10 Reasons to Be Positive About the Longhorns in 2026 | Texas Football | Steve Sarkisian | Arch Manning

Summary

On Texas Football – 10 Reasons to Be Positive About the Longhorns in 2026

Host: Rod Davis (Lifetime Longhorn)
Panel: Coach Bob Shipley, CJ Vogel, Stevie Lee
Date: July 28, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this spirited installment of On Texas Football, Rod Davis is joined by Coach Bob Shipley, analyst CJ Vogel, and former Longhorn Stevie Lee to dissect the top reasons fans should be optimistic about the Texas Longhorns’ 2026 season. Drawing from insider insights, player development, and unit-by-unit breakdowns, the crew delivers an engaging mix of analysis, anecdotes, and bold predictions as the team heads into training camp just nine days away from kickoff.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Arch Manning’s Progression at Quarterback

[03:40] CJ Vogel – 04:20

• CJ: "First and foremost ... Texas’s quarterback is Arch Manning, right? It's a lot of reason to be excited when that's your quarterback. When you saw how well he was able to progress and develop from a year ago now going into a season in which, hey, he’s got plenty of talent around him."
• Key Take: Confidence is extremely high in Manning’s development, leadership, and supporting cast.

2. Offensive Line & Pass Protection

[03:50] CJ Vogel – 04:10

• The line, particularly in protecting Arch, is a huge focus. Improvements in pass protection will "let Arch sit in the back pocket, you allow him to read the field, and you allow his legs to then be a threat."
• CJ: “Things will get dangerous” if the line takes the next step.

3. Veteran Special Teams

[04:17], [05:48], [07:22]

• Special teams are praised for both experience and depth.
• CJ: "Of your nine leading snap getters last year in special teams, Texas returned seven of their biggest specialists... All of these guys are very experienced."
• Coach Shipley: "There's nothing that can change a game—for better or for worse—this special teams."
• Past mistakes (ex: blocked kicks vs. NC State, SEC title game mishaps) have led to a renewed focus, and now, Texas boasts experienced, battle-tested players across coverage units.

4. Elite Offensive Skill Talent

[15:40] Coach Bob Shipley – 17:22, [21:51] Stevie Lee – 23:12

• Running Backs: Deep, versatile, and improved from previous years; tough to crack the rotation.
• Receivers: Particularly Emmett Mosley, expected by some to lead team in receptions due to defenses having to focus outside. The tight end room also highlighted for mismatch potential.
• Coach Shipley: "I'm most optimistic about him [Sark] utilizing all of our weapons on offense."
• Stevie Lee: "I would say, four legit NFL receivers on the roster. And then we got a big, big arm with Arch."

5. Offensive Versatility and Matchup Nightmares

[17:42], [18:52]

• The variety and caliber of weapons make it “almost impossible” to shut down all options.
• Rod Davis: “You cannot put, you know, seven, eight in the box while also keeping a deep safety over the top of Cam Coleman rolling coverage toward Wine Wingo… you can't solve all those equations at once.”

6. Coaching Staff & Player Development

[24:43] Stevie Lee – 25:06

• Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp gets praised for having “the pawns on the chessboard” defensively, and the entire staff’s focus on development is highlighted.
• Notably, Justice Terry’s growth from 268 to 290 pounds is seen as key for boosting interior pass rush (with echoes of past greats).

7. Trench Play & Depth

[30:53] Coach Bob Shipley – 31:09

• Winning or losing “in the trenches on both sides of the ball.”
• "We got everything else. That's the unknown that we keep talking about."
• The health and productivity of both lines will be decisive for playoff/national title hopes.

8. Turnover Margin & Discipline

[31:58] CJ Vogel – 32:41, [34:18] CJ Vogel

• Texas was top 5 in turnover margin last season; repeating that will be crucial.
• CJ: “If they're top five again in turnover margin, that's what I'm looking for.”
• Penalties were an Achilles’ heel: 132nd out of 136 in FBS for flags, with a renewed offseason emphasis on discipline that could lift the team from a perennial disadvantage.

9. Clutch Performance in Key Situations

[36:01] Rod Davis – 36:54

• Red zone, 3rd down, and late-game execution cited as the final step for a championship team.
• Rod: “I need them to be clutch in the fourth quarter... last time Texas won [the] national title, they had arguably the most clutch player in the country... In critical moments, they were at their best.”

10. Health & Roster Management

[29:45] Stevie Lee – 30:42

• Stevie Lee: "If we stay healthy, Coach Sark has all of his weapons throughout the entire season, I think we’ll be perfectly fine…This feels really, really good to me."
• Texas now boasts enough depth that even a loss or two might not derail a playoff bid.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Coach Bob Shipley on Special Teams:
  "There's nothing that can change a game—for better or for worse—this special teams.” [05:48]

• Rod Davis on Offensive Matchups:
  “Running backs and tight ends will probably get covered by linebackers most of the time. And if you can scheme it upright, that can be a nice, you know, mismatch or matchup advantage for Texas.” [17:42]

• CJ Vogel on Player Growth:
  “290 for Justice Terry—more than enough weight to play where Texas wants him. Right. … Strength team accomplished exactly what they needed for him this, this offseason.” [26:07]

• Stevie Lee on Personnel:
  "If he [Sark] called the wrong play, the right player can make that play go off. You know what I'm saying? And I think we've got right players… in every single position on the field…” [22:10]

• Rod Davis on Clutch Factor:
  "If Texas isn't clutch, they'll get far, but they won't get to their ultimate destination ... you’ve got to make those clutch plays down the stretch to do it." [36:01]

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Interactive Fan Q&A and Bold Predictions

Key Fan Questions & Insights

• Will Texas have two 1,000-yard rushers?
  Panel consensus: Unlikely, due to depth and committee approach, but two 800+ yard runners is very possible if the team makes a deep run. [39:37]
• On moving Xavier Phil to Nickel:
  Recognized for his twitch and man coverage skills; may bring a different dimension to the nickel spot ([46:35]).
• On Size Concerns for OL (Lawrence Seymour):
  Smaller size could actually become an advantage, much like Puna Ford or Byron Murphy historically turned “obstacles into the way.” [54:29]

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Timestamps for Critical Segments

• 03:40 – CJ on Arch Manning & offensive line
• 04:10 – Special teams preview (returns, gunners, experience)
• 07:22 – Special teams mishaps and fixing them
• 15:40 – Coach Shipley on running backs and WR depth
• 21:51 – Stevie Lee on offensive optimism/personnel
• 23:12 – Defensive line growth, Justice Terry’s emergence
• 29:45 – "Texas wins the title if..." roundtable
• 31:58 – Turnover margin/discipline discussion
• 36:01 – Rod on clutch factor
• 39:37 – Two 1,000 yard rushers Q&A
• 46:35 – Xavier Phil at nickel controversy/analysis
• 54:29 – OL size talk and using athleticism as an advantage

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Closing Thoughts

The panel’s optimism for 2026 is grounded in talented, experienced roster construction; improvement in key areas like discipline, special teams, and trench play; and the electric leadership of Arch Manning surrounded by NFL-caliber skill players. The collective sense is that, with health and discipline, Texas has the roster and coaching upgrades to make a legitimate national title push—the only question is whether the Longhorns can be clutch and execute when it matters most.

