive limen? An interesting development al piece with a lot of versatility and a little bit of an edge too, which I really like. Six foot five, just over three hundred pounds, the frame is there, the mentality is there, and the playing style is absolutely there. First of all, he's play ed all five spots on the offensive line in his high school career. So he's got experience everywhere . And when a high school offensive linem has that kind of background , it usually means a couple of things. Number one, he's got a good football IQ . Number two, he understands the game from multiple angles . And number three, as you translate it to Texas, well, this coaching staff is going to have a lot of options with him. I mean, a high school coach, he's not just going to put random players in random spots if he doesn't trust them. This guy understands the game. He understands the offensive line and having that versatility is really valuable. Sometimes offensive line recruiting isn't just about, oh, this guy is definitely a left tackle or this guy is definitely a right guard. Hell, look at Brandon Baker. He played right tackle last year. He's playing guard this year. Sometimes even when guys get to campus you end up switching them around having that versatility is a big deal. Texas believing in the traits of Lucas Roa, you let the body develop, you let the technique develop, you let the roster evolve and then when he gets here, you figure out the best spot to put him . Lucas Rowa said it himself. He doesn't really care about where he plays. He just considers himself a ball player. He wants to get on the field as early as possible . That's the mindset you want no ego. No, I'm only aack tle. I'm only playing one spot. He's just where can I help? What can I do to get on the field ? I love that . Now he does have that five position background. I do feel like his most natural projection is going to be inside . Probably guard more specifically. He feels like a right guard to me, but there's a lot of traits that I think translate. He's physical, he's nasty. He can move people in the run game, still developing some technically , but he's got some temperament and it's the temperament that I want on the interior. And you can teach footwork, you can improve hand placement, you can clean up leverage, you can add weight, all of those things, but it's hard to teach nasty. Some guys haven't, some guys don't. It's hard to teach someone to want to bury the guy across from him and it's hard to teach someone to finish every block through the whistle and occasionally a little beyond it. Roa plays with that edge. That's what jumped off the tape for me and based on people I've talked to, that's something that they noticed too. He's not just trying to get in the way. He's trying to move people. He is trying to dominate on every snap. You love adding some of that edge, some of that nasty to your offensive line room. Now, again, is he a finished product? No, that's okay. First of all, most offensive linemen are not, but he's got time to improve. He's got another year of high school football, obviously and he's not going to be asked to start day one like Kelvin Banks was when he got to Texas. Lucas Row will get here in twenty twenty seven will have the chance to work with Tory Beckton in the strength staff to get his body right 'll. work They with Kyle Flood to get the technique right. But again, the raw material is there, the mindset's there, the size is there, the versatility . Now the development piece has to happen. This is not Texas playing a player , taking a player maybe paying him to because he's already matched out. This is Texas taking Lucas Roa because they believe he can be something down the line . I mentioned this earlier plays his high school at Orange Luther in Californan ia. They go up against some of the best competition in the country. It's one of the toughest districts in high school football. Teams like Modern day and St. John Bosco and Santa Margarita. If you keep up with high school football, these are programs you've heard of. Why? Because they have college players and future NFL players basically every year . So this is Big Boy High School football. They also play, you know, Bishop Gorman and Sierra Canyon and Miami Northwestern, like their non district schedule is very tough as well . So we're not evaluating a two A small high school player here who just goes up against a bunch of scrawny guys who look like me. He's going up against some of the best of the best at the high school rank Friday night. He's seeing real dudes and that makes me feel better about his projection going to the SEC down the road . For Texas, this continues a really nice run. I mean, the long horn drawn a ridiculous heater. And I think more good news is coming down the pike later today and into the weekend and into next week as well. We hinted at some of that this mor ning and I think we've got a few more of these episodes to do in the not too distant future, but Texas doing a good job on the offensive line in twenty twenty seven. Lucas Rowa, the fourth O line commit in the class Brian, Swanson out of South Oakliff, Keon Hemp Hill Woods out of Columbus, Jackson Cook out of Westlake right here in Austin. And now you get somebody from out of state. That's three in state guys. Now you go to California to get another piece . A strong foundation. You've got some tackles, you've got some interior guys, you got some versatility . And I like this pickup for Texas. Not going to get the same social media buzz as a five star would get or a quarterback or a wide receiver, but we know and y'all know, I believe this games are one up front and championship rosters are built up front. Texas wants to compete in the SEC and for national championships year after year. These are the kinds of players that you need to stack. I'll say this too . The academic piece is worth mentioning. Maybe I should have talked about this earlier. This was a huge part of why Texas was able to get this done. Lucas R ploansbert to major in business at McCombs McComb School of Business, one of the best business schools in the country. And he said this was a factor in his decision. Of course, Texas could sell football development and NIL and resources and this that and the other , but the University of Texas is also a big sale. And this is a thoughtful, mature guy making a calculated decision not just about his football career, but about life after football as well. This was not a vibes commitment. This was a football development, academic culture. All of those things came into play here. Shout out to the McCombe School of Business for getting the job done. And again, Texas beat out some real competition to land Lucas Rowa. So not the highest rated player in the class, but the type of offensive lineman you like to take and develop. He's got the right mentality. He's got some positional versatility. He's got some physicality. The tools are there and I'm excited to see what Kyle Flood can do with him down the line. Texas needed to keep building this offensive line class. There's still more that we all hope will be added to this off ensive line class, but for now a really nice get. Lucas Roa is a long horn and the hot street continues for Texas. We're at eight commits in the last three weeks. And again, more good news on the horizon. All right, that will do it for this one. Congrats to Lucas Roa and his family, by the way. If you made it this far, number one, God bless you. Number two, please remember to like, subscribe, share, leave a comment, rate five stars, all of those great things cannot thank y'all enough for your continued support of locked on longhorns. Don't forget about the Every Dayer Club as well. Another great way to support me to support locked on Longhorns, to support the entirety of the locked on podcast network. Just five bucks a month. You get tons of great perks as well. There's a link in the show notes for more information. But that will do it for this one. More recruiting news, potentially coming later today, but we're out of time until next time. Horns up. Mike's off. We'll see y'all soon. This is locked on long horns But first a shout out to our friends at Odu. Running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to actually work together. You've got one app for accounting, you've got another for inventory, you've got another for sales , and somehow none of them talk to each other. That's where Odu comes in. Odu is an all in one business management software that brings every part of your business together in just one powerful platform sounds nice, right? From sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, everything works in one place , helping your team move faster, stay organized and focus on growing the business instead of managing software. The best organizations know that success isn't just about talent. It's about having everyone working towards the same goal. 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