Deep Dive: Early Takeaways From Texas Fall Camp

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Inside Texas Football – Deep Dive: Early Takeaways From Texas Fall Camp

Date: August 6, 2026
Hosts: Paul & Ian (InsideTexas.com)

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Overview

This episode of Inside Texas Football’s "Deep Dive" zeroes in on the earliest observations from Texas Longhorns’ 2026 fall football camp. The hosts, Paul and Ian, systematically break down position battles, notable player progress, and key questions regarding the offensive and defensive lines, skill positions, and overall team development. The episode is marked by a mix of expertise, analytical depth, and conversational wit, focusing on what early camp signals might mean for the upcoming season.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Early Practice Observations and Philosophy

• Pads Not On Yet: The hosts remind listeners that these are early, non-contact practices (shorts only), so all insights are preliminary.
• Coach Sarkisian’s Style: Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian is maintaining an old-school, "earn it" approach, particularly visible in how transfers and depth chart shakes are handled.
• Youth and Team Culture: While Sark mentioned how "young" the team is, Paul notes this is misleading—Texas is one of the few programs prioritizing strong recruiting classes over portal reliance, so they're "young" in bodies but seasoned in the two-deep.

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Offensive Line Battles & Depth

• Andre Kojo’s Comeback – [04:26]

  • Kojo, coming off an ACL injury almost exactly a year prior, “is the most fit he’s ever been at Texas” (Paul, 05:10).
  • Currently repping as the primary backup at both left and right tackle, making him a vital swing tackle.
  • Discussion: Will Kojo get reps at guard if needed? There’s worry he could be forced to move again midseason if the guard play falters.

• Lawrence Seymour Transfer Situation – [07:18]

  • Despite being a transfer, Seymour is "repping with the third team"—not unusual, as coaches often make new guys "earn it" regardless of their expected role.
  • “This is a very normal Sarkeesian ploy…” (Ian, 07:47).

• Concerns about O-Line Size and Fit – [12:04]

  • Seymour is “visibly one of the smallest offensive linemen… maybe 6-2” (Paul, 12:04).
  • Despite size, he’s got “a great initial punch and a good base”—his main worry is being ‘big-brothered’ by much longer, taller defenders.

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Defensive Line Notes

• Ian Gifard’s Conditioning – [09:41]

  • Arrived “down 20-25 pounds per Sark” and is looking much fitter than last season.
  • His role: “More of a role player than people believe, even though he's going to be listed as a starter” (Paul, 09:31).

• Justice Terry’s Rise – [14:17]

  • After arriving at 260 lbs, Terry is now up to 285 and drawing major buzz for explosiveness.
  • “Of the guys doing drills, Justice Terry looked the fastest, the most explosive of any defensive lineman” (Paul, 14:17), making him a candidate for disruptive interior play.

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Tight End and Skill Position Updates

• Will Townsend Bulking Up – [16:36]

  • Now up to 250+, but concern remains whether added weight is good or “bad weight.”
  • Hosts optimistic: “This is not bad weight. This is a freakish natural athlete naturally gaining good weight…” (Ian, 16:54).

• Tight End Room Outlook

  • “Spencer Shannon gives you a floor...” (Ian, 18:19), suggesting solid depth and utility in the group even as roles shake out.

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Arch Manning Watch

• Limited Hype, Some Concern – [19:01, 22:32]
  • A community member asks: Should people be worried about the lack of glowing reports about Arch Manning this offseason?
  • Paul’s take: “I’m not super concerned… I want to hear that he’s hitting the gimmes in practice… Other than that, I'm not super worried…” (Paul, 19:56).
  • Later, concern spikes as chat reports Arch missing easy throws in practice videos. “I am ready to panic,” jokes Ian (23:15), with Paul conceding: “0-9 is his weak spot… It needs to get fixed.”
  • Watch for: Manning’s ability to hit short ‘candy’ throws; performance versus basic FCS competition will reveal much.

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Secondary Developments

• Kobe Black to Safety, Fils-Aime to Nickel – [24:41]
  • Reveals confidence in overall DB room and a clear vision for safety rotation (Jelani McDonald, Derrick Williams, JJR, + Black as athletic/hybrid piece).
  • Kobe Black “looks like the best safety… because he moves differently than everybody else” (Ian, 25:23).
  • Question: Can athletic corners truly transition to fundamentally sound, assignment-driven safeties?

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Increased Coaching Intensity – [27:52]

• Noted Ramps in Energy
  • Players and staff reportedly amping up intensity—"Coach, coach harder every snap" (Paul, 28:09).
  • Not just about yelling, but about “feedback, intensity, and peer pressure”—getting everyone to bring energy to drills and reps.