Rod Davis: “Until next time, hook them horns.” [58:00]

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Transcript

[Rod Davis]

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[CJ Vogel]

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[Stevie Lee]

Hey, what's up, folks?

[Rod Davis]

Welcome back to on Texas football. Welcome back to the winning drive. I'm lifetime Longhorn Rod Davis, pleased to be joined by fellow lifetime Young horn. The young project CJ Bogle will be joined by Boom. Talk about perfect timing. Our own high school football coach from Bernie Capell Brownwood, Delton Rotan. Also played college football at Abilene Christian. Coach there as well was on the staff University of Texas for multiple head football coaches. And these days you can catch his work over@shipley ranches.com it's our own coach Bob Shipley. What's going on, coach? How you feeling, babe?

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Babe. Hey, it's getting closer and closer and closer, baby.

[Rod Davis]

Oh, yeah. It's time to shut up, start to stop talking about football and play some football. Yeah, Talking season is almost over, and the Longhorn start training camp. Are we less than. Are we less than 10? Are we nine days away from training camp? Hell, oh, yeah. All I need is training camp. Once training camp starts, that's football season for me. I know some of y' all need the actual game to kick off game one. Nah, Coach. Same way I've been coaching about training camp. Hey, that's football season, baby. So whatever you guys want to talk about, of course, show belongs to you. Show of the people. For the people. And by the People, so throw it out there. Questions? Comments? We'll try to address as many of them as we can. Super chats always jump to the front of the line. You can interrupt the show at any time. Shout out to our friends over at Prize Picks, Von Lane and Hard Girl Roofing. We'll tell you more about them coming up later on in this program. If Stevie Lee joins us, we'll get into some discussion with Man, Stevie Lee. Got a lot to talk about there as well. Uh, but like I said, you guys own the show, so whatever you guys want to talk about, throw it out there. Uh, C.J. had a really great, uh, column over there. Say column old school. Uh, he had a great piece that he wrote up about, uh, the ten reasons. Since we were kind of ten days away, maybe from join training camp. Maybe that was your inspiration. I'm not sure, C.J. but you had a great piece over there about the 10 reasons for Longhorns to be optimistic heading into the 2026 season. I don't want you to spoil too much of it, but I'd like for you to give us at least one or two of those. And then maybe coach can and I can elaborate and give you a couple of our reasons for the long for. For Longhorn fans to be really optimistic about this 2026 team.

[CJ Vogel]

Yeah, look, look, first and foremost, I'll spoil number one. Texas's quarterback is Archman, right? It's a lot of reason to be excited when that's your quarterback. When you saw how well he was able to progress and develop from a year ago now going into a season in which, hey, he's got plenty of talent around him. And look, we'll talk about the offensive line. Rod, I know that you and I and Jeff all put out a video this afternoon talking about that left guard position, but if that offensive line takes a step in pass protection. Look, I don't think you need to run the football at a top 10, top 20 clip. It's that pass protection that you let Arch sit in the back pocket, you allow him to read the field, and you allow his legs to then be a threat in the scrambling aspect of the game. Boy, things will get dangerous. But I'll give you a bit of a nuance. One, one that I don't think many people really take into account here whenever you start thinking about what's ahead this year. But I think coach might appreciate it. Special teams and specifically your experience on special teams. Yeah, kicker, punter aside, Texas went out and added kicker, punter, long snap. Your battery should Be good. There's a lot of guys that play a lot of college football here, but of your nine leading snap getters last year in special teams, Texas returned seven of their biggest specialists from a year ago. Additionally, and we talked about it in 2023 when Ryan Sanborn became such a threat for Texas with Keaton Crawford and Keelan Robins and out of his gunners just downing teams inside the five down inside the ten consistently. Well, Warren Roberson, fourth year junior. Ryan Niblett, fourth year junior. You look at Wardell Mack, fourth year junior. All of these guys are very experienced. They've been in the system, they've been in special teams for quite some time now that I'm looking at it saying, hey, look, I don't know if the kicker is going to kick the ball as straight as what Texas has seen previously, but punk coverage, kickoff coverage, kickoff return, punt return, all aspects in which Jeff Banks has had success in at his, during his tenure at Texas. Yeah, experience goes a long way, so I'm excited for that.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Yeah, there's nothing that can change the game. Nothing that can change a game. For better or for worse, this special teams.

[Rod Davis]

Right.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

And thankfully we've been more on the better last season than we have on the for the worst.

[Rod Davis]

Yeah. It's just that it has come back to haunt Texas at the most inopportune times. Georgia, of course, I think low on fans. Remember SEC title game, fake punt against Georgia, obviously most recently you got the onside kick versus George. So Kirby, so Kirby knows that coach, he, he knows exactly what you're talking about. He's like, yeah, you know, Texas is getting a little too close for us. A great way for us to snatch the momentum, monopolize the momentum from Texas and really just kind of take all, just take their heart away from them. And it, it didn't in the SEC topic game, Texas still was battling, but it, it definitely felt like Texas, they took Texas heart a little bit. When that kick, it was like, oh, it was just total deflation. Sideline team, everybody.

[CJ Vogel]

Absolutely. Where did they target that onside kick? To young buck freshman Jonah Williams. So that kind of goes into, hey, these guys have been around the block. They've sat in those meetings and I'm sure they've been reamed a few times. Warren Roberson, I mean, I'm sure has been told time and time again, hey, let's not get super handsy out there. But they've seen all the tricks, they've sat in all the meetings, look, it won't guarantee success, but Boy, I, I, I, I, I feel much better with a lot of guys on the team that have played a lot of snaps, especially in the special teams area. Yeah, these guys have done that.

[Rod Davis]

Yeah, that's a really good point. Listen, I, I remember, Coach, when it was North Carolina State that we ended up playing and had three kick, three punch blocked in that game. It was something embarrassing. And that's when Mack started. Mack totally shifted and reinvented his special teams approach. We started devoting more peers to special teams, putting better players, starters on special teams. And that was embarrassing for Mac because that was at Texas, that was at home. And a lot of you Longhorn fans remember it. After that, there was a total re. Emphasis and reprioritization of special teams on the 4X and actually it worked. I would say. You get what you emphasize. Texas became, we became one of the best special teams programs in the country. By the time I left, we were easily top 5, top 10 special team units in the country year after year. And it really was because just a focus on special teams. And to CJ's point, we were putting veteran players, veteran football players who had played a lot of football on special teams. So I'm with you. This, this group, this, this group has so much elite athletic talent. Special teams should be, you know, stellar this season, especially your coverage teams, because you talked about on your piece of the, the gunner should be really good. Sorry.

