LIVE: Texas Will WIN the SEC? Paul Finebaum Makes BOLD Prediction

Summary

On Texas Football Podcast Summary

Episode: LIVE: Texas Will WIN the SEC? Paul Finebaum Makes BOLD Prediction

Date: August 4, 2026
Host(s): Rod Babers (Lifetime Longhorn), CJ Vogel, Coach Bob Shipley, Stevie Lee, guest appearance by Hank South

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1. Episode Overview

This live episode of "On Texas Football" dives deep into the bold prediction by SEC commentator Paul Finebaum, who has publicly stated that Texas will win the SEC this year—an unusual pick, given the conference’s historical dominance by a handful of programs. The hosts break down the legitimacy of this prediction, discuss Texas’ readiness for SEC competition, analyze key off-season personnel and roster changes, and provide candid takes on the Longhorns’ paths to a conference title. The episode also highlights player motivation, locker room culture, recruiting updates, and NCAA legislative chaos impacting eligibility and NIL.

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2. Key Discussion Points and Insights

A. Paul Finebaum's Texas SEC Championship Pick

• Boldness or Bandwagon?

  • Finebaum, typically known for stirring headlines, surprised the college football world by choosing Texas over heavy favorites Georgia (04:21).
  • CJ Vogel (04:21):
    “This isn’t a stretch... Texas is predicted second in the preseason poll. I believe he believes it. I think some of us believe that as well.”

• Impact and Context

  • The media overwhelmingly picked Georgia at SEC media days. Texas remains an underdog outside of the Austin bubble (04:21, 05:44).

B. Strategic Hires and Insider Advantages

• Will Muschamp's Role

  • Significant attention is given to Texas hiring ex-Georgia staffer Will Muschamp, whose inside knowledge of Kirby Smart’s defense could be pivotal (05:49, 06:23).
  • Rod Babers (06:23):
    “Part of the added value of getting a guy like Muschamp...is so intimately acquainted with Kirby’s model and his blueprint to win.”

• Chess Match Mentality

  • Muschamp likely brings a deep understanding of Georgia’s defensive schemes, but Kirby will adjust, creating a high-level chess match in any matchup (08:03).

C. Breaking Down Texas’ Current Roster and Performance

• SEC Title Consistency

  • Statistically, very few teams break into the SEC winner’s circle: only six since 1977. Winning would break Georgia, Bama, LSU, Auburn, Florida, and Tennessee’s period of dominance (10:09–11:02).

• Texas’ Conference Title Record

  • Only five conference titles in 30 years; the brand’s expectations far outweigh past production (13:58).

• Red Zone & Offensive Execution

  • Past struggles converting drives to touchdowns (notably the 2024 SEC title game), emphasizing the need for better red zone offense (09:34–09:55).

D. Locker Room Culture and The “Rat Poison” Effect

• Managing Expectations

  • With camp approaching, blocking out external “rat poison” like media hype is crucial (14:16–15:09).
  • Coach Shipley (14:53):
    “Every year it seems like there’s a group that says, this is Texas’ year...until we get that offensive line proven, that red zone proven, until we see Will Muschamp's defense proven...there’s a lot of ifs.”

• Culture Wednesdays

  • CJ credits Sarkisian’s focus on culture-building as integral for uniting a roster in the portal era (16:34–17:31).

• Chip-on-Shoulder Psychology

  • Drawing parallels to Michael Jordan's motivational tactics, the hosts stress that slights—real or imagined—can be powerful (17:31–19:32).
  • Rod Babers (18:44):
    “If you figure out how to motivate yourself...you can use those instances where you feel slighted or disrespected as almost motivational currency.”

E. Quarterback-Centric Program Discussion

• Dependence on QB Play

  • Texas hasn’t reached the plug-and-play consistency of Georgia or Alabama; the offense is frequently built around a star QB (22:32–25:10).
  • Heavy reliance on Arch Manning—the hope is for less QB heroics and more all-around team contribution this year (23:50–24:39).

• Turnover Battle is Central

  • Last year’s low turnover numbers vital to Texas’ success; maintaining this stat may be season-defining (25:44–26:15).

F. Roster Competition and Secondary Questions

• Nickel/Safety Battles
  • Deep dive into Zealous Hicks’ role in a crowded secondary, emphasizing intense intraposition competition and flexibility in defensive back assignments (32:02–33:30).

G. Alumni View: SEC Title Importance & O-Line Identity

• Stevie Lee’s Take (37:59):
  • Winning the SEC is high on his list—“It would shut a lot of people up and let everybody know we belong.”
  • O-line needs to be “nasty and physical” again, cut down on penalties, especially pre-snap (39:42–41:14).

H. NCAA Legislative Updates & NIL Cap

• 2022 Eligibility Ruling
  • Legal clarifications restrict the new extra year to players who didn’t sign pro contracts and, unless in the portal, must return to their previous school (48:27–50:08).
• Federal Cap Changes
  • New federal oversight aims for a cap of ~$48M in revenue share, closing most state and school loopholes but allowing true NIL deals (50:08–54:47).

I. Offensive Line Assessment

• PFF Grading Boost
  • Texas places two linemen among PFF’s top 10 in the SEC (Trevor Goosby and Melvin Siani), a far cry from past weakness (60:15–60:40).
• Room for Improvement
  • Hosts highlight the historically bad left guard play and predict “cannot be worse,” expecting an average to above-average group can carry Texas deep (62:10–63:20).

J. Number Assignment Gossip

• Jordon Meredith’s #0 Jersey
  • Meredith reclassifies and lands a coveted single-digit jersey; speculation that Huff Daddy controls the #7 on defense (66:30–67:57).

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3. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• CJ Vogel (04:21):
  “This isn’t a stretch...I believe he believes it. I think some of us believe that as well.”

• Rod Babers (06:23):
  “Part of the added value of getting a guy like Muschamp...is so intimately acquainted with Kirby’s model and his blueprint to win.”

• Coach Bob Shipley (14:53):
  “Every year it seems like there’s a group of people that say, this is Texas’ year...but until we get that offensive line proven...there's a lot of ifs.”

• Rod Babers (18:44):
  “If you figure out how to motivate yourself...you can use those instances where you feel slighted...as almost motivational currency.”

• Stevie Lee (37:59):
  “Winning the SEC will kind of shut that up and let everybody know that we belong...we need to win that national championship.. Underneath that, I believe that Arch needs to be in New York...”

• Rod Babers (60:15):
  “You’re definitely going to have one of the best tackle combos...potentially the best tackle combination in the country.”

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4. Important Timestamps

• [04:21] — Finebaum’s Texas pick discussed by panel
• [06:23] — The Muschamp insider effect
• [09:55] — Texas’ red zone and SEC aristocracy stats
• [14:16] — Locker room “rat poison” discussion
• [17:31] — Transfer portal players & locker room hunger
• [22:32] — QB-centric critique of Texas' program
• [25:44] — Importance of turnover margin
• [32:02] — Secondary position breakdown, Zealous Hicks
• [37:59] — Stevie Lee on SEC title and Texas pride
• [39:42] — “Be nasty” offensive line culture
• [48:27] — Hank South clarifies eligibility/cap chaos
• [60:15] — Two Texas offensive linemen earn PFF honors
• [66:30] — Inside the #0 and #7 jersey assignment

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5. Key Takeaways & Analysis

• Texas is a legitimate SEC contender. Finebaum’s pick, though splashy, aligns with the serious improvements and bold moves (staff and player acquisitions) Texas has made.

