IT Live: Texas Fall Camp Preview

Summary

Inside Texas Football – Texas Fall Camp Preview (August 4, 2026)

Episode Overview

This episode of "Inside Texas Football" dives deep into the Texas Longhorns’ 2026 fall camp, previewing every position group. Hosts Texas Homer (B) and Paul Wadlington (C) methodically break down strengths, areas for improvement, and the storylines to watch as Texas enters its first full year as an SEC member. They discuss developmental expectations, competition battles, key additions, and the ambitious ceiling for a team built to contend on a national stage. The tone is detailed and insightful, blending statistical analysis, film review, and a healthy balance of optimism and realism.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Offensive Line Outlook

[02:55–09:36]

• Left guard intrigue: The major position battle is at left guard. While Lawrence Seymour is the favorite, both hosts stress that “you don’t know until the pads come on” and highlight the Defensive Line as an immediate litmus test.

• Quick turn to elite: Despite last year’s issues, Paul believes with “literally one change and some natural progression...this O-line could be elite” (03:23).

• Trevor Goosby’s upside: Goosby is called “first team all SEC for, you know, All-American dude. He's going to get significantly better this year.” (04:29)

• Tackle strength: Siani, the Wake Forest transfer, is called “Goosby light,” praised for run blocking—“When they ran behind him... they averaged 7.3 yards per carry.” (05:35)

• Importance of not having weak spots: “Don’t start anyone that sucks on your O-line or your defensive backfield, because you can single those guys out and exploit them.” (06:23)

• Scheme adjustments: Expect more outside zone run concepts, leveraging backs like Relique Brown and Hollywood Smothers to get to the edge.

• Summary quote:
  “I think with just an average offensive line, this offense is going to be really dangerous...But you just can’t have last year.” – B (08:26)

Notable Moment

O-line analogy: “Think of like an enemy army trying to ford a river. If the average depth is 10ft, they're not required to cross at the average depth. They're going to go find where it's a foot and a half and that's where they're going to cross. And last year we had a guard in a center who were a foot and a half deep...” – C (07:13)

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2. Tight End Room – Concerns & Candidates

[09:41–14:17]

• Room to watch: Widely considered the weakness of the offense.
  “This is probably the weakness of the offense right now...I think he [Eris] phrased it as...we have a good offense. There’s going to be one room that’s not the most exciting.” – B (11:23)

• Four viable options:
  “Viable doesn't mean excellent…Now, Massunas, we know, can play... Townsend’s very athletic, but he needs to learn how to play the position.” – C (12:40)

• Sneaky asset for conversions:
  “The tight end rooms means there's some sneaky third and four conversions available to us that are easy money because everyone's going to be focused on Cam...Emmett Mosley...Relique Brown.” – C (13:29)

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3. Running Back Room – Explosiveness & Roles

[14:54–25:28]

• Major upgrade: Both hosts agree the RB group is “far, far upgraded.” The lack of explosive plays from last year should be resolved.

• Relique Brown:
  “He is smoked through a keyhole, man. He doesn't run through a lot of contact...But he is really good at finding the gap.” – C (16:05)
  Brown is a home-run threat, but not a workhorse. “If we give him too many 20 carry games, we'll just break them.” (18:49)

• Hollywood Smothers:
  “My proclivity is, like, on the inside, not because he's built like an inside runner, but because whenever he did go inside...he still gets something from that.” – B (18:49)
  Praised for vision and subtle cuts: “He makes some of these little subtle cuts…he kind of pops out and you're like, how did he get out of there?” – C (20:22)

• Derek Cooper: Described as “may be our best big run back potentially. Yeah. Because he's got top end speed to spare. He reminds me of Breeze Hall quite a bit.” – C (24:32)

• Question mark – pass protection:
  “Who is going to pass block?...you have to be assignment sound in pass blocking. It's not just being big.” – B (21:07)
  No clear every-down pass blocking RB yet.

Notable Moment

On the rotation:
“People are like, who's number one? Who cares? It doesn't. It's literally meaningless. Whoever gets the big run is going to have the big stat line for that game and then the next game it'll be the other guy.” – C (20:44)

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4. Quarterback Room – All About Arch Manning

[25:28–30:43]

• Arch’s slow start: Missed the spring, so "it's going to be a slower uptake."

  The offense, under Sark, “just calls plays...We don’t run a system. We run all of football, all offense.” – C (27:07)

• Execution and areas to watch:
  Arch needs to elevate his short area game. “We love everything else about him...leadership, toughness, all the intangibles...This is the season of the little things for Arch Manning.” – B (28:57)

• Backup confidence:
  K.J. Lacy has “really cemented himself...just may be good at football.” – C (28:57)

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5. Wide Receiver Room – Depth, Breakouts, & Newcomers

[30:55–37:39]

• Emmett Mosley highlighted: Coming off injury, showing new top-end speed. “He put up 168 yards and three touchdowns at Stanford on Louisville as a true freshman.” – C (32:24)

• Cam Coleman’s potential vs Auburn misuse:
  “It’s like it was an invisible fence for a border collie...Auburn ran the dumbest offense I’ve seen.” – C (33:08)

• Wingo’s role: “If nothing improved, he's that guy, and he still is going to have 700 yards and have some big, big catches for us, but he's not the guy you go to on third and six.” – C (36:17)

• Jermaine Bishop: The young receiver with the biggest upside.
  “When a guy that young, that athletic, has that high a football IQ, it should get your attention.” – C (36:53)

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6. Defensive Line & Edge – Best in the Country?

[43:10–50:46]

• Defensive tackle:
  “That group as a unit is what makes them strong...we've got guys in our three deep who are starters at a lot of other P4 schools.” – B/C (43:10–43:40)

• Edge room “highest upside room”:
  “Colin Simmons...so obviously a legendary player...we almost look over him because we just expect.” – B (44:47)

• Colin Simmons’ impact:
  Colin’s speed and tenacity are unparalleled. “He literally swims that. He teleports. He does things that are technically unsound and still gets to the guy.” – B (45:31)
  Needs to cut out personal foul penalties.

• Other edges: Lance Jackson and Zina are both future NFL guys, can flex inside or outside. Room is “backed up by NFL edges…we're not trying to oversell this…we're super talented.” – C (50:42)

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7. Linebacker Depth and Fit

[50:47–55:35]

• Depth concern lessening:
  “We're going to spend almost all of our time in two linebacker sets...really need four” (52:06–52:23).
  Cross-training to cover depth gaps.

• Starters:
  “I don't think there's any competition…for Biles.” – B (51:19)

• Role variety:
  Juice Crier described as a “thumper” who can play in the 3–2–6 as a run-stopper without coverage duties.

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8. Defensive Backs – Corners and Safeties

[56:20–62:41]

• Corner depth and versatility: Beaumasco and Cade Phillips are strong starters.
  “Michigan threw at him (Phillips) nine times for 37 yards and he had nine tackles.” – C (57:28)

• Warren Roberson:
  “He is arguably our best man coverage guy on the team.” – C (58:01)

• Kobe Black’s move to safety: “We're not sure we're going to be able to play Kobe as much as we want at corner. So let's move him to safety.” – C (58:48)

• Safety:
  “As long as Derrick Williams is okay, and then now Kobe Black, I think he's going to have quick uptake there.” – C (61:32)
  Trust in coaches Mustchamp and Gideon to handle the secondary.

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Memorable Quotes

• On the O-line’s improvement:
  “Literally with one change and then some natural progression from the other returners... this O-line could be elite.” – C (03:23)

• On avoiding weak links:
  “Don’t start anyone that sucks on your O line or your defensive backfield, because you can single those guys out and exploit them.” – C (06:23)

• On RB rotation:
  “Who’s number one? Who cares? Whoever gets the big run is going to have the big stat line for that game and the next game it’ll be the other guy.” – C (20:44)

• On offensive philosophy:
  “Steve Sarkeesian just calls plays. Right. We don’t run a system. We just run offense like, we just run play calls.” – C (27:07)

• On Colin Simmons:
  “He literally swims that. He teleports. He does things that are technically unsound and still gets to the guy.” – B (45:31)

• On tough schedule/expectations:
  “Simply by virtue of the difficulty of our schedule, we're going to lose one or two regular season games. Everyone would go, yeah, that sounds right. But then I say, it'll be Ole Miss and LSU. Everyone's like, no, we're not losing.” – C (63:25)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

| Topic | Timestamp | |---|---| | O-line analysis (starters, left guard battle, optimism) | 02:55–09:36 | | Tight end depth, weaknesses | 09:41–14:17 | | Running back room – explosiveness, rotation, pass pro | 14:54–25:28 | | Quarterback room – Arch’s readiness, backup | 25:28–30:43 | | Wide receivers: breakout/potential | 30:55–37:39 | | Defensive tackle & edge preview | 43:10–50:46 | | Linebackers: depth, new faces | 50:47–55:35 | | Defensive backs: corner depth, safety moves | 56:20–62:41 | | Schedule expectations and “trap” games | 62:58–64:45 | | Staff turnover: PK and Akina exit | 64:53–65:37 |

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Coach Speak Red Flags (Advice for Camp Season)

[39:16–42:05]

• “We’ve got four or five different guys that were playing there and, you know, we think each of them brings something unique.” – Red flag for unsettled positions (39:58)
• Don’t want to hear “adjustment periods” for crucial transfers, or constant positives about “leadership” with no mention of production.