[Stevie Lee]

Go ahead, coach.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Yeah, now, I was just gonna say, in all my years of coaching, special teams is one of the hardest

[Stevie Lee]

to

[Coach Bob Shipley]

adjust to during the game because just. And North Carolina State was a perfect example because you've been taught this certain protection week in and week out, day after day after day after day. And you have a breakdown. And it's not necessarily a breakdown in one person, it's a breakdown in the scheme. And you can't reinvent a scheme in, on the sidelines or in the locker room at halftime. You know, they found a fallacy and a weakness in that protection. And it's kind of one of those, oh, I mean, and then you start doubting yourself, you start going, oh, man, maybe I ought to get more ground. Maybe you ought to be, you know, given more a push instead of retreat and you don't know what to do. You know, the same, I mean, you know, kickoff coverage. What does every coach say on kickoff coverage? Stay in your lane. Well, it's hard to stay in your lane when you got a guy coming across. You know, you got these cross blocks coming through and you don't see a Guy coming. They've made it illegal for some of those blocks, but still, I think special teams is one of the hardest adjustments to make in a game because it's all based on repetition. It's not like you have to learn a bunch of plays. You learn how to do something, one thing, and you do it and you do it and you do it and they find a weakness in your scheme. And it's really hard to adjust in a game. You just don't have enough time.

[Rod Davis]

Yeah,

[CJ Vogel]

go ahead, Ron.

[Rod Davis]

We're not. Real quick, Steve. Sarcasm says Charlie had three extra points blocked in one game. I do remember. It's a coach's point. They just found a weakness and it. You can't, you can't adjust it during the game. I can't come up with a new scheme during the game.

[Stevie Lee]

That's.

[Rod Davis]

That's, you know, so that's a great. I agree with you on that, that Texas has been exposed in that way multiple times by multiple different coaches. And I was a part of one, by the way.

[CJ Vogel]

At that point, that scheme is just, hey, block that guy.

[Rod Davis]

Let's go, Max. Let's go, Max. Protection here. All right. We're bringing the gunners in. That's how you always get bad. We say we're going to bring the gunners in, too. Everybody's going to be in. We're going to make this thing a tight match. Protection people.

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[Rod Davis]

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[Stevie Lee]

Whoa.

[Rod Davis]

Other than what CJ mentioned, obviously, with Arch and that stuff.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Yeah, you know, I, I'm optimistic about our running game with, with, with that running back room and also obviously the wide receivers. Those are two things offensively that I'm. Yeah, I'm very optimistic about. I think, you know, I think we filled some holes in our roster and in those rooms that we didn't quite have last year. You know, we're going to have I mean, it's going to be tough to get in that inner circle, as you call it, Rod, on that receiver, in that receiver room because, you know, Emmett Mosley is going to make sure that he gets his, his share. And as some people have predicted, you know, they wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't lead the team and, and receptions, you know, because there's going to be so much attention outside, you know, on, on those guys as there should be. But I'm anxious to see how Sark will utilize this tight end room.

[Rod Davis]

Yeah.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

In the passing game with so much attention because it's not going to take much, many games in, in my opinion for people to start paying attention to Emmett Mosley and where he is.

[Rod Davis]

Yeah.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

And so, so now if you've got, you know, Emmett in there, you got your two outside guys or wherever they're going to line up, now you've got a tight end that could really, you know, do some damage. And I feel like Sark will have that in his game plan to utilize when they try to shut down those three guys. And I just think it's really hard to shut down three guys.

[Rod Davis]

Yes.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

I mean, shut them down, as you well know, Rod, it's, it's almost impossible. Then you throw a running game and, and, and the way that we like to throw to our backs out of the backfield, it's going to create some problems and I'm, I'm most optimistic about him utilizing all of our weapons on offense.

[Rod Davis]

Totally agree with that coach. I feel like you're going to have to cover Texas tight ends and running backs with a linebacker every time. I feel like they're never, it's going to end up being a safety because your safety is either be rolling coverage over the top of a Cam Coleman or trying to double Orion Wingo. You're definitely going to try to win the numbers game against those two guys. If you're not trying to win the numbers game against both of those guys, that's going to leave you single covered usually against Emmy Mosley, which is, backs up your theory that he's going to win a lot of the times those one on one situations because you just don't have enough, you don't have enough resources to devote to allocate to stop and roll coverage over the top and to double cover all of the weapons Texas will have. So running backs and tight ends will probably get covered by linebackers most of the time. And if you can scheme it upright, that can be a nice, you know, mismatch or matchup advantage for Texas.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

And not to mention, if you get that running game going, there's nothing a wide receiver likes more than man coverage with a Runway called because I, I love it. To see a guy break through the line screaming to the db, still running backwards, chasing the guy man to man, and the running back runs right by him.

[Rod Davis]

Yeah, now you're right about that, Coach. That's a. The math. The math is going to be tough on defensive coordinators because you cannot, you cannot put, you know, seven, eight in the box while also keeping a deep safety over the top of Cam Coleman rolling coverage toward Wine Wingo. You can't do all those things. You can't solve all those equations at once. You got to pick which one you're going to try to try to prioritize from down to down based on the situation. And if you guess wrong, it could be disastrous. And that's what Sark is hoping. All right, good stuff there, Coach. Let's get. Let's bring on Stevie Lee. My man Stevie Lee joins us. We appreciate him each and every Monday, courtesy of our good friends at heart growth. Stevie, how was your weekend? Thanks for joining us.

[Stevie Lee]

Weekend was good, man. How are y' all doing?

[Rod Davis]

Good, man. Doing good.

[Voiceover/Commercial Announcer]

Talking ball.

[Rod Davis]

But we know that we're close to the end of talking season and some, some football, some actual footballs. I think they start training camp in like nine days. They get start start up training camp, which is going a beautiful thing. What do you do, what do you remember about start the start of training camp as a player on the 40 acres? Because we we old school, we had actual 2A days. Now they don't even have 2A days. Now they do one on and they do two. But even the two ain't full pads. They got all these different rules and they. I'm glad form by the way. These are sensible rules and they're great guidelines. But back in our day, Stevie, they wasn't. They was not that enlightened about that kind of stuff.

[Stevie Lee]

Yeah, the hard part about 2A days at the University of Texas when we were there, was going all the way to the intramural fields.