• Locker room culture is the focus. Motivation—fueled by “chip on the shoulder” mentality and instilled through consistent messaging—will define the season.

• O-Line is the pivot. Despite QB-centric history, Texas needs growth in its offensive line and running game to reach SEC champion standards.

• Transfer era expectations. New faces from the portal bring talent but not big-stage winning experience; hunger could be an asset.

• NCAA/NIL chaos isn’t over. New eligibility/funding regulations aim to level the playing field but may create new issues and uncertainty, especially for roster management and depth.

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6. Conclusion

This episode provides an unfiltered, analytically-rich preview of Texas’ SEC ambitions. Finebaum’s prediction is dissected from every angle: X’s and O’s, psychology, historical stats, and roster math. Listeners gain sharp insight into not only why Texas might pull off the SEC upset, but what hurdles remain. The tone blends optimism, skepticism, and a healthy dose of Texas pride—delivering genuine value to all fans, whether they’ve watched every snap, or just tuned in for the offseason hype.

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For questions unanswered on this episode, listeners are encouraged to join future live streams or tune into "Coffee and Football" and the next Tuesday night live.

Until next time—Hook ‘Em!

Transcript

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[Rod Babers]

Hey, what's up folks? Welcome back to On Texas Football. I'm Lifetime Longhorn Rod Babis. Pleased to be joined by fellow Lifetime Longhorn, the young prodigy himself, CJ Vogel and our own coach, former high school football coach at at Belton Burton Rotan also played college football at Abilene Christian. Coach there as well was on the staff University of Texas. But multiple head football coaches these days. You can catch his work@shipley ranches.com it's our own coach Bob Shipley. What's up coach? How you feeling?

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Doing good baby, doing good. One day closer.

[Rod Babers]

Oh that's right. Two days until camp. Yeah, we all ready to go. As a matter of fact, they'll have those, those open media windows and OTF will be well represented. So we got you taken care of. As a matter of fact, got special coming up that we got to tell you about for otf. Shout out to our sponsor, shout out to our friends over at Von Lane Hard Grove Roofing and Prize picks. We'll tell you more about them coming up a little bit later on as well. But the show belongs to you. Whatever you guys want to talk about, show other people, for the people and by the people. Throw out your questions and your comments and we'll try to address as many of them as we can. What's up, cd super chats always jump to the front line. You can interrupt the show at any time, just throw out a super chat. We appreciate that. All right, let's get right into it. Obviously we got a lot we can get into on the show. We will address a number of different topics, obviously getting close to training camp. So we'll talk a lot of Texas football. Paul Feinbaum was on the Crane and Cone show earlier today, CJ and I, you know, yet last year was about his man crush on Arch Manning, but this year maybe he's got a just a crush on Texas, period. When they asked did he pick Georgia to win, I believe it was a buy or sell kind of situation there. Would he take Georgia to win the sec? He actually said he'd sell and he's going to take Texas to win the SEC this year. What are your thoughts about Paul Finder on picking Texas to win the sec? We know that the media overwhelmingly during SEC media days, picked Georgia to win the SEC title. Is this what's up? Is Firebomb just going the wrong way or we think he's really passionate about this pit.

[CJ Vogel]

Hey, I talked a little bit with Fine Bomb out in Tampa for during SEC media days and look, I don't think this is a bold prediction. Of course, Texas, as you just mentioned, right, is predicted second in the SEC out of the preseason poll. But to say, hey, I'm throwing Georgia aside, I'm picking Texas and I, you know, it's one of those things for Paul Finebaum, who has been in the business a long time, he's certainly found a way to generate clicks, generate headlines, this is one of them. But it's something that I think is, you know, I don't think this is a stretch by any means. I think he believes this. I think many believe this. You know, I think we sit here every day in this off season and said Texas is a very talented football team, that they're in a great position to achieve a lot of success and to bring back championships and put numbers on the walls at DKR this year. So I. I believe that that's what Fine Bomb genuinely believes. I don't think this is something that he's saying for clicks. Right. What was his comment a year ago that Arch was the best quarterback that we've seen in the SEC since 10 Tebow. That's probably a little extreme, right. That that's probably playing into the Elon Bucks on Twitter just a little bit too much. But this is. I mean, this is a prediction that the number two team in the preseason poll wins the title. I believe he believes it. I think some of us believe that as well.

[Rod Babers]

Coach, how do you feel about it? You ready to pick Texas along with Paul, find them to win the SEC this year?

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Well, two things. I. I think Fine Bomb is still got his archbandocrats. He's just not calling you out as such. Secondly, I wonder how much Will Musjack tilted the scales on this for him, because obviously must have, being a Southeast guy, you know, Fine Bomb knows what he can do, knows what he's done in the past, knows what he did in Texas before. So I just. I wonder how much that tilted the scales in his favor.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah, I. I think when they asked Sark about this, he downplayed it. I believe Mushev, he's been asked about it, has also downplayed it. I do not downplay it at all. I do think part of the added value of getting a guy like Muschamp on your staff who is so intimately acquainted with Kirby Smart and his model and his defense in particular, but also his blueprint to win. Having a guy who's an insider, it helps you when that is one of the hurdles that everybody knows you got to overcome to want to become a championship program or to achieve the goals that you have in front of you. I don't know if you're going to be able to avoid Kirby Smart. I think you're gonna have to go through Kirby at one point, whether it's in the SEC title game or whether that's in the playoff. And I. I like it that way. I'm glad that's the case and because that's from. Sorry. Personally, you know, that has been, you know, mostly a disappointment. The SEC title game was a good one. I mean, Texas went back and forth, thought that was a great one. But for the most part, Kirby has not only gotten the Upper hand. But he's been able to. To prove that he's. He's two or three steps ahead of Sark.

[CJ Vogel]

So I want Sark.

[Rod Babers]

You have to go through him to be the man, you got to beat the man. So I said, to be the champs, you got to beat the champs. But the old Ric Flair quote, and I think that's. I hope it's the SEC title game. It'd be great. And I think must champ to coach's point would be a huge part of that, because he can literally look at your game plan and go, yeah, I can tell you exactly how Kirby's gonna defend that. Yeah, that ain't gonna work. You might take that back. Let's go. Let's go reimagine this whole thing and then give you some of the. The inside info on how Kirby attacked Texas and how he defended Texas.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

I.

[Rod Babers]

There's no doubt that's. And now Kirby knows that, too. And Kirby's no fool. So Kirby's probably going to tweak some things and adjust some things just because he knows, oh, Sark's now got an inside man. He's got somebody that. That knows exactly how I think and how I design defenses. But I do think in that chess match, that's a huge advantage to have a guy like Must champ on your staff, no doubt.

[CJ Vogel]

Oh, without a question. And again, knowing the intricacies of that own defense and how you can work around it, what, you know, works, what does not work, what tendencies and keys that they really hone in on for Kirby. And look, it was actually funny. I went back and looked through the 2024 SEC championship, just the box score the other day. It's lost in time that quinn threw for 358 yards in that game. Oh, yeah, he. Whatever it was. I. I know Texas didn't run the football all that well, but they certainly found a rhythm throwing the football. Of course, there's the big catch and run from DeAndre Moore in that game. I believe Matthew golden went for about 150 yards receiving as well. They found something that worked. Now, with an offense, with the firepower that this group has, are you able to replicate that success moving the football while cashing in for points because was it five field goal attempts for Bert Auburn in that game? And of course, we don't need to rehab. We don't need to rehash. We needed to move it to the left hash. Yeah, no, I know.

[Mark Cameron]

I know.

