IT Live: The Two Biggest Factors in Texas' Season

Summary

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Inside Texas Football – IT Live: The Two Biggest Factors in Texas' Season

Podcast: Inside Texas Football
Episode Air Date: July 28, 2026
Host: Inside Texas (Tex Homer, Paul Wadlington, and Connor)
Main Focus: The impact of strength of schedule and quarterback play on Texas’ 2026 season, with deep dives into roster analysis, position battles, and larger trends in college football.

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on how strength of schedule and quarterback play are tightly intertwined in determining the success of Texas Longhorns Football for the 2026 season. The hosts dig deep into analytic graphics, national positional tiers, roster developments, coaching trends, and recruiting strategies. While framed around Texas, the discussion expands to broader SEC and college football implications, including Heisman frontrunners, line play, NIL, and evolving coaching philosophies.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Strength of Schedule and Quarterback Play: The Merged Factors

• Visual Analysis: Parker Fleming’s (Dropback analytics) graphic cross-references teams’ strength of schedule (x-axis) with national quarterback tiers (y-axis) according to an Athletics article, revealing where top QB play intersects with easier/harder schedules.
• Podcast Quote:
  “That's your Heisman front runner ... Whenever you're hearing the Heisman race, you're going to hear those names: Miami, Notre Dame and Oregon a lot. And you're gonna know that the schedule matters here.” – Paul [08:38]
• Fantasy & Heisman Implications:
  • Late-round fantasy sleepers are elite QBs on easy schedules; Heisman voters often reward stats over context.
  • “The Heisman voter is particularly notorious for being one of the dumber voters of any award in any sport. They are a certified highlight watcher, and these guys are going to get those highlights.” – Paul & Connor [07:56]
• Dark Horses: Tier 2 QBs on easier schedules (e.g., Mensa, C.J. Carr) are poised for national recognition.

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2. SEC and Texas’ Place in the National Landscape

• SEC Overrepresentation: The 1–19 strength of schedule slot is crowded with SEC teams, toughening the path.
  • “You just notice the overwhelming presence of the SEC here in that 1 through 19 just because the league is really tough now.” – Connor [10:26]
• Texas' Quarterback & Team Situation:
  • Texas may struggle if young QBs are thrust into high-pressure, tough-schedule settings.
  • The discussion on Arch Manning: “Arch Banning [Manning] being the worst and most challenging [QB schedule].” [06:46]

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3. Roster Deep-Dive: Trends and Talent

A. Offensive Line (O-Line)

• Historical Issues:
  • Bijan Robinson and Brooks’ talent masked O-line problems in recent years.
  • “Bijan and Brooks masked the interior issues. Yeah, that's a given.” – Connor [27:42]
• Incoming Talent: Focus on John Turntine’s weight gain and potential versatility.
  • “What I do think is reasonable to speculate about is his future position. I would not be shocked if this dude's our starting center one day.” – Paul [57:44]

B. Linebacker Evolution

• Modern Trends:
  • The game has shifted to lighter, faster linebackers everywhere but the D-line and corners.
  • College and NFL have shrunk the linebacker profile — focus is now on speed and coverage.
  • “The NFL is bigger everywhere except linebacker ... back in the day ... their linebackers averaged 255.” – Paul [30:50]
• Texas’ LB Strategy: Emphasis is on keeping undersized LBs clean with dominant D-line play and tailoring to spread-heavy opponents.
• Philosophy Shift:
  • “Georgia's linebackers aren't taught to shoot gaps. Georgia's linebackers hang back and they don't commit till your running back commits.” – Paul [33:01]
  • “Our linebackers may be a little small and fast and mobile. ... With this schedule, much worse [if we had slower, bulkier guys].” – Paul [41:23]

C. Defensive Backs

• Recruiting Observations:
  • Rural South recruits often “fill out” and get faster, not slower.
  • Samari Matthews and Bo Max showcase classic traits: length, speed, and developmental upside.

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4. Coaching, Roster Management, and NIL Reality

A. Steve Sarkisian’s Maturity

• “Sark seems like he knows he's got a good football team while admitting the exact reasons why we weren't good ... Very forthright.” – Connor [22:05]
• Sark’s willingness to address run-game issues and cut underperformers, even if they’re leaders or fan favorites, signals a move toward a true pro-football approach.
• “That he's in the next wave. ...To make that decision showed that he's in the next wave.” – Connor [55:03]

B. Brutal Roster Calculations

• Position Prioritization:
  • Top dollar is for DTs, DEs, and lockdown corners; elite LBs or TEs only if “special.”
  • “If a guy is sufficiently amazing at a second tier position, you still pay up for them because they can impact the game.” – Paul [46:38]
• NIL & Transfer Management:
  • Texas is paying to retain 3rd-string D-line and cornerbacks but less so for replaceable positions like WR4.
  • Blunt honesty about NIL and roster churn: “It's pro football now.” – Paul [53:29]

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5. Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “I'm trying to give the for the visual video guys need to be able to see that podcasters. I just merged my hands very intelligently if you guys are wondering.” – Tex Homer [01:02]
• “I always like to do the counterfactual ... this is what we are. What if we were the opposite and we did address this narrow problem? Well, then we'd have all these other problems that would spring up that would are actually bigger.” – Paul [43:24]
• “Whenever we did the highlight breakdowns … When he gets a pick, it's a pick six. He has three career interceptions. All three are pick sixes.” – Paul [40:14]
• “The running back is basically picking a hole to duck into. ... At Georgia, they teach the linebackers, we don't care if the running back gets 2 or 3 yards because you committed late. What we don't want you to do is commit to the wrong hole.” – Paul [33:01]
• “It's pro football. Anyway, you think Cam Coleman was free? You think Biles was free? It's like, dude, you have to. There's a ... there's not a cap, but there's a cap.” – Paul [53:28]

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Important Timestamps

• 01:00 – Introduction of theme: merging strength of schedule and quarterback play
• 04:11 – Analysis of Parker Fleming’s tiering and schedule/quarterback grid
• 06:46 – Deep dive into fantasy values, Heisman implications, and QB schedule context
• 09:36 – Touch on Tennessee as a dark horse if their QB play elevates
• 12:49 – A&M O-Line and skill position assessment (portal desperation)
• 15:19 – Texas secondary’s past breakdowns, and critique of Pete Kwiatkowski
• 18:29 – Mississippi State schedule gauntlet and Camario Taylor’s upside
• 21:39 – DJ Lagway/Baylor, mental red flags, and SEC environment effects
• 22:05 – Detailed discussion on Sarkisian’s candid 2025 offseason evaluations
• 27:42 – Consensus on O-line as top priority/question mark for Texas
• 30:49 – NFL and college linebacker size evolution linked to scheme and era
• 33:01 – Georgia LB coaching philosophy explained; impact on Texas
• 35:43 – How opponents might exploit Texas’ linebackers (Ohio State, LSU, Ole Miss)
• 41:22 – Counterfactuals and personnel trade-offs for speed vs. size
• 43:46 – Rocky Cummings as “the mic of the future” for Texas
• 45:02 – On geographic recruiting trends by position
• 46:38 – When to pay NIL/top dollar at non-premium positions
• 53:01 – The hard business reality of NIL and roster-building in college football

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Additional Noteworthy Observations

• Development & Genetics: Hosts joke about weight gain, role flexibility, and how college boys always bulk up given facilities, food, and coaching.
• Specialists’ Size: Texas’s specialists are notably large, even out-sizing classic LBs.
• Defensive Scheme: Debunking fan myths about “aggressiveness” in linebacker play, emphasizing that different teams and schemes have different concepts of success.
• Recruiting/Evaluation: Both hosts identify key physical/mental tells in high school tape that project for dominance at college level (“dread factor,” build, discipline).
• Transparency in the New NIL Era: Candid acknowledgment that roster management is now ruthlessly transactional, and coaches must make business-like decisions.