[Rod Davis]

Oh, that's right.

[Stevie Lee]

You remember practicing over there?

[Rod Davis]

Yeah.

[Stevie Lee]

In the mirror fields where there's not a cloud, three people will gather around the light pole to try to get shade from the light pole, man, and the lights. So that that was the hard part. The fun part, the good part about it was we used to bust from the stadium. Frank Denny or not Frank, we used to bust from Newhouse Moncry all the way over to the 9 to 12 minute nap on the bus. That was the good part. But after you got off the bus, man, it's time to go. And it was hot out there.

[Rod Davis]

Yeah. We used to always joke the running, that the sun was a great running back. Even when there was a lot of clouds out there, somehow the sun would find a way to avoid the clouds, like Barry Sanders out there, man, and it would just be owners, no question about it. Yeah. Okay. We were just talking, and I know other guys have a question, too, but I want to ask you this because we were just talking about a great article that my man C.J. wrote over at ontex football.com about reasons to be optimistic about the upcoming season. Coach just gave a great one about the offensive weaponry that Texas has now available to them. What are your reasons for optimism now where we're so close to the season? You got one or two you want to share, you can share with us.

[Stevie Lee]

Well, and I was about to. I heard y' all talking about CJ's article and. Sorry, CJ, I haven't read it yet, but I'm about to. I just pulled it up and I'm about to get into it. But my optimistic. And I'm forever optimistic about my Longhorns, y'.

[Rod Davis]

All.

[Stevie Lee]

I'm very optimistic about the weapons. We have this personnel for me, man. And, you know, and so I started thinking about and talking to other people about, well, can Sark call the right plays and things this and this and that. But I'm like, well, you can mask that with the right players, too. So if he called the wrong player play, the right player can make that play go off. You know what I'm saying? So. And I think we got right players, quote, unquote, right players in every single position on the field, you know, so anything on offense, anything can pop off at any given moment. Man, we got three great running backs that are really, really good. We got, I would say, four legit NFL receivers on the roster. And then we got a big, big arm with Arch. So that. That's. That's what I'm really optimistic about.

[CJ Vogel]

That.

[Stevie Lee]

That's. That's gonna put us over. That, that. That hump for me is personnel.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Yeah.

[CJ Vogel]

Personnel offensively, 100. There was one guy that made that list on the defensive line, and it was Justice Terry. Just in the sense that, hey, he's healthy, he's ready to rock and roll, but he's also up to £290. That's £22 from where he was listed a year ago. Well, two questions here for you, Stevie. What was your year one to year two physical difference.

[Rod Davis]

Oh, that's good.

[CJ Vogel]

But also for a guy like Justice Terry, whose impact is more in the past rush from the interior, have you thought about what kind of season would kind of classify as a good season for. For a guy like him?

[Stevie Lee]

Well, I don't know what to make it a good season for him, but I. These guys are very intentional and if they wanted him to put on weight, there was a reason for it. Yeah, we not. We may not be playing in the five as much as we are going to be in the three technique or you know, a four technique. So everything that they do with these guys is so technical and intentional down and helping out with the interior might

[Rod Davis]

be

[Stevie Lee]

that's why they wanted this to happen. I mean we got big, big defensive tackles, interior defensive tackles. But you know somebody, I mean we can hold a hole up and hold some two guys in with somebody got to come feel those holes.

[Rod Davis]

Right.

[Stevie Lee]

So that may be where they're going with that. I don't know man. It's. It's production wise. I don't know what they look like for him because I don't know what the scheme will be for for Must Champ. But Must Champ got weapons too that he can go in and play around with too. Like he got the, the pawns on the chessboard. He had some good ones.

[Rod Davis]

Yeah. No Justice Terry because he's right basically. He is just the most disruptive force potentially in the interior line. And I think you can look at his run stop rate last year it was one of the highest on the team. Now sample size obviously very small, but he was really good against the run. Made some explosive plays against the run as a defender. Right. Just penetrating into the backfield and being disruptive. But I agree with CJ if he's on the field, he's going to be able to get you more pressures as well. As a pass rusher, you only had 53 total pressures last season from your entire D tackle room. I believe 20 of them were for. From Kanu. To give you a little perspective on that. 2023 you had 126. In 2022 you had 124 from the D tackle position alone. So there's a significant drop off and you got to get more disruptive. There's. That's Justice Terry. That's what he can do. I think out of all those guys in there, he can easily be your most disruptive EPS in put in the right situation. Yeah, exactly.

[CJ Vogel]

And I'll add, I see the guys in the comment right now. Look, 290 for Justice Terry. More than enough weight to play where Texas wants him. Right. Stevie, we talked about a little bit three, three Tech out to a seven.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Right.

[CJ Vogel]

They're going to use him off on the edge at times. They'll kick him all the way to the outside of double tight ends if needed.

[Stevie Lee]

Right.

[CJ Vogel]

So. So for Justice Terry, it was all about, are you big enough to not be manhandled by a 330 pound offensive tackle or some of these guards that teams like Georgia and Ohio State have on their interior? So 290 feels great because that quickness and that strength. I'm sure we. By now we've all seen the photo of Justice Terry in seventh grade when it looked like he was training for Ironman every weekend. Like he. He's a sweet specimen. So that's, that's right where you want him. You go into fall campsite.

[Stevie Lee]

Yes.

[CJ Vogel]

Okay. Strength team accomplished exactly what they needed for him this, this off season.

[Stevie Lee]

You also asked me what did I come in at year one.

[CJ Vogel]

Yes.

[Stevie Lee]

So year one, we talked about this a couple years ago. Mad Dog found it or something like that. I came in at £288 out of high school. Yeah. And then my first season, my playing weight was supposed to be around 305, but I was really around 3:15. Hey, man, during the season we, we had a lot of food, right?

[Rod Davis]

We did, we did.

[Stevie Lee]

Every time you stepped on the bus, it was food in your chair. Every time on the airplane, it was food in your chair. You get off the bus, there's snacks in the hotel. It was. And you know, coming from Shreveport, Louisiana, you put food in front of me, I'm eat it. You know what I'm saying?

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Hey, plus, back then, Stevie, when y' all were in the old dining hall, had the ice cream machine that had the cakes and stuff out there. I mean, it's not like that anymore.

[Stevie Lee]

And it shouldn't. It shouldn't have been like that back then either.

[Voiceover/Commercial Announcer]

I know.

[Stevie Lee]

Yeah.

[Rod Davis]

Yeah. No, he's right. That was. I remember that. Made a lot of food all over the place.

[CJ Vogel]

It's interesting.

[Stevie Lee]

Yeah.