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Discipline, Penalties, and Playoff Aspirations

• Impact of Penalties – [34:03, 35:06]
  • Texas ranked 135th nationally in penalty yards last season—a sore mark for the program.
  • “Some penalties are mental… some [holdings/false starts] are about getting your ass kicked,” says Paul (35:04).
  • Hosts struggle to pinpoint a "magic number" for penalty ranking that guarantees a playoff run, but agree: Not being near the bottom is essential for consistency.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “He is the most fit he’s ever been at Texas… Kojo looks like the primary backup right now at both left tackle and right tackle, which is fantastic.”
  — Paul (05:10)

• “You’re tackle till you’re something, until you prove something else.”
  — Paul (05:56)

• “This is a very normal Sarkeesian ploy... Earn it deal.”
  — Ian (07:47)

• “Justice Terry looked the fastest, the most explosive of any defensive lineman. So that's really exciting…”
  — Paul (14:17)

• “I want to hear that Arch is hitting the gimmes in practice…”
  — Paul (19:56)

• “I am ready to panic!”
  — Ian (23:15)

• “Kobe Black looks like the best safety... He moves differently than everyone else.”
  — Ian (25:23)

• “Not being ranked second to last in college football would be an improvement.”
  — Paul (38:45)

• “If you can get quick interior pressure... interior pressure is best pressure because there’s no solution. There’s no solve for it.”
  — Paul (42:56)

• “He can do exactly the wrong thing and still make it right.” (re: Colin Simmons)
  — Paul (44:40)

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Important Timestamps

• 04:26 – 06:45: Andre Kojo’s progress and the O-line shuffle
• 07:18 – 09:00: Lawrence Seymour, guard play concerns, common coaching tactics
• 09:41 – 11:41: D-Line depth, conditioning of Gifard and role player usage
• 14:17 – 15:26: Justice Terry’s athleticism, spring injuries, new weight
• 16:36 – 18:19: Will Townsend’s body transformation; tight end room abilities
• 19:01 – 24:31: Arch Manning’s offseason coverage and scrutiny; camp performance worries
• 24:41 – 27:08: DB room confidence; hybrid player assignments (Black, Fils-Aime)
• 27:52 – 33:42: Coaching intensity/philosophy, parallels to youth coaching, building physical confidence
• 34:03 – 39:21: Penalties, discipline, and their effects on high-level success

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Three Key Themes Moving Forward

1. O-Line Configuration:

   • Watch the Kojo/Seymour battle at left guard.
   • Depth and versatility among tackles; can they shore up the interior?

2. Young Defensive Talent:

   • Speed and explosiveness of Terry and Black could fundamentally change the D’s impact, but will require proper schemes and assignments.

3. Offensive Consistency/Discipline:

   • Arch Manning’s development, penalty yardage improvements, and the ability to avoid “bad football” moments will determine if Texas makes a legitimate playoff push.

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For Next Week...

Paul and Ian tease continued updates as fall camp intensifies, promising more direct observations and deeper dives into the themes raised this episode.

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Listenership Tip:
Join Inside Texas for daily content, and check out the 2026 Longhorn Football Prospectus (written by Paul) for in-depth player and opponent previews.

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This summary captures all core analysis and narrative highlights for Texas Longhorns fans and curious college football followers.

Transcript

[A]

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[C]

What is going on everybody? Welcome to the Deep Dive Live. I'm Paul, that gentleman is Ian and we write for insidetexas.com in addition to doing this fine YouTube channel and that is a place you need to go visit. 75% off for the first year. New members only. This is an absurd sale. We're actually losing money. I don't know how we're able to do this. You need to take advantage of it and take advantage of us. This is the ultimate fall camp sale. We have tons of intel dropping every, I was going to say every day, every hour. Ian, there's new stuff coming to light and we want you to be a part of it. So come join. This is the place to be. It's the best Longhorn conversation. And if you want the best Longhorn and SEC and Texas opponent preview on the planet, you gotta buy the 2026 Longhorn football prospectus written by me, me, yours truly. It's my 14th edition. It is 43000 words of goodness. Every player, every position, every unit and very in depth detailed analyses of every Texas opponent and also all the other SEC teams we don't play just because I like to throw in a little extra for my people, for the readers, my beloved Texas Longhorn fans and folks that are just randomly interested. I got an email from a from a freaking Auburn graduate who bought this and said it was his favorite SEC preview. So that was. That was high praise. Woodcrest says, I got my copy, and it says it's arriving on Monday. In fact, if you order right now, because the print copy is now available, you can also buy it on Smashwords or Apple, like itunes. If you buy the print copy right now, it will be in your hands in 48 hours, if you're a prime member, because they have a ton of orders, and so they're printing up a bunch.

[D]

Do you know what one of my favorite parts of it has been?

[C]

What's that?

[D]

It's always just the little colorful commentary you add. Not even, like, the actual content, but just the funny little quips and analogies that so many of us have tried to imitate from you over the years and failed to do. My. My favorite was the one about just. Actually, I don't want to share that one. It was not a good one for this format. But you had one the other year about youth bastards and Waco selling. What were they selling?

[C]

I think that hit home with Ian, actually.

[D]

My former. My former youth pastor is now a youth pastor in Waco, and he's not that kind of guy, but I've been. I know that scene, and I know that that is a thing.

[C]

You have met that kind of guy. Well, we've got another scene we need to discuss, and we want to hear from you in the chat as well. We want to know what you guys want to know, but we've got a few notes that we've gotten already from some of the practices. Obviously, we're not in full pads. We're not hitting. There's no thudding, but you can see how people look. You can see how people are moving. You can see what the depth chart looks like somewhat. And we want to talk about that. So, Ian, without any further ado, where would you like to start?

[D]

I would love to start with Andre Kojo being in shape.

[E]

Yes.

[D]

Which means more than just tell, tell. Well, first of all, he was injured last year.

[C]

Yes.

[D]

So he's coming in off of what, an acl. Right. That he suffered Almost.