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Conclusion

The hosts, with data, anecdotes, and insightful banter, portray the 2026 Texas Longhorns as a team poised for success thanks to a potent combination of elite defensive line play, improved roster management, and self-aware, candid leadership from Steve Sarkisian. However, the unavoidable realities of a brutal SEC schedule—and the critical importance of quarterback performance—mean that even the deepest, best-built teams face significant headwinds. The episode ultimately underscores that in modern college football, transparency, adaptability, and cold-blooded personnel management are now prerequisites for national contention.

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For more detailed info, in-depth graphics, and ongoing team coverage, visit InsideTexas.com.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Tax on included.

[A]

Not for use within a combo or a combination with any other offer discount.

[B]

Good morning everybody. I'm Tex Homer. That is Paul Wadlington. It is the Tuesday it live. We're going to talk about where strength of schedule and quarterback play have merged. And while those two factors can cause I'm trying to give the for the visual video guys need to be able to see that podcasters. I just merged my hands very intelligently if you guys are wondering. So we're going to talk about those two factors. Strength of schedule, quarterback play, how they intertwine. But first I want you to head over to inside Texas where you can join for $1 then 50 off your first year link down in the description down there below.

[A]

We already got really any of this worth doing with Joe Cook on.

[B]

Oh yeah. I don't know if you guys saw it for the the non board members but Joe's heading out to law school so this is his last week. You'll see him on some final videos coming out inside the program. That kind of stuff. So he will be around but our Joe Cook will be leaving to go lawyer about here shortly. Not Rip. He's. He's still gonna. He's still gonna be around. There was. There's no diagnosis or anything. He's just gonna going to be a lawyer is a form of diagnosis.

[A]

But he wants to do estate planning so that could be rest in probate.

[B]

Yeah, we could. There we go. We have these options. We'll just need them for any entertainment law or anything like that. Scott right here just comes out with something very thoughtful off the bat. Oh you sucks. A m. Sucks and tech is annoying. All right, cool. Sounds good man. Good morning Woodcrest. Good morning Roaster you know, we're not gonna do the Odyssey. We will not do the Odyssey thoughts until the very end. We're gonna do it. All right, let's do.

[A]

So do you think that the film would have been better if it had been filmed in the original Greek?

[B]

Sure, yes. That would have been great for the audience. I like how approachable and non pretentious that would be.

[A]

No subtitles.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. The scene in the Godfather where you just gotta. Not knowing is the point. All right, so set the stage for. As I press the button and it's not working very well. Okay, so you wrote an article and first our man Parker dropped a awesome graphic as he always does. Who's Parker and what does he do?

[A]

Parker Fleming is an analytics guy who now actually has a company, works for a company called Dropkick, I think, or Drop Back. Drop back, where they actually sell their analytics and all their observations to college football teams. So he's an interesting guy. I know there's. I know a few teams actually that use their services and they're not just analytics of sort of like your quarterback is terrible in this range from here to here. A lot of it is, hey, we did an analysis of 3, 000 high school guards and here's what. How star rating actually impacts their development and when you could expect them to blossom, stuff like that. So stuff that's actually pretty useful and actionable and he's a pretty interesting dude in general. But go on down. And there's a bigger one that could show the tiers.

[B]

I'll show you this one right here. Printed. There it is. So at the top, going from left to right, that is your strength of schedule. Your top left or just left, in general, you have a higher strength of schedule. And if you're towards the right, you're lower. And then they've tiered the quarterbacks based on the athletics article, I believe where the athletic went and ranked every quarterback. So.

[A]

Yeah, the athletic ranking was from polling coaches, gms, like football people. So it's not just their terrible opinions.

[B]

Okay, cool.

[A]

So I'm gonna. I'm gonna ask you something. Do you remember enough high school geometry?

[B]

No.

[A]

All right, which is the Y axis and which is the x axis?

[B]

The Y is going top to bottom, vertical.

[A]

Very good, Connor. You know what? For an RTF major, that's pretty legit

[B]

stuff right there that says Bachelor of science in radio. That's a Bachelor of science.

[A]

Is it really a bachelor of Science?

[B]

It is, yeah.

[A]

That's ridiculous.

[B]

Yeah, we still have to do the. The Lower court coursework as.

[A]

As that, well, you're only get to be artsy.

[B]

We get to be artsy. Our final, our final two years, we get to be artsy.

[A]

But the first for an RTF major, the lower coursework is the higher course coursework. Let's be honest.

[B]

Incorrect.

[A]

All right, so sorry I interrupted you.

[B]

I thought. Yeah, you just wanted to test me on why the X of act.

[A]

The X axis is the strength of schedule rank. And this was compiled from ESPN's preseason sketch. Strength of schedule assessment. And then of course that Y axis, the vertical, as Connor pointed out, is the tiering of the different quarterbacks according to GMs, scouts, head coaches and a bunch of people, the athletic pool. So the reason for this chart is many things you can derive from this that are. That are pretty interesting. So say for example, Connor, you do college football fantasy. Okay. Where would you want to go draft? If you're just thinking about this, where are the, the sort of later round values for getting a quarterback?

[B]

You would want the highest tier quarterback with the worst schedule.

[A]

Yes. So Cal Saga Patel is out there waving his hand, saying, look at me, Fafita, Kevin Jennings, they're doing the same. Brad Jackson. Look down to tier three in that 60 to 78 tranche. That's Brad Jackson. That's, that's, that's a Texas State Bobcat right there, Connor.

[B]

Yeah,

[A]

where people may overdraft and they may get a little, you know, you always play fantasy football. There's the guy who drafts like the quarterback in the first round and you're like, dude, what are you doing? But there's going to be a bunch of people trying to draft Julian saying, Arch Manning, Trinidad Chambliss, Sam Levitt. But it's important to remember that they all face pretty rigorous schedules. Arch Banning being the worst and most challenging. But Trinidad Chambliss is going to have some real defenses on this, his schedule this year. So that's something to keep in mind as well. Dante Moore has a pretty light situation. And then over there you see the U with mensa and then C.J. carr with Notre Dame. Shamefully, with a schedule between what, 40 to. What is that?

[B]

59, 59th.

[A]

Good gosh, that's Notre Dame should wear ribbons of shame.

[B]

But this feels like the high. The Heisman box for the casual vote.

[A]

That's the Heisman box right there. Dante Moore over from. Dante Moore at Oregon over to the. My right. I think those are your Heisman candidates because they're going to win games and they're going to Put up big numbers.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And the Heisman voter is particularly notorious for being one of the dumber voters of any award in any sport.

[B]

They are a certified highlight watcher, and these guys are going to get those highlights. What about Mr. Maker at Oklahoma State? Do you think he has the pieces to even do it?

[A]

Well, they brought over pretty much the North Texas receiving core intact. Schedule's not too daunting, but I mean, they're going to go like 7 and 5. So, like, that's not really Heisman. You know, they got the quarterback. Check. Yards, potentially check. But you have to win a bunch of games on television.

[B]

Everything else has to be good, too.

