Russell Shepard Speaks Out

Texas received its first verbal commitment from the 2009 class on Thursday afternoon, as Garrett Gilbert gave his verbal pledge to the Longhorns. This has many Orangebloods asking questions about Cy Ridge quarterback Russell Shepard. IT caught up with ‘Shep’ to get his thoughts on the situation down in Austin.

It’s always been Mack Brown’s policy not to offer a junior until after signing day. Garrett Gilbert received his offer from the Longhorns on Wednesday afternoon. Has Russell Shepard received an offer as well?

“No sir,” Shepard said. “I was told really not to talk about everything.”

How does Gilbert’s decision affect Texas’ chances of landing Shepard?

“As of right now, I’m still looking at all the schools in the country,” Shepard said. “If I go to Florida, they have three sophomore quarterbacks already. Two of them came in last year. With all the different schools across the country, you’re going to have to go somewhere. If Michigan gets Terrelle Pryor), they’re going to have Terrelle.”

“That doesn’t really play a factor. For me, it’s like a win-win situation because I want to come in and compete for that starting quarterback position. If I feel that I don’t get that position, instead of waiting behind somebody for the next two or three years, I can always switch to another position,” Shepard added.

It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Shepard will receive an offer this weekend if he hasn’t already. He is still planning on making the trip to Austin this weekend, and a verbal pledge isn’t out of the question.

“Pretty much your heart tells you what you want to do, so I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ll go down there and if Coach Brown says he wants to offer me a full ride, I could tell him, ‘You know coach, thank you. I’m really interested in your school, but I want to go through the recruiting process’. Also, I could say, ‘Coach, hook ‘em. I’m a Horn.’”

“To be honest with you right now at this point, I have no idea. I haven’t really been focused on recruiting too much. I’ve been doing a lot of track, but I’ve still been doing my research.”