[Rod Davis]

Because I. I think everybody has to go through these. I mean, because even when I came on 40 acres, I was a defensive back. I remember I was. They were still running the option. Hell, Nebraska was still running triple option. You know, I mean, they're at Nebraska, so they beefed me up too. I got up to like 195 when I first got here just because a Nickelback back in that day was actually a linebacker. Now your Nickelback is actually DB Your Nickelback had to get in the box and be a linebacker back in the early stages of the Big 12. So, yeah, I put on a lot of weight and didn't have to lose it as I was slimming. Slim down as I was on the 40 acres. Yeah.

[Stevie Lee]

Marco, I see you, man. You come over to the buffet. Over to the pasta bar now. That was.

[Rod Davis]

They still got it. Yeah, And I.

[Stevie Lee]

Stay away from it, man. I can't do that anymore, man. I'm 45 years old now, dude. I would probably go into cardiac arrest in that place.

[CJ Vogel]

Right.

[Rod Davis]

People have no idea how obsessed that football team used to be with that pasta bar. It was an obsession. Like, guys in their order and how particular they were. There were guys probably still could tell you what they order was at the pasta bar. They were that obsessed with it back.

[Stevie Lee]

Oh, I can tell you what mine is. I don't want to get into it because I might go down there, so.

[Rod Davis]

All right, Stevie, before we leave, you go. I got one question. I'm gonna ask the panel this, too. At one point, just to finish this sentence, Texas wins the national title. If blank go.

[Stevie Lee]

Oh, if our guys stay healthy.

[Rod Davis]

Oh, I like that. Okay, that's good.

[Stevie Lee]

If we stay healthy, Coach Sark has all of his weapons throughout the entire season. I think we'll be perfectly fine. And at this point, guys, I think that we can lose a game or two. I don't think we will, but that's a prediction, isn't it? Yeah. So. But I. You. I think that in this day and age, with the schedule that we have, you know, we. We drop a game or two. We still in the dance, so. So this. This is. This feels really, really good to me. The way we finished out last year, the way we got what we needed this year. This feels good.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Yeah.

[Stevie Lee]

I want to hear the other guys.

[Rod Davis]

That is. No, the healthy thing is that's on the money. That is.

[CJ Vogel]

That's.

[Rod Davis]

It's simple and to the point. You're right about that. Y' all want. Anybody else want to go? C.J.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

i think. I think Steve is right. But all things considered, if we can stay healthy, then to me, it's going to come down to the trenches on both sides of the ball. We. We going to be able to protect the quarterback.

[Stevie Lee]

We're going to be able to give

[Coach Bob Shipley]

our running backs room to run the ball. And defensively, are we going to be able to throw the line of scrimmage and let our, let our playmakers make plays behind and be disruptive as, as Stevie always talks about. You know, to me, it comes down to the line of scrimmage. Yeah, we got everything else. That's the unknown that we keep talking about. And we don't have to talk about it too much longer because we'll be able to see.

[CJ Vogel]

Well, very soon, Coach, it won't be the unknown. You'll either know if Texas has it or. And you'll know if they very, very much do not. I was trying to think about this. If, if Texas. Texas finished what, top five tied for number four, I believe in turnover margin.

[Rod Davis]

Yeah. Yeah.

[CJ Vogel]

I almost want to say if Texas does it again, if they win every game, obviously not every game, but by the end of the year, if they have a turnover margin of one plus, kind of where I'm looking, if you're giving yourself one extra possession than your opponent, but this much firepower offensively with the defense, with Will Muschamp kind of being the, the, the, the, the brain of the operation on defense, I trust that Texas will end up with more points if they end each game or in. By the end of the end of the season with a one plus turnover margin in their favor. If they're top five again and turnover margin. That's what, that's what I'm looking for.

[Rod Davis]

The reason that's interesting, because I believe, like Michigan, Indiana, like some of your recent national champions, Indiana was number one. Yeah, I think Michigan was really high up there when they won the national title. Have been really. They've been top five in terms of a margin. And I, I like that too. It's that explosive play margin, turnover margin. Sarkis mentioned multiple times. They got to be good there. Last year they were plus 10 in explosive play margin in 2024, maybe they led the country in explosive play. Marginal explosive team in the country. Last year you were tied for like 23rd. You didn't have that, you know, that advantage over your teams, but you did take care of the football. You take care of the football in 2025, but you weren't explosive. So you can combine 2025 top five turnover margin and 2024 top explosive play margin in the country. Now you cooking with some chicken grease. You ready to roll? I see Stevie got that. Steve was hungry now, no question.

[Stevie Lee]

Well, let me say this also. I saw somebody talking about in the chat about the penalties, and that was a problem for us last season. And so a little bit that I've heard out of the summer Workouts is they have. They've worked really, really hard on discipline. Discipline. So great point. Yeah, they've been working really hard on discipline, making sure that you do the little things right. I mean, there. There may still be some penalties out there, but that's a start to go and do every little thing right, that you, you know, have the discipline on the field. It'll translate to the field.

[CJ Vogel]

There's 138 teams this year in D1. There were 136 a year ago. You know how many teams had more penalties called against them than the University of Texas?

[Rod Davis]

Wow. Come on. Four. That's insane.

[CJ Vogel]

132nd. So I'm with you. Jerry's talked about it, too. If Texas is even in the 70s, if they cut them in half, that's about three penalties, four penalties a game, 25 to 30 yards. That makes a world of difference. Now imagine if they make it jump all the way up to the top 20 or 30, and you're saving yourself a lot of. A lot of poor plays, free plays, extra yardage.

[Rod Davis]

Yeah, I went and did some research on how much yardage Texas lost because of penalties and negative plays last season, and basically I. I had them As, I think, 10th in the country in terms of yardage loss, negative yardage, loss to penalties and to negative plays. And, Matt, that's how bad they were and how they won 10 games. Yeah, exactly. So we're just saying, hey, don't be the worst. I'll be the most undisciplined team in the power four. Just be average, you know? I mean, a little below average. And you'll be. You'll be tremendously improved, Stevie. Thank you, brother. We appreciate you taking the time. We'll take up too much more of it, but we appreciate you and can't wait to talk to you next week. Tell that beautiful family of yours we said hi.

[Stevie Lee]

I appreciate it, man. Thank you, guys. The other thing that I was going to say was, yeah, I'm sorry. The shoot. What was I gonna say? I'm sorry, man. I just lost it. Anyway, I'll catch up with it next week, man, but thank y'. All. Appreciate it. Hargrove Roofing, y'.

