Coffee & Football: Latest Texas Longhorns News & Notes | First Day Of Practice In The Books!

Summary

On Texas Football — Coffee & Football: Latest Texas Longhorns News & Notes | First Day Of Practice In The Books!

Date: August 7, 2026
Host: Blake Monroe
Guests: Bobby Burton (OTF Founder/Analyst), Jerry Hamilton (Recruiting Analyst), Hank South (Managing Editor, OTF)
Theme: First Impressions and Key Takeaways from the Texas Longhorns’ Opening Fall Practice

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Episode Overview

The episode marks the first day of 2026 fall football practice for the Texas Longhorns. The hosts, joined by guest analyst Hank South, dive deep into impressions from the open media portion of practice, highlight major position group developments, and discuss standout players, physical transformations, program culture, and immediate storylines. The discussion is lively, informative, and brimming with optimism as the countdown to the season opener continues.

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Main Topics & Insights

1. Practice Returns: New Energy and Leadership

• General Vibe: The show opens with palpable enthusiasm for football’s return, underlined by the energy observed at the first day of practice.

• Steve Sarkisian's Mood: Sark was described as “upbeat” and “excited” while also recognizing that “we got some work to do.”
  Quote: “[Practice] is when you get to open the presents, man, it’s Christmas Day now…yesterday was a lot of fun for me.” — Bobby Burton (03:28)

• Industry Changes: Jerry Hamilton notes that increased off-field duties make on-field time more special for coaches and media alike.
  Quote: “It makes these guys appreciate the on the field so much more…everything is year-round, 85 miles an hour in a 55.” — Jerry Hamilton (02:42)

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2. Offensive Line Overhaul

• Physical Transformations: Bobby and Jerry remark on major body changes in the O-line group; Brandon Baker’s reshaping and Jaden Chapman shifting to true guard physique lead the highlights.

  • Notable new addition: Bo Masco (Rutgers corner transfer)
  • Depth Emerging: Young linemen (Jordan & Devin Coleman, Jackson Christian) are developing, if not immediate contributors, setting up the program for multi-year success.

  Quote: “My one major takeaway from yesterday…the offensive line looked fundamentally different.” — Bobby Burton (05:51)

• Development Philosophy:
  Quote: “You can’t rush a player’s development. Especially the big body guys…some of these guys need time to develop their framework.” — Jerry Hamilton (06:45)

• On Notable Transformations:
  Quote: “CJ’s guy who transformed his body the most on the whole team was Nick Townsend. In my opinion, it was Brandon Baker.” — Bobby Burton (09:45)

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3. Quarterback Room: Arch Manning Takes Charge

• Arch’s Leadership: Arch Manning is described as taking “a big leadership role,” leading warmups and setting the tone for QBs and the team. Quote: “He was sprinting…taking the bull by the horns. He came out, was one of the first guys on the field.” — Hank South (13:03)

• Performance: Looked sharp in “routes on air”—especially on layups and intermediate throws, though the real test remains in live competition.

• Depth Chart:

  • KJ Lacey is clearly QB2: accurate, steady, knows the system, and unlikely to jeopardize the offense.
  • Diabell: Huge upside, NBA pedigree, but still raw after limited HS play.
  • MJ Morris: Further down the depth, struggled at times during practice.

  Quote: “He [Arch] looks great physically…he’s just one of the better deep ball throwers out there…I can’t wait to see those first few throws this year in games.” — Jerry Hamilton (15:03)

  On KJ Lacey: “He was the most accurate guy behind Arch, if not just as accurate…plays like he’s the No. 2.” — Hank South (16:32)

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4. Wide Receivers & Skill Positions: Young Talent Emerging

• Standouts:

  • Cam Coleman: Continues to impress.
  • Ryan Wingo: Named the day’s best receiver.
  • Dalen McCutcheon and Emmett Mosley: Both getting first-team looks.
  • Cohen Brown: Great physical development, likely to play key special teams snaps.

  Tight Ends:

  • Michael Massunas: Leader of the group, impressive physically.
  • Nick Townsend: Notable body transformation.

  Running Backs:

  • Hollywood Smothers: “Looked really explosive.”
  • Mike Terry: Shouted out by Sark.

  Quote: “Massunas looks the part…Townsend transformed his body. I think we’re going to see more production out of the tight end room this season.” — Hank South (19:35)

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5. Defensive Line: Elite Depth and NFL Talent

• Biggest Defensive Takeaway:

  • Jerry and Bobby praise the D-line’s size, athleticism, and depth—potentially 7-8 NFL players in the group.
  • Ian Jaffard’s weight loss (down 25 lbs) and improved movement highlighted by Sark:
    Quote: “Where his weight is at, what his body looks like…and his ability to move…it’s super encouraging for us.” — Steve Sarkisian (21:12)
  • Rashim Biles: Instinctual, “born to play football,” making plays down the field and on special teams.
  • Colin Simmons: Being selectively held from full live work—preservation for the season.
  • Myron Charles & Josiah Sharma: Noticeable physical improvements, greater muscle mass.

  Quote: “That defensive line…goodness gracious.” — Bobby Burton (25:04)

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6. Team Health & Culture

• Bounce-back Players: Justice Terry, Jonah Williams, Kali Lockett, Ryan Wingo, Emmett Mosley among those healthy and in action.

• Newcomer Struggles: John Meredith’s high-profile “first day” incident (dehydration) was contextualized by his recent inactivity—praised for effort and hands.

• Vibe Check: Team energy, togetherness, and excitement dubbed as “the biggest takeaway” from Day 1.
  Quote: “The overall energy…just seeing them get off the bus and the body transformations…they looked like a team that was hungry.” — Hank South (27:07)

• Conditioning: Only 5 cramps in camp-opening heat, compared to 38 in Sark’s first Texas practice:
  Quote: “He said they only had five cramps…they had 38 cramps his first practice at Texas. That number is unbelievable.” — Jerry Hamilton (31:49)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Rushing Player Development (O-Line):
  “Everything's so instant gratification now. We're trying to rush all these guys’ development…you can't do that. Especially with the bigger body guys—that’s what we’re talking about.” — Jerry Hamilton (06:45)

• On Defensive Versatility:
  “Some guys, Quandre Diggs was born to play football. Rasheem Biles was born to play football. He just finds a freakin' way to get things done.” — Jerry Hamilton (22:17)

• On the Fastest, Biggest Roster:
  “[Is this the fastest/biggest Texas team?] One through 85, this may be the fastest team on paper…but all those 85 don’t play. At linebacker, though, this is the fastest, most athletic Texas has been in a while.” — Jerry Hamilton (44:47)

• On Practice Physicality and Tradition:
  “Any DB, if they puke, they all go to the same spot…if you have a dog, they use the same fire hydrant. It's like these guys puke in the same spot!” — Jerry Hamilton (72:21)

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Key Timestamps

• [02:08] — Sark’s post-practice vibe and “Christmas Day” analogy
• [05:51] — Bobby Burton’s big takeaway: Offensive line looks different
• [09:45] — Notable player body transformations (Brandon Baker, Nick Townsend, Bo Masco)
• [13:03] — Hank South on Arch Manning taking leadership reins
• [16:32] — QB2, KJ Lacey’s poise and performance discussed
• [19:35] — Tight ends and receiver room standouts
• [21:12] — Sark on Ian Jaffard’s transformation and other standout physical performances
• [27:07] — Hank South’s major takeaway: Team energy and positive vibes
• [31:49] — Comparison: 5 versus 38 cramps (over time)
• [42:45] — Fastest/biggest roster? Linebacker room called "most athletic…in a while"
• [46:40] — Tyler Atkinson: outlook for new, highly-touted linebacker
• [51:07] — Bounce-back players and health check
• [64:40] — News: Cole Hudson cleared by NCAA to play 2026 season
• [67:32] — Will Muschamp defensive shift: more aggressiveness, higher blitz rates

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Audience Q&A Highlights

• Tyler Atkinson (Linebacker Freshman): Tremendous high school player, but will need to adapt to assignment football—may be Rasheem Biles’ backup (46:40).
• Secondary Deep Cuts: Warren Roberson earning extra attention; Wardell Mack currently trailing at nickel. Bounce-back guys (Jonah Williams, Kali Lockett, et al.) all healthy and in action (48:37, 49:59).
• Biggest Immediate Impact Freshman: Early bets on Derrick Cooper and Richard Wesley; Jermaine Bishop’s potential to break through in later games (57:29).
• Physicality & Tradition: The now-infamous “vomit zone” for DBs is humorously dissected as a weird rite of passage (72:21).