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Tone & Final Takeaways

• The hosts blend realism (addressing last year’s failings and personnel shortcomings) with high optimism about Texas’ ceiling heading into a loaded schedule.
• Multiple position groups (especially DL, edge, WR, and RB) are described as the best or deepest of the modern era for Texas.
• Coaching changes inspire confidence, especially in the secondary.
• Emphasis on the grind of a tough SEC schedule—talent is undeniable, but “it comes down to the little things, and the coaching. Can we maximize them?” (62:41)

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For Listeners Who Didn’t Tune In

This episode is a 360-degree camp preview packed with granular, position-by-position insight, clear-eyed evaluation of Texas’ realistic strengths and weaknesses, and unfiltered opinions on upcoming competitions and coaching strategy. With returning stars, blue-chip transfers, and a demanding SEC slate, the 2026 Longhorns are positioned for an exciting ride—all dependent on chemistry, development, and head-to-head matchups.

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“We’re not worried about the talent here assembled. It’s just, can we maximize them? That’s the big question for me.” – B (62:41)

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Everyone, camp is starting tomorrow and we are going to discuss that. I am Texas Homer and that is Paul Waddlington. If I turn on our display names, you can see that for yourself. And this is brought to you by Academy Sports and Outdoors. First things first, guys. I want you to head over to Inside Texas right now. You can join for $1, then 50% off your first year. Great time to do so with camp starting then. Also Paul, you got something exciting to tell the fans about?

[C]

I do. Thinking Texas Football. The 2026 Longhorn Football prospectus is now live on Amazon. So those of you who are holding out for the paperback edition, it's up and running. I apologize for taking Amazon taking so long. Believe me, I was more frustrated than you because it was. I was getting inundated with messages and frustration. And believe me, it also hurts me in the Pocketbook so Amazon finally got their act together. They got it up live and a bunch of people are ordering it. If you're on Amazon prime, you can have it in your hands in 48 hours. So pretty exciting stuff. And if you guys aren't familiar with the preview, I've been doing it for 14 years. It's 43, 43,000 words analyzing every unit, every position, every player. And then of course very in depth opponent previews. And then I also do additional previews of every other SEC team, even the ones we're not playing, just because they can have relevance to our season. And it's good to learn about our new. Our new home, our new stomping grounds. And there's also some enrichment and fun stuff in there as well.

[B]

Absolutely. All right, we're gonna go position by position quickly because we only got an hour with Paul, but we're just going to give you our thoughts on kind of each room. Let's just start or else the chat will correct us later on. But let's just start with offensive line. I noticed in your roundtable preview, I think you had mentioned something about you were watching that left guard spot. The left guard spot to me is like, I think Seymour has it, but you seem to think there could be a little bit more intrigue there.

[C]

I mean, I think he has it. I think he was brought in for a reason. You don't know until the pads come on. And then you see, because one thing about our defensive line, we're going to figure out real quick, like, what's up. And if Seymour can, you know, stone hero canoe, then great, we're good to go. I pronounce us healed, and I pronounce our offensive line potentially very good. So I think that's the. The thing that's hard for people to imagine is that the offensive line could have been so bad last year, but literally with one change and then some natural progression from the other returners, this. All this online. Could be elite. They really could be. So, I mean, Connor, walk me through. Let's walk. I'm bathed in radiant light here. So I'm doing the optimist version.

[B]

Angelic dude.

[C]

I know Connor doesn't like when I'm optimistic. He likes when I'm pessimistic with him. But realistic is what Connor would say. But let's walk through this. Trevor Goosby has 15 starts. How good was he at the end of the year? Last year he cost cash as. How money?

[B]

Yep.

[C]

He shut down Michigan, had elite edge rushers. He shut down Barham every time he went against him. Shut down Derek Moore every time he went against him. Trevor Goosby is going to get better. Like people think, oh, yeah, yeah, he's really good. He's, you know, he's also first team all Southwest Conference. You know, first team all Southwest conference, First team all sec for, you know, all American dude. He's going to get significantly better this year. He's.

[B]

He's inexperienced.

[C]

Inexperienced, yeah. At this same time, Kelvin Banks, Blake Brockermeyer, Cosmi, Connor Williams, These guys were sophomores when they had the similar experience level to Trevor Goosby.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Goosby's senior year is going to be huge. Melvin, is it Siani or Sinai? Because I've heard it pronounced both ways.

[B]

Siani is it?

[C]

Okay, I've heard someone say Sinai, and I don't know what that was about. Siani's really good. I went back and looked again at his Wake Forest tape in writing the preview. He's going to be really good for us. And he's actually a better run blocker than I thought.

[B]

I thought that was a note on it, that he's actually one of the. He's the strongest run blocker.

[C]

When they ran behind him when Wake Forest actually had a very good surprise year, they went 9 and 4. Last year, kind of unexpectedly, when they ran behind him, they averaged 7.3 yards per carry. So, yeah, he is gooseby light. That's what he is. If he hits the way I think he's going to hit, if Goosby has his natural progression, which he should. We've got the best pair of tackles in the sec.

[B]

Just.

[C]

It's just how it is. And so it's hard for people to envision as awful as the product was last year. Again, I want to remind everyone, it was really one and a half positions that let us down. So center and guard.

[B]

We made one little change on the back end and it stabilized completely.

[C]

That's exactly. I mean. And it stabilized to. To mediocre, let's be honest.

[B]

Right, Right.

[C]

But the key is, and I write about this in my preview, the idea is, don't start anyone that sucks on your O line or your defensive backfield, because you can single those guys out and. And exploit them. And. And the comparison I use is when you go five wide. Okay? Five wide receivers on the field, three of them are good and two of them suck. Guess what? Guess who gets covered by a cornerback?

[B]

The good ones.

[C]

Well, the two guys that suck.

[B]

Okay, I thought you're talking. I thought you're talking double. Double covers.

[C]

Yeah, but. So you can't really double them. Right, because you got five out there, and you still have to put a guy on the guys that suck. Right now your guy's gonna dominate that guy. Yeah, you just don't go to them. Take five offensive linemen. By contrast, if two of them suck, you're gonna put all of your energies and efforts on the two that suck. And you're gonna ignore Trevor Goosby. Right. Trevor Goosby can just go do his thing, be dominant out there. We're going to focus on your weak points. So think of like an enemy army trying to ford a river. If the average depth is 10ft, they're not required to cross at the average depth. They're going to go find where it's a foot and a half and that's where they're going to cross. And last year we had a guard in a center who were a foot and a half deep and that's where

[B]

the army all games went after the left guard. It was insane.

[C]

That's it. So once we address that and then we bring to advantage our natural quality at tackle and then I think Brandon Baker is going to be good. I mean, dude, we're going outside zone. Okay. We're not trying to go like power football this year. And I think within that construct, Brandon Baker is very effective because if you review his film, he's got great feet and he tries very hard. So yeah, he's not bruisingly strong at the point of attack, but I don't think that's going to be our run game this year. I think we brought in Relique Brown and Hollywood Smothers for a reason.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, I just, I said it to Eric. I've been hurt before. Yeah.

[C]

But we're trying to be optimist today.

[B]

I was gonna say, if you look, if you look at it, I, I understand the, the bull case on it for sure. I think with just an average offensive line, this offense is going to be really dangling. That's what gives me solace too, man. If you just get to literal average, we're going to be fine. If you get into elite, wonderful. But you just can't have last year.

[C]

So your natural inclination towards realism slash pessimism is is based in reality and that's good. I'm, I'm like you. However you and I went through all those deep dives, dude, you saw how bad it was. If we just clean that up, Arch Manning has a pocket. Yep. Will our offense get better?

[B]

Yes. And if the backs. Can the backs just hit the explosives that are there too? That's a huge factor.

[C]

That's it. So I mean we don't have to have the 95 Cowboys O line and by the way, I think we're gonna have three guys of the five who are good to very good and, and Seymour's just average. That would be perfectly fine.