[A]

Yeah. And that's why I really. I mean, as dumb as it is, I think C.J. carr is the man. Man, that's. That's your Heisman. That's your Heisman front runner.

[B]

Yeah. So just now, guys, whenever you're hearing the Heisman race, you're going to hear those names, Miami, Notre Dame and Oregon a lot. And you're gonna know that there's the schedule matters here. And even in 1 to 19, the schedule matters. Oh, yeah. That's the problem too is like the 19th is going to be significantly easier than the first. So it gets even more intense the further you move up there. Because that was a. They were doing. What I hate in an analysis of playoff teams is top 25 wins. That means nothing to me. It's like if you're. If your wins are top 25 wins, but they're all 24th, 23rd, 22nd, and then you're comparing it to a top 25 team that's beat two teams in the top 10, that's a totally different conversation, too. So you can see that here kind of play out as well, whoever the one is with the 19th schedule here.

[A]

Yeah. If you also want to look at like season win totals or you're trying to think about dark horses for, say, the SEC race, go down to tier six and look in that first tranche, one through 19, and you'll find the Tennessee Volunteers right next to Northwestern and Tennessee, depending on their quarterback, if they can have a quarter quarterback whose performance by the end of the year is tier three or tier two. Hey, the Vols probably did something in the sec, right. If they stay down there, if, if Faison Brandon doesn't hit the true freshman quarterback, or George McIntyre, the guy he's competing with doesn't hit, Tennessee's looking at a rough year. And you're going to look at maybe a fan base getting kind of upset and Dissatisfied with Josh Hyper.

[B]

And then you just notice the overwhelming presence of the SEC here in that 1 through 19 just because the league is really tough now. What about like the tier twos, right? So tier two for the podcast listeners, tier two quarterback talent would be like a mater or a Marcel Reed. And they still are in that 1 to 19th strength of schedule. So does that make you discount them a little bit? Should you discount them? Should you handicap them?

[A]

This is when I go to supporting cast John Matiere, supporting cast on offense improved at every positional room.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Marcel Reeds is a mixed story. I actually love A M's receivers this year and I think they're being a little bit discounted because Casey Concepcion was awesome. I freaking like seeing that guy in person. I was like, wow, that. That he's liquid mercury. What's funny is his box score didn't reflect it playing Texas, but seeing him run around on that field, I was like, oh my God. Like please don't get that guy in space. But they return Ashley Bethel, Roman, Mario Craver. They added Isaiah Horton from Bama, who I think is a great addition to that room. So I, I love little fast guys, but I want one big guy, you know, who can go catch the ball in the red zone or on a third and seven right, and win a contested catch. They lost four NFL O line starters. Texas A M is not at that level as a program that they can shrug that off and reload. So they completely rebuilt themselves in the portal on the O line in the off season and they did it with O linemen from these three teams. So tell me if you see a commonality between the O line performance of these. They play these transfers, LSU, Alabama and South Carolina, so 3o lines who along with Texas, quite frankly, were some of the most disappointing O lines in college football. And that's where A M harvested their portal guys. So that's not. Doesn't mean any individual guy is bad, but it does mean A M is. Was desperate on the O line. They had to go get four portal starters and they lost four NFL dudes. You can't. A M is not good enough as a program to shake that off. So. And then running backs, for me, it's pass fail. If your running backs really suck, it can hurt the offense. But as long as they're good enough, they're. They're fine.

[B]

They're just.

[A]

They're creatures that exist within the ecosystem.

[B]

Running backs have gotten very weird to me. They're so striated. If they're really bad, they will hurt You. And if they're really elite and you're already damn good, they're the cherry on top. They can put you over. But anywhere in that middle, it's just, they doesn't matter. They allow it to function.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, so there's a bunch of running backs in that middle with great offensive lines and good speed outside threatening the defense and they have big yards and everyone's like, oh, this guy, oh, he's amazing. And then there's guys that fight literally for every yard and maximize and they've got terrible supporting cast and people are like, you know, he's fine.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

And it's like, dude, that guy's seven yard run is a triumph. Right. So it's, it is a weird position and the NFL is kind of going through a, A, a different understanding of the position, but a lot of that is predicated on whether you can catch the ball or not.

[B]

Yeah. Is there any other sneak value or quarterbacks that you think are getting a lot of praise that this chart would actually say? Hold, hold on there.

[A]

Be careful. I think we covered the main ones. I'd be curious to hear from the chat. What might you use this for? Because I was thinking Heisman handicapping college football fantasy. You know, go grab those Tier 2 quarterbacks with the easy schedule or grab a Tier 1 schedule. A quarterback with an easy schedule. Like, I promise you, Mensa is going to put up a bunch of numbers this year. They'll still lose to Wake Forest. Somehow I'm not sure how that'll still happen because it's, it's Mario. But yeah, I mean, I think that's really

[B]

does.

[A]

Looking here at that g on tier 2 in the easier tranche, I was

[B]

gonna ask you, do you agree that Stockton is a tier 2? I have a, I have an outsized opinion of him as a Texas.

[A]

Oh, no, I don't think he's tier one. I, I, if anything, I don't know.

[B]

But I'm saying you think tier two is safe there? Because some people I talk to are like, they think Gunner is completely overrated.

[A]

Well, whenever he plays a really good defense that defends them properly, he doesn't look very good.

[B]

Exactly. So yeah. Are you? I'm comfortable with tier two.

[A]

Are you?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, I think he's a college quarterback for sure and you know, I don't know what his pro future is. I think it's minimal at best. But I mean, people are like, well, we have a good defense. It's like, not when we went To Athens. We literally busted what didn't we count on the deep dive, like, 14 coverages.

[B]

We spent more time arguing than filming that show because we were like. We're like, that's got to be cover three. You're like, no, because he wouldn't be here for cover three. And we ultimately could never.

[A]

Yeah. I can't. I can't overestimate for y' all how important it is that we lost Dwayne Aquina's influence in that room. That's. That's a good thing. And it's very good that Blake Gideon is the replacement with Will Must champion. Yeah. Everyone's going to be. Everyone in the choir is going to be singing from the same hymnal. And there was a stretch there, Connor, before a. M. Where people, I think, have already painted it over or forgotten just how bad we were in the back end in terms of assignment soundness. Vanderbilt, we. We melted down.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Georgia meltdown. Mississippi State meltdown. Until we started blitzing, and then we just covered it up with sacks. Right. The Vanderbilt game, Steve Sarkeesian had to take off his headset and go, like, talk to the defensive coaches and defense. Like, what do you guys, like, help me understand what's going on right now. Yeah. Because you guys are melting down on the field.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Why are we leaving? Guys uncovered up the side.

[B]

If there were a couple. Two more drives in that game, it was probably a different story.

[A]

Yeah. We would have lost.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, the. The secondary completely melted down. Mentally tapped out. Everyone's like, I thought you. I. I thought you had him, you know, and it's like, oh, my God, this is. Then this is like, what, game nine of the season.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, we had to re haul, man. And. And I understand there's people that love Pete Kwakowski. I love Pete Krakowski. We could not continue with that. You know, if we don't get the right DB coach higher, then we're useless on defense because Pete doesn't like to do that. Like, you can't live like that for the rest of your program life. So, you know, as I said, Steve Sarkeesian firing him was severing the Gordian knot.