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Final Thoughts / Tone

Throughout, the panel’s tone is energetic, candid, and rooted in direct observation and program insight. They highlight the physical and cultural shifts taking shape at Texas, the quality depth in the program, and widespread optimism for the 2026 campaign. While clear-eyed about the need for further evaluation (especially under live-fire conditions with pads on), the staff sees potential for a very special season.

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For Further Coverage

• Visit ontexasfootball.com for practice recaps, recruiting intel, and detailed position-by-position updates.
• Follow the panel for live practice reaction shows and continued preseason discussions.

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Hook ‘em!

Transcript

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[Blake Monroe]

Good morning everyone. Welcome to Coffee and Football, presented by Von Lane. I'm your host, Blake Monroe, where I'm joined every day by Bobby Burton and Jerry Hamilton. Tell us where you're checking in from this morning, what you're drinking and of course, get those questions in. We're going to get to all of those here in just a little bit. Maybe not all, but a lot of those here in just a little bit. Practice has started, guys. We are what now 30 days away from kickoff and we got a lot to talk about, so let's just jump right into it. Sark meets with the media yesterday and he seemed, I don't know about y', all, but I thought he seemed a little upbeat, little excited about everything and I want to play all.

[Jerry Hamilton]

He better be, he better be with this team.

[Blake Monroe]

He had to say about the first day of camp.

[Steve Sarkeesian]

Fun sweating. It was great. It was hot. But I love training camp. You know, we, we do so much right now in our profession that when you get two hours on the grass with your team, like I eat that up and it was, it was fun for me. You know, I tried to really watch our team today and not just be so enamored with just the quarterback and the receivers. I was trying to watch a little bit more, get a sense and a feel. Like I said, I wanted to see our coaches coach, we got some, some new faces and so I enjoyed it. I had a blast.

[Jerry Hamilton]

You know what I took from that, Bobby, is I think it makes these guys appreciate the on the field so much more nowadays because they have so many off the field duties, whether that's portal, whether that's recruiting, everything is year round, 85 miles an hour and a 55. Right. That's what it feels like every day for these guys when you can actually take a break from that and get on the football field. I think I saw a lot of excited coaches yesterday and I think it's because their job is so stressful year round that they actually make. Makes them probably appreciate what they got into this for.

[Bobby Burton]

I just got to start with it. I mean, it makes me appreciate what I got in it for.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bobby Burton]

Football yesterday, on the, on the grass. And look, I, I think that it was a. For somebody that covers it like we do and. Or somebody that coaches it like Steve Sarkeesian does. Yesterday is when you get to open the presents. That's just what it is. I mean, I'm not saying that there's final decisions being made or, you know, you can't read too much into it. Even Sark talked about that. But it's when you get to open the presents, man, it's Christmas Day now, you know, got to deploy the presents later and actually use them. But I, I tell you what, yesterday was a lot of fun for me. I get. Get to see not just the Arch Mannings of the world and Cam Coleman's and Ryan Wingos. Man, he had a pretty catch over the shoulder in the back of the end zone from Arch, but just a lot of different pieces to it yesterday. The culmination of a lot of things. New players down on the field. Got a chance, I really got a chance to look at Bo Masco in depth yesterday and really like what I saw from the corner out of Rutgers, but just a fun time. And to your point, Jerry, you know, know. And Blake, you said he had. Sark was upbeat. He was, he was upbeat. At the same time, he also was a guy that was like, okay, we got some work to do. I felt like it was a well rounded press conference afterwards, but man, we got to get about 20 minutes in of watching the team work out, warm up, etc, throw the ball around. Jerry, if I had. People have asked me my biggest takeaway from yesterday and having slept on it last night and you and I talked about it, I talked about it out of the gate. This is that catch from Wingo, from Arch. I mean, you think this is a well placed ball. That's crazy. But my point that I was saying my one major takeaway from yesterday, the offensive line looked fundamentally different. I'm not saying they're going to be great, but Brandon Baker, I mean, and I, and I want to say this the right way, he looked like he had some baby Fat last year a little bit right. He, he wasn't necessarily. He came out yesterday, Jerry. His body's transformed. Jaden Chapman at left guard, much bigger and looks more like a guard now after having been trying to be a tackle for so long. Good weight brought on. You're looking at the tight ends right now, but other guys that I thought looked really, really good. Lawrence Seymour was our first look at him. He, he's built like a fire hydrant.

[Hank South]

Yeah.

[Bobby Burton]

But he may be as quick as anybody on the offensive line. So I, I felt like the offensive line itself. Melvin Cianni is a good, good looking dude. Looks like a right tackle in the sec. Trevor Goosby of course is, you know, is who he is. He's a high level first round pick. I felt my biggest takeaway yesterday was the offensive line. It really was because we've made so much about it this off season. I just wanted to see how they looked. Jordan Coleman, holy cow. Jackson Christian, they're, they're building a unit there. I would say that.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah. I think the, that thing about it is a couple of the player by player things with Brandon Baker, you know, it's that I agree and that's, that's that natural progression of a guy. Right. And that's why we have to be careful rushing. And I think Sark talked about this yesterday. Rushing these guys development. I think that's the natural thing to do nowadays is everybody wants to rush a player's development. Whether that's people that cover the team, whether that, whether that's the fans, whether that's national media talking about guys. Everything's is so super duper instant gratification now. It's gone past instant gratification. It's super duper instant gratification. We're trying to rush all these guys development. And the one thing I know from two plus decades in this business you can't, you can't do that. Especially with the bigger body guys that some of these guys need time to develop their framework, develop as a player. I mean you talked about Jaden Chapman. Jaden Chapman hadn't been healthy enough at Texas to have consistent off seasons. Now he may be healthy for the first time. And what is that for an extended period of time, what does that do for him? I mean like that's what we're talking about with like and we'll get to other guys later with like a Justice Terry and with like a Jonah Williams. Those guys hadn't been healthy enough to actually do true football activities year round. And this may be the first year they can. Hopefully they stay healthy enough and Jonah still won't because of baseball. But in the case of a justice Terry, this may be the first year he actually gets a chance to do football activities for an entire year. If he stays healthy dating back to his junior year in high school. Think about how much that will do for a guy if he's able to stay healthy. And, you know, look, I think I've been told multiple times Texas really likes those young offensive linemen. I know people chat, say it doesn't matter. What does that do to help Texas this year? Well, there's more years than this this year for me and Jordan Coleman, Devin Coleman, Jackson Christian, those guys get really good returns. How much are we going to see that on the field this year? Probably very little if. Unless there's major injuries across the board on the offensive line. But that stuff is very important to me because, I mean, look, this year is very important, but I'm after 30 and 40 wins, not just 10. It's development for me. I'm big on the development of these big bodies. And I, I thought the offensive line, they just, they look more physically like an SEC offensive line than me, you know, and some of that's adding a Melvin Siani, right, moving Baker in the guard. But some of it's also those backup guys that were recruited, really are, Are developing physically. And Jordan Coleman had to drop a few, streamline a little bit. Right. Devin Coleman just had. His body will look a little different as he gets older. Jackson, Christian, same thing. But those guys are starting to have really good looks to them physically. So you're seeing the physical development across the board.

[Bobby Burton]

I think CJ and I were talking and CJ's guy who transformed his body the most, in CJ's opinion was Nick Townsend. In my opinion, it was Brandon Baker. Yeah, that's. I mean, of the whole team.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah, because I saw him in senior year. Cosio. Paula. Holy hell. Like Coastal is put together, man. I mean, like, I would love to know what his body fat percentage is. It ain't much.

[Bobby Burton]

A lot of people.

[Jerry Hamilton]

If Matas was 6%, we saw him Tuesday. If modest is 6% body fat at 611,7 foot, 255, most of Paul is probably in that range. 5,6% body fat. It's a crazy number.

[Bobby Burton]

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[Sky Sports Announcer]

Football is back. Time to wake up the group chat and catch up with old friends, even the grumpy ones. What a baby. Hey, maybe even have a sing along. Because when football's back, so are we. Sky Sports is your home of football. Join us for over 1,500 matches this season across the Premier League, WSL, SPFL and more. Sky Sports, welcome to the show.

[Blake Monroe]

Well, let's bring him on in. Our own Hank South. Good morning.

[Steve Sarkeesian]

Morning.

[Hank South]

How are y'?

[Jerry Hamilton]

All?

[Bobby Burton]

Good. Hey, Hank, we wanted to talk to you. You got a chance to really focus in on Arch Manning yesterday. He is the leader of this team. When they came out and did the beginning of practice, they have one player go to the middle of the field and lead the team. It was Arch Manning that went to the lead middle of the field and did that. You got a chance to watch him a lot. What did you think of young man from New Orleans?