[CJ Vogel]

That was my best work. I'm sorry. But point is, it goes back to the Execution goes back to the red zone and making sure that drives end up with a PAT rather than a field goal attempt. And that's something that with this group. Can Sark get that the get them over the hump? I hope so.

[Rod Babers]

And I went and did some research on just. Yes, the SEC title is one of those things that it seems like there's a just almost aristocracy within the SEC that wins SEC titles and everybody else is just playing for second, third and fourth.

[CJ Vogel]

Here's the.

[Rod Babers]

Here are the numbers. Since 2014, you've only had three teams win the SEC title.

[CJ Vogel]

That's crazy.

[Rod Babers]

Georgia, Bama and LSU. Since 1999, there's only been five teams to win the SEC title. Georgia, Bama, LSU, Auburn or Florida. That's it. And since 1977, you just add Tennessee. Then that's it. So since 1977 you got to go in 1976, Kentucky and Georgia want a share of it. You got to go back all the way in 1963 to find somebody outside of basically that big six that have won an SEC title alone, obviously without having a co share championship with. It was ole miss in 1963, but since 1977, only six teams. Georgia, Bama, LSU, Auburn, Florida, Tennessee. That's it.

[CJ Vogel]

That's crazy.

[Rod Babers]

It's a freaky, freaky stat. So Texas would disrupt that. I will say every few years, every like seven years, you do kind of a new champion, which is good and kind of breaks up the. The monotony of the. The monotony of the monopoly, if you will, that Georgia, bam, LSU and Auburn, Florida pretty much have on the SEC title. But it'll be. It would be something new because like I said, it's been Georgia, Bama and LSU since 2014. And Texas has how many conference titles since in like the last 30 years? Five, four? Is it five, coach, you won, then you win the last Southwest Conference title, first Big 12 title, three in the Big 12.

[CJ Vogel]

And then 2023.

[Rod Babers]

Yep. And then. Yeah. So is it five? Mac had two of them. I believe that's where you so it. You were like, oh man, you've only won five in 30 years.

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[Rod Babers]

It ain't like it's an easy thing to do. Five and 30 years, you think you'd have more than that. No. 5 and that's what you got. Texas. The brand that is Texas. So winning an SEC title would be huge for the University of Texas in the program. I don't want to downplay it. I know some people downplay it. I don't.

[CJ Vogel]

This close to fall camp, of course the players report back Wednesday, they get back on the field. We're out there Wednesday and Thursday this week watching them. Can't wait to bring y' all practice reports. But this close to getting all those guys back into the locker room, getting them back in for 10 team meetings. Coach Rod I mean y' all have been in locker Rooms, plenty of times. When it comes to this, you know, far out from. From week one, how do y' all make sure that this isn't something that makes it around the locker room? You know, a guy like Fine Bomb saying, they're your. They're the pick to win it all, win the sec. I mean, you hear rat poison all the time, Coach. How do you just block that out?

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Well, Georgia's done a pretty good job of blocking it out, apparently, as did Alabama back when Nick Saban was there. But, you know, I. It. It just.

[Hank South]

Again,

[Coach Bob Shipley]

I hate to keep beating a dead horse, but, you know, every year it seems like there's a group of people that say, this is Texas year. This is Texas year. I don't know that we've been able to say that with as much confidence as we can this year, although there's nobody can say for certain this is Texas year. You know, until we get that offensive line proven, until we get that red zone proven, until we see Will Muschamp's defense proven. You know, there's a lot of. Get that running game proven, there's a lot of ifs. But it does seem like the pieces of the puzzle are there. And it hasn't phased Georgia much to have that hanging over them as they start the season, because more times than not, recently, they have been 12 champions. I mean, sec. Sorry.

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[CJ Vogel]

Already. Instead, yeah. That's always something that made me laugh a little bit, was when Georgia won their second national championship. Back to back years, right? They. I begin. I believe they began the year, what, ranked number one, number two in the preseason, and they win the national championship. And the first thing that you hear from one of the players on the post game, ESPN press conference, or on field interviews is, no one believed in us all year.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah.

[CJ Vogel]

And I audibly laughed because I said, y', all, Georgia just won the national championship. You began the year number one in the country. And somehow, some way, Kirby Smart was able to implement the idea in that locker room that they were underdogs or that they were counted out based off of what they had accomplished and achieved the year before. And that's something that, when you talk about great leaders, when you talk about great head coaches that can motivate. And really, what's so important, Today's day, with 50 or 60 or 70, even brand new players in a given locker room, with the portal, with high school coming in, with guys coming back from the NFL, apparently, there's so many new faces and so much turnover, whichever coach can motivate their team, the Best. They're going to have that edge, the way that they can bring those guys together. And I credit Sark for culture Wednesdays, because I believe that's going to be a big part of what we see on the field this year as well.

[Rod Babers]

And Jerry, I would say Jerry did a. He did a good job. He came up with this theory, and I agree with it, that because you brought in a lot of guys with the transfer portal, obviously the most talent you've acquired via the transfer portal this cycle. And you brought in a lot of guys, high level players, but who haven't really won. Like, you're, I mean, Cam Coleman, he's your top players you brought in via the transfer portal. He won nothing at a high level. You know, Ian Jaffrad's a good player. He didn't want anything at high level. Rasheen Biles was on good teams, but not a great teams. Bo Masco with Rutgers, I mean, they were terrible. So you brought in a lot of guys that they should be hungry. They should have that hunger and really want to win because they've never really done it at a high level. I think that helps to have guys that have that. I call it that competitive sickness. Coach. I mean, and that's why we all praise Michael Jordan. It is a sickness. But Michael Jordan was still talking about the coach that cut him in high school after he had already won championships. He brought him up on his hall of Fame speech, his hall of Fame speech. Michael Jordan still once took a shot at the high school coach that cut him because he still has that chip on his shoulder. And if you figure out how to motivate yourself, you can use those, those instances where you feel slighted or disrespected as almost motivational currency. You can spend it when you need to to motivate yourself at any time, whether it's for a game or this off season. And Michael Jordan was probably the greatest of all time at using motivational currency that he had. Remember they talked about in the documentary, he had, he made up slights with players and, and coaches. It was like, Mike, I never had a problem with you. And Mike's like, nah, we had a problem. I don't like that guy. He disrespected me and say, how did I disrespect Mike? I didn't do anything. But that's, that's how a competitor thinks. And I think that psychology is important. So I agree with you, C.J. i'm with you. If Sark can be able to challenge it the right way, because Kirby's figured it out. I don't know how the hell he does it, but he figured out that the dogs are always the underdog. And I don't understand it, but he does a great job psychologically of being able to put them in that place.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Well, I don't think there's any doubt that the greatest motivator in all of college football is somebody that has a chip on their shoulder. There's no doubt whether it's real or imagined. You know, I've said this before. I used back in the day where you could manipulate on the computer, you could, you could, back in the day, you could download an article off the computer, put it in a word processor and change some sentences. And I would do that all the time with my high school teams. I would say, well, you know, this is just another game of a schedule. We're really looking for the next week that's going to be our big week. You know, we're not too worried about these guys this week. And I put it up there and they get all mad and everything, you know, and whatever you have to do to get a chip on your shoulder, you know, as I said, whether it's real or whether it's a magic, just like Michael Jordan, his was a magic, but to him it was real.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

You know, so when you think you're the top dog, I want to throw this out there too. How many. We've talked about this in a roundabout way for a couple of years, but how many SEC favorites are favorites

[Rod Babers]

since

[Coach Bob Shipley]

team Tim Tebow at Florida because of their quarterback Tim Tebow's teams? They just, you just had this feeling that he was going to carry the team to the championship. Has there been another quarterback with. And I'm not saying, you know, Arch has pressure on him. He puts more pressure on himself than anybody probably, but. But what if Arch wasn't the quarterback? You know, it seems like Georgia is almost like just, you know, just remove and replace, you know, hand the ball off, make your short passes, high percentage passes and we're going to be okay if we're going to play great defense. But it seems like we put all our chips on our quarterback and possibly this year that's because we have some good running backs. But how many solid, proven running backs do we have? SEC caliber running backs that are proven that we have. And so, you know, as you said, we've got a great receiver from Auburn, but they never won anything. You know, we've got, you know, we've got these pieces of talent, but they've never really won on the big stage. And we seem to always go back to Arch. Arch is going to have to lead us. And we need to get the program to the point where it doesn't matter who the quarterback is. You remove and insert a new one and you still have the winning formula.