[C]

Almost one year ago to this day. He blew out his acl. And he's a huge guy. Obviously. Kojo is a huge guy. We had big plans for him. The season might have played out differently with the healthy Kojo. We certainly would have put someone at left guard, either Kojo or Brandon Baker, and then put Kojo at the other tackle. Who knows? Or maybe Kojo at guard, and it would have been better. We don't know how much better but certainly better. Kojo, you always worry with a big guy when they get a serious knee injury because they can't run and they're depressed and they're bummed out, so they just eat lift. You're worried that he shows up at 370. He is the most fit he's ever been at Texas, so I think that's really encouraging. And he looks like the primary backup right now at both left tackle and right tackle, which is fantastic. In addition, I think it is. I think. I think he can play both. I think that's what that means. And they just think he's the third tackle

[D]

I. That I think is awesome and exciting that he could play left or right tackle. And that means they have. Anytime you'd learn that you have a guy in your program that can play tackle. Fantastic news, right?

[C]

You're tackle till you're something, until you prove something else. Right.

[D]

Here's my thing, though.

[C]

You think this might be an incapacity of one of the Coleman brothers not being able to play tackle?

[D]

No, I'm not worried about that. I think they have a lot of interesting athletes that with enough time, they'll be okay. I'm worried that we're gonna get halfway into the season and it's going to be like, oh, my God, this still isn't working. Put Kojo at left guard. Oh, and it's like. And he won't have repped there at all because he's been the swing tackle. We just.

[C]

This was just the first day of practice. They're not even. They're in shorts.

[D]

I know that.

[C]

So the minute they shoot the press out, Kojo might have gotten every snap at left guard. We don't know. Right.

[D]

Okay. Okay. If. If. If that happens, then that's great. But I'm worried because, like, we were talking about this on the Morning Live, Nick Brooks comes in at left guard, and Justin is like, they put him in at left guard. He hadn't even practiced there. And they just threw him in there like, God, try something. Right? And it didn't go that well. And then it went okay. And then it went that. Not that well again. And it's like, why wasn't he practicing at guard this whole time? What are we doing? What? It doesn't matter if you have seven good offensive tackles if you don't have any guards.

[C]

Agreed. And usually it's people are. Are fighting to get tackles, not guards. Right. That's usually the big struggle for college football programs. I would say don't read too much into it. Right. Now I'm confident Kojo will rep it. Guard if they don't like what they see. Out of Jaden, Chapman, out of Seymour, etc. Which brings us to our next point. Ian Lawrence Seymour was repping with the third team. Should we be concerned and upset?

[D]

No, this is a very normal Sarkeesian ploy where you get the transfer in. I think Herman did this too. This is pretty common. You get the new transfer in. Everybody in their off season deals are inking them into a starting role is like you paid for the transfer, obviously you have a plan for him to play immediately. Then they show up and the coaches do this faux earn it deal where they put them on the bottom of the depth chart for like a couple visible practices and then their first string. I. It's kind of fake. I think even though it's actually fake, it's probably still a little bit psychologically valuable to the player just to know that I have to. Even if I, even if it's not that serious, I still have to like pay some dues to get that spot. Presumably if he was terrible, he would stay at third string. But yeah, that's all that's going on. This is, this happens every year.

[C]

Yeah, I, I wholeheartedly agree. No consternation about this at all. Now does it mean Lawrence Seymour is the answer at left guard? Time is going to tell. And we've got a good enough defensive line that they will reveal all of our issues at guard, center and the other guard spot, not to mention tackle. But left guard is what we're particularly sensitive to because of last year. Seymour's gonna have an opportunity to earn his way up. This is how it goes. Sark is pretty old school too in this regard, so I, I think you should read nothing into that. Speaking of that D line, Ian, big, big sexy Ian Gifard came in a fellow. Ian came in and he's looking trim comparatively to what he arrived at. Apparently he's down 20 to 25 pounds per sark at the press conference. And that's good news for this front because Gifford, I've argued, and I argue this in the, in the preview in my preview book, he's more of a role player than I think people believe, even though he's going to be listed as a starter. But the more he can be fit, the more he can play in more different roles. Is that fair?

[D]

Yeah. And the more he can, you know, be on the field at playing at a high impact level.

[C]

Yeah, he, he played too many snaps at Arkansas, right?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So you see some reps from Gifard when he gets tired where they're not super impressive, but that's when he's tired.

[D]

Yeah. In like a single drive. Texas will have some drives this year where the other team runs eight or nine plays.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

And so getting him from, like, he can give you effort on like 3 to 4 to 5 to 6 or the full drive is a huge win, and that's what we're looking at there. Also, just one thing about Tory Becton that we do appreciate is that he keeps doing this over and over again where he gets big guys in shape, where they have the conditioning and the stamina to use their weight productively for, like, sustained effort.

[C]

And if you're a big, strong, out of shape guy.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Tor Becton is your man.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

Because he will get you in shape and you can retain your strength. Yeah, Yeah, I agree. 100. I was encouraged by that news. Again, we're not looking for this guy to log 50 snaps. That's. That's hero canoe territory. You know, the guy that you sort of don't want to take off the field on the interior. But I think there's going to be some opponents where he has 12 snaps for the whole game. And I think there's others. We'll have 35. And I think it's just going to be dependent. Completely opponent dependent and matchup dependent.

[D]

Yep. All right, wait, wait, wait. On the topic of size, before we move on to that, does it worry you at all? Does it worry you at all that everyone is looking at the offensive line and being like, wait, is that. Is that Seymour or is that. Is Kenny Baker standing with offensive line for some reason?

