Some early draft thoughts-- early rounds...

[silverbear]

Originally Posted by Zordon

As for Okafor, mentally he is no Orakpo. Orakpo was all business when he came to UT. He has a mean streak that he was born with and he didn't lose it when he was amongst all of temptation in Austin. He was a very stern serious guy who handled his business in the weight room and the film room. RKG all the way. If Sergio Kindle had the same mental makeup, he would have been better than Orakpo.

[View Full Quote]Okafor is somewhere in between of those two mentally. He wasn't a complete screwball like Kindle but Okafor when he came to the 40 acres befriended several of the players on the team that have now transferred elsewhere do to bad grades/trouble. I don't think he fufilled his potential is first few years b/c he was not fully committed to football (like much of the 2010 team). He seems to have gotten over those issues the last year but even this offseason him and vaccaro had a little run in with the law. It wasn't a big deal but something you don't want to see from one of the older players on the team. Physically he still has more room to grow. His forearms looked like basketball players forearms when he came to UT but he's improved in that area. I think he needs to get a little quicker off the snap, play more physical, and improve overall strength.

I know there is a bad stigma about UT players. I understand it, I have my thoughts about the root of it but I'll save you my mack brown rant for the day. So I see why some would be hesitant about Okafor.

My point was to mock the "I'd never draft a Longhorn" BS that I hear periodically in here... I could have offered an extremely lengthy list of Texas Longhorns who are currently quite successful in the NFL, and some who are either recently retired or nearing the end of productive careers... d

I just used Orakpo as an example of the silliness of that position, I did not mean to insinuate that Okafor is the same kind of player... at the same time, Rob Rang raves about his strength for a DE (of course, if drafted by a 3-4 team he'll make the move to OLB)... and again, his productivity thus far in his career has been hurt by being played out of position at DT his sophomore year... hard to be dominant when you're a 250-260 pound DT...

I'm eager to see what kind of season Jeffcoat and Okafor have this year, they'll be key to how much success the Horns enjoy... well, them and Malcolm Brown and the rest of the RBs... I hope Mack is serious about featuring the running game more this year, they have the horses to do it...