[Hank South]

Yeah, like you said, he was taking on a, you know, a big leadership role. Even, you know that jumping jack drill they do after the stretch line where he's out in the middle. Beyond that they went to the opposite field where the defensive line and edge guys were. He was, he was. I saw him talking to KJ over there and giving the younger guys pointers. Dia Dia Bell. And then when it was time for them to come back over. I mean, he was sprinting, he was five or 10 yards ahead of those two guys or the rest of the QB line and the coaches trying to keep up with him to get back to the other side of the field. So he was kind of taking the bull by the horns. You know, he came out, he was one of the first guys on the field. I know Texas posted that video of him jogging onto the field. But you know, overall and again that, you know, they weren't, the receivers weren't guarded by anybody. It was all routes on air. But what I was looking for is that leadership aspect, the timing with the new receivers and you know, I thought

[Blake Monroe]

he looked really good.

[Hank South]

You know, I saw a couple passes. There was back to back passes where it was Cam Coleman on a crossing route and I think there was a cut, like a 12 yard comeback and, and he was a little high on both of them. Cam had to jump. But beyond that, I think those were the only two balls I.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Of his or, or K.J.

[Hank South]

lacy's hand that I saw on the ground. So I thought he looked good. Everyone's asking about, you know, that intermediate passing game, the layups seemed to be on target yesterday. We'll see again. Today is day one. You can't glean that much. But I, I thought he, he looked good. Yeah.

[Jerry Hamilton]

And I, I said this on the, we have a, we're talking about practice fun thread where people can ask questions on OTF all day. Go ahead and jump into that if you haven't. But I was talking about that. I think, you know, I think the one thing with Arch that we all have to be cautious of is the on air is so different from a game. Like people want answers. Oh, is he improved in, in the hitting, the layups, as Sark said, you know, talked about he needs to do this year. We're not going to know that till the games. In reality like that. And so with quarterbacks, when they're under pressure, when things break down, do you revert to old tendencies? That's always the key with athletes.

[Bobby Burton]

Right.

[Jerry Hamilton]

And especially a quarterback, especially with a point guard. So that is the thing with Arch, I think to know is I thought Arch looked really good yesterday. I think he looks great physically. By the way, one thing he talked about at Manning Passing Academy when CJ and I were there was he got up into the mid-230s just to see what it felt like and he hated it. And he was back down to the low 220 yesterday, so looked really good. Physically, I, you know, he's just one of the better deep ball throwers out there. And, and I can't wait to see in games this year those first few throws that he knows. You know, when you look at every quarterback looks at their season, every player looks at their season, okay, where can I improve? I can't wait to see those first few throws of Arch this year in games that he, he even he would say, I missed too many last year. I, I, I, when the pressure's on him, when the walls are closing in, when maybe he doesn't have time to have perfect mechanics, where is that going to be at for him? I can't wait to see it in games this year. I, I know this we, you can tell by being at Manning Passing Academy in the summer. That was a focus. Even Cooper talked about that a little bit. That's a big focus. I can't wait to see how much improvement he's made.

[Bobby Burton]

Hey, Hank, you also followed the other quarterbacks around yesterday, K.J. lacey and Diabell. M.J. morris, the transfer from Coastal Carolina. Is K.J. lacey the clear number two at this point in your opinion?

[Hank South]

Yeah, I really don't think there's any question. And he plays like he's the number two. Like he, he was most accurate guy behind Arch, if not just as accurate as Arch on the day. I think, you know, it goes back to what Jerry asked Sarka at SEC media days. He's playing his best football since he's been at Texas so far. He's confident. He knows this system. He's been with A.J. milwe now. He's been with Mike Monte and Sark, of course, and so he's comfortable in this. And again, he's not a guy that's going to go out and flash and, you know, break off big runs or, you know, make those wow plays, but he's going to move the ball down the field and he's not the deep ball thrower like Arch, but he's not going to put you in situations where you're turning the ball over or you're behind the stick. So I, I don't think there's any question, you know, Diabell, I thought flashed at times, you know, of course he's a true freshman. He hasn't, he's still got, you know, a learning curve. MJ Morris, he was fourth in line, you know, he, he had some struggles. I saw him struggle on a handoff with Jet Walker as well, too. They, they kind of botched a handoff, so I don't think it's any situation where it's, you know, Matthew Caldwell starts from behind, then ascends to number two quarterback. I think KJ Lacey is your number two quarterback. And, and it was pretty clear yesterday.

[Bobby Burton]

I have a question about Diabell as well. The tool set. He was number one quarterback. Number two quarterback, depending on who, whose rankings you took. Right. What did, what did you think of him during the workout and what does he seem to have that makes him special? Like what's his X factor?

[Hank South]

Yeah, for me, you know, he's obviously, he has NBA pedigree. His dad was a professional athlete. He's been around competitive sports. He's a competitive kid. I think that's kind of what sets him apart. Obviously, he's got a great frame, he's accurate, he's got the tools. What, you know, what I'm watching is he didn't play much his senior season. He, he had to get that surgery that knocked him out the rest of the year. He missed time late in his junior season with another injury. So it's how, you know, and he's been on, he's been on campus since January. So, you know, he, he's been through a semester. He's learning everything. But, you know, how quickly can he be ready to potentially be game ready? Because he's still raw, he's still developing, but, you know, he's got a big arm, he's accurate, he's got that great frame. But I think his competitiveness and just, you know, how he has been raised, I think that kind of sets him apart. And you know, compared to other quarterbacks that were in the, the 26 class.

[Bobby Burton]

Hey, Hank, you also were checking out the wide receivers because that's who he's. They were throwing to most of the time. Saw a little bit of the running backs and tight ends as well. Anybody or anything catch your, catch your eye in that category.

[Hank South]

Yeah, you know, I, I don't think we talk enough about. Maybe, maybe we do. But Michael Masunis, I, I think he's going to be a real player for this team. You know, he was leading the tight end line. I thought it was interesting.

[Blake Monroe]

Really.

[Hank South]

Steve Casula, the new analyst that came from Michigan, he kind of was leading the tight end drills. I don't know if that was my design or Jeff.

[Jerry Hamilton]

We were standing there. He ran the drills that.

[Blake Monroe]

Yeah.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Thanks. Normally is very vocal and running. I thought that was interesting that Banks was more in a. Watching.

[Hank South]

Yeah.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Mode than the coaching. The drill mode yesterday, that's the first time we've seen that was A really good point on that.

[Hank South]

And he was really. Yeah, he was really hands on. He was having them, I don't know, you know, the drill where they're opening their hips, not pivoting and that first step, and he was literally right behind the tight end so their foot couldn't drop back like it had to go forward. So I thought that was interesting. Massunas looks, looks, looks the part, obviously, Nick Townsend transformed his body. Stark spoke highly of him, but I think, I think we're going to see more production out of that tight end room this season. You know, the running backs, I saw

[Blake Monroe]

a little bit of them.

[Hank South]

You know, I, I thought Hollywood smothers look really explosive. Mike Terry got a shout out from, from Sark for the day. You know, people have been asking about him, but the receivers, Yeah, I mean, Cam Coleman looks like Cam Coleman. I thought Ryan Wingo probably had the best day personally, just watching him. He was leading the, the, the, you know, the drills there. And then Dalen McCutcheon, you know, and again, I think y' all talked about it yesterday on the live. You know, he was going with the ones when we saw them ahead of Em Mosley, but, you know, Emmett Mosley was with Ones prior to us coming in, so, you know, they've got depth at wide receiver and guys that can enter that circle of trust for Sark, Obviously, we saw Dale McCutchen ascend to that last season as a true freshman, but I thought everyone looked the part. I was really impressed with Ryan Wingo. Cohen Brown, too, you know, I know CJ's been talking about him on the, on, on Texas football, about the off season he's had. Sark hyped him up yesterday as well. I'm not saying he's going to play this year much, maybe more in special teams, but a guy that's really, you know, taken to, to the college strength and conditioning and doing what he needs to do.

[Blake Monroe]

All right, guys, I want to play a clip here. I know y' all been talking about who's looked impressive, all that good stuff, but Sark was also asked that, and let's see what he had to say.

[Steve Sarkeesian]

You know, I was. I'll tell you who I was impressed with. The other way was Ian Jaffard. You know, where his weight is at, what his body looks like right now, and his ability to move. That's super encouraging for us. Like, this guy's down almost £25 now, you know, and, and so I look at it, I look at it both ways. You know, guys who have built up Colin Brown looks phenomenal. I mean, you talk about a guy who's bought into a college program and, and I always forget guys after the fact. I should have said him or said him. And Derek Cooper, for a guy who's just should, you know, just getting here, looks, looks great. So a lot of the guys have bought into it. I like I said, I think Coach Becton and his team do a great job with our guys all summer long. And I thought this team bought into the, you know, they were really committed to the summer. I thought it was helpful. You know, I was, I'll tell you who I was impressed.