[B]

Yeah. Limiting the pre snap penalties, I assume and the second and longs, this team will be one to two wins. Better.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

Execution matters there.

[C]

All right.

[B]

Good Offensive line out of the way. Let's talk. Let's actually talk tight.

[C]

Do you have any questions really quick before we move on? Because that is probably the biggest concern.

[B]

Sarcasm just says if you ever tell Kyle Floods coaching, Remember there was a time where we had three blocked extra points in a game and again we only kicked off to start both halves. Not really a question, but so much as a statement.

[C]

In fairness, two of those extra points were cheating, if you recall.

[B]

Are the reports true? The Sark emphasized that the O line needs to lift heavier? Yes. And that's something we reported at Inside Texas. Eric has done. So they are lifting heavier, not just on the offensive line but over the offensive line is the main one that they want to focus on there.

[C]

So yes, it's good when they do the things that I see and point out. So that's always. This always makes you feel confident that

[B]

they're seeing what we're seeing already. Looking out the window for the Amazon guy. Looks like he got his book, Paul.

[C]

Attaboy. Way to go Utah Horn. And yes, Utah Horn. I'm going to see the Odyssey this week and then we'll be able to discuss it at a future time.

[B]

Okay, cool. Tight end. So unique spot. So I had been complaining about that room for a long time because we didn't have a blocker. We give him a Sunis who can be a good inline blocker. We haven't heard that much about him in spring. So far we've heard more kind of Spencer Shannon in that role and then Nick Townsend, who we're all excited about for his athleticism, how hard he tries. I mean nickname Heavy Metal. But Eris kind of said this is not. This is probably the weakness of the offense right now, at least as far as super positive intel. That doesn't mean they're going to be bad. It's just he. I think he phrased it as like, guys, we have a good offense. There's going to be one room that's not the most exciting. So that's kind of where we're at with tight end. Nick needs to become more experienced. All these kind of phrasings of you need a little bit more maturity and experience in that room.

[C]

Here's the way I view it. We have four viable P4 players at tight end now.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

And viable doesn't mean excellent. And, and I think when people we saw the improvement in Spencer Shannon, I noticed some people particularly some other maybe other sites now we're trying to run with like he's Tony Gonzalez. Like, like no, relax he went from an unplayable player to a guy that you can play. That's, that's. That's what this is. Now, Massunas, we know, can play. I've watched. You've watched him at Michigan State. He's quality. Townsend's very athletic, but he needs to learn how to play the position. And I think Evan Veith said something, I think that was very correct, which is, as a tight end, I don't really care what your athletic traits are. If you can't catch a ball through contact, you're not really useful. Right. You've got to be able to catch a ball through contact and convert. And that's what Gunner Helm did. That's what Joven Sanders did. I don't think we will have a single guy who will be as good as Helm, Sanders, or maybe even Jack Andre, but we will have four viable tight ends, and we haven't had that in the Sark era.

[B]

Yeah. And then Winston, he gets a lot of notes for someone who's, like, considered kind of the fourth. So figuring out where he kind of slots in.

[C]

He's got incredible hands.

[B]

That's what they said. They said he's the, like, receiving smarts, like he can find the zone, good hands. So maybe that catch through contact thing that you're thinking of. But I think the most important trade is, like, if Sark does want to go 12 personnel, which he will do at times, does it make sense to do so? So that'll be the. Did Shannon take that leap? Massuna. So I saw block well in Michigan State on the line in vertical run, run game, but we have to kind of connect all of that together. So tight end is a position to watch, to see as they progress, because like you said, there are candidates there even in different roles.

[C]

Well, and then let's. Let's realize where our weapons are. And then. So what does that mean for the tight end room? The tight end rooms means there's some sneaky third and four conversions available to us that are easy money because everyone's going to be focused on Cam. Everyone's going to be focused on Emmett Mosley. Everyone's gonna be focused on Relik Brown running out of Texas route.

[B]

Right.

[C]

Massunas fakes, fake blocks for a second and a half and runs out in the flat. He's gonna be wide open, catch the ball and run forward like that's, that's what we're looking for. And then on outside zone, tight end is critical. And it's not so much that you'd be dominating at the Point of attack, you just need to be sticky. And then just wherever that edge wants to go or that linebacker wants to go, you take them there and let the back cut off you and Relique and Hollywood can do that. You and I have watched enough tape of them to know that they can make a cut.

[B]

Yeah, this is probably the first room versus Texas State on the All 22 that I'm gonna be watching heavily to see the progression because I do think there will be progression there. All right, the next one I'm gonna hit is running back. Before we do that, let's hear a quick word from Academy. I call my style Skate to the party.

[C]

Can't go wrong with Nike slides. Gotta show off the muscles. You got to show a little bit of the thigh. Right now at Academy, get up to 30% off Nike and Jordan clothes, shoes and backpacks.

[B]

Take your kids to Academy. Paul, school's coming up for your son. Take them to Academy. All right.

[C]

I'm going to take them there, I promise.

[B]

Running back room that I'm very excited about. Me and you were the vanguard of the. I don't trust this running back room. And we took, we took our licks for it. The season was able to bear out fortunately for our egos. Unfortunately for the team.

[C]

I would have rather been wrong.

[B]

Yeah, I would have rather been wrong there too. The running backs, though awesome people, great leaders, were not able to produce safe for Trey Wisner, the rival Slayer at times. So I think that that was a huge problem. Along with the offensive line, Sark needs explosivity from the running back as well. Not just in the past game. And there were so many times we would circle it on all 22 that either the line the five times a game. Because they run so many schemes, you do catch the defense eventually. Sark Duck produces that consistently no matter what. It would either be some wrong angled safety that was able to just like slap Baxter's foot and he would go down or it was completely wide open and they would just get hawked. So it's like, I mean, so few times where they added to a run, they almost solely got what it was blocked for or less. I think that'll be different with this running back room.

[C]

I agree. Relique Brown rushed for over 1100 yards last year for Arizona State. He is, if you guys haven't watched him, he is just incredibly quick, you know, top end speed. I wouldn't be surprised if Derek Cooper is the fastest guy in the room. But boy relit can drop a long run just because his acceleration is so much faster than the faster guy chasing him. Because once you accelerate, you know, because football is not straight lines, right? It's angles as he's making cuts and he accelerates out of his. And the DB tries to gets off a block and tries to match it. He's already at his top end while the DB's working to get to his. And then by that time, Relique is going to make another cut downfield or he's going to do something and he's gonna be able to break a long run. He is smoked through a keyhole, man. He doesn't run through a lot of contact. It's not that he's soft. He's just 190something pounds, right? So he's not gonna like bowl over people. But he is really good at finding the gap. One gap over, you know, where you expect the gap to be, and then another one opens up. He takes a lateral step and that linebacker commits. And it's like, I'm not going through that hole anymore. I'm going through that hole. And the linebacker's like, oh, s. And then now he's off. He's really good. Very good out of the backfield. I think he's a more dangerous pass catcher than Smothers. They Both caught over 30 balls last year. Smothers was purely just like a desperation check down.

[B]

Like he never blocked like he was to the flat.

[C]

There's a reason. Yeah, there was a reason for that.

[B]

He was in the flats like every play, and then it was the quarterback just going, nope. Yeah.

[C]

So I think Relique will be more engaged downfield in the passing game. I. I think. I'm not sure. He's like Bijan level, where Bijan, you could legitimately split him out and he'd like beat a DB on a post route.

[B]

Crazy.

[C]

He is crazy. We're Neville. We will never see a guy like him again. But I wish he could have played on good teams.

[B]

He just got the highest contract for running backs of all time.

[C]

That's awesome. Relik, I'm not sure he's that level, but I can tell you he's a good pass catcher and he is dangerous out of the backfield, especially, God help you if you get a linebacker on that guy. That's got to be scary for a D.C. so I really like Relik. The downside of him because of his size. He's not a great pass pro guy necessarily. And I don't think he's a workhorse. And I think that's why we Brought in two. I think I, I think we're gonna have games where he has seven carries for 30 yards and then I think there's gonna be games where he has 14 for 160. And everyone's gonna be like, why don't we make him the bell cow? It's like, because we'll break him if we do that. If we give him too many 20 carry games, we'll just break them. So let's not do that.

[B]

So what is Smothers role? In my mental map of it, what I really like about Smothers at first, you know, you, we thought these were all speed guys. Smothers has speed, but he's not a speed back. Like when you actually look at his 100 meter and stuff like that. What I really liked about him is even though he's around the same size consistently a fall forward guy, that's important. And then he, he moves well in the bar fight. So I would see him kind of in the middle of two linebackers and two safeties and he still gets something from that. So my kind of proclivity is like on the inside, not because he's built like an inside runner, but because whenever he did go inside and keep in mind his offensive line so sucked. So there was a lot of runs that were supposed to be inside, he ran outside. So people think he's an outside runner, but the design was interior. So do you see him more in that interior role?