[Rod Babers]

That's a great point. We as a program, Texas hadn't been there in a while. I mean, I think Matt got there, but he was still built around Mac, built it around celebrity superstar quarterbacks. Right. He, that's what he brought into Chris Sims. Like he wanted the big time superstar quarterback. He brought, he had, he built it around the whole offense, around Colt McCoy, bench Young, they changed the offense for. So it's interesting, Texas never really been that program, at least in the modern era. They, they've been kind of a quarterback centric quarterback centric program.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

You know why? Because we haven't played consistently good defense and we haven't had a consistently good running game, AKA offensive line consistently like, you know, Georgia's gonna have.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah, good point, coach.

[CJ Vogel]

Yeah, I mean, I think we'd all sit here and argue. I'd, you know, talent wise, Arch Manning ahead of probably what a stetson Bennett

[Coach Bob Shipley]

was

[CJ Vogel]

1, 2 championship. You know, there's, there's different levels of quarterback that you would probably take a lot of times would probably be on the sideline of the Texas Longhorns. But how much are they asked to do within their system and how much is taken off of their plate because of the surrounding cast around them?

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Exactly. Exactly.

[CJ Vogel]

Coach, I, I hope, and I think we'd all sit here and say the same thing. For the most part, I hope that cape for Arch Manning stays in the closet. Last year, boy, that thing was tattered, it was ripped, it was beaten to shreds because he had to wear it every single play of every drive of every quarter of every game. Right. He had to pick himself up off the turf plenty of times because of that offensive line and because of not having a run game. So this year I hope that's the case where maybe you pick it up for a drive or two in the fourth quarter. But throughout the game, you know, that thing's getting dry cleaned. That's out getting washed. You don't need to use it because, boy, I don't think Arch could go another 12 or 13 games of health if he had to take that same brunt from a year ago. It just couldn't happen.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Well, how many NFL quarterbacks is Cam Newton has there been that the team success revolved around him NFL quarterbacks are like Georgia quarterbacks, Alabama quarterbacks.

[Rod Babers]

They manage the game.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

They don't get you in bad situations. You know, they're not, maybe not incredibly flashy, they may not have incredible stats, but they manage the game well and they do that with a great defense and a solid running.

[CJ Vogel]

Yeah, I, I've always said that there's two jobs of the quarterback on offense. Two jobs protect the football and find a way to get your team into scoring position. Right. Anything else can happen inside of the red area. Your kicker is there for a reason if things stall out. But you cannot turn the football over and and put your defense in tough situations. Texas obviously did that way too often in 2024. I thought Arch in the second half of the year we talked about it. With 18 touchdowns and two picks in the final seven games, that's how you play with a complimentary style of defense. Run game still wasn't there, but you took care of the football.

[Rod Babers]

Right?

[CJ Vogel]

And Texas was able to put points on the board as a result. This year. What you hope is that that havoc that living behind the line of scrimmage continues with your front seven and as a result you win the turnover battle. But Arch again, the big key take care of the football. Texas was great at a year ago, right? I believe they were what, top five in the country? Turnover margin plus per game. If they can do that again this year, coach, I think that that's the most important individual statistic of the entire 2026 season.

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[Mark Cameron]

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[Rod Babers]

All right, good stuff, gentlemen. All right, let's thank our sponsors. Before we move on, let's take our friends over at Von Lane really quickly. Friends over at Von Lane are ready to remind you the season's getting started, obviously training camp beginning. Guys starting to report for training camp and I know a lot of you are making your plans for football season. Well, Von Lane is crossing the red River. Starting September 8th, Von Lane is relaunching its Dallas, Oklahoma City route with multiple daily departures seven days a week. Riders have been asking for this to come back. So hey, they're just, hey. By popular demand with our friends over at Von Lane, they're listening to the people is finally here. So whether you've got business in okc, you got family up there, or you just want to catch a game without the three hour drive, you can book that right now with our friends over at von [e-mail] and also von Lane is, trust me, better than most of those travel options out there. Whether you're driving yourself or whether you're flying, you got to deal with tsa, deal with bad checks and bag fees and security checks and delayed flights. And if you're driving yourself, that can also be a bit stressful because you got to drive yourself and you got to deal with the round trip and you get there, you're jet lagging, you're tired. Our friends over at Von Lane, they take care of all, all of that. Von Lane serves Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Plano, the Woodlands as well, Oklahoma City, Nashville, Memphis and Atlanta. So head to vonlane.com that's V O N L A N E dot com and use the promo code OTF26 for $20 off your first trip with Von Lane. That's Von Lane, your private jet on wheels. Also, are we thinking sponsors? Let's thank our friends over at Prize Picks as well. Prize Picks just making your sports viewing experience just that much better. And right now, Prize Picks, they have actually upgrade. Not only they're awful, but they've upgraded a lot of the amenities as well. They are the number one sports picks app in America. And honestly, it's about as simple as it gets. You can pick player stats, all right, Just really easy on a few player stats and pick your lineup. Or right now you can pick teams instead of individual players if that's your thing. Prospects you covered there as well. You can now pick the winner, the the spread the total on games, even fights. Prospects available in most states including Texas, California and Florida. So chances are you can jump in now. And one of my favorite features is that now you can follow users online. If you like their picks they're making, you can tell them with one click. You can follow your friends as well and probably troll them if you follow their picks. And here's the best part. If you've never tried prize Picks before, play your first $5 lineup and if you win, you'll get 150 in bonus lineups right away. All right, so just make sure use the code HMA when you sign up. They actually just updated this offer, so it's a perfect time for you to take advantage. Download the Prize Picks app today. Use the code HMA, play that first five doll lineup and if you win, you'll get 150 in bonus lineup. That's prize picks code HMA. Good luck. And as always, play smart. Play responsibly. Play Prize Picks. All right, let's dive into some super Chats. I know we got a few of them. We apologize about the delay. How about this one from Nickel Laney Morell? I'm sure I mispronounced it. If I did, I apologize for that. Thank you for the super chat says any predictions for Z hits with Z they fought to keep keep to keep Mac. Where does he fit in as a good coverage Nickel with Grayson and X? Feels to me our Bo Masco. Okay, thank you for the super chat there. Yeah. What's the zealous Hicks? I mean he had an injury I think in the early in the off season and got over there. But I, I don't know if I see a role form in the secondary currently right now with this iteration of the secondary. And he's, he's a physical freak. I mean, he's huge. Did he, was he an early, was he a reclassification?

[Serena Williams]

C.J.

[CJ Vogel]

yeah. So he reclassed a full year ahead, joined the Longhorns obviously last year for his freshman year.