[Blake Monroe]

Got that.

[Bobby Burton]

Yeah, there was an. Another piece of that Jerry and you and I kind of nudged each other afterwards. He said Rashim Biles made his presence known. Hank, you were there as well at the depressor, made a play 40 yards downfield on a football.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Is anybody surprised? Is anybody surprised? I mean, like I'm not surprised that Rashin Biles, like when he asked about somebody asked about who stood out, was either the first or second person out of his player out of his mouth. That doesn't surprise me. That guy's just born to play football. That's the thing I keep saying about Rashin about some guys quandary. Diggs was born to play football. Rasheem Viles was born to play football. Like, it's just like he was working on first team punt block, punt coverage team yesterday. So I mean, are we. Is he going to be the guy that blocks the first punt this year? I'm probably gonna bet on that because he's just born to play football. He just finds a freaking way to get things done. But you know, somebody asked about Bowels and Stark was talking about, oh, the first time I turned on this tape. Well, yeah, that's the same thing we thought when we watched this tape. We're like, that guy's making plays that linebackers don't generally make in coverage. That's just the intercepting the ball up over your shoulder and turning and looking like Derek Cooper running it the other way. Right. It's like that's not normal stuff. I I said on that our ask us anything kind of we're talking about practice threat. I think Andre Far is probably not being talked about enough of how much of an impact he's going to have on this team. Like Kenny Baker and Muschamp said, this is our guy. We don't have anybody like him in this program. And that's not a knock on Marad Watson and Alex Shane where they're really good players, but there aren't many 375, 380 pound players that have movement skills like Ian Jafar does and can line up over the ball and command two and help your linebackers be better and be a run stuffer in the sec. There just aren't many of those guys around. And I, I think we're probably gonna. Everybody's probably underrating how much he's actually going to mean to this defense this year because there's so many other really highly ranked players that came in to the program, whether it be the Portal or the high school ranks. Guys like that tend to get underappreciated a little bit for how much they're going to impact winning.

[Bobby Burton]

Yeah, I just, I. Hank, you and I were there. I mean, Jerry, we were all there. And that defensive line, I mean, how many NFL players are on the defensive line? And it's not just the older guys, it's the younger guys, too. I mean, Richard Wesley and Jamari and Carlton.

[AIB Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Bobby Burton]

Lance Jackson, I mean, Xena, I mean, Justice Terry.

[Hank South]

I thought Myron Charles was moving well yesterday too, when I saw him.

[Bobby Burton]

Yeah. Now, Myron Charles and then also Josiah Sharp, talking about transforming your body. £340 looks a little bit different this year than the £340 did last year. Yeah, I mean, y' all agree with that?

[Jerry Hamilton]

I mean, yeah, he's always had super quick feet for a 340, 350, 360, 370 pounder, wherever he's at. And Sharma was a guy that missed most of his senior season because of transfer rules in California. So he pretty much missed a year of being in football shape and that natural progression. But Hank's right.

[Steve Sarkeesian]

Like,

[Jerry Hamilton]

Myron Charles has skinny ankles at 3:30 guys, skinny angles.

[Bobby Burton]

When we talk about this, we talk about Josiah Sharma. Imagine the weight moving from your belly to your shoulders.

[Sky Sports Announcer]

That's.

[Bobby Burton]

That's kind of what's happened with Josiah Sharma a little bit now. It's not, not that he's skinny or anything like that right now, but the weight has moved from his belly to his shoulders where it's actual muscle. And so, I mean, I think he has bright future in football, really bright future in football. But that defensive line, goodness gracious.

[Jerry Hamilton]

I mean, Jamar, by the way, people have asked about Colin Simmons, guys. Colin Simmons was off to the side working on pass rush moves. If they could have put bubble wrap around them, they probably would have officially, but he was kind of off to his side working pass rush moves. And the rest of the D line work in drill. So I think there's a protection element when like Sark says, hey, we get have to take him off the field sometimes because it destroys practice. I think there's a real protection element of Colin Simmons before this season begins.

[Blake Monroe]

Yeah.

[Bobby Burton]

We have Hank south here with us, managing editor of On Texas Football. Make sure you're checking out on Texas Football.com right now. Jerry's mentioned the thread that we have ongoing a bunch. Hank and, and C.J. and the guys, Jeff have all put up articles in the last 24 hours on the first practice. But Hank, I want to. Before we let you go here at the, at the 30 minute mark, I wanted to ask you because Jerry and I were talking about our one thing that we took away from yesterday and it. You've slept on her tonight. What was the one big takeaway for you from yesterday?

[Hank South]

I, I would say and I thought this yesterday and still thought it this morning. Just the, the overall energy, seeing the guys pull up on the bus, get out, get excited. You know, a lot of time, you know, it's day one of summer. You still got a whole month before kickoff. Like, you know how. And you know, also at the same time, day one can be the most exciting. So. But the, the, the energy, I thought the leadership was good. I thought, you know, just seeing the guys on the hoof and just seeing them get off the bus and the body transformations. But I, I would say the energy and just like that positive, positive vibe, I guess was my biggest takeaway. The guys were excited to be there. It was, you know, probably felt like 110 degrees on that field, if not hotter. And you know, outside of some guys throwing up a little bit, there wasn't, there weren't guys, you know, slacking or, or you know, taking plays off like they, they were, they were pushing it. They looked like a team that was hungry. And you know, for day one, as much as you could see, as much as we saw in 30 minutes, I thought, I thought they had to look.

[Bobby Burton]

Yeah, they, they. You mentioned that having the, the, some of them having a little dehydration or water sickness, I guess. John Meredith was kind of the famous one there yesterday. He went over to the, the fence and had to relieve himself of some water, I think.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Well, we didn't see if it was big chunks.

[Bobby Burton]

What's that?

[Jerry Hamilton]

We didn't see if it was big chunks, little chunks or water, by the way.

[Bobby Burton]

But my point was then you had K lock. They, they all fought through it though. I want to put it like Meredith went back and played some more. Kalik Lockett. CJ was telling me he saw Kali Lockett at the line of scrimmage, cough up some water, basically like Von. And then he went through his route, caught the ball and then threw up some more water and then went back. That's how hot it was yesterday. It was. It was very hot.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah. And look, I want to say this on John Meredith, so I think people have a clear understanding like that's gaining some funny attention out there. But yes, Herman would have went and tested it. That's true.

[Sky Sports Announcer]

Football is back. Time to wake up the group chat and catch up with old friends, even the grumpy ones. What a baby. Hey, maybe even have a sing along. Because when football's back, so are we. Sky Sports is your home of football. Join us for over 1,500 matches this season season across the Premier League, WSL, SPFL and more. Sky Sports, welcome to the show.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yes, that's true. And he would have had cupcakes for the media afterwards, by the way, or something. You know, like in the, in the me while we were waiting to talk to the head coach, he would have had some snacks for us. But on Meredith, I think there's one thing I want to kind of point out because he take, you know, we reported that other people reported that and it's kind of turned into a joke a little bit. But he hadn't been doing football activities for a while. He couldn't work out at North Crowley because of the not being ruled ineligible. You know, you can do your DB drills, right? And Coach Flight does a great job up in Dallas, but he has been out of kind of football activities. So this summer he wasn't there working out with the team. Right. He just got there a week ago. So the fact that man, for his first day in, in, in a college football practice, he, he, his lunch ended up on the side wall is not necessarily surprising to me. So. But he showed really good hands. He showed really good hands and drills. He's very smooth before he had to hit the wall.

[Bobby Burton]

So you, you took your takeaway was just the vibe overall, Hank.

[Hank South]

I think so.

[Bobby Burton]

Any, any particular players that you said, oh, that one's moving, kind of, kind of gliding or kind of pushing it. Other than Arch, you mentioned him.

[Hank South]

I know y' all mentioned him, but I thought Kalique, for coming off an injury was moving really well. And you know, he, he was, you know, had some bounce in his step. Michael Masunis, again, I think is a guy that I'm really excited to see in this system, especially with this training from Steve Casula, too. Because if you look back Steve Casula, you talk to Brock Williams, the tight end commit in 2027. One of the biggest reasons he committed to Texas was because of Steve, was Steve Kasula is what he said. And so I thought that was really interesting. So I was excited to see him coach Massunas, Kali Clockett. I thought Wingo looked great, and I thought. I thought Hollywood Smothers looked really good in the drills. I saw as well. So a lot of excitement. I'll be curious to see what they look like today after a day of practice. I wouldn't imagine they're very sore. You know, they go through this strenuous summer conditioning. But you never know after that first day on the field, you know, and I did two a days, you know, the next day, the second or third day were harder than day one.