[B]

So what about this tier four here? Strength high, Strength of schedule. Tier four. This feels like the group of quarterbacks that are gonna create upsets, but they're still going to have rough seasons.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, Camario Taylor is a guy to look at there. Mississippi State. It really depends on some of the environment around him and how quickly. Like, so here's the Deal. For those who don't know Camario Taylor, he's going to be a true sophomore starter. 6, 4, 2, 30 plus can an arm. He's very fast, he's tough. And if he can hit RPOs and force people out of zone coverage into man, they're going to throw deep shots and he's going to run the football and that's going to be their offense. And at the college level, that's an awesome offense. Like, right. 90% of college defenses cannot stop that. So that could be very interesting. The problem is Mississippi State's schedule is brutal. I'm. I'm finishing up thinking Texas football. It's. It's already. It's been submitted.

[B]

It's. We were having questions on the lot. We had one earlier in the chat. We had ones on the live yesterday.

[A]

I know, I know people know not to bother me or call me or ask me questions at the final stages of getting the book done because.

[B]

Oh, you're not, you're not your best. You're not at your best at that point.

[A]

I'm just grumpy.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Grumpy and sleep deprived. So anyway, Mississippi State has a stretch where they play Texas ou, Georgia, and it's all like four games in a row. If that stretch doesn't kill them, like physically and mentally, they have real upside. It could actually. They could actually have a pretty nice season and go to a bowl.

[B]

Yeah. Then we'll see about old Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt got Tier 4 for nothing so far. So that's.

[A]

Yeah. So, you know, it's crazy. Connor, Tier six Tennessee hasn't happened. Five star quarterback.

[B]

Yeah, but they haven't decided yet. Right. Okay.

[A]

But yeah, I mean, Vanderbilt, Jared, star quarterback.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[A]

Who's got the better environment? Right? Who's got the better supporting cast?

[B]

I thought they were pretty calm with Bryce Underwood. For the amount of hype he had coming into last year, I thought that that would kind of continue just hype wise. So I thought they were pretty reasonable to put Michigan in, in tier four here.

[A]

Yeah, I thought he'd be higher, but obviously this shows that the influence of some scouts and coaches. Yeah. Underwood eats a lot of work. A lot.

[B]

I wonder about lagway, too. Tier 4. Tier 4, but weaker schedule. We know he has the upside if he can just get the middle game right. I'm glad I called that. Remember when I was talking about that SEC documentary they did on Netflix last season? DJ Lagway, like, pointed out three separate times without being prompted that, like, he was good with the mental side of it. And it was.

[A]

Yeah, the first time.

[B]

The first time I was like, okay. And then the second and third time like, why do you keep repeating this?

[A]

Why do you keep saying that?

[B]

Yeah. And so I was immediately. I'm like, I think we might have some head case concerns here. And then, you know, reports will come out that there was some mental stuff. But I caught on to that immediately. It was just strange. He protested too much unprompted there, so. Well, hopefully back home in Texas will chill him out a little bit out of the sec, out of that. That firestorm.

[A]

A few thoughts on that. You did nail that. I do remember you saying that at the time.

[B]

And.

[A]

And then also, Baylor's coaches basically came out and said Florida is incompetent and stupid and DJ Lagway hasn't been coached at all.

[B]

There's a. There's a chance of that, too. Sure.

[A]

So we'll see on that one. That caused a little bit of a. A firestorm. And then third, the DJ Lagway thing, just bringing up appropo of nothing. The same. Like, the same thing over and over.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Does that remind you of Mac Brown pre ou?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

People think we're gonna quit. People think we're not gonna play hard. But we. You know, people keep saying that. They just keep saying it over and over. You're like, oh, you're. You're gonna quit and not play hard.

[B]

You're actually not reassuring me. The more you're not reassuring me. Mac.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's. If.

[B]

I mean, his coach is Monk, like, in his. His demeanor. So I think Aranda would be a good guy just to talk about philosophical life if you're worried about the universe, so maybe that'll help, too. But that's a player I'm definitely going to watch for as well. Trying to see if there's any more.

[A]

This is slightly off task here, but we can do that. How has Sark struck you in terms of his mentality and sort of his vibe this off season? Because it makes me feel positively about the team beyond just the obvious data points we all can compile. Sark seems like he knows he's got

[B]

a good football team while admitting the exact reasons why we weren't good. Our struggle last year, Very forthright. Yeah. So that's what I thought was important. Like, he nailed it. He was like, look, we weren't explosive in the run game and you know, all of this. So he did it. That's. That's what I want to hear the most. Even beyond. You have a good team because it's just, duh. I mean, just once you start, you have like potentially four first top 10 or top 10 picks. Like, we know that. But to admit, like specifically, not just we struggled last year or things went sideways last year, but like, these are the five things that held us back. That's what I have to fix. I thought that was a good sign. I think he was, you know, clearly had a rough off season last year and was able to kind of lock back in and then be honest himself. And he's always been forthright and honest with himself. He's never been a delusional guy. He could get like a. You didn't want to ask him directly after the game, but that Monday, Monday press conference, whenever he had time to kind of breathe and think about it, he always was good about that. But you do worry. It's easy to do that when things are going well. You do worry when things kind of start to struggle if they start to get defensive. And I don't think he did a little time in season. He did, but it seems like he's much more clear minded in that regard. I, I've liked what I've heard.

[A]

I agree. I, I think, I think it is tough and a little unfair sometimes to ask the pointed question as the coach is coming off the field.

[B]

Right.

[A]

But if you come back, if you circle back Monday with Sark at the press conference and you go, hey, you're not blocking anyone. He'll go, yeah, man, I agree. I watched the tape. It's terrible.

[B]

Yep. But also too, I think that's.

[A]

He's always been that way.

[B]

People kind of mistake, like in the battle of football, you don't really, you're not really seeing globally like that. You kind of like when you're in the fight, there's some things you have way better perspective on. Right. He knows what he called. He knows that. Whatever. But whenever I think there's something about being detached on TV where you can kind of see the global picture a little bit better, even visually you can. Where you're like, hey, what's up with the run game? Where he's thinking, not that there's a problem with the run game, but he was thinking, man, I called counter when they were in this. And so you can get a little myopic, I guess. Yeah. That's why I think it's hard. And coaches that say, I need to watch the tape, they're not, they're not running away. They. You do need to watch the tape on that stuff.

[A]

Yeah. Well, how many Times have you and I had an opinion during the game and then you do a re. Watch and you're like, oh, it wasn't really like that. Like, you know, it kind of a couple of things. But actually this was the problem.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Like, that Florida game was very telling.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because I, I did realize in game, like, okay, Arch is actually playing well. We're just horrific around him. But I remember early in that game, I'm like, arch, come on, dude, get the ball out.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And then you watch the All 22 and you're like, oh, there's nowhere to get the ball.

[B]

Specifically the end zone. Yeah, specifically the end zone. Like you had to see the. From behind the offensive line. And I get it. Fans can't. Literally can't see that. So I don't blame them when they don't know that. But you had to see how Arch was like subtly manipulating the pocket every chance he could. Because guys, right there, it's hard to see from the television copy.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Yeah, I think that's a, A big factor. But he seems to, to really be solid with owning it. We just actually have a short. I don't know if it's out yet, but we just did a short on that as well about him being really open there.

[A]

You know what this graph emits A top tier elite performer in a different market. I wonder.

[B]

I don't, I don't think it would necessarily be on the graph, but we can, we can try.

[A]

Are you undercutting our advertiser? No, I just don't think our beloved.

[B]

Situationally, he would be on the quarterback graph.

[A]

But elite mortgage men, we got a top tier guy who rates elite on both the X and Y axis.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

And you don't have to be an RTF major to identify that.

