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

Summary

On Texas Football — Episode Summary

Episode: LIVE: Texas Will WIN the SEC? Paul Finebaum Makes BOLD Prediction
Date: August 4, 2026
Host: Rod Babers, with CJ Bower, Coach Bob Shipley, and guests
Main Theme: Texas Football’s readiness to win the SEC, spurred by Paul Finebaum’s prediction, and deeper discussion on Texas’ position, staff changes, player development, and college football rule changes.

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into college football’s SEC landscape and Texas’ potential to win it all in 2026. Paul Finebaum's viral prediction that Texas will win the SEC serves as a launching point, with detailed analysis on whether the Longhorns truly are championship material. The crew discusses staff additions, program culture, the SEC’s historic “aristocracy” of winners, and what sets this Texas team apart from past squads. Segments also include a look at the mental makeup of the team, key positional questions, and significant NCAA eligibility/rules updates.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Paul Finebaum’s Pick: Texas to Win the SEC

[02:59–05:27]

• Paul Finebaum, a respected voice in college football, picked Texas over Georgia to win the SEC. The crew weighs if this is “clickbait” or a legitimate belief.
  • CJ Bower: “I don’t think this is just for clicks. Texas is preseason #2, and many believe they have championship potential.” [04:03]
  • Paul’s earlier "man-crush" on Arch Manning is referenced, but this year his focus seems more general admiration for Texas.
• The context: Georgia was the overwhelming media pick at SEC Media Days.

2. Staff Additions: Will Muschamp’s Impact

[05:32–07:45]

• The hiring of Will Muschamp, formerly of Georgia and a respected defensive mind, is seen as Texas’ key “inside man”:
  • Rod Babers: “Having a guy like Muschamp on Sark’s staff, who knows Kirby Smart so well, is a huge advantage.” [07:16]
  • Muschamp’s insights could help Texas counter Georgia’s defense and game plan more effectively.
  • While Sarkisian and Muschamp downplay this, the panel sees real competitive value.

3. The SEC’s Historical Power Structure

[09:29–11:22]

• Rod breaks down the “aristocracy” of SEC champions:
  • Since 2014: Only Georgia, Bama, and LSU have won the SEC; since 1999, add Auburn and Florida.
  • “Since 1977, only six teams have won the SEC: Georgia, Bama, LSU, Auburn, Florida, Tennessee. That’s it.” [10:46]
• Texas entering the winner’s circle would be a major disruption.
• Texas: Only 5 conference titles in the last 30 years—“It ain't like it's an easy thing to do.” [13:23]

4. Mental Edge & Program Culture

[13:40–19:59]

• Discussion on how to manage locker room expectations, “rat poison,” and external hype:
  • Coach Bob Shipley: “Georgia’s done a pretty good job blocking it out… But every year it seems there’s a group saying, ‘This is Texas’ year.’” [14:33]
  • Importance of a “chip on your shoulder” and borrowing the “motivational currency” approach of Michael Jordan.
  • The crew highlights how Kirby Smart keeps Georgia motivated and focused despite being favorites.

5. Developing a Complete Program

[20:00–24:35]

• Texas’ history of being quarterback-centric (Vince Young, Colt McCoy, Arch Manning) rather than built on defensive solidity or elite running games, unlike Georgia or Bama.
• Coach Shipley: “We haven’t played consistently good defense and we haven’t had a consistently good running game… That’s why we rely on the quarterback.” [22:27]
• Hope that Texas can reach a “plug and play” level, with less dependence on a superstar QB.
  • CJ Bower: “I hope this year Arch doesn’t have to be Superman every play.” [23:15]

6. Position Battles & Team Depth

[30:10–32:55]

• Secondary: Zealous Hicks’ role uncertain with many competitive options at nickel/safety.
  • CJ Bower: “Competition is good. You’ll figure out who can play and who cannot in the next four weeks.” [31:37]
• Offensive line: Texas O-line projected to be much improved, with PFF ranking two Longhorns among top SEC linemen.

7. Guest Segment: Stevie Lee Weighs In

[32:55–39:21]

• Stevie Lee, Longhorn alum, shares the value of winning the SEC for Texas’ reputation:
  • “I’m petty. They talked a lot of trash about Texas in the SEC… Winning it would shut them up and lets everyone know we belong.” [36:22]
  • Also stresses the O-line needs to play with more “nastiness” and help establish the run.

8. NCAA Rule & Eligibility Changes

[41:19–53:50]

• Hank South joins to break down new eligibility rulings for the 2022 class and NIL/transfer/cap rules.
  • Extra year eligibility: Only if player did not sign with a pro team and returns to their most recent school.
  • Hard NIL cap coming; hopes to level the playing field but loopholes expected.
  • Texas has done well retaining key depth, but position group market values are rising (especially O-line and D-line).
  • “The general hope is this evens the playing field, but we’ll probably be talking about loopholes next year.” [53:04]

9. Offensive Line Improvements

[55:51–58:33]

• Rod: “Could Texas go from one of the worst SEC offensive lines to one of the best?”
• Melvin Ciani praised as an NFL-caliber addition; overall line experience, talent, and depth much improved.
• Left guard battle and run game are areas to watch as camp begins.

10. