
These are the big things we noticed from Fall Camp reports.
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Host
All right everyone, welcome to the Saturday show and we actually have some camp football to talk about, some notes we've heard from it and what that means. Of course. I'm joined by Ian Boyd and Pack. Before we discuss these matters, head over to Inside Texas. This is a great deal guys. 75 off your first year. New members only. Link in the description down below. Also our main man Paul, he did drop the 2026 Longhorn football perspectives Thinking Texas Football. It is the number one best in the universe preview of your Texas Longhorns but also our opponents and even the wider sec. You can get it in digital format for your e reader or you can get the physical copy from Amazon. Go check that out. All right gentlemen, let's take our first player we want to talk about and he's getting hype and it's Justice Terry. So we had kind of it's multifactorial. We heard three things of interest with him. Number one, Eric just reported on Friday that he had two sacks in practice in the previous practice. That's good to hear. Then Hero Canoe on his presser called him a generational talent. And then on top of that our Justin Wells and Evan Beath at practice pointed him out when asked as the most physically impressive player on the team. So three things kind of back to back to back on. Maybe we need to pay attention to justice. Terry Ian, your thoughts?
Ian Boyd
Well, in one sense is a five star player is considered one of the best players in the country. Like top 10 players in the country. Right. So this is kind of what you expect is for him and his second year to start really shown it. But at Texas in particular it's like we saw him a little bit last year. We've all been pointing at the pressure he got on the Marcel Reed interception to Michael Taff in the A and M game last year. But generally it's been pretty quiet around him. His weight was not high enough for a while. He missed the spring with some kind of injury and so it's been very, very quiet around him. But now all of a sudden it's like oh yeah, remember when we signed like one of the best players in the country out of the state of Georgia and he's like a extremely powerful explosive defensive lineman who's going to be impossible for interior linemen, especially like kind of ones that we've been playing on our own line the last few years. They cannot block this guy. He's way too sudden, he's way too powerful at the point of attack and it's just finally, it's finally happening. Guys finally hearing about it.
Host
And Eric did point out that he wasn't at four eye, he was at defensive tackle when he made those plays. Pat, kind of global view of how you deploy a justice Terry to effect.
Pat
Yeah, I think I mentioned it last week but he was a guy that I thought towards the end of the year, even the mid part of the year, I thought he would, he'd have a good chance to push for starting three Tech just because of his burst, his ability to get low. He's got really good pad level even when you looked at him in high school where he wasn't playing great Georgia competition. I think he was a 1A or a 2A guy there, but you could tell he had a lot of, you know, immediate twitch. He had a lot of really he was more technically sound than I think he got credit for. And it was just once he got up to playing weight he was going to be fine because of his combination of speed and strength. It's a pretty rare thing. There's a reason why there were certain guys that had him as the best defensive tackle in that class. So it's not super surprising. I think you can put him everywhere, too. You can play him at three technique. When you want to play mint, you can put him at a 4i. He's going to be good with stunts just because of his ability to explode off the ball. So I think really what he does is he kind of unlocks that interior pass rush. And like Ian was talking about last week, where if you've got an interior pass rush, you know, it makes Colin Simmons life a lot easier, too, because you can't. You. You have to do some things that account for that three technique or that two I. You can't just focus all your attention on those two edges.
Host
And then he. So he was named kind of the defensive MV MVP of the first practice. But they also note, I think Rasheem Biles got a nod for that, too. So we don't have, like, more notes on Biles there, but it's just good. We think Biles is be a dynamic player. He's also going to be a make splash plays that make MVP an obvious thing with him so excited about the second level there, we still need to hear a lot more on the number two kind of linebackers. Even though we've heard repeatedly very positive things about Juice Crier, we got to see Ty Anthony Smith. Eric did say he still does look light up top at least. So undersized as we thought, but linebackers very clear at will, and then we need a little bit more clarity at the other spot. Any quick thoughts on that, gentlemen?
Pat
Yeah, I think for Bios, what you're going to see a lot is you're gonna see a lot of splash plays, but you're also going to see, you know, when they are playing a bit more static, you're going to have those moments where it doesn't always look the prettiest just because of the size issues that are there. Right. It's hard to play linebacker 220 or 225 in the SEC, especially when you're trying to play the way that Musham's going to want them to, where they're gonna have to shuffle stack and then take double teams off of the defensive line, among other things. So, you know, I think you're going to see a little bit more boom or bust. And that's why a guy like a bigger guy next to him is pretty important. Or a guy like, you know, if Tyler Atkinson can get to that point, a guy like him who is super cerebral, who is. Who is really really quick twitch. You can get away with having lighter linebackers if both of them are able to close space in a hurry. So like that's, that's one of the things that I'm looking to is how much development can you get out of Atkinson in, in these next three weeks and can you get him to the point where you can actually, you know, play him in that too deep of your linebacker room.
Host
And anything you want to see from
Ian Boyd
that room, linebackers
Host
or hear about what you've done, a lot of good. What I want to hear,
Ian Boyd
just reliability. I think, like, I think that Must Champ is going to have an easy must. So this story is that Must Champ has one more weapon to attack teams with up front, which should just make it that much easier for the linebackers. So that means the name of the game for the linebackers in 2026 at Texas is just know your job and be in the right leverage. And it's gonna, it's gonna be like a Woody Allen's quote, that 70 of life is just showing up. Yeah, the linebackers are just in the right spots this year. There's going to be a million plays to be made because they're going to be so well situated by the disruption that Must Champ can create up front. And then also the, the reduced stress and coverage from all of the man match and just like safety spun down coverages that they're going to be able to play are really going to lighten up the load for the linebackers and coverage too. So it's like, it's like, you guys, we're gonna, we're gonna set the table for you.
Host
You gotta eat, you gotta eat, you gotta eat.
Ian Boyd
Just be in the right spot and eat. And we don't even care how it looks. It should, you should be crushing at the table.
Host
So, so you mentioned kind of safety towards the end of that, it did ask specifically about Derrick Williams and then the response from the source was he's good. One of the leaders. His e. His knee is a non issue. Any first thoughts? There's a little bit more to Williams there from our Tyler Hora's reporting, but anything from that sentence help? It seems like he volunteered the knee as a non issue. I don't know how to. I guess the source just knows what the talk is outside the worries outside, I guess.
Pat
Yeah, I'm not so sure that I'm worried about the knee at this point. I think it's been like a year and a half, two years of recovery at this point. You know, I don't Know that I would, I would. I'm thinking too much about that more. It's more just like you got to understand the playbook and you gotta, you gotta play fast. And if he's not gonna be able to do that, I think, you know, Kobe's played next to Jelani at times already early in the fall. I think that's a really intriguing combination from a coverage standpoint, especially if they want to play more middle field close and they want to get into a little bit more of Ripley's or they want to play cover one out of that. You know, I think you could pretty easily argue that Kobe maybe fits even a little bit better than Jelan, than Derek there. But I think, you know, the emergence of Kobe Black and him playing really well at safety only helps you. It allows you to. It allows you to have a 6dB that you trust either way, whether that's Derrick Williams or that's Kobe Black. And that's really important for when you get into third down and you want to be a little bit more coverage heavy. You're not to worried about using simulated pressures or trying to confuse protection and you just want to play tight coverage. That's where you know you're going to see a lot more dime dime packages and dime personnel. And in order to play dime, you need six good DBs. You need six DBs that you trust. So it's only a good sign if you know if Kobe is really pushing Derek and if Derek looks good, you know, that's all the. That's all the better.
Host
And what do you think about the Kobe Black thing? We had both our Justin Wells again and Evan Veith say that he looked the most, I guess fluid would be the term fluid mover. And it makes sense. He's a corner moving to safety, so he's going to look like he has better hips and all of that as well. But what are your thoughts with kind of Kobe in the mix now?
Ian Boyd
Well, I'm more encouraged not by how he's reportedly moving because I watched him move at cornerback in the spring and he was moving good at cornerback. So if you're moving good at cornerback, you're gonna out class. If you're moving good at quarterback, cornerback, relative to other guys in the Texas roster.
Pat
Yeah.
Ian Boyd
And you're going to be like a Pro bowl level athlete at safety. Right. So it's like, yeah, he looks great. That doesn't really whatever that. That should be 100 what you'd expect. Unless he's like just somehow incapable of executing different footwork than he did at corner, which was obviously not going to be the case. What I find more encouraging is that he's getting a little. He's getting some first team reps, which means that either he's getting it well enough where it's not a waste of time to have him learn it, or they think he can get to a point where he can actually learn that position in time to earn those reps. Like you don't want to. You don't want to waste those reps on him if you don't think he can play a lot this year and if he's showing the understanding and the mastery of the again, the leverages and the angles of that position and how they're different and like what your eyes need to be taking in and processing and when you need to be where on the field to stop offenses in that spot. That's like so much of safety is that you can get by with much, much less athletic safeties than Kobe Black if they understand all those things. So I'm very encouraged that it seems like they either think he's getting that or that he will get it if he gets enough reps. And then you can get excited about, hey, do we have a future Pro bowl athlete at safety? We've been excited about that before. And then it was like, well, that would be, yeah, he's an amazing athlete, but he has no idea what he's doing, so it doesn't matter. Yeah, this is a few times I
Host
think you and I both keyed in on a note from our Tyler Horker's reporting too. What does he say about Sark and Derek Williams before? I guess in warm ups?