[C]

I sign off 100 on what you just said. One thing to also mention about Hollywood Smothers and this is high praise for me. It's rarefied error. I love athletes. You're not able to adequately describe why they're good. So what I mean by that is someone, if someday your kid's going to ask you about Charles Barkley and you're going to be like, yeah, he was awesome. They're going to be like, well, he was short. And you're like, yeah. And he couldn't really shoot.

[B]

No.

[C]

How is he awesome? I don't know. He was awesome at basketball. Yeah. That's Jonathan Brooks to me. Because people are like really fast.

[B]

No.

[C]

Is he really big and strong?

[B]

No.

[C]

Why is he good? He's just good at running a football. That, that's kind of Hollywood Smothers.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And he makes some of these little subtle cuts. Like as you said, he's good in the bar fight, he's good in the scrum and he kind of pops out and you're like, how did he get out of there? I think that's going to be his use. But I think he's good on outside zone as well. He has natural vision. You could see that in his tape. He had really good vision. So I think we're gonna exploit that. And again, people are like, who's number one? Who cares? It doesn't. It's literally meaningless. Whoever gets the big run is going to have the big stat line for that game and then the next game it'll be the other guy. Like, don't worry about it.

[B]

And that's great because when one of the guys is having an off game, you still have potential for a good run game, which matters.

[C]

There's gonna be a game where Hollywood Smothers has five carries for 18 yards and you're gonna be like, oh, no. And then the next game he'll have 130. Yeah.

[B]

So the big question, and I. I don't think this is talked about enough. Who is going to pass block? And so, and. And then second, it's like, well, Cooper's the best pass blocker of the. It's like great. But also he's a freshman man. Like, you have to be assignment sound in pass blocking. It's not just being big. Like, you got to understand on third down, they're going to be running games at you. And if you know anything from the pack video, over and over again, they are attacking the running back. Whatever they can do. They love the matchup. They don't care if it's a linebacker. They do not care. They are going to attack the running back. So you need the running back to be able to scan properly while they're playing games to get him to scan incorrectly or. And it's in a high leverage, high pressure situation. So that's a part that makes me nervous. Even they say Derek Cooper's good at it. I don't know, man. We don't have a clear every down pass blocker here in the running back room.

[C]

We don't. We don't. We don't. These guys could improve. I mean, Smothers or relief could get a little better. I mean, it's. Because it's not all size. It's also like want to. And meeting the line back.

[B]

Sometimes they can just turn their shoulder and go for it. Get in the way.

[C]

Get a piece of them. Yeah. The other part to consider is one of the tight ends. If it's a. If it's an obvious passing situation, there's a big difference between throwing on second and four and throwing on third and nine. If it's an obvious passing situation, Park Townsend in the backfield and he can go out or he can stay in and block, right? The other thought is you don't have them block. You have them go out on routes. And then the defense has to make a choice. Can we get to Arch before he can get the ball out to 6 receiving or 5 receiving options? If I'm a defense, I'd be very nervous about. I'd be very nervous about blitzing Texas, especially if we could pass pro. Because even if you have an extra man blitzer, if that blitzer is coming from the outside and it's one guy, Arch can take care of that guy. And once that happens, now you've got five on five in coverage. That's not good for your defense, man. That is not good for your defense against this receiving core and against our extra running back. So I would just say make people have a choice rather than keeping a guy in the backfield to block who's terrible at it. Send him out, send him out, get him out of there. Or, you know, bring in a tight end. If you're. If you're in, like a true protection situation, it's 3rd and 11, you know, bring in massunas, bring in Townsend, park them in the backfield.

[B]

So what do you. How do you see Cooper's role? Is it just going to be an evolution throughout the season? Me and you were both far more impressed with his spring tape because we both saw his huddle where he was running track. The gap would be open and he would just dead sprint, which looks awesome to the fan on the huddle. But you're like, running backs don't really get to do that very often. But he looked more refined than his highlights showed.

[C]

High school tape, standing straight up, great athlete, out athleting people.

[B]

Right.

[C]

And I'm like, I don't know if this is going to translate. He got to Texas. His pad levels down, he's shifty, he runs low. He's one of these guys that can run full speed with his pads low, which is like a real skill. And he looked good in short yardage in that spring extravaganza, whatever you want to call that. So I think he can do that also. He's not just our short yardage back because he's bigger. Relique Brown is actually a pretty decent short yardage back.

[B]

Fast guys can be really good in short yardage. It's counterintuitive.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

They get there before the linebacker does. Yeah, that's right.

[C]

And. And they just fall forward like that's, you know, they're not trying to power through somebody so you don't have to have, you know, Cody Johnson necessarily. But I think Cooper is actually good in that role because he does see the hole and he's good at expanding a seam, just driving his shoulders and driving through it. He's also, if you can get him a Runway. I think he's actually our best big run back potentially. Yeah. Because he's got top end speed to spare. He reminds me of Breeze hall quite a bit, if you guys remember him, from Iowa State now with the Jets. Is he still with the Jets? I can't.

[B]

I don't know.

[C]

But he reminds me a lot of Breeze hall and that's, I mean, same size, same top end speed, and he's one of these guys that's like 3, 3, 5, 6. Like, keeps the chains moving and then you screw up and he gets a. He gets his acceleration up and then it's not a 20 yard run, it goes for 60 and you're like, whoa, like, where'd that come from?

[B]

Yeah, there's a reason we paid top dollar there. Right. So we should be aware of why the coaches get excited about him. And they've been since day one. We have other running backs, but they've since day one been like, cooper's the third. Cooper's the third. And we've heard a bunch of positive things about him as well. So running back room, I think is far, far upgraded. Pro. I don't know. Probably. Probably the. It's the room I'm most excited about or even overall. Okay, let's talk the quarterback room, which means we're going to talk about Arch Manning. All right, we will give a little shout out to KJ though, as well. So we had some notes this morning that were interesting because in the. In the round table, they were like, what do you want to hear out of camp? And keep in mind, camp hasn't started. But I was like, I want to hear about solid execution. Well, the first note was like, the offense needs to execute better. So whatever they're seeing in kind of the pared down version, they mentioned, you know, Arch was out for the spring, so he's got to get more cohesive. So right now it's a little shaky. Even though they're not in pads, it's kind of that weird summer workout mode. They have noticed that the. The quote was something like they're getting too many three and out still, so that's what we need to see. And then they mentioned Arch right after. So it's kind of Figuring out Arch and his trajectory of last year, but also missing the spring, having new weapons, kind of. How do we. How do we figure that out? Because we don't have time to, like, figure it out. Game six, you know.

[C]

Well, Arch will be a slow starter because he effectively missed spring. I mean, he threw and stuff, but he wasn't on time and running the offense and all that. So it's going to be a slower uptake. Also, some of this is just a function of our offense. Steve Sarkeesian just calls plays. Right. We don't run a system. We don't. We run all.

[B]

We will. Our system is all of football, all offense. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

So what I mean by that is when you run the veer and shoot or when you run the wishbone, you have a system. You literally have a box count. Are the safeties in or the safeties out of the hash that determines your play. When the wishbone is. Hey, does the. The defensive end pinch down on the quarterback? All right, I'm gonna pitch. Is the defensive end trying to feather it? Okay. Quarterback's gonna keep it. Are they playing three techniques at defensive tackle? I'm handing the ball the fullback every time we're getting eight yards. So that's a system of offense. And you get proficient by running that system and making those little reads. We just run offense like, we just run play calls. So you're going to have more three and outs. I just think that's a natural consequence of what we do.

[B]

I agree. So, yeah, when I heard that's something that I was like, I do not want to hear that. And then I heard it immediately. But I think there, some of that is just a function of how the offense goes. So I hopefully. And two, we had the weird mental streak with Arch. Hopefully that's long gone. We saw him overcome that, but I don't aware of that and then aware of him being out in the spring. But we do need to start early with Arch on the positive. And then we've talked about to the short area. Throwing has to improve. That's where you. Yeah, that's where you make your money as a quarterback. That's how you move an offense forward. That's got to improve. Of course, we love everything else about him. The leadership, the toughness, all the intangibles are there. And then of course, the crazy speed he's displayed, saving us on some runs. And then he's a great progression quarterback. He sees the field well, should have more weapons. We know he can hit deep. We know he can hit intermediate. This is the season of the little things for Arch Manning. And if he does the little things right, he's going to have an immaculate season.