[Jerry Hamilton]

One of the interesting things Sark said yesterday, playing off of that was somebody asked him about health of team after practice one. He said they only had five cramps in the first practice yesterday and why that number was kind of impressive. They had 38 cramps his first practice at Texas. He said 38, which that number is unbelievable, by the way. So he said five yesterday. So I think he's kind of had a smile. And they were kind of proud of that, that they only had five yesterday on a really hot day after having 38. The first practice at Texas, his first August practice at Texas. What does it mean? Doesn't mean you're going to win a game or lose a game, but it's just an interesting number of how many cramps they had when he got there.

[Hank South]

Drink some pickle juice.

[Blake Monroe]

All right. Well, Hank, thank you so much for joining us, man. Appreciate it, as always.

[Hank South]

Thanks for having me. We'll see you guys later.

[Bobby Burton]

All right, see you over there. Football.com man.

[Hank South]

Sounds good.

[Blake Monroe]

Okay, well, we got more. More to talk about this morning. But first, Bobby, if you don't mind, I need you to tell everyone about our friends over at Seat Geek.

[Bobby Burton]

I can do it. If you're looking for tickets, there is no better place than Seat Geek. Seat Geek, the app, is absolutely tremendous. They even have a section where it gives you whether or not the ticket is a green or a red. That means green means good, red means bad. They rate this ticket on the scale of 1 to 10, so you know you're getting a good deal or not. That's really transparency from SeatGeek. Plus, every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee with more than 35 million downloads. SeatGeek is the number one rated ticketing app. There are more than 70, 000 events listed on SeatGeek including concerts, sports festivals and more. I want to give them a huge shout out because they are a sponsor of on Texas football and we appreciate them very much. Of course I have a code for you guys. You can use code OTF10 for 10 off your next set of tickets at SeatGeek. That's 10% off any tickets. Use promo code OTF10. Make sure you click the link in the description of this show to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account so you can use it later. Thank you from our friends over at SE Seatgeek. Again, use code OTF10 for 10% off tickets on Seatgeek.

[Blake Monroe]

Thank you Bobby. And I am going to tell everyone this morning about Prize Picks because we are always looking for ways to make watching games a little more fun. And that's exactly why we love Prize Picks. It's America's number one sports pick app and honestly it's about as simple as it gets. For player picks. All you do is choose more or less on a few player stats. You lock in your lineup and you're ready to go. But if you're like if you're someone who likes picking teams instead of individual players, Prize Picks has you covered there as well. You can now pick the winner. You can pick the spread or the total on games and even fights. And Prize Picks is available in most states including California, Florida and right here in the Lone Star State. So chances are you can jump in today. One of my favorite features is that you can follow users on the app. If you like picks they're making, you can tell them with one click. Makes it super easy to follow your friends picks. And the best part is if you've never tried prize picks before, play your first five dollar lineup. If you win, you're gonna get a hundred and fifty dollars in bonus lineups. Just make sure to use code HMA when you sign up. They actually just updated this offer so there's never been a better time to get started. And if you want to get started with my picks today I have Angels pitcher Ryan Johnson to have over two and a half strikeouts along with some WNBA action Caitlin Clark to have over 19 and a half points points. So come follow me or and make those picks or make your own. Download that Prize Picks app today. Use code HMA when you sign up. And remember, play that first five dollar lineup. If you win, you're gonna get a Hundred and fifty dollars in bonus lineups. That's prize picks, code hma. Good luck to you. And as always, play smart, play responsibly, play price picks, picks.

[Jerry Hamilton]

I want to answer one question real quick because it's come up on D line. Texas as Zion Williams listed 370. Is that accurate? I'd say that's pretty accurate. He's a, he's a big dude. He's gonna have a hard time weighing less than 350.

[Bobby Burton]

I, I would say he's definitely behind every other defensive tackle.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Oh yeah, no, he's very.

[Steve Sarkeesian]

I think.

[Hank South]

Yeah.

[Bobby Burton]

And I'm not trying to say that to, you know, talk about. I just think that comparing him to two guys that came into Texas at the same time that he went into LSU and Josiah Sharma and Myron Charles. There's no question that Sharma and Charles are well ahead of Zion Williams right now in the same amount of time in college, in college athletics. You agree with that, Jerry? I think.

[Hank South]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jerry Hamilton]

I mean, yeah.

[Blake Monroe]

Okay, we're gonna, we got a lot of practice related questions, so we're going to jump into those. But first we got a super chat here from Rocky P. He said asking for Jerry's abandoned child, Josie. How did Flood look out there and how different did it feel with Muschamp on day one?

[Jerry Hamilton]

Man, I'll say this. Flood and Kenny Baker. Kenny Baker's lost a lot of weight, by the way. Those guys are, those guys are pretty, those guys are pretty slimmed up for their position coaches. As, as offensive and defensive line guys. How did different. It feels must. Champ. I'm not sure we saw enough. I would say took a little longer for the first four letter bomb drop than I thought it would happen. I, I, like I paid attention that I was thinking like nine, ten minutes in, but the first one I heard was right before we, we ended the media window. He took a little longer to get going. He is, but he got him out.

[Bobby Burton]

I mean he's like in it though.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Like.

[Bobby Burton]

Oh yeah, the, even the. He was involved even in the gunner drill that Blake Gideon was running and Chris Jackson was running. I mean mus champ was back there watching them go through that. And when I say gun, I'm talking about special teams. So there's interesting stuff.

[Blake Monroe]

All right, let's see here. Let's do speaking of Josie Justice. Terry, update please.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Planet Fitness look great physically. You know, you saw, you saw him run through some drills. Nothing really beyond that. I mean, look, he is who he is, who he is as an athlete. There was A reason he was ranked as high as he was coming out of high school. There was nothing yesterday that's going to determine what type of season he's going to have. I want to be clear on that. Like practice and yesterday for me was how guys looked physically and kind of how they ran out in the first, first team offensive line, second team offensive line, same all the other positions. That's what was big for me yesterday. But justice, if anybody's out there saying this is the type of season Justice Terry is going to have, I. I'd ask them, how do you know after nine rep, nine drills? I mean, like it doesn't work that way. But one thing I'd say about Justice Terry is He has gained 30 pounds since he, since he arrived. He was 258, I think when he first arrived at Texas. Now he's listed 289. So probably 288 to 292 depend on when you weigh him. But the thing that excites me is he hasn't been a healthy football player since midway through his junior year. This will be the first time because he finally had that shoulder peck kind of cleaned up. This will be the first time he's going to operate as a healthy player in a long time. So that excites me about where he can go. But you know, he looks good physically. I think there's a good isn't a good enough.

[Bobby Burton]

A good is not a, a proper state.

[Jerry Hamilton]

He looks great. He's playing at fitness. He looks, he's playing at fitness for a reason. He has an opportunity. Here's the opportunity I think he has. We talk about how good the defensive line, interior guys are like inard over the ball player. Right. I think Marad Watson can play over the ball or, or a three. You know, Alexander Hiru K. I still think there's a, a possibility for somebody to come in and take over as the true disruptor. Is that going to be my. Is that going to be Justice Terry? We'll see. But I think there's that ability right there. And if I had to say who has the best chance to be that guy? You know, I think Marad Watson, when he's healthy has shown that ability. I think Justice Terry athletically certainly has that ability. Now that he looks weight wise like an interior SEC defensive lineman when Bobby Did Sark say when full pads go on?

[Bobby Burton]

No, but it's typically three days in, so probably Saturday. Yeah. No, or, or it could end up being Monday.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Monday.

[Bobby Burton]

Yeah. I think that. Here's what I would say about Justice Terry, just to add on to what Jerry was. Was saying, there is. I think that there are a multitude of guys that can really play on the defensive line. I'm telling you, when we had Hank south on earlier, I talked about seeing that group of defensive linemen and saying, wow, there may be seven or eight NFL players in that group. I mean, no kidding. That's how talented they are. And now different ages. Like, I would put Jamari and Carlton and Richie Wesley in that. They're true freshmen. So it's not all upperclassmen that are that good or that talented. But Justice Terry, when you start saying, okay, who's the quickest of that bunch? And it's not quickest, not named Colin Simmons, it's Justice Terry or Jamari and Carlton, probably. And I feel like. I just feel like he. His quickness combined with his new size and maybe with his health, to Jerry's point, is that Mitt, that mix that Texas needs to create some disruption against a Julian Saiyan or against a Sam Levitt, Trinidad Chambliss, those kind of guys, when they're going to play really good quarterbacks this year.

[Blake Monroe]

All right, our next question this morning comes from Cade Stewart and Kate Ass. Good morning. Otf. Be honest, Is this the biggest and fastest roster that y' all have seen on the 40 acres in a while?

[Bobby Burton]

I can't say that. Like, I just think it's a. Like, I wouldn't say this is the fastest roster. Maybe overall, 1 to 85.

[Jerry Hamilton]

That's what I would say.

[Hank South]

Yeah.

[Bobby Burton]

Yeah, but I. I mean, 85 don't play well. Yeah, 85 don't play. And Texas isn't necessarily fast. Super fast in the secondary, in my opinion. I mean, they're not at safety. I mean, Jelani McDonald's, he's long, got long speed, but he's not. And Derrick Williams, like, there are aspects of this team that is not. That are not necessarily fast. Like, I wouldn't call Michael Massunas fast at tight end. I would call Nick Townsend fast. But I think that the athleticism, the depth. And I even asked Sark about it. You know his depth. Yes. I asked him at yesterday's presser about the depth of the team guys, and he's like, look, it's early, and we all know it's early, but he does have a lot of tools. I mean, you're watching Relik Brown right here, getting ready to get the hand off from Arch. I mean, they've got pieces of the puzzle all over the place. The question that. That comes to my mind is how are they compared to everybody else. I will say this. The defensive line is the biggest. I don't know that the offensive line is the biggest that, that I've seen speed maybe with but Jaden Blue was fast, Xavier Worthy's fast. I mean Adonai Mitchell is fast. So I just don't know that I would say this is the fastest team. That's, that's my, my take on it. John Meredith 0 right there by the way.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah, I think some of the younger guys who may not play as much or the fastest players on this team like I think one, like I think one through 85 this may be the fastest team on paper one through 85. But all those 85 don't play. I mean like the young linebackers are going to have some speed to them but how many reps are they actually going to get? Like that may be a more of a next year thing. I, I, I will say, I will say this though. I think, I think one position where I think this is the fastest, most athletic Texas has been in a while is at linebacker.

[Bobby Burton]

Yeah, that's true.

[Jerry Hamilton]

There's a Biles and Ty Anthony Smith. Those two guys alone are very high end athletes at that position. That may be one position in the young guys like Kosiok Paul is an athletic guy. Rocky Cummings is, is a, he's got speed and he's going to put on 15 more pounds. But how much is he going to be seen this year? But I think some of the in game speed linebackers about is going to be as fast as we've seen in a while.

[Bobby Burton]

Yeah because if you think about it Trey Moore even though he went to the NFL Leonga Lal not he was more of a ball seeker and not necessarily a, a fast guy. Even with Anthony Hill going to the pros who's as athletic and as any of them. Yeah, I think you're right. The depth with Brad Spence, Ty Anthony Smith and Rasheen Biles, I think from the starting group that is the, that is the fastest linebacker core Texas has had in some time.

[Blake Monroe]

Our next question this morning speaking of linebackers comes from Christopher. He says really looking forward to seeing Tyler Atkinson play. Think he's going to be the next great Texas linebacker. Any news on him and how he

[Jerry Hamilton]

looked Yesterday listed at 219, 220. There was, you know look, there wasn't, that was a non contact practice. So linebackers aren't, you know they're going to be limited. That's an, that's as instinctive a position as there is when you play on the interior. I think the biggest thing with Atkinson is going to be if you watched him in high school and, and you, and you said, you watched this tape and you said, okay, this guy's a tremendous. Just go find ball player. Obviously the one thing that changes and he could freelance at Grayson, do whatever he wanted to do essentially because that's what you do with a guy like that in high school. When you get to the college level and you're playing inside those tackles, it's about taking on, taking on people and you can't swim everybody, right? So there's, there's a lot more development there to play on the inside at the college level, at the high, high end, college level, a lot more assignment sound football. So that's part of the learning for him. And look, I think he was 13 yesterday, Bobby going out there. But what does that mean? We'll see. I'm not sure I'd bet on him playing a lot of meaningful snaps this year if the guys in front of him stay healthy. I think when you get to more year two,

[Bobby Burton]

I, I would not be surprised if they deploy him as Rasheed Biles back up. And because Rashin Biles, I think just from watching and hearing what Sark talked about, I think he's going to have some latitude to do some things. That's, that's what I believe. So that's where I'm at.

[Blake Monroe]

And our next question this morning comes from living rent free in ut. Was there anything of note from Lesser talked about players in the secondary like maybe Warren Roberson, Wardell Mack or Jordan Johnson? Rebelle.

[Bobby Burton]

A couple of notes. Warren Roberson, I think, I think Will Muschamp likes Warren Roberson. I know that sounds like a weird thing to say, but you know, when, when coaches give a little extra effort on some guys, I think he's given a little extra effort on Warren Roberson. Could be wrong, but he was talking to him every time he went through a drill. Wardell Mack, right now I felt like he was behind already. Xavier Filsamy at nickel drills it was Grayson, Littleton first, xavier fil me 2nd and then Wardell Mac 3. Just to give you an idea as far as Jordan Johnson Rebelle. He went out with the twos. He still. He looks like a small linebacker is what he looks like physically. He's really top heavy, heavy chested. I did not see him. We couldn't really see much beyond just the, the starting group and them going through drills to Jerry's point and Hank's Point that we talked to earlier, they weren't doing a lot of matchup against receivers. They were just running through some individual drills.

[Blake Monroe]

And a follow up to that, if I can find it here. Oh, right here from Kate. Was Jonah going through drills?

[Bobby Burton]

Absolutely. Jerry, let's talk about the bounce back guys because you, you mentioned that wanting to see everybody healthy. Jonah was healthy. Kali Glockett was healthy. I mean, made a couple of nice catches in practice. We talked about that. Justice Terry, healthy. Ryan Wingo, healthy. Emmett Mosley healthy. I mean basically every, all the bounce back guys that we were worried about were there. There were a couple things that we saw pre. Pre camp or not pre. How do I want to say this? As we were walking in, we saw a couple guys go up and be with the trainers. Yahim Riley was one of those. The freshman Austin Anderson did not work out yesterday. We also saw Elijah Ali, the new defensive lineman from California that just came in this summer. He was a late signee. He, he went and visited with the training staff yesterday. And Jerry, there was one. Oh, Smoke. Matthews also went to meet with the training staff yesterday. We, we do not know what the injuries were there, although Riley was wearing a knee brace of some sort.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Heavy knee brace.

[Bobby Burton]

Heavy knee brace. So what was that injury? We'd have to ask and get some clarification, but those were the only three we really saw sit out much of practice yesterday. Even though we saw some guys with some water problems at times, they weren't sitting out the practice.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah, I think, you know, it'll be interesting today to see when we're out there is, you know, for me it's like seeing Justice Terry and Jonah Williams just out there was good for me because they haven't been healthy, fully healthy in a while. So you just hope those guys get a chance as healthy players. And I think this is such a big football season for Jonah because as we talked about, this is his year. He's got to make a move in football because he's going to be draft eligible in baseball if he has a healthy season next in the spring. So that's. That. That's going to be interesting. Kind of his timeline of how things work. He needs to have a fully healthy season in football and actually see what he can do. I think for, for his mindset. I mean, if he has a healthy season in baseball, there's going to be, he's going to be a draftable guy for sure. If he shows any pop. Blake, I mean if he shows any power in baseball, he, he may be a First, second round guy, sandwich guy. So he's that talent and toolsy. So I, I, I just want him to have a chance to see what he can do on a football field because I do think there's opportunity. That safety opposite off Jelani McDonald is, that's a coverage spot and I think that's why Kobe Black was moved to safety. I think, I know that's why he was moved to safety because they got to find the right guy in coverage there in Will Muschamp scheme. And that doesn't mean only one guy's going to play. But I think Jonah Williams could excel in that regard if he's, if he's stays healthy and is on the field. And we talked about justice Terry and so I, I think it's really big August and football season for Jonah Williams because I think there's going to start to be that baseball pressure of a draft if he has a healthy season next spring and summer.

[Bobby Burton]

One more piece. We talked about all those bounce back guys that were injured in the spring and how they, they rebounded and they were all available yesterday except for I think Kaden shirt held out, was held out of some, some contact. But the other one that I wanted to mention is Derrick Williams. Now he's two years removed right from his injury, but you could tell the injury had still kind of slowed him down a little bit yesterday. I, I'm gonna say this. I actually think that he looked better yesterday than he did last year. So sometimes these injuries take a little time. I mean Cedric Baxter never got good last year. Never got back to 100%. Sometimes it takes longer for these guys to get back to 100%. I think Derrick Williams is closer to that now than he was a year ago. The question I have is whether or not he can do the coverage stuff that that Jerry was talking about that's required out of that second safety still because he's, he's not necessarily a cover guy. Yep.