[C]

One thing we should mention, Seymour is visibly one of the smallest offensive linemen. Obviously, Flood likes taller guys, long limbed, longer leverages for pass pro. Because as you and I have informed you many times, our priority in the O line, pretty obvious, is pass protection. And Seymour's stubby and he's, you know, 6:2, maybe. We're not sure if he's actually 6:2. That said, weirdly, his strength appears to be pass pro because he's got a great initial punch and he's got a good base. You can't really bull rush him, which is always the concern with a smaller guy. The other concern is just getting big brothered. You know, you go against the 6 foot 6 defensive tackle, he's got longer arms, longer limbs than you. So he strikes you first, he extends you out and just sort of discards you. We're gonna find out if. If that can happen to Seymour very quickly. And if not, we'll go to plan B. If not, I think we're good, I think we're good at left guard.

[D]

I, I do think that it's possible that when given the chance to run more outside zone, that Seymour unlocks some run blocking ability that you didn't see at others at other schools. Because I've seen so many dudes like that. Like we talked about the Nebraska guys from back in the day all the time. Yeah, you give those short, squatty guys a chance to get a running start and get under someone's pads and all of a sudden they are driving people. Whereas inside zone is all about like grappling in a broom closet, you know?

[C]

Well, it's also when you start from a two point stance, I mean, when you start from a two point stance and you're at Western Kentucky, you're not going to drive anyone off the ball. You're screaming, I mean you're. I, I like offensive lineman. I'm still old school enough. I want your hand down unless it's third and 14 and by all means getting a two point stance. But most big guys don't have the flexibility and the leverages to really get low starting from a two point stance. So someone from the Holly in the chat says, speaking of D line, Justice Terry looks like a million bucks. Aptly, he says in parentheses. Yeah,

[D]

like a million bucks since he was like 7 years old.

[C]

Well, so here's the thing though, Ian. He looked like a million bucks arriving and he was 260. Now he looks like he still looks like a million bucks at 285. And everyone noted that of the guys doing drills and things like that, Justice Terry looked the fastest, the most explosive of any defensive lineman. So that's really exciting because Justice Terry was not a spring participant, if you'll recall. So he's all healed up. He's put on a lot of great weight. We know that he has massive potential for him to be 285. That's a guy we can now play at defensive tackle and he's going to be just fine. No one's going to push that guy around as explosive as he is, even if he's underweight, quote unquote.

[D]

So especially if we let him attack gaps, attack half a man, rather than asking him to the, to play the react reacting, attacked gap and a half kind of stuff that PK did and like they did at Georgia. Yeah, we could probably do that. He could do that. But if you just let him go, he can play now, right, when will

[C]

must champ puts Justice Terry on the field, it's not to occupy blockers. It's to go get somebody so, like,

[D]

nose and just let him, like, shade on the center and just, like, try to do that.

[C]

Yeah. Well, it's funny. I. I posted a thing. I'm sort of posting all of our opponents. What's the one big question they have to answer in fall camp and the one for Tennessee is who's gonna be their starting quarterback in their spring game? I posted a clip from a guy who does it who did a pretty good breakdown, but their center struggled a couple of times with Jim Knowles lining up quick guys over him and sprinting through the gap. And if you guys know the ver and shoot often will have those big exaggerated gaps on the interior. Very interesting to put Justice Terry in a. In a one or a three shade and just say, fly up through that gap and go. Cause mayhem. So mark that. Mark that one down. We'll revisit that one later in the season. Speaking of weight fluctuations and weight gains, Townsend, he is up to 250. 250 plus. What do we make of that?

[D]

Well, I haven't seen him. So a lot of people are making the Jordan Washington comparison, and they're like, we saw this last year at Jordan Washington, he was up to 270. It was going to turn him into a blocker, and instead it turned him into bench warmer.

[C]

Yep.

[D]

And. And probably harder to stay healthy, too, if you're carrying bad weight. I haven't seen Townsend, but I think what we've heard is that this is not. This is not bad weight. This is good weight. This is a freakish natural athlete naturally gaining good weight as a result of regular eating and lifting and exercise. And it can. In that case, it can only be good, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And also there is an element for some guys in some positions where you want to build them up in the off season. And then in fall camp, by the end of it, they'll be down about 10 pounds, which is kind of where you wanted them to begin with. I suspect that might be the case with Townsend. So now that we had some exaggerated forms of that back in the Tom Herman days where we had, like, Keonte Ingram getting up to 238, that's like, not. Not probably the best for that guy and his body type. But the general premise is, hey, you got a running back. Let's get him up to 220. Knowing that he'll play the season at 210. Right. Because he'll lose that weight in fall camp, but he keeps and maintains his strength gains. So I think that might be what's going on with Townsend. But you know what, stay tuned. Let's keep an open mind and find out what the case is there. The good news is that tight end room seems to have a number of options that are viable at least.

[D]

Yeah, I think Spencer Shannon gives you a floor that makes it where, like, if Massunas is a skilled enough passer that you get his blocking regularly, then that's awesome. And if Townsend can offer athletic upside, it just feels like if they have to play Shannon a lot, they're going to be okay. They have so many other weapons that they really just need to tie it in to be a multifaceted utility tool to support everyone else.

[C]

Yep. Hey, Connor, would you mind promoting the Shane Ware question from the chat about Arch?