[Rod Babers]

Right.

[CJ Vogel]

I'm with you. I don't know if I see a, a large contributing role for him right now, especially with Kobe Black moving from corner to that safety room. Texas now spinning down Xavier. Phil Smy into the nickel position as well. So there's some movement. But as we've talked about, that safety room is wide open. There's plenty of opportunities. It's just pretty competitive with Derrick Williams with Filsomi still getting some snaps there and of course Jonah Williams still in that role. And another name that I think gets lost throughout all of this is Jordan Johnson. Rubell, right. He played linebacker in the bowl game. Well, he's still in that safety room. He's going on year four. What can he do? If ever it would be now, I would assume so it's going to be interesting for, for zealous to get on the field, but he is healthy. He clocked a time right under 21 miles per hour in the summer. So look, speed is working, it's improving. I think they'd like to see him a little quicker, but right now he is continuing to progress. Wordle Max gonna be interesting because that nickel spot again, very competitive with Philson, me and Bomasco of course, both with Bomasco and Grayson Lipton all sing snaps inside and at the n nickel spot, it's gonna be really interesting. But competition, it's good. And boy, you'll figure out who can play and who cannot in the next four weeks.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah, I like Grayson Loan at the nickel was fantastic last year at the nickel in my opinion for a true freshman. Bo Masco can play the nickel as well. Really well. I think he's, he can do it at a high level. He did it at Rutgers. Xavier feels to me there now is interesting because he's twitchy and he's, he's actually a pretty good coverage defender. His issue was as a safety whether he was going to be a guy that can be an asset for you in the run game and come down and be an alley cat. But at nickel kind of changed the dynamic there. So there are. So it's gonna be interesting. I don't know who's gonna play the nickel right now, and we don't know who's going to be the safety opposite Jelani McDonald. And though so you do have probably in the secondary, it's probably O line and secondary, you probably got a lot of questions. Secondary still has, I think, more proven commodities overall, but you still questions about where guys are going to play and what the rotation is going to be there and who's going to ultimately win that spot, that safety spot, obviously Jelani McDonald. So good stuff there. All right, while we. My man Stevie Lee is here with us, so let's get right to my man Stevie Lee. We'll get back to the questions. We appreciate you guys and the super chats as well. Stevie Lee joins us courtesy of our good friends at Heart Grove Roofing. Stevie, what's going on? My former teammate, Lifetime Loan 1. How was your weekend, though?

[Stevie Lee]

Weekend was. How y' all doing, fellas? Man, Weekend was good. Long but sad, man. I had to take my daughter back to college, man.

[Rod Babers]

Sorry to hear that. I know that's. Yeah, yeah.

[Stevie Lee]

Drove all the way up to Kansas City, Missouri, straight up 35, dropped her off, paid a lot of money for her apartment and furniture and a bunch of furniture. A bunch of runs to Ikea and all these other places and putting furniture together and then got back home. I'm so tired right now, guys. So hurry up, get me off. Let me go to sleep.

[CJ Vogel]

Yeah.

[Rod Babers]

Are you an empty nester now? All the kids out the house?

[Stevie Lee]

Nah, I got one more left. She's just. She'll be a junior in high school.

[Rod Babers]

Oh, you said don't be sad then. You still got another one. Then you'll be real sad when there's no kids. Kids left in the house.

[Stevie Lee]

Well, I might be real happy when there's no kids in the house. It's just me and my wife.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Action.

[Rod Babers]

Okay, that's true.

[Stevie Lee]

Good point.

[Rod Babers]

Good, good point. I didn't think about that one. Good point about that one. Okay, I want to ask you this because I know we'll keep you on just for a little while, then we'll let you go. So I heard. I heard Signetti. He was talking at Big Ten Media Days. He said a lot of different things, by the way, and we can get into some of the other stuff he said. One thing he said was interesting that I didn't realize, guys, about Indiana, maybe about Signetti. He's probably done this since he's been a head coach. He said he doesn't elect captains. Yeah. He said my guy is supposed to be leaders. He said, we don't got leaders of leaders. He said. He said he's understood who the leaders are on the team. I don't need to elect the captain. He said, what if I elect that guy and guy ends up being kind of a turd? He said, you know, then, then, then we look like we don't know what we're doing around here. And I, I thought it was interesting. I never heard of that, but it does make sense. He does a lot of unorthodox things. That's why he turned around one of the. The worst program arguably in college football, modern history, and won a national title. You got to do some stuff that's outside the box. But what do you think about that

[Stevie Lee]

after hearing it and the way you just explained it? I kind of agree with that, man. Because as freshmen when I came in, I knew that Sean Casey, Major Applewhite and some of the other guys, Hodges, Mitchells, those were all the leaders and captains on the team. Nobody had to tell me that.

[CJ Vogel]

It just happened.

[Stevie Lee]

You know what I'm saying?

[Rod Babers]

I agree. When he said, I was like, damn, that's so true. Like, we end up elect. We end up electing and voting for the guys who we already know were just the leaders on the team.

[Stevie Lee]

Yeah.

[Rod Babers]

It's almost a waste of time to do it, but I know, I don't say I disagree with electing the captain, but it was just, it was simplistically brilliant. Like, no, everybody knows who leaders are. What the hell you talking about? Yeah.

[CJ Vogel]

The cream on your chest to be told you're a captain. It is probably not the guys that you want there anyways.

[Stevie Lee]

Yeah, that's.

[Rod Babers]

It blew my, Blew my mind. Some crazy stuff there about it. Okay, let me ask you one more thing, because we were just talking about Texas winning the SEC title. Do you care about the SEC title? Where is it on your, Your priority list accomplishments for Texas next season? Where is it high up there?

[Stevie Lee]

It's pretty high because. Yeah, because we. Man. So I'm petty. I'm just petty because they talked a lot of trash about Texas going into the sec. Right?

[Hank South]

That's true.

[Stevie Lee]

They. They said we're not going to do as well. We're not gonna, we're not gonna do this, we're not gonna do that. And, And Texas thinks that they're going to go and. But winning the SEC will kind of shut that up and let. Let everybody know that we belong. We already know that we belong, but that just seals the deal, you know, and we are very, very competitive in what they called when we were in the Big 12, the best league in the country. So, you know, it's, for me, it's, we, we need to win that, that, that national championship. It's cold Sark six year, correct.

[Rod Babers]

Yep.

[Stevie Lee]

So we need to win that. Under. That would be winning the, the sec. Underneath that. I believe that Arch needs to be in New York. If he wins the, the Heisman or not. That, that's, that's okay. But he needs to be in New York, and if he's in New York, that means we had a really good season. Yeah. So I, I, then there's some other accolades that needs to happen on the, on our team as well. But those are the four that I think that we need to, or three that we need to actually get accomplished this year.

[CJ Vogel]

What, what needs to happen on this offensive line? Steve tv.

[Stevie Lee]

They, they got to come out that first game and show that they're nasty and physical. They got to play through the whistle, right? They gotta, they, they, they gotta play it to the echo of the whistle is what my coach would say. If you driving somebody into the ground, drive them all the way into the ground, they got to be nasty and, and show people that they're nasty and do it every single week. I don't know how much death depth we have on the offensive line, but the starting, what, six, five or six? Yeah, they need to be nasty. Nasty like and, and, and establishing the run first because we got some really good running backs. Give them a sliver and be, be dirty, be nasty in there. I, you know, I told y' all earlier a few weeks ago that we need to cut down on the penalties.

[Rod Babers]

Yep.

[Stevie Lee]

Well, we need to cut down on the offsides penalties and jumping penalties. If, if I get a personal file for driving somebody in the ground, I'm cool with that. I'm cool with that. A couple times. A couple times. But, yeah, yeah, but, but being nasty and, and, and dirty, not dirty. Was that outside the rules of the game, but just being, I mean, we played with some nasty offensive lineup.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah, we did.

[Stevie Lee]

And so that's what we need that culture to come back. It's, it's a little hard for it to come back here nowadays because they all make money in their Hollywood now, so they just got to get. Put that hard hat on and find some way to be nasty.

[Rod Babers]

I love that. Yeah. Now the Casey stutter comes to mind. Guys who just want to fight on offensive line the whole time. All right, Stevie, thank you very much for the time man, we know you're tired, so we appreciate you coming on with us and we'll talk to you next week. Enjoy the rest of your week, brother.

[Stevie Lee]

It's all good, man. I, I'm really, really looking forward to the, to this season, man. I'm gonna go out, try to go out to practice and, and, and bring some keep the secrets to secrets like you say, cj but report back and let y' all know what I see

[Rod Babers]

and appreciate that

[CJ Vogel]

we gotta know that that's what we need to know.

[Rod Babers]

All right, that's Stevens at Hard Grove Roofing. Check out hardgrove roofing.com offices all over Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. But they are the most pro burnt orange roofing company out there. Give them a call today. 512-645-3202. Know who's on your roof with our friends at Hargo Roofing? It won't be Stevie Lee, but he can vouch for the character of the fine folks at Heart Grove Roofing. I've actually met the, the folks there as well. We've done several activations with them. They are really good people. They're really, they're really. Customer service is their top priority. So they will take care of you. They'll make sure they treat you the right way and they'll do the job right as well. So trust the folks over at hardgroveproofing.

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[Rod Babers]

All right, appreciate that. And I actually we are going to bring on my man Hank south in a couple of minutes because we're going to talk about the. That decision, the latest decision that allows the 20, the court decision that loss in2022 class an extra year of eligibility. There were clarifications about that that it has to be. Well, unless there was an injunction in your specific case that it has to be with the school or unless you were already also in the transfer portal, if your name was already in the portal, that it has to be with the school. I believe that you are last committed to. I don't believe you can. 22 class members can transfer each other schools. I believe that was the clarification. But Hank south is going to join us and give us the latest because I think he was in a call that actually gave some more details about the the latest decision that allows the 2022 class one more year of eligibility. All right, let's get to a couple of super chats before that. How about this one from Silver Spur? Sicko says when will Bobby let us christen the new office? I believe I've not seen it because I've been in the Pacific Northwest for a week or two, a couple of weeks. But CJ I believe has seen the new play.

[CJ Vogel]

Yes. Actually, Hank, Jeff and I made a trip out last week. We got to take a look at it. It's gonna take a little bit to make it look like our home, but boy, oh boy, it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm excited for it. I know producer Matthew behind the scenes has plenty of plans for it as well, but no, it, it should be very fun. And you know, here in the Immediate future. We should have some really cool content ideas coming out of OTF HQ is what I think I'm gonna.

[Rod Babers]

I like that. OTF hq. That's good.

[CJ Vogel]

Club otf maybe. I don't know. We'll work on that.

[Rod Babers]

No, I like that. I like the OTF HQ though. Will there be bunk beds? I, I, There definitely is gonna be some people sleeping overnight in that damn office. I know it because the guys work too hard. I know somebody gonna be using it as, you know, just overnight slumber session, but I don't know if they got bugbears. That's on both. I don't know how school's gonna decorate it and how it's gonna be decorated. I gotta go see it. So I get back, I'm excited, I'm go, I'm try to get to, to see it when we all get the open practice. I'm gonna see if Bobby can shoot me over there real quick so I can check it out.

[CJ Vogel]

No, it should be fun. I'm done with bunk beds, by the way. I'm done with them. After Tampa, I, I tried to spend one of the nights on a top bunk up there. I realize that's kind of the, the threshold for when you know you're getting old is can you get up and down from a bunk bed without cracking something? You know, I'm out, I'm out on bunk bets.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah, I can't. Yeah, I can't tell you the last time I was in the buck bed. And I don't wanna, I don't wanna ever go back. I don't ever have to do that. All right. Thank you for the super chat. I believe we got one more here, but it's from Malachi. And Malachi, thank you for the super chat, but I'm not sure if you had a question or not. So if you do have one, kind of throw it out there and we'll try to address it, but if not, either way, we appreciate the super chat. All right. I do believe we got my man Hank south joining us. Us, Right. Oh, oh, how about this one? Can family sleep there when in town for home games? I see a money make adventure. That's for Mama Vogel. Yeah, I think. Well, honestly, I, I'm gonna let C.J. handle that. I'm not gonna invite Mama Vogel anywhere, but she is more than welcome.

[CJ Vogel]

You're getting put to work, Mom. I mean, come on. This is our, this our company office.

[Rod Babers]

It is close to the stadium if you want to go to the games too, though. I mean, this, it's really close. It's walk. It's definitely walking distance there. All right, Hank, thank you for joining us. We appreciate you taking the time here. And you were actually privy to a call about the latest court decision that has kind of thrown college football in disarray, which seems like that's happening every other week or so, but this one allows that 2022 class an extra year of eligibility. What can you tell us? Can you first of all, get the folks out there a little synopsis of the entire thing for those who out there who want the Cliff Notes version of this thing not have to dig that deep into it?

[Hank South]

Yeah. So the, the 2022 situation from last week, they've kind of come out and said the instead of NCAA is going to appeal. Kind of just the broad scope of it, we're saying, like everyone just gets a year. They're still trying to, I guess, kind of, I guess rein it in a little bit. They came out and did say this does not apply to anybody that has signed a professional sports or professional league contract. So guys that have signed with the NFL that maybe don't make the roster, they can't come back and, and still have eligibility. So that's kind of where we're at with this right now. As far as it goes with Cole Hudson, you know, obviously he's, he was granted or I guess he has the court date and everything, and he can actually start practicing with the team. He never actually signed with with the Cowboys or any, any team as an undrafted free agent. So he actually is cleared to, I believe, even practice with the team this week if he decides to. So that looks like it's still on track. But as far as there's kind of this broad transfer portal situation where, hey, everybody gets an extra year. They came out and said, hey, not anybody that signed a professional contract or. But also you have to go back to the team you were on unless you entered the portal back in January. So they kind of, they limited it a lot. It wasn't just free for all. Hey, if you, you were 20, 20, 2022 class, you can just come back now. They've kind of pulled back the reins

[Rod Babers]

a little bit that it seems like a pretty reasonable decision. Now with the clarifications and obviously the details that you've just given us. Is this, is it still expected to have to be appealed and for there to be immense blowback? Because initially there was a lot of blowback, then there was clarification. Now even more clarification is the, is the blowback still expected to be so negative about this.

[Hank South]

I, I'm sure, you know, each fan base, you know, depending on specific players, probably going to have, have, have issues, you know, with it here and there. But I, I think it'll actually get settled pretty easily because you know, you look at it, there's only so many guys that, you know, if, if a team was wanting to take them back, you know, why aren't they in the, in the NFL or you know, why, why, you know, maybe they were ready for them to exhaust their eligibility. I don't think it's going to be this wide. You know, on, on the surface when it first came out it was like oh my gosh, like it's transfer portal season. Let's go add three or four guys to our roster before fall camp camp and just go crazy. Now they're like oh okay, it, we can't go, it can't just be an open transfer portal window. We have to go look at the guys that were already with the program unless they were already in the portal. So I, I think the, the clarification they made and again the NCAA is appealing a lot of it too. I think it's going to dial it back some. I'll still be interested to see how it affects college basketball because they have some more time to sort it out and figure out roster count and whatnot. But today the whole, the whole thing, the call was about the Protect College Sports act with you know, obviously we saw the SEC and the Big Ten sign on to supporting it last Friday night and kind of a about face because we, you know, it looked like it was dead, dead in the water like with where it was at mid last week and they came back and threw their support behind it and, and today kind of the, the broad. And I'm not a legal guy so you know, I'm probably not going to use the right terminology in every, every way but basically they, they now have figured out a way to where the third party business associations so like the, the Learfields and, and the company, you know obviously school sponsors Adidas Nike. Yeah, they can now that those nil deals have to be part of the rev share cap. However, they're also providing a way to where like, like a Cam Coleman or a Colin Simmons can still go get a deal with Nike and they can get beyond just the school's rev share cap if that makes sense. There's like this new policy they're putting in place where I think it's called attestation, where basically they have to say hey, the school didn't funnel this to us to go around the cap. So it's, it's kind of confusing but basically they're raising the cap to almost 48 million or I think a little over 48 million. There's the base cap, then there's a retention pool amount of money and then there's 5 million for non rev sports. So it's about 48 million. So it kind of meets the market more where it's at. So that's, that's the big thing the SEC was trying to get behind and then the media rights pooling, that was a huge thing that they didn't want to, they didn't want to be obligated to pull and, and distribute media rights with other conferences, the SEC in the Big Ten which why would they with the TV deals they have. So that was another big thing that once they learned that was optional they decided they would put support behind this bill. So, so, and then you know everything else we've talked about for the last few months with you know the one time transfer exception, you know the, the agent cap commission to 5%, the Lane Kiffin rule with coaches can't leave. So that. What's funny is they're trying to vote on it this week and there's like five things ahead of it. So I don't even know. There's still question about whether the Senate will even be able to vote on it this week because they have government funding, they have stuff non related sports that they're trying to deal with. So it's still kind of a mess and they haven't even put out the final language to it. But that's kind of the general.

[Thumbtack Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Hank South]

General provisions.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Hank, I got a question for you. What are you anticipating or, or what are you hearing are the potential number of players this could affect.

[Hank South]

I mean that you know it's going to affect everybody just in the fact that they're going to have to. It's going to be a hard catch cap. So you know it, it's. Schools have circumvented the cap now to where it's, you know they can go get their associated entity or associated businesses or whatever the, the third party people to the. And you know it was a loophole in how it was designed in the state regulations and everything and they could kind of just funnel money how they wanted to pay guys and that's how we've seen guy programs go three times over the 21 million dollar cap have. So it's going to affect everybody. But I, I don't think it's going to affect like your, your Cam Coleman's or your Colin Simmons is as much as people think because they still have true nil value or an arch Manning where they can go get their own deal. Nil deals just based off who they are and how they play. So it's, it's still gonna, True nil is still going to be there. It's just going to reign people in from I guess, you know, going crazy and circumventing the cow have.

[CJ Vogel]

Yeah, yeah. What's going to be interesting and Texas obviously saw this this year with offensive lineman, backup offensive lineman. They've seen it in years past with backup defensive linemen. Those guys have such a premium in the portal when they enter that their market is much, much more significant than what their production would have probably had. You know, in terms of what they put on the field. Their, their, their market value is going to be significantly higher because of the position that they play. What does that do when it comes to retaining depth is going to be very key. And how does, how do teams in that, you know, the, the Big 12, the ACC, you know, some of these middle of the middle of the road SEC programs, how are they able to use this as an advantage to now acquiring some of this buried depth is going to be something that again Texas has had had rather success retaining their key players. But of course we've seen like a Nick Brooks, we've seen, you know, Peyton Kirkland, you know, Daniel Cruz, Nate Kibble, all sorts of guys who they had high hopes for but ultimately said hey, I'm gonna go find a starting opportunity right away and probably earn significantly more in my bank account than what Texas was offering too.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Hank South]

I think that, I mean the general hope is, I think from a, from a, you know, federal standpoint is this evens the playing field. And I'm sure there's going to be loopholes found to where you know, we can still see people take on the phone call today, you know, they were talking about it being rosters that are like $80 million. And I'm like I haven't heard of an 80 million or 70 or 80 million dollar roster. That kind of seems a little, a little extravagant. But, but yeah, I think they're hoping it evens a playing field. It, it reigns in the whole find a local judge that can give you a favorable ruling. It, it gives, it kind of just brought obviously federal oversight as opposed to state by state. So we'll see. I'm sure there's gonna be loopholes and we'll be back here next year probably talking about it doesn't. Doesn't really work for. For everybody. So we'll see.

[Rod Babers]

That's. That's usually when it's. It's good when it's not working really for anybody. It's called compromise. Hey, thank you, brother, for taking the time. We appreciate it. And hopefully we can get you back on the show, man. Talk about something other than legislation and, and lawyering.

[Stevie Lee]

Sounds good.

[Hank South]

A couple more days.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

All right.

[Rod Babers]

Thanks, guys.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

All right.

[Rod Babers]

It's my man, Hank South. Thanks. We appreciate him taking the time because he was on that call. It was just. Man, I can imagine how much legalese and lawyer speak was on that call. And Hank's just total. Taking one for the team. Taking one for the team. Thank you, Hank. All right, let's get to. Oh, matter of fact, I want to get to this one thing about PFF actually, because we had Stevie on and I was actually going to get to it right when Stevie got off because he was talking about the offensive line and how they got to get nasty and that kind of thing. Well, PFF put out their preseason highest graded SEC offensive lineman like listed like the 10 highest graded offensive linemen going into this season based on last year's grade. And the lone ones baked. Obviously Trevor Goosby is at the top of that list, but Melvin Cianni also made it to the top of that list, too. And Texas was only, I think, one of two SEC schools to have two players ranked on among that top 10 list of the highest graded SEC offensive line. I think Missouri also had two. They had an interior offensive lineman and Kaden Green, the tackle as well. Thank you very much. Matthew. Is it possible that Texas goes from I don't know if they were the worst SEC offensive line, but they were one of the worst offensive lines.

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[Rod Babers]

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[Rod Babers]

You see to be in one of the best, if not the best, you're definitely going to have one of the best tackle combos as this metric is laying out in the country. I mean, you're in that conversation potentially have the best tackle combination in the country. Can the rest of the offensive line, you know, pick up and obviously pull up, pull their and pull their weight? That's the question.

[CJ Vogel]

Boy, would that be fun, huh?

[Rod Babers]

I mean, I didn't expect to see this. I didn't. I didn't realize Melvin Siani was that highly graded among the SEC offensive linemen coming from Wake Forest. But he really does look good. I've been impressed. I think he is an NFL offensive lineman.