Ian Boyd
Yeah, Cirque was pumping up Derrick Williams before practice and giving him kind of like, hey, you're our dude. Like just go be that guy kind of deal. I don't know if worker was lip reading or overheard it or what, but that, you know, the obvious implication is that Derek Williams is hearing footsteps behind him from Kobe Black and he's like, oh gosh, am I losing my spot to this dude? So that just again points to, you know, Black. Maybe this may be everything that everyone hoped it would be. When we watched him break on balls against A M and zone coverage and look like, boy, that guy. You wonder what he could do at safety. He might be amazing. It seems like that instinct is bearing out.
Host
All right, we're going to talk a little bit more about the remaining secondary. Some other guys were getting some interceptions in practice, but before we do that, I want to talk to you about Andy. Let's chat a second about our good friend Andy Ludici at My Perfect Franchise. Are you a displaced corporate executive or wanting to put your career back in your own hands? Or are you even an experienced entrepreneur wanting to diversify? Well, andy Ludicke and myperfectfranchise.net can help. Andy is a huge college sports fan and franchise veteran, having owned multiple franchises and businesses. Using his expertise, he helps others find their American dream through a very thorough consultation and evaluation process. Call Andy, put your life and career in your own hands. Best of all, his services are 100% free to you. So what do you have to lose? Your Find your Perfect franchise@myperfectfranchise.net or you can call or text him at 404-973-9901. Contact info is in the description. All right, let's get to some corners and nickels here. So Eric Nlene reported on Friday morning on defense it heard Coleman's dorm mate, cornerback Cade Phillips had an interception. That's after Grayson Littleton and Wardell Mack had picks on Thursday. The way Will Muschamp emphasizes interceptions, don't be surprised if you keep hearing about them. Anything kind of stand out there? I know interceptions are pretty common, but still anything you can read from that or any players you're interested in their pack.
Pat
Yeah, I think it's always a good sign when your field corner is is playing well because you know you always had trust in Bo Mascow at boundary corner knowing that what he did at Rutgers, he was able to play a lot of press under Shano. He, he had some reps of playing in a half turn so you knew he was gonna there was gonna be some level of comfort with his scheme coming into Texas. But you know, kid didn't play a ton last year and he had some good moments but he also had some moments where you could tell he was he was still learning how to play corner and learning how to play it at a high level. So anytime you hear some good news about him, I think that's a good sign. Especially if especially because you know you are more likely at field corner to have to play a little bit more zone coverage. You have to you're going to be asked to do a little bit more than the boundary corner just because into the boundary you're going to be able to play a lot more man. You're going to be able to really focus on a few on less things because you can only run so many things from a route pattern concept standpoint into the Boundary versus the field. You have so much space to do some of that stuff.
Host
No, it was. And what are you thinking about Cade's role?
Ian Boyd
I have little to add beyond what Pac has said. It does seem like. Because what Pack's getting at. Right. Correct me if I'm wrong, is we're expecting to see a lot of zone match, cover three, cover six stuff. And in that the boundary corner is usually just gets locked up and manned, basically. And the field corner ends up playing, I mean, almost like a hybrid safety, but just a safety in the sense that you're back, dropped back and off coverage, which everyone hates, with eyes on a lot more things. Not in the sense that you're going to come up and make like a lot of plays in the box or anything like that, but just being more of a read and react kind of player. John A. Baron was so good at that when he was at Texas. And so, yeah, that skill set is a lot of times you get these guys like these guys that Texas gets to play cornerback. Usually what garnered them high star ratings is like their fluidity, their speed, maybe their length and press coverage, their ability to match tight. It's not dropping and reading and reacting so much that you have to teach them. And then the athleticism should convey, but it still has to be taught.
Host
So that was Malik Muhammad's big problem. And like with the fans being frustrated, a lot of zone stuff when he was kind of determined as a man corner, I guess, coming out of high school. And it would create tension with the fans.
Pat
Yeah, I'll just add one or two things because Ian kind of nailed it, but I can go a little bit deeper. So, you know, to the field especially, versus three by one, which you're going to get a lot of. Especially now. A lot of teams will, you know, you'll see a lot more three by one than you will two by two, or at least teams will start there. And you know, when you're playing cover three, there's only. There's only so many different checks you're going to have to. That you're going to have your standard ones which are playing zone to one side and then playing man to the other. And so what happens there is like Joaquin was saying, you're gonna. You may show press, but by the snap, you're going to be with your butt to the sideline. You're going to be seven to nine yards off one, and you're going to be splitting one and two, playing depth and divider. So you have to, you know, have a good feel for his own coverage. You've got to know, you got to be able to read the quarterback's eyes and understand, you know, where his shoulders pointing, where, where is the ball most likely to be thrown. You got to do a good job of also protecting the seam, knowing that you've got a middle field sheet safet. So it's not as likely he's going to be in the middle of the field right away. He's going to need a little bit of time, so you're going to have to protect him there. And then when they're in a match version of COVID three versus three by one, when we're talking about skinny, you know, it's still you got to get into a half turn and you gotta, gotta, you gotta do a good job of getting that front shoulder down, being able to look at the receiver while in your shuffle steps. That way you can eventually man turn to one and then play him man to man if he's vertical. So you're, you're asked to do a lot of things and it's not always the most comfortable because you, you do have a natural weakness when you're in a half turn right when your back's to the sideline, that's going to allow receivers to get into your blind spot. So you got to do a really good job of not only understanding route concepts but having your eyes in the right spot being able to match the stomach receiver. So when you hear about guys getting interceptions when they're playing as a third corner in this system, that tells you that they're pretty comfortable with what they're doing, what they're seeing. And you really like to see that from a guy that has really high expectations.
Host
So just kind of broadly do you expect him to have more interception opportunities than Bo by edict of their roles?
Pat
Yeah, because when you're in man there's only so many times you're going to be able to one know, be in phase to the point where you can become the receiver. Right where you're looking at the receiver now, you're turning back towards the quarterback and you're then tracking the ball and able to make a play. That's less likely most of the time. Really what you end up seeing is guys going chest to chest and playing through the hands even when they are in phase. Whereas when you're to the field and you're able to play off the quarterback or you're in zone, you know there's, there's just more opportunities because the easiest way again interception as a corners have your eyes on the football and when you're in zone that's just naturally what's going to happen a little bit more.
Host
Cool. Any global thoughts, Ian, or anything before we head out?
Ian Boyd
Every good Texas team that has a realistic chance and winning a championship has a elite secondary. That is a. That's just what it looks like when Texas has elite teams, other teams, some of their best teams are, you know, it's hard to be great if you're not good in the secondary, but Texas needs to be great in the secondary. That's just like that's where the, that's what the recruiting base produces I think is the major factor Texas just develops and then can recruit. The state of Texas develops elite skill athletes and elite defensive backs. And if the Longhorns are not, don't tap into that and have like a athletically elite but also savvy veteran unit. Then you almost just write off the national championship that year because that's what they. That's what it looks like when Texas is that good.
Host
Gotta maximize your natural resources. Everyone head over to Inside Texas 75 off your first year for new members. There's no better time to do it and there's no better deal to take advantage of. Link down in the description below. Buy Paul's book Thinking Texas Football. You will not regret it. Link in the description as well. Everyone have an awesome Saturday and see you later.
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Release Date: August 8, 2026
Host: Inside Texas, with Ian Boyd and Pat
Podcast Theme: Latest defensive insights and emerging player storylines from Texas Longhorns' football camp
This episode dives into the most important defensive storylines to emerge early in Texas Longhorns' fall camp. The crew discusses rising stars, scheme implications, key position battles, and what they mean for the team’s aspirations in the upcoming season. A particular emphasis is placed on the development of highly touted defensive lineman Justice Terry, linebacker challenges, the safety position battle, and the evolving secondary.
Justice Terry’s Hype: The hosts note a trio of recent observations:
Analysis (Ian Boyd, 02:50):
Deployment and Impact (Pat, 04:21):
Quote:
MVP Mentions and Roster Updates:
Depth and Fit:
Strategy and Scheme (Ian Boyd, 07:41):
Derrick Williams’ Health and Status (Host & Pat, 09:07–11:09):
Emergence of Kobe Black:
Coaching Dynamics (13:44):
Quote:
Interceptions & Depth:
Field vs. Boundary Corner Roles (Pat, 15:58–21:45):
Teaching Points & Scheme Complexity:
On Justice Terry:
On linebacker expectations:
On the safety battle:
Cornerback play:
Championship formula:
This episode delivers a camp-deep dive on defensive developments, highlighting Justice Terry’s emergence, linebacker combinations, a competitive safety position battle, and the maturation of Texas’s secondary. The panel maintains optimism that these developments—if they bear out on the field—put Texas in contention for a championship-caliber defense.
Fans looking for early glimpses at upcoming stars, evolving position battles, and the subtle scheme tweaks under Will Muschamp will find plenty of substance throughout this episode.