[D]

Ian, can you read that off Shane Ware photo? This is just the disembodied photo of Shane Ware has become sentient and now asks questions. Are you at all worried about Arch? Since we haven't heard all the superlatives over the off season and first day of camp that you want to hear. So, like, for instance, in the Manning Academy, it was all C.J. carr. There wasn't a ton of arch talk. Spring wasn't a ton of arch talk. He's coming back from the bunions surgery or whatever. Hasn't been. Oh, Arch Manning is killing it in office. We just haven't really heard that Arch is like, shredding things. Which we would like to hear, as I. As I noted this morning in my column. But we do want to hear. We do want to hear that Arches looks like a murderous God of war.

[C]

Yeah, I'm not super concerned about it. I think that one he missed a lot of the spring. I mean, he could throw a little bit, but I don't know what you're gonna say. Like, he was standing there throwing the ball. Right. I mean, like, it doesn't tell you much. Obviously, the surgery we know about, he had some other stuff going on that I think are. Is less publicized. He. He paid a cost for all the hits that he took last year. That dude is pretty tough. Let's just say that and leave it at that. I'm not super concerned. Obviously. I want to hear that he's hitting the gimmes in practice. I want to hear that between zero and nine. He's hitting the easy candy. He's hitting guys on the run. He's hitting a stop route against cover three where the guy turns around after six yards and. And gets a seven yard gain. That's what I want to hear. Other than that, I'm not super worried about Arch Manning. I think you guys will be surprised how well he plays if we surround him with competent pieces and competent offense.

[D]

Speaking of unstoppable gods of war.

[C]

That's right,

[D]

Gabe Winslow.

[C]

Gabe Winslow, mortgage man extraordinaire. Gabe is the goat. Someone already said that in the chat. Connor Hughes, man. Thank you. Connor sounds like a guy who did a mortgage with Gabe and was rather pleased. He's the best mortgage guy that you can call if you need to refi. If you need to buy a new house, this is the guy to start with. In your process. Do not start looking at houses. Do not get the realtor first. Get your mortgage guy first. Get pre approved. Explain your situation financially and he's going to already start shopping and creating ideas for you based on all the different promos he's getting from his wholesale lenders.

[A]

Why?

[C]

Because he's got wholesale lenders competing for his business. Because he's one of the top originators in the state of Texas. What that means is these different wholesale lenders come to him and say, hey, we're running this promo right now. We can give you a point off on blah blah blah. Guess who doesn't get that? Big Bank USA Chase, Wells Fargo, all the etc. You get exactly the rate that that bank is offering at the moment. And guess what? They're not very competitive because they're counting on a certain amount of customers being incredibly lazy and not even knowing that there's other options out there. Gabe is the best option. 832-557-1095 all right, someone in the chat says I'm late, but my book is on the way. That's a good. That's a good man. Or lady, we don't know.

[D]

Let's pull up this. Oh yeah, exactly. Follow up question to disembodied chain photo. Should we be concerned about Arch missing easy crosser routes yesterday? A little bit.

[C]

I mean how long were they watching and did he missed one or something? Yeah, we're an overreaction season, I get that. But like give this some time and let's see. We'll see, we'll see soon enough.

[D]

Guys, Homer's saying he's got videos from the practice stuff of Arch missing a number of short throws.

[A]

Oh, really?

[C]

Okay, well maybe you should be all panicked.

[D]

I. I'm in. I am ready to panic.

[C]

Okay?

[D]

I've been like sailing high all off season, like you know, nobody can stop us. And now I'm like, writing articles where I try to think through last minute, you know, what does it look like if this doesn't go good? And I'm like, oh, God, there's a chance that this doesn't go good. What if our left guard is the backup tackle all season? What if. What if arch can't hit RPOs?

[C]

You know, what if Relique Brown actually runs a 4. 8, 40? He just looked fast against Big 12 competition. Yeah. So I think the thing with Arch is legit. There's a reason I wrote an entire section about it in the Thinking Texas Football Preview. I broke down all of his route accuracy by route distance, and 0 to 9 is his weak spot. It's pathetic. It's. It's terrible. And it needs to get fixed. He needs to fix it. But it's sort of. He will or he won't. I mean, honestly, worrying about it is not going to help. So, I mean, and we'll. The proof will be in the pudding and it will happen in games. Right. And some of those routes. The good news is you'll know watching him against Texas State, because those routes are the same against Ohio State as they are against Texas State.

[F]

State.

[C]

So we'll. We'll know soon enough. I. I promise.

[D]

Who of us can add a single percentage point to his completion rating by worrying? None of us.

[C]

Right? None of us. None of us can do that. All right, here's something that has been interesting and certainly not a worry. Kobe Black move to safety that I think in combination with the Xavier Filsame move from safety to nickel, gives me confidence about a couple of things. One, I think they feel pretty darn confident about their cornerback room. Two, I think that they're starting to sort of firm up their vision of the safety position and what that looks like with Jelani McDonald, Derrick Williams, Jordan Johnson, Rubell, and I think Kobe Black is going to be that fourth integral piece. What do you think, Ian?

[D]

I mean, that's probably it. When people were just watching him run around in helmets and shorts or whatever the other day, people were like, kobe Black looks like the best safety.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Just because he moves differently than everybody else.

[C]

He's almost like he's fluid, like a cornerback.