[C]

Well, and shout out to KJ Lacey, who I think really cemented himself in my mind as our backup. They brought in MJ Morris not just for depth, but also maybe to push for that second role. You never know, right? So you get the guy on campus now. Now we know that MJ Morris is not going to be our backup quarterback. There's a reason he got benched at Coastal. There's a reason, you know, he didn't win this. He got sort of lost the starting job at NC State back when, when, believe it or not, MJ Morris is like a bright young thing. Had like three games where I was like, oh my God. And then it was like, oh, okay, never mind. But last year at Coastal, he had the starting job. They were absolutely awful. They benched him and their offense immediately got better, so. And also I didn't like what I saw from in the spring. Good news is I liked what I saw from K.J. lacy and I like Lacy. I don't like smaller quarterbacks. Like, I mean like slightly built. I don't care about the height as much, but I don't like like a skinny quarterback. I. Those guys don't hold up very well. I think he just, I think he may just be good, man. He just may be good at football. And I liked what I saw from him. I love that he was in there with the second third teamers, like grinding, taking shots, having to fit it through hard windows. I learned a lot more about him with that than if he had the first. Oh, going against the walk on.

[B]

Yeah. Mus was evil. He was like send the house.

[C]

Like he's sitting.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And he get.

[B]

But the, the thing that was awesome too is like he didn't just scramble out every time he ran. It made total sense and it was the right decision. Just really confident back there. Like good command, good understanding. Super impressed with kj. Excited, not excited to see him, but if we were to see him, I'm not terrified. And that's good always. And a second string quarterback.

[C]

Lack of terror is good.

[B]

Lack of terror is always good. All right, and then let's, let's hit wide receiver here. Well, I want to hit. I want to finish the offense first and then we'll take that.

[C]

All right. We can't leave my man hanging though.

[B]

We will not. I see you, Dre. It even highlights it for me on the side. I cannot, I cannot miss it. Wide receiver room. What are you thinking here? My. I think on the round table thing we did, I think player I was most excited to see on the offense was actually Emmett Mosley. And so I just think he's the most skilled we'll see with Cam. He's been. He was injured a lot, so we didn't get to see the full picture of him. But him as a number three option, I think is. I think it's getting better. The past two weeks, people have been good about talking about it, but I think Emmett Mosley is a really, really important part of this offense.

[C]

Yeah, I hope he is. And I think, you know, we have it as sort of theta complete that ryan Wingo is 1B to Cam Coleman's 1A. Sometimes you play the games and it doesn't work out that way. It could be Emmett Mosley. Right. We've heard great things about him. He really needed this off season to kind of heal up. They held him out of spring. My understanding is he could have practiced, but not well. Like, he would have kind of had to fight through it. And their whole thing was like, let's try to get you right. He had a pretty serious injury his senior year of high school. And. And the. The thought is he's not fully recovered from that until now. So they put him on ice, they've rehabbed him, and he's recording GPS times that they have not seen from him at Texas. So that's really encouraging. And then we know he's got good hands. He's, like, smart. He kind of gets it. And this is a guy who, you know, put up 168 yards and three touchdowns at Stanford on Louisville.

[B]

Right.

[C]

As a true freshman. So he is capable of explosiveness. And I think it's going to be interesting. We'll see. I mean, hey, man, we're still in the preseason. It's for hopes and dreams. Right. But I think that's very interesting. I agree with you. I think he's just a very positive guy. Traits guy in that wide receiver room, wherever he is, and then the rest of the room, Cam Coleman. The more I've looked at him and the more, you know, we went through all we suffered through that Auburn, all 22 tape, watching their horrific offense and how stupidly he was deployed. I think that guy's really skilled, actually. I just think. Here's the weird thing about him. He started 22 games of college football, but we're gonna have to kind of teach him how to play football.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And. And it's not because he's not naturally inclined or he doesn't have a high iq. It's like literally Auburn ran the dumbest offense I've seen.

[B]

He ran two routes. He just run a fade or come back and I would. I broke down four games. Every play he ran across the field one time in a four games.

[C]

Connor is not exaggerating. This guy didn't cross the hash mark. Yeah. And I mean it's like it was an invisible fence for a border collie. I mean it's on. It's so stupid. What? And by the way, Auburn last year, you guys may argue with me in the chat, that was a top 15 roster in college football.

[B]

Oh, for sure.

[C]

Look at their NFL draft picks and look at how coveted those guys were in the portal. And it's not just Cam Coleman. We're going to see Auburn starters at lsu, at Tennessee, at all these other schools. They didn't go to UAB and Troy. Right, right. They were coveted. And Eric Singleton right at. At Florida. Auburn is going to have a dozen dudes in major college football next year who should be at Auburn if Alex Golesch could have returned those guys and then added his USF guys. Auburn is your dark horse to win the sec. But they didn't. And so now they're going to go six and six. But I can't, I can't tell you how good Auburn actually was. I mean, so they lost all their games by a single score except one. And they lost that game by 10.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I mean it's the most underachieving football

[B]

team other than it was their talent that was keeping them within 21 of everybody.

[C]

Oh my God, it's so hard to watch them play football and, and I'm

[B]

gonna have all that flexibility now. A full route tree, a different focus there. A lot of the times Cam was just a pawn. They were just using him of like, hey, we want to run but take the safety. And so that's all they were kind of doing. Texas will do that a little bit, but they're going to utilize them. And then we keep hearing like great things about it's like he's a good leader, he'll block. Like the, the well roundedness here matters too for Cam, so I obvious to be excited about him. I got a question for you on Wingo.

[C]

Yes, sir.

[B]

If Wingo stays the same player as last year, maybe you can cancel a couple drops. But mostly the same utilization and everything else that we've talked about improves.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Are we still. Are we still good?

[C]

Yeah. He's our number Three. Yeah. He becomes our number three gadget physical guy. Like, so there's certain stereotypes and tropes that you have. Like, in a good receiver room, you have your refined, awesome route runner guy. You go to him on third and seven, you have your long stud vertical guy, right? You go him over the top, and then you have your gadget guy. Yeah, he's like a great athlete, but he's not really a complete receiver. And you throw him screens and you give him reverses and you just do stuff with him, but you never look like he's never the focus of your offense. He's. He's the value add. So if Wingo improved nothing, he's that guy. And he still is going to have 700 yards and. And have some big, big catches for us, but he's not the guy you go to on third and six and you got to have it. So if nothing improved, I think he will improve. We'll see. I mean, that's just my opinion, but I guess my point is people are very much like, well, Wingo's got to

[B]

have a big year.

[C]

Wind goes. Not really. If some other guys improve the way we think they can, I mean, Jermaine Bishop could be our number three receiver by the end of the year.

[B]

So, yeah, I was going to Bishop next for sure.

[C]

We'll see.

[B]

Yeah. So Bishop's exciting. I hope we see him in Texas State. We'll see as he kind of integrates throughout the year, but he's the most exciting young guy by far. Not just athletic traits, but intelligence and route running and also just the confidence to wear Batman uniforms. The things, like, he's a unique. He's a unique dude, so. And he knows he's good when it.

[C]

When a guy that young, that athletic, has that high a football iq, it should get your attention. Yeah, dude, he does everything right. Like, he has late hands. Like, have you ever noticed that?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So you know what I mean by that is he doesn't put his hands up till the ball's there, because if you put your hands up early, the DB will play through your hands, right? Yeah. He'll just be running and go. And the ball appears and the DB's like, Whoa. Like, I mean, dude, the dude freaking monstered one of our linebackers in the end zone and snatched the ball from his hands.

[B]

Who was it they were talking to that play? I can't remember, but the player was talking. Cunningham. He was talking to Justin after that, after that, and he was like, what the hell happened? He's like, he just Took it from me. He just straight up from me.

[C]

Yeah, I don't want to over promise this, but, dude, I think Bishop's.

[B]

I don't know.

[C]

I. I was scared of.

[B]

I was scared of that, too, but just the ability to manipulate linebackers or safeties with his speed at a young age. This is a really, really advanced young player. So, yeah, I don't want to oversell him, but I don't think I would. I don't think I can oversell him by saying that. I think he's going to be a. A huge impact player. I just don't know exactly when. All right, before we hit Dre's thing, real quick, Paul, tell everybody about Gabe.