[Rod Davis]

All. Yeah, that's right. Thank you for reminding me. Yeah, I appreciate you. Stevie Lee, my former teammate, lifetime local, joins us courtesy of our good friends at Hard Grove Roofing. If you have any concerns or questions about your roof, leave it to the professionals. Yes, Stevie Lee works with the folks at Harker Roofing, but he won't be on your roof. You ain't gotta worry about that. All right? He's lost some pounds, so I think he could do it, but he don't want to be up there. You don't want him up there, but you want to find professionals over at Hard Girl Roofing taking care of your roof. They're offering a free roof inspection today. 512-645-3202. Offices all over Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. But I promise you, they're the most pro Burnt Orange roofing company out there. Thank you very much to our friends at Hard Girl Roofing. Hard Girl roofing dot com. All right, we can get to some super chats here. And then, actually, I didn't give my answer on when Texas. Because I could just go, explosive play margin. I'm just gonna go, Texas wins the national title if they're clutch, because I need them to be clutch in the fourth quarter. I need them to be clutch in critical situations like third down and red zone. And Sark hasn't really been. I had an offense that's clutch in the red zone and in third down. Yet here at Texas, since Bijan and Rojo left, that was the last time you had offenses that were elite in those categories. I think Texas, they get back to being elite in critical moments like that and being clutch in the fourth quarter. Last time Texas won national title, they had arguably the most clutch player in the country and the most clutch player in Texas football history running the show. You've got to be clutch. How clutch was Indiana? Yeah. How clutch was Ohio State when they won? Think about all the national title runs. All you can think about is, damn, they was clutch, though, in a big moment. In the big moment, they were bigger than the big moment. And in critical moments, they were at their best. And Michigan was like that before that. If Texas isn't clutch, they. They'll get far, but they won't get to their ultimate destination. They won't get to the promised land because you got to have me make those clutch plays down the stretch to do it. All right, let's get to some super chats while we got some time here. How about this one? Is that Terrence Jones? Hey, Terrence Jones. We throw that out there already. Stevie, did you play both sides at evangelist?

[CJ Vogel]

We should have asked Stevie that answered in the chat. He said no, which I kind of. Yeah, okay pound guy that moved like Stevie, Coach, I might just be saying, hey, here's the rock. Give me three yards.

[Rod Davis]

He was on a low. I think he was on a team that's supposed. That was Kind of loaded though. I believe they were one of those kind of factories down there in Shreveport at the time because we got two guys, we got PGZ and Stevie Lee out of there, I believe in the same class. So they had some, they got some ballers out there so maybe they didn't need them. But I'm with you. Usually you got a guy like Steven, it moves like that, you're gonna play both ways. For me at least situationally situation Terrence with another one. Thank you for the super chat. We appreciate it. Says hey guys, with this running back group, do you think one will get enough touches to break the Texas single season Russian record? Nope, nope. Not rushing. Not just running the football because Sark likes to throw this backs too much. Remember Jaden Blue and Trey Wiser were both top 10 and running back targets that year in 2024. And now you're split. The sales pitch to these guys had to be coach that, hey, I'm gonna put you guys in the pony package at the same time we're gonna be splitting carries so I'm not going to wear you guys out. You're going to keep some tread on the tires. You're going to go to the NFL fresh, you're going to be fresh for the stretch run for our title run. So I just don't think in with that mentality you have a enough of a workhorse running back that's going to be able to get that many rushes, break the single season rushing record.

[CJ Vogel]

No, I would agree. Yeah, I don't think you have a 2,000 yard rusher on this team. But I would like to. If Texas had two 1,000 yard rushers, that would be probably dangerous. You know, just in the sense of how versatile you could get. I don't know, I don't think it's likely but I would love it if

[Rod Davis]

you make a title run. If you're playing 17 games, you probably could do it if you didn't. Didn't Indiana have 2000 yard rushers?

[CJ Vogel]

Yeah, they didn't have an issue at left guard.

[Rod Davis]

Yes, true.

[CJ Vogel]

Fair.

[Rod Davis]

It's like we're talking about the running backs. You're not even talking about the offensive line. Arch is going to take some of them carries too because he likes to run the football. So I don't think so, Terence. But I like what CJ said, I wouldn't mind having two running backs, both of them over 800 yards somewhere around there because I think Stark's also going to put a lot of running backs in the screen game. He's going to bring back a lot of those concepts he used with Jaden Blue potentially. Maybe not the down the field running back targets. I think some of those swing screens that you saw with Jaden Blue, just kind of getting him out there, those escort screens to getting him a lead block, I think you'll see some of

[CJ Vogel]

that stuff just, just to kind of book in this a thousand yards. If Texas plays 14 games, I mean, a thousand yards for both of those guys is certainly possible. It's about 72 yards per game. I'm assuming at some point one of them will have. A couple of them will have multiple 30, 40 yard runs. I mean, again, Texas only had six of them from running backs a year ago. So it's not like they were, you know, just continuously, you know, throwing those, those explosive plays out there. But these are different level backs, right? These are all conference level backs that have done it before. I wouldn't be surprised if both of them did. That actually might be something Rod I look into. Might end up on the bold take category come beginning.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

You know what's fun? What's fun when you have a Deontay Foreman type guy bust onto the scene. No, I don't think anybody saw that coming. No, no, nobody saw that coming. And, and we got some new faces back here, you know, and you never know what type of running back is going to fit the scheme and fit, you know, what we're doing offensively. There may be one that fits it better than another, whether it's a slasher, a guy that can finally change direction or a guy that can lower shoulder. And you know, Deontay Foreman was great at that, you know, just with his arms, you know, just almost, you know, like a linebacker drill where you shuck a guy off and he had such strong legs and great balance. And those are things that, you know, we won't know for sure because we haven't seen enough of some of these guys.

[Rod Davis]

I'm trying to think of last time Texas had two running backs running for a thousand yards. I mean, Scott, it definitely didn't happen while I was on the 48 because you've had two. I think you had VY and so you've had two players, I believe, but two running backs. Two running backs. First 1000, you probably got to go all the way back. You gotta, gotta go back a ways. I mean, I, I'm trying to think. It's definitely since I've been covering in that Texas ball, I haven't, I can't remember. CB probably gonna send me the stat here in a second. But I can't. I can't recall it recently.

[CJ Vogel]

I don't know when the last time they were close.

[Rod Davis]

Like two. Yeah, you got two. Yeah, it's like an exact. Like maybe a Sean Mitchell. I take this back. Sean Mitchell. And y' all remember Sean Mitchell and Ricky Williams. They were really close one year because I think Ricky had. I know this because Bucky Gabo, he came up last show too. Bucky Gobble, former running backs coach. He used to get grief on the radio because Ricky, I want to say, was 10 yards shy of a thousand yards his freshman year. And then they. For some reason, I think Bucky. Bucky made decision to take him off the field. I have no idea why. Just let Ricky get his thousand yards. And that might have been 1990. Yep, it was 1995. 1995. Sean Mitchell has 1099 yards. Ricky Williams has 990. Both of them average over six yards of carry.