[D]

Yes. So the hesitation is. That's great. And if he figures out the mental side, then he's going to be amazing. But as Blake Gideon will happily tell you, who's the safeties coach and he's the one in charge of picking who actually plays the position. He'll tell you, the NFL is loaded with four, eight dudes at safety that know where to be. Yep. That position is. Is like the converted corner who can hit and knows where to be. Can be an all pro for 10 years. But the average NFL starter is not that guy. It's the dude that is just reliably playing with the right leverage every time. And we'll see. We'll see if Kobe Black is. I mean, we. How many times have we seen this? Keaton Crawford, I thought you would jump in and give me more examples of corners that didn't. Super athletic safeties that didn't.

[C]

No, that's it.

[D]

I feel like there's been a bunch. I've got one and you've got nothing.

[C]

Nathan Vasher is an example of a guy who could make that transition. He could be a lockdown corner or a lockdown safety. You could. He's just a guy you could play effectively anywhere because he's so athletic and so instinctive.

[D]

We've had a bunch of them usually. Usually, though we remember them as juniors and seniors and they figured it out.

[A]

Yep.

[D]

And they were awesome. And when they first learned the position, it was like, no, he's not.

[C]

Quandre. Quandre.

[D]

Quandre. I don't think Quandre quite even did that until the NFL.

[C]

Quandre played nickel for us, so I

[D]

guess, yeah, he played nickel. He played nickel in corner.

[C]

That's fair.

[D]

But then he was like a free safety dynamo in the NFL. That's how it goes a lot of times. Aaron Williams did that too. What else? What else we got.

[C]

What else do we have here?

[D]

I'll tell you. I'll tell you one thing that's been a note that people are making a lot is the increased coaching intensity.

[C]

Yes.

[D]

So this one is. This one is a little bit of a Rorschach test.

[C]

This is a little like the routes were crisp. Everyone looks great. Everyone's in shape. Wow. This team looks great on the hoof. First off the. But like, I get that. I do think that there's some legitimacy to this, Ian, because I'm not going to say we were complacent, but I think Sark wanted to ratchet up the intensity of the feeling on the field. And that must. Champ hire the Jabar Jaluk higher. Very telling in that regard. I think he wanted his coaches more energetic and coaching harder every snap rather than sort of sitting back watching and saying, we'll make these corrections on film later. Right.

[D]

I was. This is not an apples to apples. Obviously this will become very apparent But I was helping do these tackling drills with defensive backs and Pop Warner the other day. We had. We had some defensive backs that are very new to tackling, and we're not like, not about that. Not about it. And eventually some other coaches came over and brought a little more energy than, say, Ian Boyd is known for doing. And you could tell it makes. These are fifth graders. But even with, like, grown men, it makes a difference when somebody brings energy and bring some, like, fight and excitement to the proceedings. So if Sark felt like they needed more of that at practice, it's very easy to imagine how that would be valuable. I will say, though, if you go watch, it's not like the problem on offensive line is not that Kyle Flood is too quiet, you know?

[C]

No, no, no, he's.

[D]

He's plenty loud.

[C]

No, it's.

[D]

I'm.

[C]

I don't equate coaching with yelling.

[D]

Right.

[C]

That's. That's not what we're trying to say here. What we're trying to say is there needs to be an element of feedback and intensity and. And like, let's go. Hey, let's line up for the drill. Hey, let's not do the little half ass jog to the next drill. Like, yeah, let's run over there. Let's have guys fighting to go first rep. Not hide and say, oh, that guy's going third. I'm gonna try to go fourth. I don't want to go against him.

[D]

I saw some of that yesterday. Oh, yeah, yeah.

[C]

So one of the funniest things about coaching youth football and I coached before you, Ian, is you forget, especially if you played high school football, kids don't want to hit. Like, it's not natural. Like, no, it's scary. And they turn their head and they like, you know, and you know what? We were all like that. You forget that and. And you forget, like, oh, you have to learn to embrace contact. And part of the way you get them to embrace it is peer pressure, which is getting everyone hyped up and getting their teammates be like, come on, come on, you could do it, Ian. Come on, Ian. You know, and then little Ian Boyd goes, okay, I'll do it. And then he goes. And he realizes it didn't hurt. In fact, it hurts less if you deliver the blow. And then you're like, oh, this is, like, fun. And so, you know, that doesn't completely go away, even at the college level. Like, obviously, guys but that point are not really scared of contact, you know, and all that anymore. But remember the level of contact Also is increasing. So you've got to kind of get that positive peer pressure of everyone, like, giving that juice. And it does make a difference. It really does.

[D]

Yeah. It was literally that. It was literally little Ian Boyd having to be urged to run his feet through contact.

[C]

Yes. Yeah, you'll. You'll see a lot of, you know, I. I hit him, and I kind of turned my head, and then he. He ran off my. And I was like, oh, we're done. We made contact.

[D]

A lot of that.

[C]

A lot of you guys slow up simultaneously. Like, they make a deal, like an unconscious deal. And I was coaching our DBs, so I'd be like, oh, time out, guys. Everyone, come here, guys. You have to run through. And this is what it needs to look like. And then. Then they kind of suddenly believe you when they're like, oh, when I actually deliver the blow, it doesn't hurt. It actually hurts when you don't deliver the blow.

[D]

So the worst part was that this kid was his. He was initially a little more contact prone. My kid was. And then, like, his first real tackling drill, he goes up a kid against a kid who has since been moved to linebacker. He got run over, and he got trucked. He was like. So it's. It's a very difficult. It's a very difficult thing to teach because, like, you kind of have to start really slow and give them easy wins.