[CJ Vogel]

Oh, definitely. You got to see him a little bit in the spring, Rod. I mean, he checks the box from the eye test, right? He walks out there like that. Looks like a guy that has a future in the NFL. Then you watch a movie, say, oh, a little bit of a surprise, right? He's, he's a little bit more nimble in the feet than I would have thought given his size. You know, he's a big dude. Pass protection for, for arch Manning should definitely improve. I think that is going to be well known. Especially Brandon Baker kicking inside. I thought Connor Robertson did just enough that was, you know, perfectly fine for him to return and feel good about where he was going into 2026. Of course we'll see what that left guard spot entails. But that left guard spot again, I don't think it certainly cannot be worse than a year ago but I don't know what to expect right now in terms of strengths or deficiencies. I do think that that offensive line pass protect much better in 2026. I can't right now give you an answer on the running game. I. I need to see it first. I need to see what they look like in fall camp and we need to hear how they do against what is a very veteran led group on that defensive lineman. You know, the scrimmages and live ball situations start to really heat up in the. In fall camp.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah, no, I'm. Which I can't. I mean obviously that's what every Longhorn fan wants to hear most about in coming out of fall camp. The updates defensive line and Seymour still got to win that position. I do think he is going to be the front runner at that left guard spot to win that spot. But yeah, you're right, Jimmy. Left guard can't be worse than it was last season. There's no way. You had one of the worst pass protection if you look at it pressure rates allowed among left guards in all of college football. Actually, you know, pff is what I looked at. But you look at pressure rate allowed by offensive line position and your left guard position for Texas had the highest pressure rate allowed of any left guard position in college football. And that's among. I think it was like a minimum of 100 snaps is what I put the threshold for. But that's still pretty mind boggling. I mean that's eye popping stuff so you can't be that bad. And there's no way they can be worse than they were last season if they're just an average offensive line. I think they'll be above average because of the two tackles that they have stuff. But they're just average with the weapons they have. They still should be competing to win the sec all said and done.

[CJ Vogel]

All right.

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[Rod Babers]

Yeah.

[CJ Vogel]

So that 5200 career snaps with the starting five projection with Lawrence Seymour in there, that's up from about 1600 a year ago. That's a lot of snaps.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah, they were inexperienced offensive line last year too. It's a Good point. C.J. all right, let's thank our last sponsor, our friends over at Von Lane. Give them one more shot before we get closer to the end of the live stream. We'll answer some more questions. But let's take our fans over at Von Lane really quickly. We appreciate our friends of online and you will as well, especially coming up this season, football season getting started. So if you are traveling in for some of those game days, you want to avoid the traffic, you want to avoid the, the parking nightmare, you could do it with Von Lane. Let them take care of all of the, the stress. Let them take care of the hassle of traveling from Houston to Austin or from Dallas to Austin. It's a great trip, first class travel experience on the ground. I've actually taken the Von Lane myself several times. I love it and you will too. They also have actually upgraded one of their routes. They're relaunching the Dallas, Oklahoma City route with multiple daily departures seven days a week. Riders have been asking for this. So backed by popular demand, whether you've got business at okc, you got family up there or you want to just catch a game without the three hour drive, you can book right [e-mail] and like I said, for game days, they've actually also also upgraded the route from the Woodlands to Austin. So think about that. If you're traveling for Texas football game days or if you're just trying to get around for business or for personal reasons, I would recommend the Von Lane over the. I've traveled in the airport recently dealing with delayed flights. I've had those dealing with TSA and security checks. That's something you want to avoid if you can. Driving yourself can be a bit of a hassle and be stressful too. You can avoid that with VonLane. Check out vonlane.com they serve Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Plano, the Woodlands, Oklahoma City, Nashville, Memphis and Atlanta as well. Head to vonlane.com use the promo code OTF26 at checkout for $20 off your first trip with Von Lane. That's Von Lane, your private jet on wheels. Thank you very much to our friends at Von Lane. All right, last quick rapid fire here before we get out of here with some questions, how about this one from Archmania 16? Meredith getting number zero is interesting. Yes. The report@ontexas football.com earlier that John Meredith who reclassified to the 2026 class will be wearing number zero. I thought the little tidbit that Hank south put out there was even more interesting. Guys that if it wasn't zero, then it would have been maybe seven potentially. And you can't wear seven now because Huff Daddy has his exclusivity to it, which by the way, deserves. And only, I think Huff Daddy is the only person that, that can decide who wears the number seven on defense. I believe that is the ca. I don't know that for sure, but that seems to be the case because I've done the research. The last number seven on defense was BJ Allen in 2023. Ever since then, guys, it seems like Huff daddy, he's the one that decides who wears the number seven. Throwing it out there.

[CJ Vogel]

He saw the play of number seven, he said, wait a minute, I got to take control of this. Like, this meant something to me. It's gonna mean something to Texas Longhorns moving forward. So we've talked about it. Single digit numbers now are all the craze for all of these guys that are coming out of a high school ranks. For a guy that just reclassified, what, two weeks ago, a week ago, and is getting a single digit number the minute he steps foot on campus. You got some high expectations, but that tells you just how much the staff sits there and says, all right, we know what we, what we have here is special. With John Meredith, you can have whatever single digit you, you number you want that's available. That's not number seven.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah, the set I, I, we got, I gotta get, I'm gonna get clarification on this, guys. I'm gonna talk to Huff and say, hey, did Star give you, you the power to decide who wears the number seven? Because I believe he did, Coach. And I don't think that's ever happened before, but I believe that's what's going on. It's got to be, because seven is a cool number. You would take the seven if he was a young bug like C.J.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

said.

[Rod Babers]

That's a single digit. The seven is clean. And on offense, it's always somebody with the seven. Keelan Robinson, Kaliq Lock is always somebody with the seven. Hub dad is, he's deciding. And you know what? Respect. Because respect for that man. All right? That's legit. You got to earn seven on the 40 acres at DBU, baby.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

And you gotta have about five Lambos in your garage.

[Rod Babers]

That's right. Five levels. That would help. All right, thank you guys for all the, the super chats and the questions. Sorry. We can get to all of them. You guys are great. I promise, if you keep those questions and you really want them answered, we'll get them answered tomorrow. Or you can direct them to the gentleman at coffee and football bright and early tomorrow morning. That'll be the man to myth the legend himself, Bobby Burton, the estimable Jerry Hamilton. They'll be on there for coffee and football bright and early at 8:15am you'll also have the Tuesday night live stream. That'll be the young project. C.J. boa and my man Jeff Howe will be on your Tuesday night live stream. That'll be starting promptly at 7pm so if you have some questions that we didn't get answered, we apologize about that. You can just direct them to tomorrow's live streams. Also, I gotta remind you, great deal happening right now, all right, at otf. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. Bobby's always trying to hook the people up. He's a man of the people. That's what he's about right now. $3. All right. That's all it takes for you to get access to the best coverage of Texas football around right now. Got the best team that assembled to cover Texas football here at OTF. And all they cost you is $3 for the new subscribers. $3 for three months. Limited time offer. You'll get the breaking news, get complete team coverage, insider access, recruiting intel. And right now you can get it for only $3 pennies. All right. Get it for pennies on the dollar. It's the best bargain you're going to get. If you're a baller on the budget, you cannot beat this deal. So go check it out. Especially with training camp starting up this week. We'll have you covered especially when we have those media windows starting up on Wednesday. You want to stay tuned to on Texas Football right here, the YouTube channel and go to owntexasfootball.com $3. Three months. Can't beat that. All right. Thank you, coach. Coach, for all of your wisdom and knowledge. Thank you, cj. Great stuff as always. Thank you to Stevie Lee, my former teammate and Lifetime Longhorn. Shout out to our sponsors, Von Lane, Hargrove Roofing and Prize picks. Thank you to Hank south for joining us as well. Thank you to Matthew. Behind the scenes, he's the real mvp. Nobody does it better for Matthew and for coach and for cj. I'm Lifetime Longhorn. Rod babies. Until next time, hook them horse.