[C]

You're making Dre wait now. He's not going to use Gabe as his mortgage guy. This is very passive aggressive, Connor, but there's a move you got to make which is straight, aggressive, and really smart. Call Gabe Winslow. If you need to refi or you need to buy a house. This is the one stop call you need to make. Make it simple. If you're like me, you like to overcomplicate everything with hours of research that only make this decision harder. Let's. Let's have some smart choice architecture here. And let's call Gabe Winslow. 832-55710. 95. Over 20 years in the industry. He's been on every side of this industry. He's got a law degree. He's a former National Merit Scholar at the University of Texas. He loves his horns. But more importantly, this guy's phenomenal at mortgages. Every time I talk to him, he's going on a freaking award trip because he's basically one of the best mortgage guys in the state. And he's a broker, so he's going to actually take your deal and shop it around to a bunch of wholesale lenders. He's not just going to say, here's my rate. Take it or leave it, and then, you know, take four hour lunches like the guy at Chase. Just call Gabe. Make this easy on yourself and don't be an idiot like me and try to over research and look at every angle. Just promise me. I promise you he's the best. Promise me you'll make this call. 832-557-1095.

[B]

It's the moment of truth. Dre. Step up to the stage. Dre, thank you for the super chat, man. What Coach speak lines would be red flags to hear from coaches during camp. This is what I need to parse out. I'm okay. With offenses figuring it out, I'm. This is part of the process, but it's. It's things. When I hear concrete things like they're getting too many three and outs. It's those kind of things. So it's like that's what I'm gonna have to parse from the coach speak. I do expect the offense to be behind the defense usually. I don't know with a new install, but I just need to parse out. Is this an offense that's coming together or is this the same old, same old? That's the. The offense has to execute well.

[C]

The good news about guard Connor is we've got four or five different guys that were playing there and, you know, we think each of them brings something unique. Yeah, I don't want to hear that.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I want to hear Lawrence Seymour jacked up Justice Terry in practice one day. I mean, I would. I want to hear Lawrence Seymour came in and he's like a duck in the water and he's already like mind melded with the guys to his left and to his right. I don't want to hear. Well, the thing about Lawrence is you got to realize he played at Western Kentucky, so there's an adjustment period. I don't want to hear that.

[B]

I don't want to hear too, you know, because I think the weakest are not even the weakest. That's unfair way to say it. The most unknown about Texas defense would be run defense because we just feel confident with must champ Gideon, our young talent. We feel good about our pass rush kind of just off the bat. But if I'm. There's this weird line where I'm hearing the running backs are doing too well that I think will get me nervous as well. You know, I need to hear it. But I don't want to hear the inverse, that the running backs are getting stuffed every play too, somewhere.

[C]

How about this one? Well, you know, Derek Williams is still working back from a pretty serious injury. Yep. I don't want to hear that after

[B]

they've been lowering the. Them being like, no, he's good. He's good. You know, so, yeah, if the tune changes to fan sentiment, there's a political calculation there, I guess. So those are the kind of things you have to parse it. You have to go to inside Texas, like really read the notes because even I, I do like press conferences. I do think there's value at times, but really just pay attention to the inside Texas notes there.

[C]

How about this one?

[B]

Sorry.

[C]

You know, say what you want about Connor Moffat. But I appreciate that that kid gets out there and competes.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. That's the one where you're like, absolutely wonderful. Thank you.

[C]

You're like, so Connor will not be starting this year. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[B]

I don't want to hear about. And here's things too. It's like, I don't want to hear about leadership in place of production.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

I want those married. So I don't want to just hear about a player being a leader. I want to hear that that player is looking really good in practice. Oh, then also it's good that he's a leader.

[C]

You know, Cade Phillips gets beat a lot in practice, but you got to love that kid's attitude and his leadership. You're like, what?

[B]

And also Shark does this. Like when Sark calls someone a leader, it's, it's slang for starter a lot of the times for him. Yeah. So you have to just be aware too. Sometimes he can make weird decisions on, on quote leader. So those are the big things I'm kind of pay attention to. But time's a bit of a flat circle. You'll hear a lot of the similar things. That's why we know to pay attention to certain parts of it. Okay. Defense, Defensive tackle Kenny Baker has done an excellent job. When I watch the tape of those guys, I'm just impressed across the board in assignment soundness, their technique. He's just done great. And, and so it's a room that I don't worry about or lose any sleep over and to. And because of that, I don't think they get talked about enough. But they're going to be a absolutely massive factor in our success this season, helping the linebackers play how they want to play as well. So defensive tackle, we can name guys, but really that group as a unit is what makes them strong.

[C]

Honestly, man, I have nothing to say about the D line. I, I'm confident we will put out a very good product and it's going to be a deep product. We've got guys in our three deep who are starters at a lot of other P4 schools. And I know for a fact there's some second teamers on our defensive line. People came after them with high six figure offers. High six figures, Those are. That's a starting number by, by far at every P4 school. And they said, no thanks. So not only has Kenny Baker done an amazing job, but he and Alan Clark have sold these guys on a vision at Texas, which is you're a sophomore now, we know could go to Arizona State and start. I get it. Please just see through the process. We're going to play all of you, but next year. We're setting you up for next year. And then you're going to get your tape. You're going to get yours. Stay at Texas. And. And they've bought into this vision. I mean, to have that level of retention. That is a. That is a highly coveted position in the Portal. It's very easy to tamper with these guys, obviously. And these guys want to play. They want to get their tape out. And we have been able to sell them on a larger vision and keep them and retain them. Obviously, we're paying them as well, but that's really impressive. And I think Baker and Lyle and Clark have earned their paychecks.

[B]

Yeah, they deserve their props. Let's talk edge room, which is the highest upside room at Texas. Let's talk about Colin Simmons, because I feel like he is so obviously a legendary player that we almost look over him because we just expect. But let's talk about what Colin will really bring to the offense.

[C]

It's like breaking down the classic Patriots, and you spend all your time talking about, like, safety and left guard, and you're like, oh, yeah, Tom Brady's also on the team.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. And that's what's happened with Colin. He's. He's incredible. I. I remember doing a film. Yeah, that guy right there. Yeah. Well, you already got the physical copy, too, too.

[C]

It's. It's a galley copy. As you can see, this. Your copy won't have this, people. Okay, this is the back, and this is the front. Look at that. All right.

[B]

It's nice. It's big coffee table book. So I was watching all this stuff, but we did a Colin Simmons breakdown, I think, with Drew and Jet. And I was watching the tape, and I was like, how do you beat Colin Simmons? And I was like, well, you can't set vertically or even at 45 degrees. He's too fast. I'll beat you. You have to jump set him. You have to attack them. Like, it's run blocking.

[C]

You can't do that either.

[B]

He literally swims that. He teleports. He does things that are technically unsound and still gets to the guy.

[C]

It's.

[B]

He's remarkable in that regard.

[C]

Well, I think you can jump set him a few times and shock him. Like, I can't believe you're firing out on me.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Like, the minute he decides I'm going inside.

[B]

Move. Yeah.

[C]

And you try to jump set him. Literally, your quarterback Is going to die.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Because he's going to get an untouched shot. And knowing Colin, I think he may not worry about the targeting rule in that. In that people, people don't get to

[B]

see the All 22. Colin is the biggest trash talker on the team by a mile.

[C]

He is SEC pass rushers and penalties. So he needs to clean that up a little bit.

[B]

So I think too that. So he's always saying something to the quarterback after the play, always. So that's a big factor. Last year was interesting because he did his sacks came later on and you could tell he was pushing, pushing, pushing. Now the problem with the penalties is as long as they're not super crucial. I'd almost take it because his superpower is his get off paired with his timing. He is often two steps behind that tackle.

[C]

It's not offsides, it's personal fouls and stuff like that.

[B]

Okay, that's a little different.

[C]

Well, and here's the iron rule of football. And everyone who has played or watched football knows the football gods. When it's third and 12 and you stop them and then you get a roughing the passer penalty. What inevitably will happen on that drive with their new set of downs, they're going to score. They will score. It is just a rule of football that will happen. So that's something he needs to work on. I can tell you some of those penalties are frustration because that dude got held a lot.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

There is not a more held player in college football than Colin Simmons. And I think the officials kind of view it as like if I call holding every time, we're not going to have a game.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

Like it's just gonna like this. This offense is going to be in third and 45.

[B]

Right.

[C]

So I've got to like pick my spots where I'm going to call holding and I don't like that. But that A M game, he got held a lot. Michigan. Oh, you got held a lot. I think he's frustrated but he does need to clean that up. Like third and 13, you get the stop. You can't hit the quarterback late.

[B]

We had a cup. We had a few of those back breakers last year.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Even if it wasn't Colin. So I think that's the biggest thing. How does he fit in? Must champ scheme. We think ultimately, you know, must champel to go the obvious four down. But at times when he is in that mint jack, you know, and he's playing the flats, how does it work there? I would just think what is Colin? We already think Colin's going to be a probably a top three pick. What is calling besides penalties, what is calling? What's the next stage of his game?