[C]

Yes.

[D]

And build up to it, but at the same time, you've got this pressure where the coaches are like, hey, in four weeks, you got a tackle. A kid who's been held back from Smithson Valley.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

It weighs 30 pounds more than you, and you're gonna need to be ready then. And it's coming, and the clock is ticking.

[C]

So what's also incredibly funny is I would make ball drills where the ball carrier. I'd be like, you could only run between these two dummies, because the first time you do it, they'll take off sprinting across the field. It's like, nobody. You have to run towards the tackler.

[D]

This is Connor desperately trying to get us off this topic.

[C]

You know what? If anyone's coached or played youth football, this is all. All the stuff that you have to deal with. All right, give us. Give us this excellent question from Katie Baker. Ian.

[D]

Katie Baker asks with Sark mentioning how young the team is overall. Man, I should have written that. And what you don't want to hear, you don't want to hear, we're young team. Never, ever want to hear that. That means. Okay, what Penalty yards per game rank would be a sweet spot for a playoff run. Boy, that's, that's a good question.

[C]

Let's address the young team overall. Okay, that's a little deceptive because we're still one of the teams that takes real recruiting classes, right? So all those recruits, guys, remember we got, you know, 30 dudes who are 18, right? If you build your team primarily through the portal, you're always going to be old. So if you still want to recruit high school players, you're always going to be one of the youngest teams in the country. What matters most is what's your two deep look like. If your two deep is full of freshmen and sophomores, it's gonna be an interesting transitional year, right?

[D]

You're gonna lose football.

[C]

Our two deep is full of seniors and juniors, right? So that's what we care about. So I think that addresses the first part. The second part is trickier. Sark has made the point, which he is technically broadly correct, that penalty yards and penalties are not directly correlated to wins and losses.

[D]

Broadly.

[C]

Now, if you look back at last year, Indiana national champion, the least penal. They were like service academy levels of penalties, right? Like, they did not get penalized ever. And it obviously helped their team. We're penalized too much and it clearly hurt our team. And a lot of our penalties, some of them. So some penalties. Let's, let's break these down. Ian. Some penalties are mental. Purely mental and just sloppy and like weak minded. Right? A lot of penalties are actually because you're getting your ass kicked. When, when an O lineman holds, it's not because he's not focused, it's because the D lineman's kicking his ass. So does that make sense? Like, so we have to.

[D]

Sometimes false starts are that too.

[C]

Sometimes.

[F]

Yeah.

[C]

You're worried about the guy taking, taking you off the. Off, off the, off the edge. So some of these pedals, you know, Colin Simmons taking two extra steps and hitting a quarterback under the chin with his helmet. That's a dumb penalty, okay? But there's also aggression penalties where Warren Roberson just flies up and nails a dude and for whatever reason they decide that it's targeting, because God knows what targeting is nowadays. I'll accept those penalties all day. I, I just don't care. But what I do care about is the dumb mental penalties and those sorts of things. And I think you have to. Yeah, here we go. Connor's pulling it up. We were down near the very bottom of college football. That's pathetic. And so that's 135th.

[D]

Terrific. Dramatic flare by the producer.

[F]

Yeah.

[C]

By the way, notice Auburn. Huge underachiever. Arkansas. They were the best 2 and 10 team ever. Ian. Interesting.

[D]

Just a little bit, Connor. Let's see who other peers are in this. That sucked. A m. Okay.

[C]

South Carolina. South Carolina is routinely one of the dumbest teams in college football every year. Texas State, G.J. kenny. I'm gonna have to give him a little grief about that. Yeah. Okay, so interest lsu. Lsu typically is down there as well. So Sark, I think, mentioned. Look, is it exactly one to one? Because I think Miami was fairly penalized. Maybe I'm wrong, Connor. Maybe you can do a search. But Sark was like, hey, it's not one to one that your penalties make you. Yeah, there's Miami at 113. So it's not one to one that penalties mean you're a losing team, but it does kind of speak to sloppiness and discipline. And I think Sark said, I don't like that aspect of it, like how that reflects on us. So, yeah, you'll see here. Army, Iowa, Air Force, Indiana, Minnesota. These are the teams you expect. These are the most buttoned up teams in college football. Right.

[D]

So Northwestern, huh? Northwestern.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah, they're real smart. They won't make mistakes. They just won't move fast either.

[C]

That's right. Ohio State. A little surprising. Some of this is also a function of. Ohio State would run like 50 plays a game because they play so slow.

[D]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[C]

But, yeah, I mean, Indiana literally was not penalized about as much as Air Force, so. And those are pretty disciplined teams. So. Yeah, I. I do think it's an issue. Is there a magical ranking we can look to, Ian, that says this has gotten better. I think not being ranked second to last in college football would be an improvement. What do you think?

[D]

Yeah, I. But to answer her question precisely, I don't know, we're good.

[C]

Or like. Like, what do we need to be ranked?

[D]

I don't know. Just not the bottom. That's all. I know that much.

[C]

Here's the problem with Katie Baker. She actually knows football. I know Katie. And she did this just to flummox us, because we don't have a good answer. But I. I honestly, I don't. We're not trying to cop out. I don't know what the magical ranking is that suddenly everything's better.