[B]

You don't need a Bachelor of science.

[A]

That's right. You can reach him at 832-557-1095. And this gentleman owns many leather bound books, unlike Connor, who behind him, his bookshelf is mostly like memorabilia.

[B]

You notice, you know, this is clear.

[A]

Yeah, this is clearly like set up.

[B]

Why would I ever have. I'm backwards. I would never use books that are just set three on their side with a camera on it. I can't even like access it effectively.

[A]

All of Connor's books have pictures. That's why he loves thinking Texas football, because the excellent photographs.

[B]

Wow. Arch looks good.

[A]

Here's the guy you got to call for a mortgage, Connor. You got to call Gabe Winstone, 832-5571. 095. He is a National Merit scholar who went to University of Texas, graduated, got a law degree, got dissatisfied with the law game. Don't let Joe Cook hear this. And then decided to become a mortgage guy. And guess what? When you take really smart, really hard working, really ethical good people and you make them mortgage brokers, those mortgage brokers kick ass. And this mortgage broker will kick ass on your behalf. You're going undefeated against a hard schedule, or even an easy schedule. With Gabe in your corner. You can reach up at 832-557-1095. Make sure you tell him that. Connor, I don't read. Moffitt sent you.

[B]

I re, I read.

[A]

Sometimes you don't.

[B]

Connor, I read.

[A]

Dude, I'm looking behind you.

[B]

Look, I can read right now. Inside Texas. InsideTexas.com on 3. I'm really good at it.

[A]

All right, we're done with this, right?

[B]

Yeah. But I want to get into some of these here talking O line. We couldn't avoid it on the unavoidable. Hello. So this is an O line issue. It has been an issue. Bijan and Brooks masked the interior issues. Yeah, that's a given. I mean, we've talked about all season that there's a, a core thing here, but we need to see if that can get fixed. It's not like Sark was avoiding that either. So we got to see. But ultimately, I would agree that that's the number one issue going on there. All right. And then Jonathan Brooks numbers were just as good.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

All right, man. So you did some other stuff. We had the roster come out last week and you keyed in on certain positions. Some of these I agree. The first, the first thing I did was Ty Anthony Smith. And then the second thing I did was Lawrence Seymour weight. And then, and then I looked at everything else, but those were the first two things I looked at.

[A]

John Turntine wasn't in your top. Was he in your top three?

[B]

No, I don't have the fixation on Turntine like you and Ian fixated on Turn Time. Yeah.

[A]

And I, I, I, I have a few pet peeves. Connor.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Do you know one of my pet peeves?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You hate when thinking. Yeah.

[B]

You hate O line specifically, or people are like, wondering if they can gain weight.

[A]

It's like, I'm always like, dude, did you gain weight when you went to college? Yeah, I graduated high school, I was 160. I graduated college, I weighed 205.

[B]

Yeah. Okay.

[A]

Are you an elite genetic athlete?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay, well, you put on 45 pounds. Do you think John Turntime could put on good weight? You think that's possible? You think it's possible? A 17 year old with unrestricted access to a training table and a state of the art weight room and a guy yelling at him to lift weights and eat, you think he'll maybe gain some weight?

[B]

And unlimited, unlimited food, like in the tank. Like they can. They literally have food available. Good food, good food all the time. And they get nil now. So it's not like they can buy whatever they want, food wise. But yeah, it does drive you nuts. But I'm not, that's why I'm not obsessed with turn sign on. Like if he's going to gain weight because it's. To me it's just like, yes, he's will. But you seem to have also went to the linebacker room to start off here. What are your thoughts?

[A]

Well, Ty Anthony Smith was listed at 205, you'll remember, in the off season. And everyone thought he had a Thai aporm.

[B]

Yeah, really good man. You have another one at the end of the article, I think here too, with your words.

[A]

Killer man murdered.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. He's gained nine pounds. So now all of our linebacker issues are solved.

[B]

I know people like, he gained weight. I'm like 214. It's not, still not good enough.

[A]

So now he's gonna smash a pulling guard.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Coming around the corner on counter.

[B]

Yeah, that's a big, that's a big safety weight right now. But yeah, and then Biles is like right there. I always say it, 220 in the college game is my cutoff. And then really for the NFL, 230. But so Biles is there just on the very low end.

[A]

You know, it's wild, Connor. And I mean, I think we briefly touched on this before, but man, the NFL is bigger everywhere except linebacker.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean back in the day when you were a kid, Connor, watching the old Dallas Cowboys and the Redskins and the Giants and all that. The Giants, their linebackers averaged 255.

[B]

I was gonna say 250. Yeah, that was like the one.

[A]

I mean we had inside linebackers in the NFL that were routinely 250. Lavon Kirkland, do you remember that guy in Pittsburgh?

[B]

Actually, no.

[A]

Oh, he, he weighed like 275. He played inside linebacker. He could actually run. But that's all been reordered. So like now the NFL, a lot of linebackers are 225, 230, 235. So it's been a big interesting sea Change because of the passing game and then the rules and all that.

[B]

But.

[A]

But so a step down in college, you can start undersized linebackers. I feel a lot more comfortable doing that when you've got guys up in front of them who demand double teams, because the degree to which you can keep these guys clean will determine their efficacy and their ability to run around and. And be annoying little guys blitzing and. And, you know, throw, you know, sprinting through gaps and stuff like that. But if you just have average defensive linemen in front of them and they don't demand double teams, big boys, big blockers get out on these guys, and these guys get swallowed up.

[B]

Whenever I talk to Jet Bush, we're doing a show later today, but I would always, whenever we do tape, I'm like, what was it like whenever, you know, a guard was in your lap? He's like, wouldn't know. Tavontre Sweat, Byron Murphy, he's like, I literally cannot relate. But he talks about how crucial it is for your defensive tackles because linebackers, they're. Their goal is not to engage anyone. Their goal is to track running backs and stuff like that. Anytime something gets in the way of that, it's a problem. But in a perfect world, no one should touch them until they tackle the ball carrier.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so that's. Yeah, exactly. It's the guys up front here now, if they're climbing to the second levels all the time and that kind of stuff, that's where the size of the linebacking core will come into play.

[A]

Well, one of the things we've talked about, too, then the shift in scheme, and we've talked about this before, and then Pac came and sort of confirmed it with his institutional knowledge, and he said, Georgia's linebackers aren't taught to shoot gaps.

[B]

Nope, not at all.

[A]

Georgia's linebackers hang back and they don't commit till your running back commits. And what I mean by that is you've got all these gaps across your front and the run. The linebacker is responsible for one or two ultimately. I mean, he's responsible for any pursuit. It's not like, well, he wasn't in my gap. I stopped running. You know, like, that's not how it works. But the running back is basically picking a hole to duck into. And what he's going to do is give you a false step into a hole and then cut back hard as you commit to go meet him. And at Georgia, they teach the linebackers, we don't care if the running back gets 2 or 3 yards because you committed late. What we don't want you to do is commit to the wrong hole. The better athlete, the running back, steps across to a gap across, you know, and you get sealed off and then he pops a 40 yard run.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

So their whole thing was we don't want you. We're not trying to have you create second and 11. Dude, we're fine with second and eight. What we're trying to do is prevent explosives. And that's different from like an Elko defense where Elko's like, man, I just want to fire downhill. And we're guessing and if we get creased, our goal is to clean it up and not make it a touchdown and we'll get them on the next down. Right.