[C]

I mean, honestly, I mean, he's gonna max out within his construct. I mean, ideally, you know, in a perfect world, he's six six, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I mean, you know, you always are a little worried about a shorter edge leveling up because they might just get big brothered at the next level because all the tackles are six, seven, you know, and have great feet. I don't think that's gonna happen with Colin. I think he's Abdul Carter from Penn State.

[B]

I think the special ones are special, you know, and I think even, even with heights and there's been a lot of success, especially recently in these kind of smaller versions of edges they can play.

[C]

Also. I would be very inclined to play Colin Simmons a lot at linebacker and just line him up, I was gonna say.

[B]

But you can put them in different spots. I'm excited to see that as well. Yeah, excited about Colin. That's kind of a no brainer. But the problem is he's such a no brainer that we end up not talking about one of the most important players on the team pretty often. All right, next up, other side. Lance Jackson and Xena are kind of 1A, 1B depending on situation here. And you know, I love Lance Jackson. I. I think he's awesome. I think he's a first round pick. Really excited to see him. But the blessing for Xena to be mentioned as a 1B, like can you can't be in a better situation than that, him returning. And then we've done a lot of breakdowns on Zenas throughout our film studies. We think he's an awesome player. So I think both sides the edge, there are high, high level guys.

[C]

Yeah. And the beautiful thing about Both Xena and Mr. Jackson is they can play inside. And that gives you a ton of flexibility and it really allows you to play a lot of different kinds of fronts. You can play different types of pass, rushing fronts. But you know, if Lance Jackson is playing inside and you run the ball, it's not like he gets blown off the ball like right. He's, he's a very physical, strong guy and so is Xena. Xena, I think is much bigger than people realize. He's gigantic. So those are two NFL edges and Colin Simmons is an NFL edge and they're backed up by NFL edges. Richard Wesley is going to play in the NFL. Yeah, he's a true freshman. He's a young, true Freshman. Basically every single person that gets asked, hey, who's a young guy? That's Bubba. And they're like, Richard Wesley. Every single guy.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So that's gonna happen. Smith Aragbo is super gifted. That's a dude. I promise you. There's a multiple Big 12 teams that he'd be the starting edge and probably the featured pass rusher on their team. And he's going to be third team on our, on our squad. So, yeah, that's kind of what we're dealing with. And we're not trying to oversell this. I'm just telling you objectively, we're super talented.

[B]

Any other final thoughts on this before we go to linebacker? Nope.

[C]

Cool.

[B]

Linebacker, my backups. So the first kind of narrative and I think I was, I played a decent role in crafting this was we don't have a lot of depth there. That was number one. We kind of did a weird thing letting Bo Barnes leave and then not really filling that hole. And so that was odd. Then the fear was, okay, can we stop the run? One thing I pushed back on, on Rashin Biles, even though he's like 220. I've said this every show, but I'm trying to get it across is that just because he's 220. His tackling rate was still awesome compared to Power 4. His run defense was still awesome. Not everything has to be heads up. Meeting people in the gap, they kind of, kind of do that side tackle that works. Well, I'm not worried about him in run defense. Maybe if it's pure physics. They are on the one yard line and he cannot move back an inch. Sure, there's. Yeah, there's physics there, but I'm not worried about down to down kind of run defense.

[C]

By the way, in that situation, gonna have four dts in.

[B]

I was gonna say there's ways to counter that. Right.

[C]

So.

[B]

So. And at that point, you can fire him right into a gap and he'll get there. But I'm not worried about Rashin Bowles really at all. I love his coverage. I love his ability to pass rush. I trust him in the run game. I think he's absolutely awesome. So that's one spot I feel great about. I don't think there's any competition there for Biles.

[C]

I'm not worried about our depth at linebacker. And here's why. We're going to spend almost all of our time in two linebacker sets. Yep.

[B]

So. And we're cross training.

[C]

When you, when you play three linebackers, a lot you need a nine deep. You need nine, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

When you play two a lot, you really need four.

[B]

Yep. And like I said, they're kind of cross training because you have Ty Anthony Smith, who can go either. He's in a battle with Juice Crier, but notes came out today. Guess who was considered one of the smartest players in a leader. It was. It was Juice Crier. So bing, bing, bing. That's a light. That's a light bulb there that he'll likely get a start, whatever that means. But Smith can go back and forth between will Brad Spence also has functionality in there too. So they're cross training. They're. They're avoiding the depth issue by cross training. So I think that they have that slightly solved.

[C]

Well, and we're trying to kick every angle and I get it, but people are spending way too much time talking about a 4, 4, 3. Like who's our Sam linebacker? Maybe jets behind that. As a former Sam, he's like quick taking me off the field for the nickel.

[A]

Right?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

It's like, dude, our base is a 425 or it's a 3, 3. You know, 3, 3, 5. The third guy's not a linebacker. Right. It's going to be a db.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

It's going to be a safety or it's going to be another corner. We're not going to spend a lot of time with three true linebackers on the field. And when we do, it's because we crafted a specific game plan for a certain look for a certain opponent. There's going to be multiple games where we don't put a third linebacker on the field ever. So.

[B]

And Juice Crier is there for. If you want to go against 12 personnel more. You have Ty Anthony and more Pat. The position turned out better. Definitely better than I thought right when the season ended.

[C]

Well, so Connor, one of the ways you use Juice Crier is actually when you want to run a 3, 2, 6 and you want to put in a dime, you put him in for like run stopping stability behind the three man front because he's a thumper and you've got enough DBs on the field that he's not. He doesn't have any coverage responsibility. So when you have six DBs on the field and the other linebackers, Rasheen Biles, Juice Crier doesn't have to cover anybody. Yeah, he's there to either shadow or he's there to blitz or, you know, just basically hang out in case teams want to run on our light front. And Juice Cryer is Going to go in there and clean it up and it's a three yard run. And then if you're running the ball for three yards against the three, two, six, the game is over. Texas wins the game because you're not gonna be able to throw. You're not gonna be able to throw against the 3, 2, 6. So with RGB. So that's kind of the math as well. It's not just about us getting big, it's getting small and then having a viable sort of inside the tackle thumper.

[B]

If our noses and DTS are as good as we think, I'm not worried about the size of our linebackers. That's why that room is also very crucial.

[C]

Yeah, that's the case 90 of the time. You know, honestly, man, if this was circa 1995 football, you should be concerned because teams are doing like, lining up with a fullback and like, doesn't matter how big you are up front, your linebacker's got to come up and take on the fullback in the hole. That's just not how football is played anymore.

[B]

I'll be curious to see if Ohio State chooses to ask us how good our third linebacker is with heavy sets to run their ball and protect, saying. So that's where you can see Spence.

[C]

Yeah, but Spence is in there. He's there to. He's shooting fire. He's not there to like diagnose. He's there to like be fired into a gap.

[B]

Yeah. So, yeah, definitely less concerned. I still think it's the most question provoking room on the defense, but I'm not scared of it like I was at the end of the season.

[C]

I think few games into the season, we're going to be shocked how many people are like, oh, my God, Rasheem Biles. Holy moly. Like, I knew he was good, but oh my God.

[B]

Yeah. And he's gonna make such concrete. He's gonna have such concrete fan moments, you know, too. It's gonna be undeniable for what he's able to do. That guy. Just the theme is, is good at football. He's good at football. All right.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

It's like watching Quandary Biggs in high school. Like, he played like nine positions and just like every. Every other play, he did something spectacular.

[B]

So, yeah, DBS can break it up however you want. Paul, which. Which room do you want?

[C]

Two corners. I like the room. It's a strength. I think the addition of Beaumasco is going to be huge for us. I really liked him at Rutgers when he was like a skinny guy. And just like sticky and annoying. Now he's up to 199. His lower half is really filled out. So now when he presses, it's not I'm sticky annoying guy. It's I actually pressed you and drove you into the Gatorade cooler. Like because you're too far out on the sideline. You're running the veer and shoot, which we're going to see a lot of this year. I like Cade Phillips a lot. If you read the. If you read the pamphlet, he really finished really strong last year. We played him quite a bit down the stretch. We made a commitment. When we kind of shelved Akina, we made a commitment to playing the younger guys late. You'll recall. Do you remember that Kobe Black, Kate Phillips, and they started against A and M and then they started against Michigan. Against Michigan. Michigan threw at him nine times for 37 yards and he had nine tackles. So being thrown at nine times for 37 yards is very good for a corner.

[B]

Absolutely.

[C]

And I think Cade's going to be good. I think Bo's going to be good. I think Grayson Littleton, he was a. I mean, he shocked us all as a freshman, how good and mature he was. I think he's going to be good. I like the depth. Warren Roberson, I know he's frustrating, but dude, I love that. I love fearless freaking corners. Who. I mean, that guy will knock himself unconscious trying to. I mean, he did it against the Michigan tight end in the bowl.