[Blake Monroe]

And we're gonna get some more of Yalls practice questions in just a moment. But first a quick word from one of our sponsors. Advanced pain therapy.

[Bobby Burton]

Pros know the pain stops here. Physical therapy helps me as an athlete then and now. And do I still need therapy?

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[Bobby Burton]

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[Blake Monroe]

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[Bobby Burton]

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[Blake Monroe]

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[Bobby Burton]

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[Blake Monroe]

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[Bobby Burton]

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[Jerry Hamilton]

Hey, I want to bring up one thing because I think freelance has asked about Colton Vosick. He said so my take on Colton Vasic is, look, he's out there healthy. My whole thing is can he stay healthy? He hasn't had a fully healthy season at Texas, so I'm not gonna kind of jump out there on him. Look, do I think he could help Texas? I absolutely think he could help Texas. But he's, he's just gotta stay healthy long enough to give himself a chance. He just hasn't had that in his career at Texas and I think he ever does. He can help Texas.

[Bobby Burton]

Yeah. Yeah. Fingers crossed. Because I do think he's a good strong side defensive end.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yep.

[Sky Sports Announcer]

And.

[Bobby Burton]

And I would love nothing more than see him have a. A strong fourth year.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah, he's had bad injury luck. Just some guys have it and he's had it

[Sky Sports Announcer]

on.

[Blake Monroe]

Our next question this morning is from Alec. And Alec asked which freshman offense or Defense will have the biggest impact this season.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Derek Cooper, I think as the season moves along, Jermaine Bishop, not sure how much in a Ohio State game. I think that's an experience game at wide receiver, but I think as the season moves along, Bishop, he's just too good. The more he plays, the more plays he'll make. And then he just forces his way in. Derek Cooper for sure. I think Richard Wesley will have a place on this team. Defensively.

[Bobby Burton]

I would probably go with Cooper and Wesley at this point, although. Let's wait. I, I want to. I can't answer this. Alex or Alec. Excuse me. I can't answer this. Well, in part because I, I, when the ball gets put in play and they're in, they're in pads and they start keeping score and scrimmages. If, if Jermaine Bishop starts scoring touchdowns, that, that eliminates all other discussions. I mean, it just does because I think he's that type of player. I just don't know if we're going to see that immediately. He's gonna have to do that. And then I would say Jermaine Bishop, but right now I would say Cooper and Wesley.

[Blake Monroe]

And a super chat here. Switch gears for just a moment From Jonah Williams, Enthusiast 1. Thank you. Jonah Williams, enthusiast. He says, I work at a golf resort. I caddied for four Oklahoma alums. Turns out there's decent OU folk out there. Thanks for the work, boys.

[Bobby Burton]

Yeah, there are some. There are some too few. They're few and far between, but there are some.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah, it's probably the ones that were on the losing streak against Texas, though. They don't have as much to talk about. Probably not needed. Bob Stoops early guys where they're winning because I've been yapping the whole time.

[Bobby Burton]

They're nice to you right now because they're still just trying to score a touchdown.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah.

[Blake Monroe]

Hey, Bobby, I've seen this question asked a couple times before we get back to some more practice related questions, so I need to ask you this. This is this one today from Dave Elliott, but it's been asked at least three or four times this week. Are y' all having lunch with the coach this year? If so, will it be the same crew? It's a great show.

[Bobby Burton]

I'll appreciate that. Yes, we are. I talked to Brian Irwin, coach Brian Irwin and Coach Shipley last week about this and it is coming back this season. So very excited about that. Those guys, they love the University of Texas. They love watching football and talking ball. So that's always fun. For me to kind of bend their ear during the middle of the season here, see what they're seeing. Coach Irwin, by the way, is big on Arch Manning. Just for the record, from a movement in the pockets standpoint, that's, I think he thinks that may be what he does as well as anybody putting that out there.

[Jerry Hamilton]

I agree.

[Blake Monroe]

Tyler here. Tyler says Massunas is known for his blocking, but how's this pass catching?

[Bobby Burton]

He was catching the ball away from his body yesterday. Hank south, managing editor of on texas football.com visited with us earlier today and talked about this. He was catching the ball away from his body. He's not Gunner Helm. You're not going to see this fluid, highly fluid athlete that's going to split defenses down the seams. That's not him. That being said, he's definitely put together like a pro athlete. He's more like a Jeff Swain. Jerry, you know what I'm talking about here. He's, he's an inline guy that has an NFL body. He was, by the way, just recently nominated for the Mackie Award. He's on the Mackie Award watch list. But I, I would not call him a pass catching threat. I would call him a capable receiver, not necessarily a threat. I, I really think that, you know, I was talking to someone yesterday afternoon after practice and the, the thing you want out of Massunas is the sea area blocking. You want that outside zone being able to move people and stay with the defensive end, you know, and if he can do that, he's worth his weight in gold because Texas and Sark loves to run that play.

[Blake Monroe]

And then Tyler justice with the question here, do we have at least one 1000 yard rusher this season? I know both, both Brown and Smothers did it last season, but is that too many mouths to feed? What are Yalls thoughts?

[Bobby Burton]

Never too many mouths to feed when you're playing in the sec. And I mean look, Texas is still gun shy from two years ago, I think, and I'm talking about the personnel staff when they ended up with just two healthy backs. That wasn't, that was not good for them long term. They. And, and it would be time there would be games where it was just one healthy back and 24. And so I, I think that they're, they don't think there's too many mouths to feed ultimately. Will there be a 1,000 yard back? I'm 50, 50 on that. I don't have a, a strong feeling either way. I think right now.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah, so much. You know, look, if we're talking 12 games. If we're talking 12 games, I, I, I don't know. I, I think that my, my thing is what do the three backs combine to rush for? Like if Derek Cooper's your third and I think he is, what are those guys combine to rush for? How many attempts do they have? That's kind of things I'm looking at is the combination of that. I think that's going to tell us how, how well Texas runs the football this year. I mean, if you look back to 2023 season, Jonathan Brooks had 1139 before he went down, right. Backstormed up a 659 and Blue had 398, 400, whatever that number is. Right. So they, they combined for about 2200 yards that season. Obviously played in, in 414 games. So 15 games. So they, they had, they had a lot of games to put up those numbers. But the thing I look for is in the 12 games, let's say 12 games, it's the number of carries those guys get and the number of combined yards those guys get that I'm going to be looking at because that's really going to tell us how well Texas has run runs the football against a really strong schedule because I, I always, I've been going back to the whole offseason. 52 and a half run, 47 and a half pass. I think that's about where Sark is traditionally as a coach. That's kind of the numbers I want to see this year. I don't really care how they do it, who has the most yards. I just care about that's what the numbers look like because I think that's going to give Texas the best chance to maximize this team this year if he's around his those normal numbers.

[Bobby Burton]

Blake, I need to add one bit of news that broke after practice and after Steve Sarkeesian took the mic, by the way. So Sark, during the post game, post game, post practice interview yesterday, was asked specifically about Cole Hudson and where he was at with his legal maneuvering, I guess is the best way to put it. About 15 minutes after that presser floor finished, Cole Hudson was granted they re he reached an agreement with the NCAA. His attorneys reached an agreement with the NCAA that Hudson would be allowed to play in the 2026 season. So that part is gone. I don't know when he's actually going to rejoin the team. But A Texas does want him back. B, he will be back. And see, that'll that'll it. This whole thing frees up the Longhorns to, to try another guy at left guard, frankly, or even center potentially if, if they want to go in that, that route. Hudson is already in Austin, has been in Austin for a couple days hoping that this would get overturned and turned into this agreement. So good for him. He doesn't have to wait till August 10th where they were going to have a. A discussion about the temporary restraining order.

[Blake Monroe]

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing. All right, we got time for just another question or two. But first, Bobby, one more time, let us know about Von Lane.

[Bobby Burton]

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[Jerry Hamilton]

This, this is a good one. Blake, what will the defense do differently this year under co coach Boom compared to last year? Well, he. He famously said thoroughbreds run forward, so Colin Simmons probably won't drop in coverage as much, which is a good start. You're going to be more aggressive at the line of scrimmage and coverage. You're going to have a little bit higher blitz rate, maybe a lot higher blitz rate. We'll see that. There'll be more multiplicity, more disguise, I think. Overall. Now what are the results we'll see playing a bunch. This is the best group of quarterbacks Texas has played since Sark's been at Texas. Somebody, a couple of guys are gonna have hot days against you. It's just gonna happen. So I would say be ready but I think those are the differences you're going to see. And, and I think the way he, not that there was a Rasheed Biles type player last year, but how he deploys him is going to look different than any linebacker in the, in the past few years.