[B]

Elko's a high emotion team defense to watch because he's going, they're going to hit guys in the backfield and you're going to get super excited. And then three days or three plays later, someone's going to bust a 30 yard run and you're going to be sad. And so you. And I think this is something fans have to be aware of when you're watching because I noticed a lot of times fans will take that as non aggression or like the linebackers are soft or the linebackers are scared. That's not how it works at all. So just avoid that in game when you're watching, they are supposed to stay there. They are supposed to track and watch where the running back's going because there's no point. And Kirby says it great that in this clinic that there's no point. The whole point of a linebacker is the second level. They are the second level of defense. When they fire gaps, everyone is the first level. Now there is no second level.

[A]

So.

[B]

But that's the big point too is that these guards can't climb and, and latch onto our linebackers. I say can't do that because now you have the gap that they would be signed as open and the cut gap. So that's a big thing. But don't be frustrated when you see the linebackers waiting and reading. It's not that they're fearful or they're not engaging. They. That is exactly the scheme that they are in and you will like it because they say you have to work for third downs so they'll give give you two, three yards in the run, but they always want to keep you in that kind of gray zone and try to get you into third down so they can break out the pass rush dream. Thank you, man. What teams on our Schedules have the personnel who could possibly take advantage of our linebacker corps?

[A]

Terrific question.

[B]

I don't have a team, but I could just tell you if they have these things, then that would be able to do it. So heavier personnel is the first thing you think of, and then you think of athletic guard play. Those are the two things first to

[A]

come to mind, heavier personnel or personnel that we're so fearful of their outside threats that they can still run downhill on you.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So Ohio State comes to mind, and here's why they added Arthur Smith as the OC. If you study Arthur Smith in the NFL at Tennessee, at Pittsburgh, at Atlanta, he loves 12 and even 13 personnel and in lots of motion and smoke and mirrors, all just a disguise to run downhill on you and then also run outside zone. So that could be very interesting for us because we're going to give Jeremiah Smith and Chris Henry a ton of respect, and we're going to have safeties deep.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So Ohio State's going to be very tempted to see if they can bully our linebackers and. And just get downhill on them.

[B]

Yeah. Because if we're keying into this as fans, coaches are keying into those weights as well. So I agree that it's going to be a thought process. What they also can do is when you coll, if you were to fire gaps and collapse, you can get killed in play action. And so staying back a little bit allows the linebacker to go like, oh, and then bail back out and actually be a pass defender. When you're firing gaps, you completely leave open the middle of the field.

[A]

Ohio, LSU and Old Miss are also teams to think about. LSU is, you know, Kiffin has become more veer and shoot than even pro style over the years. So that's something to. To know about Kiffin. And if you know anything about, like I did in my research, his entire spring was spent screaming at the O line and the running backs to be more physical on inside zone. Because Kiffin's whole thing is if people overplay the pass game, I want to punish them. Just handing the ball off between the tackles. So that's. That's one thing. Put a. Put a bookmark on that. And then Ole Miss has Kawan Lacey, who is. They don't have a great O line, but they've got Trinidad Chambliss, and everyone's terrified of him. So you're not gonna like, load the box against Trinidad Shambles. And then Kawan Lacey's superpower is the dude just falls forward over and over and over. And even if you Hit him in the backfield sometime. Somehow it's second Nate, about the conclusion

[B]

of the play, that's the best running back trait. And no one ever talks about it, but it's like that. If you could pick one lead trait,

[A]

that is it that, you know, Cedric Benson, rip that was his elite trait. Cedric Benson, do you remember how many times he would be losing his balance and he'd put a hand down and then, like, propel himself forward another five yards and suddenly it's second and three, and it should have been second and nine.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

People like, oh, you know, that's cool. It's not flashy. It's like, dude, you do that over and over. You're in good shape. Like, your offense is always ahead of the chains.

[B]

100. Feels like we play a lot of spread teams. That's why it feels good, because it's like we have that, like, Biles can drop back. And I keep questioning, like. And I even just fell into it there. Bile's tackling grade and run defense. Grade on are. Are great. Like, and so it's like this assumption that small means can't play run game is. Is not true. But still, you know, if they go 13 personnel, then physics will eventually get involved.

[A]

But these are overused terms, and they're not descriptive. For Biles, it's correct. He's a baller and he's a dog. Yeah, the Biles got to pit. They didn't know where to play him. Freshman year, true freshman year, they said, let's put him on the punt team. He blocked three punts. True freshman. Okay. The next year, they're like, we got to get this guy on the field. They start him at linebacker. He's second on the team in tackles, has a pick six and has, like, nine pass breakups. He leads the team in pass breakups. He has, like, three force fumbles. Like, he's just that guy. And by the way, he's the guy. When he forces the fumble, he also.

[B]

Oh, no, we lost your audio. We lost your audio right in the middle. But I bet he was saying whenever he does force the fumble, that is when he scoops and scores. Because that's what he does. Whenever we did the highlight breakdowns.

[A]

Still a little. Yeah, it's okay. When he gets a pick, it's a pick six. He has three career interceptions. All three are pick sixes.

[B]

Yeah, I know.

[A]

It's crazy. That's Rasheed Biles, dude. He's just that guy. Like, he stuffs the box score like he's the NBA player. Who has 20 points, nine boards, eight assists, three blocks, three, four steals. Like. Like he's the guy that just. The box score never ends. That's the guy. And here's the other thing. The. A useful thing when you're critiquing your team is, okay, what's the counterfactual? Meaning we. We play a bunch of spread teams. The SEC is all in on. On, like, spreading the. I have an article coming out in Thinking Texas Football about the veer and shooting proliferation in the sec, not to mention the air raid. But what's the counterfactual? So what if we had four linebackers who are all 245 and downhill thumpers? Is that better for our team or worse? On balance, with this schedule, much worse.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So there are very few teams that are Goldilocks personnel where you're like, oh, we're perfect. You know, Sonny Styles and. And, you know, and who's the other guy to Ohio State. I blanked.

[B]

I'm blanking, too. Why am I chat.

[A]

Chat. Help me out. This is what you're great for. Sonny Styles. And who is the other freak?

[B]

Arvel. Thank you.

[A]

Arvell Reese. They're both 6, 5, 2, 40 and run like deer. Right. So they can do everything. They're pretty rare. Like, that's not a common linebacker combo. And Ohio State's gonna have a more normal linebacker combo this year. Other than that. Someone said Caleb Downs. No, he's a safety. But other than those. That team. There's no. Every other team in college football is like, well, we're a little too slow or we're a little too small and fast. There's very few Goldilocks teams where it's just right. So I always try to say, let's do the counterfactual. And. Yeah, okay, our linebackers may be a little small and fast and mobile. Okay. In some theory, someone could go 13 personnel and maybe bully us. Except the D line gets a vote on that. Guess who's going in? If we. If we see 13 personnel. Gifford, Jackson, Xena. I mean, we're Hero, Canoe. We're gonna get big, just like you got big. And we're not asking our linebackers to make.

[B]

And we still keep the athleticism. Like.

[A]

Athleticism.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So you could play action us. And we'll still have a great pass rush. Right? So I don't. I. I always like to do the counterfactual, which is, you know, people like Michael Chaff, remember, in the early years of his career, is like, he's not fast enough it's like, okay, what's the counterfactual? We have a guy who's blazing fast and doesn't know what to do. What hurts your defense more, especially at safety? Especially at safety. The, the, the duty of the position is in the title.

[B]

Yeah, you are a fail safe.