[B]

Right. And he's not just a bruiser. He's an elite man athlete. Like he can.

[C]

Arguably our best man coverage guy on the team.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So if. Would you be shocked if Warren Roberson beat someone out by mid season at corner? I. I wouldn't.

[B]

No. Once I saw him carry that over route versus A M, I was like, well, who the hell is that? Like, had to zoom in. Yeah. You see, Warren is no joke.

[C]

His athletically, he is twitched up and he's really strong for his size.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. So corner room is exciting because there's a. It's not known yet, but you can just see the potential energy.

[C]

I mean, the room is so reliable and solid. We just moved Kobe Black to safety. I think that was as much about. I mean, obviously we want the safety depth and for Kobe to start next year probably, but I think that was as much about. We're not sure we're going to be able to play Kobe as much as we want at corner. So let's move him to safety.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So.

[B]

And. And Kobe has Those traits. And, yeah, you know, it's been whispered even since he was in high school. They're like, this is a big dude. Is he going to end up a safety? He's kind of fought organic.

[C]

It's hard not to become a safety event.

[B]

Correct, Correct. And so. And I think his skill set matches it. Nickel or safety is kind of what I was saying.

[C]

And when you see a big corner who's elite, they're built a little differently. So my son did a Patrick Sertain camp in Denver, and Patrick Sertan is the best corner in the NFL, like, by far. He's built in a way that you're like, oh, I get it. Because certain six two, his arms go below his knees when he's standing, and he's got incredible wingspan. He's skinny up top, and then his legs are gigantic. So you're like, oh, okay. That's what an elite big corner looks like. It's not like, big, thick, muscled up dude.

[B]

Right, right.

[C]

But he's like 6, 2 2, 102, oh 5. But it's all in his ass and his legs, and he's got the wingspan of a freaking condor. So that's what big corner looks like at the most elite level.

[B]

Safety I had a lot of questions about until Kobe moved, because I was like, who is really that number three? Like, I like the two starters, but you need a third safety, too. And, you know, everyone would be like, safety's fine. They would just say, Jelani McDonald. I'm like, great guys, but you need more than. You need more than one. I agree. Jelani's an awesome athlete. But whenever they moved Kobe as that third spot, then I was like, okay, I think we're in a great. We're in a great way here.

[C]

So let's walk through this sort of as an exercise, like a thought exercise. If you have 11 defensive starters and 10 of the 11 can be either good to elite, and you have one average guy, one average guy on your D, where would you put him?

[B]

I don't. Are you leading towards safety here?

[C]

Would you put him at corner?

[B]

No, I wouldn't put him at corner. There's a part. There's a part of me that wants to go linebacker, but I love the safety position so much that I, like, don't even want to hide them there.

[C]

So the answer is linebacker or safety. One of your linebackers or one of your safeties can be average, and you're still fine. Yeah, I don't want to put an average guy at corner ever. And I don't Want to put an average guy at, like, defensive line. You could have one average guy in your D line, and you're fine. But having four real dudes is a problem, right?

[B]

Yep.

[C]

So you probably want to hide that guy's safety or one linebacker spot. So that's kind of how I feel about it. And ultimately, as long as Derrick Williams is okay, and then now Kobe Black, I think he's going to have quick uptake there. Philsame was moved to nickel recall. Right. There's a reason we did that. It's not because we don't like Grayson Littleton.

[B]

Right.

[C]

So maybe the coaches are on to something, and if this was Akina, I'd be worried. But this is Gideon and must champ. They. They get it, dude.

[B]

Like, they and must champs, basically the de facto Nichols coach. And then, of course, Gideon safety.

[C]

I mean, so there's certain. I like to question everything. There's certain coaches. I'm just like, it's must champ and Gideon. We're fine. Like, they know what they're doing. So there's a reason they move Folsame. There's a reason they move Kobe Black and then Jonah Williams. I just treat him as found money. I, I, I'm counting on nothing from him if he shows up. Awesome. But that guy has to pick a

[B]

sport at some point. I do want to see what J.J.R does, man. He had some good reps, like, earlier

[C]

in the season, right?

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. And when you remember that. Who was that? Where he had a drive where he made, like, three straight different plays. Yeah. It was against an easier team, but you're like, oh, he made, like, a good run stuff, and then he made a good pbu. So it's like he caught my attention with that drive he had.

[C]

Someone in the chat asked Sellers zealous Hicks and just not ready yet. No, he's not ready.

[B]

He's also. He reclassed, too. Right.

[C]

So he's not ready. He's not going on the field in meaningful spots.

[B]

Yeah. So that'll be a big factor for the safety room. But I think we're excited about this team, man, going into camp, to me, it's the little things. It's really the coaching. I'm not worried about the talent here assembled. It's just, can we maximize them? That's. That's the big question for me.

[C]

Yeah. I'd say that. And schedule.

[B]

Sure.

[C]

So here's the thing that we're gonna struggle with, and this is why I hated Evan's Q A on the round table, because he's like, who are our losses? It's like, first of all, I don't think that way. But secondly, if I say to you guys reasonably in the chat, simply by virtue of the difficulty of our schedule, we're going to lose one or two regular season games, everyone would go, yeah, that sounds right. But then I say, it'll be ole Ms. And LSU. Everyone's like, no, we're not losing.

[B]

Like, Right.

[C]

Like, you can conceptualize it broadly, but if you have to name a team. Well, I see.

[B]

I did a cop out. I just. I said lsu, and then I literally said cop out. Upset loss to a middle tier team. Because that's the odds of how. Yeah, that's how things work. Where it's like, I don't know who it's coming from, but someone's gonna do it.

[C]

The point is, we're gonna have some huge wins in some tough road spots. I promise you. But the week after, week after week of this, we're gonna drop a game and everyone's gonna freak out. I'm sure I will, too. But it will be o. We will lose the game because of the accumulative nature of the schedule and the strain. And you cannot play at your A level six times in a season, a regular season. That does not happen. You can do maybe three, max.

[B]

Yep. And we got more than three we need.

[C]

We're gonna have to win some games. The B game, right? We're gonna win some ugly games, 20 to 17, and block a punt to win the game. Like, that's how it's. That's how you. That's how you do it. I mean, Indiana, great national champion. They barely got by Iowa, barely got by Penn State.

[B]

That game was incredible.

[C]

I mean, they had to play and make incredible plays to be.

[B]

I had to literally have a Heisman moment to win that game.

[C]

And Iowa had them beat. I think people missed that game because it wasn't like a national broadcast. Iowa had them beat, and they pulled it out. We're gonna have to do something similar.

[B]

All right, final question from Dre, and then we'll get out of here. Let Paul out of here. What exact moment do you think Sark made the internal decision that PK and Akina had to go?

[C]

Two things. Dre against Florida. I think he saw what we saw, which is, why are we running in a containment rush on an injured DJ Lagway? Containment's not a concern. We should be blitzing because everyone. Because Florida can't pick up the blitz and DJ Lagway can't process when he's blitzed. And then I think later when you saw the secondary fall apart against Vanderbilt over like a six minute period, we gave up what, 21 points.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Every single one over a bust. Then we go to Georgia when we were playing together better as a team and we busted what, 12 coverages that we counted on the deep dive.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

At that moment, PK was fired and Dwayne Aquina was told, like, sit in the back of the room and we're gonna run the defense now. And that's what happened.

[B]

Yep. Nice. Camp starts tomorrow, so go join Inside Texas. The link is down in that Description. Join for $1, then 50 off your first year. And then, Paul, tell them what book they need to go and purchase. I see here, I'll. I'll. I'll let you do it like this. You can hold it up. There you go.

[C]

This book and this won't be here. This is an author copy. This is the back. Colin Simmons thinking Texas football. I've been doing this for 14 years. 43,000 words of burnt orange goodness. I talk about every single player, every single unit, every single position on the team. A lot of analysis. So tons of stuff. And hopefully it's written in an entertaining way, which I think you guys will enjoy.

[B]

It always is.

[C]

Really in depth previews of all of our opponents. And I think every single opponent, you're going to learn a few things you had no idea about because I went deep on some of these. And some of the most enjoyable, believe it or not, Connor was really digging in on Texas State and UTSA. That was really fun, man. UTSA. Jeff Trailer's a real crossroads for his career because he's become a developmental program for P4 and I don't think he wants to be that. So anyway, go buy it. I would really appreciate it. If you don't buy it, that's cool too, but I think you'll miss out a little bit.

[B]

Awesome. Everyone stay locked in for the rest of the videos coming at you. And this was brought to you by Academy Sports and Outdoors. See you.