[CJ Vogel]

2004, CB says never.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

2004, you had Cedric Benson with 1834 yards. And guess who had a thousand 79 yards. Yards that season?

[Rod Davis]

Somebody. Yeah, but running backs.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Running backs.

[Rod Davis]

Yeah, but running back.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

But the question was 2,000 yard rushers.

[Rod Davis]

No, I was looking at running backs though. I know we've had 2,000 yard rushes before. I don't know if we've ever had 2000 yard running backs before.

[CJ Vogel]

Imagine Arch breaking out a thousand yards Russian.

[Stevie Lee]

That'd be awesome.

[CJ Vogel]

That'd be a red flag. He's running for his life. That much he just turns into Vy with a thousand yards on the drip.

[Rod Davis]

Yeah, I. I think I. I don't know if it's ever happened. I don't. Yeah, I. I don't know for sure. Maybe I gotta text Craig Way and ask him or something like that, but I don't know if it's ever happened. Guys. Yeah, we know the thousand rushes. I'm talking about two backs. 2000 yard running backs, which is what the conversation was about. Smoke. Sorry about Hollywood Smothers and about relief Brown potentially. Okay. Yeah, no, I went to College Football reference. That's why I know that it hadn't happened in my era. We might to go back before my era of Texas football to find it. I don't know about that. We could see. All right, let's get back to super chats.

[CJ Vogel]

Good stuff.

[Rod Davis]

Good conversation there. Thank you, Terence for the super chat. Super chatting from Casey. Thank you, Casey, for the super chat. We appreciate it. Says early prediction. Feels to me is starting nickel now. This is actually some New info, because I. Yeah, now we're hearing that Phil SME. Xavier, Phil Smee is getting some reps at nickel as the backup nickel. And he does have twitch. He is a twitchy athlete for those who kind of watch him. And I. That's why he didn't have any issue in coverage. He wasn't a liability in coverage. If you go look at his very limited sample is, you know, can he be a plus defender and asset versus the run if he was going to be playing safety. But now they got him playing nickel, potentially. That's interesting that, you know, I see you saying to start nickel, but you have at this point, you got Bo Masco, Cade Phillips and Grayson Littleton. And I would have a hard time seeing them take one of those guys off the field to put Phil to me, in the role of the nickel, which is why I think either Bo Mask or Grayson Lotus is going to end up playing the nickel. But feels to me that's a new. I got. That's. That's a. That's an X factor that we have just now gotten the information that he's getting those reps, C.J. so, I mean, the coaches must see something they like.

[CJ Vogel]

Yeah, they. They certainly should. And look, I don't think it's very difficult. You go back to his tape at McKinney, he was great playing around the box, right? And I. I guess that's a little easier when you have a couple of defensive linemen that are going Division 1. Your guy playing right next to your, I guess, front of you, Riley Peter John ends up at Ohio State. So that front seven at McKin was very good, but he played his best version of physicality, I guess, run stuffing ability closer to the box. Now, Rod, I want to do a video with you this weekend. Mat, write this down. But I want to see if you go back and you watch Xavier Phil on tape, where was his strengths in man coverage versus his own? Because I always kind of had the. The idea, or at least the notion, having watched him in high school, quite a bit fantastic. Instinctually, right? You see something, the instincts just go right. Reacts very well. The anticipation, I think, is something that you look at and you say, okay, he's a step late reading across or coming across his face. But you tell him, hey, you know, basically upward football. You got a red wristband. That tight end over there has a red wristband. You go where he goes. Well, that tight end is not gonna be able to breathe all day, right? He's just sticky like that. But I, I want to Do a video with you, Rod, on what differences you see in the man versus zone coverage, where his eyes are, how sticky is he. But aside from that, if you spin him down to the box and you just say, hey, just, just react to things, I think that'd probably be a little bit better for him rather than, hey, you have 15 yards of space that you're gonna have to basically observe everything, diagnose what's happening, where's your responsibility, where's the ball, and who else is running behind you, behind, to your left, to your right, and then make a play that way. So that's always kind of been my theory with Phil Smythe, but from the expert himself. That's what I want to hear from you this weekend.

[Rod Davis]

No, and we'll get into it actually, because I have some numbers and I'm not even going to drop them here because I know we're getting close to the end of the live stream, so I won't go deep on it. But I went and looked at must champs safeties and their man rates when he went back to South Carolina, so we can get into that. But you know, spoiler alert. He likes his safeties to play a lot man coverage, right? And that, I think that's where I thought, oh man, maybe a guy like Xavier Phil to me could fit right into that scheme. Move him down to nickel. That tells me they, they are, they're. They're confident that he can play man coverage because he's gonna play nickel. They're confident you can play man. So here's, here's his passer rating allowed in man coverage. Now he was at safety here in these snaps, I believe, but they got him 81. Pro Football Focus has with an 81 pass rating allowed. Man, that's pretty damn good. Yeah, zone they have him with, he's like a 9 99, almost 100 pass rating allowed in zone coverage. So to that point he's twitchy. And being twitchy helps you in man coverage. And you simplify things in man right zone. A lot of different reads. You have to make a lot of different keys. And man, only one key, only one read. That guy, that cat right there. So I, I like that move.

[CJ Vogel]

I'm thinking like if you've face someone on the schedule this year, like in Eli Stowers last year at Vanderbilt. Oh, like that's, I mean, Grayson Littleton I think is fantastic in the nickel spot. Grayson Littleton again is probably what, 5, 11, 6 foot, like 195, 200, like right in that range. Tells me 6 foot 1, 205. He's pushing closer to 210, but he's also one of, if not the fastest players on the Texas roster. Allows Texas to get a little bit more mass in the box while also maintaining that level of physics or that speed, if you will. And that's kind of where I sit there and say, okay, this makes sense.

[Rod Davis]

And I, I'll go back and look, find it too. But I went and looked at the average size of the must champ Nickels too, and they are about 5, 11, 200. They're a little thicker. It's a little bit thicker. And yes, tight ends wreck Texas last season. Just to give you a little nugget on tight ends, last season Texas allowed this was the average. They allowed 67 completion percentage throwing the tight ends. They allowed 59 receiving yards per game to tight ends, 26 yak yards a game to tight ends over three first downs, a game thrown to tight ends alone. The tight ends. We did some damage against Texas last season. Started out there. All right, last super chat of the evening from Texas on my mind. Like that says C.J. you told Sark that he didn't listen to media pugnets when you asked him a question at SEC media days. What's a media pugnet?

[CJ Vogel]

I don't know what I said. I got the mic and froze.

[Rod Davis]

Pun, dent. I think he's putting pundit together with. Right. Some other word. Right. Maybe that was it.