[A]

You have, you are a safety for the defense. So I know, I, I think it's always illustrative and useful to do the counterfactual and say, all right, this is what we are. What if we were the opposite and we did address this narrow problem? Well, then we'd have all these other problems that would spring up that would are actually bigger. So it's always useful to kind of think of things that way sometimes.

[B]

But Rocky Cummings, man, 6, 4, 2,

[A]

27, he is the mic of the future. That guy is amazing. I watched him in the spring game.

[B]

He looked good.

[A]

He is big, tall, fast. Like certain linebackers move like linebackers. Like a lot of linebackers in today's college football move like a good athlete running. Rocky Cummings runs laterally the entire time. His shoulders are square and he's in a tackling position as he's running out to, to chase down a running back on outside zone. So at any moment, if that running back tries to cut back, Mr. Fundamentals there is just right, right there and ready to strike and wrap him up. He doesn't have his shoulders turned. He's not going to get back cut like that dude's going to be a stud. Mark my words.

[B]

And also too, whenever he was in high school, he was jacked, but he was also defined physically. And so that's a mental eval. Even though it's like, it's a physical thing, it's a mental eval. It's like that guy's working in the gym and he's working specific muscle groups. And also it takes time and discipline to build that muscle. So I think too that was also mattered. It's like clearly he's willing to work hard over time. So I think he has good mental eval there too.

[A]

It's also weird because certain geographies turn out certain types of players inordinately versus others. And it's shifted too ultimately. Like if you want to go get a linebacker, like a linebacker linebacker, the spread is kind of ruined that in the state of Texas you have to go.

[B]

You can get remarkable athletes.

[A]

You can get like that.

[B]

But linebackers, yeah, you have to go to California.

[A]

You have to go.

[B]

That's weird.

[A]

Isn't that weird? Yeah, you have to go to Iowa, like that's, it's just a different type of approach to football and a different type of guy ends up playing linebacker and then he develops over time. In Texas, Rocky Cummings would have been an edge rusher.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

100 and a tight end. He would have played tight end and like he would have been like a flex tight end.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Back in the day, if you go real old school, Pennsylvania is where you went to get quarterbacks. No one knows why. Then it became California.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Because everyone is like throwing the ball out there. And then if you had told people in the 1980s and 90s, hey, the place to go get your quarterback is going to be Texas. People be like what? What to hand the ball off? What are you talking about? Texas is the place to go get your quarterback.

[B]

The spreadification and the 7 on 7 ification of Texas man has, has caused

[A]

this for good and for bad.

[B]

What do you think of paying top dollar for high school linebackers?

[A]

You should ultimately reserve defensive top dollar for defensive tackles, edges and lockdown corners. However, comma, if a guy is sufficiently amazing at a second tier position, you still pay up for them because they can impact the game.

[B]

Yeah, they're special. Yeah.

[A]

I mean look like tight end is a commodity position. You don't prioritize tight end in the NFL. Rob Gronkowski is worth like a win and a half to your offense if he's healthy all year.

[B]

Yeah. The top five linebackers you pay for.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then otherwise you can just go for experience portal. But if you, if you are swimming in the waters of elite linebacker talent, then sure you can take them. Yeah.

[A]

I mean there's certain linebackers that are just amazing and they defy the positional categorization that you need to adhere to. Where you get in trouble is when you start paying up for a four star linebacker.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

And don't do that because you can get a three star who might be almost as good and he's going to be 1/5 the cost. So that's the reality of how you have to think about the portal now. And what the, what's the price tag on these guys? And then also what's the ramp? You know, you may have noticed juco football is effectively disappeared.

[B]

Right.

[A]

I mean Kansas State back in the day used to get entire recruiting classes from the juco ranks and those guys were studs like you. They didn't like to read, but they were stud football players. Also juco football is like dead. It's done.

[B]

Yeah, I never hear about it anymore and I think I didn't even really think about it, but it's like, when is the last time you heard of, like, they were able to scout up a juco guy? And he's looking good. Yep. Let's look at your next rounds here. You keyed in on these defensive backs. First things first.

[A]

Bomax go. Is 200 pounds.

[B]

Yeah. Well, he's 199.

[A]

Okay. Sorry, I apologize.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If he goes to Chipotle and then weighs. Yeah, but so he came in and if you watch him at Rutgers, he's. He's skinny and he's long. He's not tall. He's 5 11.

[B]

Right.

[A]

But his arms are super long. So this is crazy. My son went to a camp that Patrick certain hosts. Patrick certain. His build is crazy. Like, so he's about six two, 200, 205. Skinny up top. His arms hang down below his kneecaps. Yeah, he's crazy long. And then his legs are tree trunks. So you could see why he's the most terrifying press corner in the NFL because he's so long, he's big.

[B]

It's like the legendary build.

[A]

And his base is like a rock. Like that. Dude, I promise you can squat whatever you put on the bar. So, you know, if you can get that length combined with a lower body, that's a really good thing in a press corner. And I think that's what happened with Bo. He was pretty skinny at Rutgers, and he. We obviously put him in. In the weight room and said, fill out your lower body. And he did.

[B]

Then you have Samari Matthews, who's already up to playing size and getting good reps on top of that as a freshman.

[A]

That dude is 170 pounds his senior year of high school.

[B]

Yeah, dude.

[A]

There's certain guys, like, I just love these recruits from, like, the rural South.

[B]

They have a build that you can, like, see. And they should look a little awkward and lanky in high school.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But you just know that for some reason, that build just works.

[A]

And every single one of these dudes, you and I are on the same page. When they fill out, they get faster.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Every single time. Like, they'll go to a camp and get timed at 4:6. And you're like, I don't know. That dude will add £20 and he'll be running 4, 4 in 18 months. And it's just. It's amazing. And it's like rural Florida, rural North Carolina, rural South Carolina, parts of East Texas. They just.

[B]

And I'm honest, dreads matter here. Dread dreads are a factor here too.

[A]

They have to be like a little

[B]

lanky, a little awkward if they have dreads. It's like the eval is correct. Like, this guy's gonna be a good corner. Yeah.

[A]

So I'm excited about Samari. I think there's gonna be a really interesting battle between him and Wardell Mack for that number four corner job because

[B]

yeah, Meredith, it's already coming in too. But it's like, you know, she's gonna be awesome too, but it's like loaded, dude.

[A]

It's.

[B]

It's crazy. It's crazy. Keeping all these guys is going to be the fun exercise because that's the

[A]

thing, it's wild is we're supposed to have this flattening because of nil, you're supposed to not be able to keep your badass fifth corner.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Someone else is supposed to take him and buy him because you can't afford him.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

RD line and our corners. Texas is like. And this is right on, by the way. Texas is like, we will pay up and we will pay that third string defensive end freshman who's a complete badass. We'll pay him to sit. He's going to play a little. But we want to keep that guy because they're not easy to find. When you, when you find a gem, hold on to it. And then if we lose a safety, if we lose our number four receiver, who cares, like hit the road like DeAndre Moore and like all that. When that came out, it's like, dude, you're. You play wide receiver. If you're not the top one or two wide receivers on a roster, you're completely expendable. And if you're always pressing for more nil, you're much more expendable. So. Yeah. It's just the reality of the new roster building.

[B]

Yeah. I didn't see. I know why rival fans got mad because their players got named. But it's just like I appreciated and any coach that would do this, I would appreciate where they're just being honest. They're like, yes, there's a cap space thing here. And we had to let go of these players. But we're so old minded in college football, we want the coach to lie.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, and not talk about the business side of this. And then of course, the whole thing was like, see, Sark thinks players are expendable. It's like, let's be honest, a lot of them are. This is a business. Watch the NFL.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You, you trade players, man. This, most of them are expendable. The ones that are not you have to pay.