[D]

You know what it is, is that it can. It depends on other variables, like how many explosive plays do we generate.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

That offset it. How? What was bad about last year? Is that not only did they have a ton of penalties, but they also had a ton of bad plays.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Where they didn't ex. Where they didn't commit a penalty per se, but they committed a missed assignment error of some sort. And so, boy, when you have all three of those things working against you, it's. It shows you how explosive they were at times that they were able to rank as a functioning offense with how many penalties and missed assignments they had.

[C]

Yeah, I mean, second 19 was a killer to us last year in ways that it was not a killer to 2022 or 2023 Texas or 2024 and 2023. Like, we were just more able to like overcome that. If, if you're gonna not be very explosive, don't put yourself behind NATO.

[D]

I wonder where the 08 team ranked. Because the thing about the 08 team was that they were so leech. Like every. Every play was a potential 5 to 10 yard gain to Cosby or Shipley. So it was like,

[C]

yeah, that team was more penalized on defense than offense.

[D]

It wasn't penalized.

[C]

They. On offense. We didn't get many penalties. I recall that they could have.

[D]

They could have gotten them and still been okay because they were so.

[C]

Because we sort of could get an automatic 9 yards whenever we felt like it.

[D]

Instead of penalties, we would get 2 to 3 yard inside zone runs. Davis would try to keep the other team honest. That's right. Yeah.

[C]

I'm still convinced Greg Davis used inside zone as just as like a placeholder as he's looking for the next passing play. Like, let me think of a passing play. Just call inside zone, like, you know.

[D]

Yeah, I actually, I'll tell you what though. I almost. I would almost like to get back to that if we could actually be good at it and recruit and develop to it. All right, what are you looking for just for these next few days of practice, Paul? What. What's. What's maybe three things that you're going to be trying to get some scoop on.

[C]

I'm going to be looking at the Kojo Seymour dynamic.

[D]

Yep.

[C]

Is. Is. Where's Kojo getting his reps? Is. Is he like 100 back? Is he our number three tackle? Because if you've got a really good number three tackle or starting tackles, man, that's a luxury in modern college football. Is Seymour progressing up the depth chart as we expect? If he's not, is Kojo getting some reps at left guard? Like what. What is our solution there? Is it Sikorsky? Is it Kojo? So that's one thing I'll be looking at. What about you?

[D]

I'm gonna be. I want to hear more about Kobe Black at safety. I. I like everybody else, I can't help but be intrigued by the possibility of putting one of the most explosive athletes on the field at safety. Even though 15 of my writing about college football is explaining that there are positions where that doesn't actually matter. Yeah, I'm still. I still want to know if. If we have, like, lightning in a bottle there in general, how the safeties are doing, and then the same. Same thing with Justice Terry. Right. Can Justice Terry shoot up the depth chart? Because he is a special athlete, and if he's also a real football player, then that's exciting. Yeah.

[C]

I mean, if you can get quick interior pressure, as you and I have discussed many times, interior pressure is best pressure because there's no solution. There's no solve for it. And that's one of the reasons that our offense was crippled last year, because we repeatedly gave up interior pressure. So I guess the theme we're looking at here, Ian, is can we create and can we stifle interior pressure?

[D]

Yes. That's a fantastic. That should probably be a theme every. That's basically a theme every year. But for this team, an article one

[C]

of us has to write.

[D]

I'll see who gets to that first. Or maybe we split them.

[C]

Yeah, exactly. Right.

[D]

I did. I did write the other. I did write the other day that Colin Simmons, the way he gets to, like, a 1520 sack, heroic, legendary season.

[C]

It's chasing people now.

[D]

It's chasing because he is the best chaser I've ever seen at Texas.

[C]

Well, you know my theory about flushers and chasers, right?

[D]

Yeah, I use it all the time.

[C]

Yeah, you. You get an initial flush from an initial pressure from your defensive tackles or an interior blitz, and then your edges just need to be freaking voracious greyhounds that just run down the rabbit. And that's Colin Simmons. That is. That is what he does best. He's pretty good pass rusher, too, but if you're a quarterback trying to outrun him around the edge, good luck with all that.

[D]

He's. He's done so many things that I, like, can't believe. Like, the first time he ran around a pulling guard and made a tackle, I was like, oh, that's cute. You know, probably don't do that again. But he did it, like, 10 more times over the course. It was, like, a consistent thing that he was able to do.

[C]

Yeah, he's one of these players that because he plays so hard and he's so gifted, he can do exactly the wrong thing and still make it right. And that's a, that's an impressive feature. It's one of those things of like, great job, Colin. Hey, none of y' all do that. Colin, you're the only one who's allowed to do that, so. All right, Ian, this has been a great deep dive. This is exciting. I'm looking forward to next week because we're gonna have even more stuff to debrief and we've got some other bigger, interesting thematic stuff to discuss. I put up an interesting article about James Madison and how they might be the future of college football. If you guys haven't seen that, you're kind of a little puzzled. Like, what on earth is he talking about? You might be a little shocked about what I uncovered. I'll just say it might be something that shapes the entire future of college football. So, Ian, y' all go find that with that teaser. We want to tell everyone to go join inside Texas. 75% off your first year, new members only. That's a phenomenal deal. This is the time to join. And then of course, you need to go to school and learn all the stuff that you need to watch for this year. And that is the 2026 Longhorn football prospectus. Thinking Texas Football. Buy it today. It is available on print at Amazon or you can buy the E versions and have them right now, this instant on Smashwords or Apple. Thanks y' all for joining. Thanks for a great and lively chat. Thanks for some great questions and we'll see y' all next week.

[F]

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