[CJ Vogel]

I got the mic, forgot my question and had to rethink it. And you know what they say, Rod? It was, it was hitting the fan. It was going everywhere. It was like the scene. Daddy daycare. He walks into the bathroom and he's.

[Rod Davis]

Oh, he looked around, he's like, that is a great scene, by the way. I know exactly the scene you're talking about. Funny scene. All right, thank you for that super chat. Texas on my mind.

[CJ Vogel]

Appreciate that.

[Rod Davis]

There's still none of that tops your elevator story with Sark. That's still my favorite favorite CJ Stark story is the Stark CJ Elevated story. That's great. All right, let's thank sponsor one more time before we end today's program. Let's thank our friends over at Bond Lane one more time. We appreciate Von Lane and you will as well. Folks, if you are traveling for any reason, going to visit family, maybe you're going on a business trip. Consider the Von Lane. I know a lot of you out there flying those shorter routes in between major Texas cities or maybe you're driving yourself just a lot of Stress to deal with your jet lag when you get there. Probably a little tired from driving yourself, dealing with traffic and road rage. And if you're flying, you gotta deal with TSA security checks, potentially delayed flights. Matter of fact, I, I was just flying recently and yep, I got delayed a couple of times. You don't have to worry about that with the Von Lane. It's always on time. First class travel experience on the ground. You're bored in at a private hotel terminal selling to oranges 22 over south leather seats, complimentary WI Fi snacks, beverages and hot towel service on every trip. They even have complimentary meals on certain departures. They've upgraded their Internet with Starlink, so it's now faster and more reliable. You can get a lot of work done on those bottom lane trips. I can attest I've done it myself. They serve Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Portland, Fort Worth, Plano, the Woodlands as well Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta, Knoxville. If you're traveling with the team, you can try to your own Von Lane coach design the trip from. Pick up the drop off. Visit vonlane.com and if it's your first time riding, enter the code OTF26 at checkout to receive 20 off your first ride with Von Lane. That's Von Lane, your private jet on wheels. Thank you very much to our friends over at Von Lane for sponsoring the winning drive. All right, Appreciate all the super chats, guys. Great stuff as all. Oh, we got another one here. Oh, Rocky P. I apologize. I missed that one. Says everyone concerned about Seymour's size. He says it's gonna be like Puna and Murphy. Size will not be an issue. It could be an advantage. 5 Mondays till game week, baby. Whoa, I like that. Like that. I like that. Yeah, the Seymour side thing's interesting. C.J. you have you seen Lawrence Seymour in

[CJ Vogel]

person since he moved to campus?

[Rod Davis]

Okay. Okay. Yeah. People are concerned he's gonna look small next to Trevor Goosby coach, because Trevor Goosebies six, seven and Connor Robinson's like what? Six, three, six. So he'll probably look small compared to those guys. To me it's all about his fit compatibility. I do think he will have an advantage because I think he's. He's going to be more athletic. Yes, he's a little bit smaller, but he's gonna be more athletic. And Texas needs more athleticism in the interior of their O line. That's why they're bumping Brandon Baker down inside. Sarks pulls his guards a lot for pass pro screen game and in the run game. So he should be good there getting out on the perimeter. Some of those concepts. Is he small in the sec?

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Yeah.

[Rod Davis]

But like you said, just brought up Puna Ford, brought up Byron Murphy. Those guys use that to their advantage. Low pad level always won and they always won the leverage battle because of their low pad level. So hopefully that's the case with him and he can be a guy that can be a difference maker in the run game and in pass.

[CJ Vogel]

Yeah, Coach, you know what? Puna Ford had long arms, right?

[Rod Davis]

He did.

[CJ Vogel]

That was the difference maker. I don't know if that's going to be the case at with Seymour, at least not extraordinarily long. So you've been around trench players. That obviously makes a difference at guard. I don't know how much of a difference it'll make to not have that extra arm length.

[Rod Davis]

It's a good point.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

It's very important obviously for an offensive lineman. If you got short arms, the defense is going to be able to get to you and control you. Whereas Kuna Ford was able to control offensive lineman with his long arms and get that pad leverage like you were talking about Rod.

[Rod Davis]

Yep. And Byron Murphy was great at that too. He would like anchor down. He has like this signature move where he gets on one knee when he's being double teamed and like anchors down and then is able to explode and penetrate the double team. Some freaky crazy stuff. So maybe it's power for Murphy, maybe arm length and leverage for Puna. Whatever it is, it's a great book and I'm going to screw up the Arthur and the quote. So I don't want to, but essentially I think it's called the obstacle is the way. And the gist is when you grow up with this, something that puts you at a disadvantage. Right. You're disadvantaged because you're short. Let's just say you're really short. Say you're Jose Altuve. You're just a really short dude and you almost, you are through your evolutionary adaptations, right. Mentally and physically. If you're elite, then you almost turn that disadvantage into an advantage because of your. It's a unique disadvantage that you flip into being a unique advantage because the obstacle is the way. Once you overcome that obstacle of whatever it is, you being short, short, armed, you just slow, whatever it is, you had to overcome it by being exceptional in so many other ways. And so you found yourself being elite in other places just so you could compensate for being disadvantaged elsewhere. And much Champ talks about this when he's recruiting defensive back. He said, yeah, if my corner ain't got elite speed, I need him to make up for it to be elite in other places, you know, I mean, so that's, that's kind of what you're talking about there with those guys. So a good question.

[CJ Vogel]

One legged wrestler, you ever seen that guy?

[Rod Davis]

But no, that is essentially.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Yeah.

[Rod Davis]

It's like, man, this is weird. How am I gonna compete against this? And turns out, hey, be an advantage, right? Good stuff, guys.

[Stevie Lee]

Good stuff.

[Rod Davis]

Oh man, that's funny. All right, let's thank you, Rocky. People looking for. I think that's the last super chat of the evening. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you to Matthew behind the scenes. He's the real mvp. Nobody does it better. Thank you, coach. Great knowledge and wisdom as always. Appreciate all of your nuggets and expertise. Cj. Thank you to my man Stevie Lee behind the scenes. We appreciate him, Stevie Lee, always doing a great job for us. Thank you to our sponsors, Von Lane, Hard Girl Roofing and prize picks. If we miss any of your questions, please direct them to the gentleman at coffee and football bright and early tomorrow morning, 8:15am the man admit the legend himself, Bobby Burton and the estimable Jerry Hamilton. And then also Tuesday night you have CJ Vogel, the prodigy himself and my man Jeff Howe. They'll be on your Tuesday night live stream starting promptly at 7pm thank you guys for joining us. Thank you for your participation. Always a fun time for coach and for C.J. and for Matthew. I'm lifetime Longhorn ride babies. Until next time, hook them horns.

[CJ Vogel]

Welcome.