[A]

I mean, Drew and Jet especially once they are past their career. They're like we are commodities.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Like we understand. So while they're extracting something from us, let's extract something from them. Let's get a great education. Let's get, you know, all these other benefits of being a Texas football player. And then nowadays, of course, let's get nil.

[B]

So. Yeah, but I'm just tired of like the old minded. Like we have to lie about these things.

[A]

It's like it's pro football.

[B]

Yeah, it's pro football.

[A]

It's pro football now.

[B]

Anyway, you think Cam Coleman was free? You think Biles was free? It's like, dude, you have to. There's a. There's not a cat, but there's a cap.

[A]

I. I never told you this. I'll reveal this to you on a live. Do you know how much grief I got in last year's thinking Texas football when I basically said our running back room isn't talented. And it. We made a huge mistake. And I went through and explained why Trey Wisner is actually not very good. Why C.J. baxter was. I called him a dry well. So I got a lot of feedback, let me just put it that way, from some people. Even maybe close to those camps.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

There's still a college mindset. And it's hard.

[B]

Those guys were leaders. They're leaders and they're likable too. That was the big problem.

[A]

That is a problem. Because if they were jerks, people be like, yeah, get rid of them.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

But you have to put on your GM hat when you're talking about roster construction and then put on your fan hat when you say Wisner played awesome against A M, that's cool.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

He actually was enabled by the blocking scheme. But we don't need to get in all that. Right. Have your fan hat and have that appreciation. But when we're talking about roster construction, you need to get a lot more cool, cold and calculating. Because it's numbers and it's bodies and you're always. You should always be trying to ruthlessly upgrade your personnel. And that's just the reality of it. And if you've got a guy making 800k and he's a average to below average college running back, you are doing a very bad job. Yep.

[B]

I'm just glad Sark did it because like I said, those guys were leaders. That was not an easy decision interpersonally for Sark. But to make that decision showed that he's in the next wave. Wiser I don't think he's a big fan of mine. I had to ask him a question at, I don't know, one of the players playoffs or bowl games or something. I had an availability with him in Dallas. He's answering it. You know, it's a little scrum, right? And I think, I think Quinn was talking or something. So everyone's over there. So we're at Weisner and everyone's asking a question. He's given good response. I asked a question. It's not a dumb question. It's like I could see, but he stonewalled me. He gave me like three words and

[A]

it wasn't even like a cute, dumb,

[B]

kind of deserve to be stonewall question. I was like, I think he's seen me on some lives there. Probably not a big, big fan.

[A]

I think that's your impression. If, if you'd been able to watch the video.

[B]

Yeah, I filmed it.

[A]

You're probably all like nervous and sweaty and you're like, oh, Trey, Mr. Wiser, when you're running the ball, do you ever get like scared and stuff?

[B]

Yeah, that's what I did. What if I was pouring down your face? Trey, your stats don't match what we think of you. Why is that?

[A]

Trey, you average less than 5 yards per carry in your career. Texas hasn't done that since their 95th ranked defense in, in 2017. And Daniel Young, do you consider yourself an elite back?

[B]

Just the most evil stuff. But yeah, it was, it was a really milquetoast question. He just, he, he went from smiling, he turned his head, he was smiling at somebody, he turned his head and his smile dropped. And I was like, oh, great.

[A]

Wonderful.

[B]

All right, John, turn time. 6 foot 4, 295.

[A]

What?

[B]

Wow. Wait up, Paul. Make sure you hit the line.

[A]

Well, well, well. How the turntables have turn time.

[B]

There we go. That was your second one.

[A]

Thank you, man. Yeah. Do you think he had like rolls of quarters in his pockets? Like, how did he do this? Connor?

[B]

But he also had weight fluctuation in high school.

[A]

Yeah. Like a pudgy boy.

[B]

And then he decided to slow him down senior year. So it's like I had already seen him do this and so it's like it wasn't a, it wasn't a question.

[A]

Yeah, people were asking like acting like he had, you know, muscle wasting disease or something. It's like, I think he just firmed up and then people like, oh, he can't play tackle at 260. And I'm like, yeah, he's not going to play tackle at 260. Man.

[B]

Have you seen the tackles after they quit the pros? Like, they either. Well, two ways. Either they gain to 500 pounds, but

[A]

they're skinny and ripped.

[B]

Yeah. They can't sustain the eating regimen and the workout regimen. And so it's like, you'll see them, they slim down. Significant, significant tackles have big weight fluctuations when they're trying and when they're not trying to gain weight.

[A]

You know what's interesting about him, though, is I do question. I. What I do think is reasonable to speculate about is his future position. I would not be shocked if this dude's our starting center one day. Yeah, I mean, I think he's a guy that could play legitimately all. Every O line position.

[B]

So he has the intelligence percenter. He's.

[A]

He's smart, but he's got that pop, man. Like, if you watched him in high school, he doesn't just like, screen off people when he's pulling. He popped like, there's a. There's an explosiveness to him that just leaps off the film that he would be really good at center man or guard. I just, I don't know.

[B]

I.

[A]

He's gonna be a good player. He's gonna play somewhere. But I would say don't discount the idea that that guy could play somewhere that. That people aren't anticipating.

[B]

Absolutely. And then I noticed this too. Specialist 6, 4, 2, 8.

[A]

Dude, our specialists are jacked.

[B]

6, 3, 221. It's like, dude, they're bigger than our linebackers.

[A]

Dude, we got two pison, man. And they're all about gym, tan, laundry. Like, I love these dudes.

[B]

The fake is there, dude, they can run it. They can run it.

[A]

I mean, dude, I. I think they should challenge the other team specialists to a fight before the game.

[B]

Yeah. But when I was scrolling through the same thing, I was like, God, these guys are actually pretty big. They're bigger than a lot of our, like, defensive starters. So that was surprising. But yeah, that was a fun note. I noticed.

[A]

Does Johnny Speck sound like a late 19th century anarchist who tries to assassinate, like, a Habsburg dignitary?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know how there's like all these anarchists at the beginning of the 20th century in late 19th, and they're always trying to murder Habsburgs, dissolve the Austro Hungarian Roman Empire?

[B]

Yeah. They're able to achieve some other things, though. All right, you good to go, Paul?

[A]

I'm good to go. I. I feel like. I feel like I carried this live.

[B]

Sure. He did a Great job. You are the talent after all.

[A]

I am.

[B]

But your humble host, Ty Anthony, bringing the slingshot. Yeah, he's going to have to. And there's. Like I said, in the modern game, there's a lot of ways that these linebackers can use their speed. I've said about Biles and Smith, they're not forward tacklers. They wait for you to get kind of parallel with them and then they side wrap with their speed. And then you can do. Acceleration is also part of the formula, right, for force. If you can't, you're not going to adjust your mass, but you can adjust your acceleration to generate power. So as long as you're quick to the tackle too, that can help. See, that's a Bachelor's of Science, by the way, for you right there. Yes, sir.

[A]

Paul, you could adjust your mass in a black hole.

[B]

Okay, cool. Thank you very much. If we got two Bachelors of science here, everyone head over to Inside Texas. Join for $1, then 50 off your first year. We'd love to see you over there. New members, everyone stay locked in for the rest of shows. Coming at you. Camp's not too far away. August 5th. So excited about that. Later, everybody.