[Blake Monroe]

All right, let's see here. Like I said, we got time for just a couple of more and gosh, I just had it there. Somebody was wanting to know if y' all got a chance to look at the oh, California's Horn Field. Go kickers. Did anybody get to watch any special teams?

[Jerry Hamilton]

They took those guys into the bubble really quickly, Bobby. Normally they don't, but th, those guys, it's like they delivered them to the bubble to kick in, in, in the

[Bobby Burton]

indoor all we saw was them walk

[Jerry Hamilton]

in and walk to the bubble.

[Bobby Burton]

That's a fair statement, Jerry.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah.

[Blake Monroe]

And then Kate Stewart. Are they back on the practice field today or is it a day off?

[Jerry Hamilton]

No, they're buying the same sweat.

[Bobby Burton]

Yeah. 2:45 this afternoon we'll be back out there at the Dennis Fields. You know Jerry, I wonder if I, I want to ask Sark this. Did you feel like practice was shorter. Yeah.

[Jerry Hamilton]

This year. Yeah.

[Bobby Burton]

Than last year because he was always. He would come into the media room around 5:15, 5:30 after practice last year and he was there at 4:45, 4:50 yesterday. Yeah, I'm gonna ask him. I, I don't know. We're not going to get Sark and post practice interview today. We're probably going to get some players but I want to ask him if he's shortened practice at all. 510 minutes even. Something to think about, but no. Otherwise same practice time, same practice schedule for Jerry and I. By the way, we'll be on with the live show right after practice today.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah, definitely a shorter practice, Bobby. I agree.

[Bobby Burton]

Felt like it at least.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah.

[Blake Monroe]

And coach Steve, sarcasm. Anything on Andre Kojo yesterday running second

[Bobby Burton]

team right now behind Melvin Ciani. He looked good. Let's see if he pushes Seani for playing time when it really gets going right now, you know, it's just about how they look. Right. And Kojo is back out there again, a bounce back player. We didn't mention him earlier, Jerry, and perhaps we should have. But we'll see how he does once the pads get on.

[Blake Monroe]

And let's close with Nathaniel here. What does the pecking order look like at tight end this year?

[Bobby Burton]

It looks like to me it's Massunas and Spencer Shannon as Your inline guys and Townsend and Winston as your H Vacs.

[Blake Monroe]

So

[Bobby Burton]

I think based on what I saw yesterday, Massunas is gonna. Is probably gonna eclipse Spencer Shannon. But I think Spencer Shannon is going to see a lot of time in short yardage and two back and two tight end sets. So I think Massunas is going to win that job. At the same time, I don't think that it's like, to the detriment of Spencer Shannon long term. I actually think he's going to be a very positive contributor on this team at that H back. Nick Townsend is definitely one. But Amari Winston, I just want to put this out there. He may have the. He and Kalique Lockett may have the best hands on the team. Like I just Emory Winston. Amari Winston catches the ball really clean, like, cleaner than Nick Townsend for sure. And Nick Townsend doesn't fight the ball. But I'll just put that out there. Don't be surprised if Amari Winston catches a tight end screen at some point this year and does something.

[Jerry Hamilton]

I gotta say something funny. Tyler justice said I need to put up a sign that reads vomit zone. It's amazing. All the guys that any db, if they. They all go to the same spot within like a yard of each other. It's kind of crazy, man. It's that I said that in the post. Post show, post practice show. I just think that's funny. Like, how it's almost like, hey, hey, dude, if you're gonna go puke, you go right there to this area. It's like they're all within a yard of each other. When they go. When they puke every year in practice, it's kind of funny to see, you know, it's like, it's. It's like if you. If you have a dog, they go use the same fire hydrant or tree. It's like all these guys puking the same spot. How's that even possible, man? Did they tell Meredith, hey, man, I got sick my first practice. This is where you go puke.

[Bobby Burton]

This is it. He was looking for shade. That's what he's looking at.

[Jerry Hamilton]

A little shade within a yard.

[Blake Monroe]

Speaking of a little shade, Rocky P says big hat today, Bobby, are you gonna let us all down again?

[Bobby Burton]

I. I am gonna let you down again because I don't think, like I said yesterday, if I would have walked in with that, I think Sark would have looked at me and said, get the. Get the crazy stuff out of here. He's. He's down to business right now.

[Blake Monroe]

And to wrap up A super chat from Rocky P. How is Weaver able to transfer to Houston when he didn't enter the portal until August 3rd?

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah, here's what happened with those guys. They both media asked them and they said they're going in the portal. That the other day when the, the Friday ruling came down, they actually snuck in the portal and I, I confirmed this was a member of the Texas basketball staff Tuesday. They snuck in the portal on the final couple of hours in, in the, in the original portal window for basketball players. So they snuck in at the very end. I think the agents just said do this late just in case is what happened there. Kendall Weaver, U of H as a reserve player, really good fit for him. I mean that's, that's a really good fit in Kelvin Sampson's defensive in his scheme. He's, he'll be a really good like 8th, 9th guy for u of H next year in my estimation. I hear Jordan A M's making a run at Jordan Pope because they don't know if Bryson Warren's gonna get eligible. And by the way, good guys did really everything Texas asked of them. Those guys were never a possibility to come back to Texas.

[Blake Monroe]

Well, that is going to do it for this episode of Coffee and Football presented by the good folks at Von Lane. Want to thank Von Lane along with prize picks Mint Mobile, SeatGeek and Advanced Pain. Care for sponsoring today's show? Of course. Thank you all for tuning in as well. Glad we got to get to a lot of those questions because sometimes, you know, we just don't have time to get to all of them. But today we knocked out a great chunk of them. And Bobby, what do you have later today?

[Bobby Burton]

You know, we just talked to Hank South. We're trying to get, I'm trying to get everybody that was there for us at practice yesterday to give their take on it. One of the people that we haven't heard from yet is Jordan Scruggs. Jordan was out taking photos and video for us yesterday. He, myself and Jeff Howell are going to talk a little practice later today. This morning before practice too. Then Jerry and I will get on and talk to you after practice this afternoon. Then we'll likely have something from the player availability after that as well as the live stream tonight, which will be, I think Rod Babers will be hosting. He will actually be able to give his feelings on the the team this year. He's going to be out at practice today too. So we've got a full day. It is, I can't tell you, like there's Fun. I started this off. I'm just excited that there's football back. We're 30 days away now from the games, but yesterday was like me opening up some presents. Bryant Westbrook, Steve Woo. Woo Wooster. Bryant Westbrook still created the quietest moment in DKR football history. You could hear a pin drop when he hit Randy kinder, the running back from Notre Dame. It was deafening. Everybody exploded, thinking, wow, what a hit. And then kinder didn't move for like five seconds, and everybody just went totally silent. Kender ended up being okay, but Westbrook delivered that. Wooster. Three time first team all Southwest Conference, two time consensus all American out of Bridge City, Texas.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Last I looked, Bryant Westbrook was now coaching. He lives in the Scottsdale area. Was coaching out there in the Scottsdale area. I'll see if we can look him up. Maybe we can get. Get him on the show. I'd love to talk to him, but for any DB that thinks they're physical, go watch his tape and then say, tell me if you think. If you're still as physical as you think.

[Bobby Burton]

I think Leland McElroy, by the way, still feels it. His time in College Station, Quentin Jammer

[Jerry Hamilton]

had that same level of physicality to him.

[Bobby Burton]

Yeah, but. But Westbrook had that timing. Yeah, there's. There's physicality and then there's physicality with that special timing. That's what Westbrook had. I mean, he. And that was back at a time when you could launch, too, by the way.

[Jerry Hamilton]

Yeah, that's a big difference.

[Bobby Burton]

You can't do that anymore.

[Jerry Hamilton]

He would have been neutered in today's game.

[Bobby Burton]

Yes. Yes. Top five pick in the NFL draft, by the way.

[Blake Monroe]

Well, don't forget, by the way, Head ON over to ontexasfootball.com Take advantage of the 3 for 3 special right now. This is for new members only. This is a limited time offer and this will take you almost to the end of 2026 here, but get the best Horns coverage every day. No promo code needed. Just go over to on texas football football.com sign up. We got practice coverage, breaking news, team coverage, insider access, recruiting intel, and plus all the other sports as well. $3 for your first three months. New subscribers only. Go check us out at ontexas football.com and we hope you all have a phenomenal day today. Of course, we'll be back same time, same place tomorrow. So for Bobby Burton and Jerry Hamilton, I'm Blake Monroe, and we'll see you then.

[Bobby Burton]

Tug of horns.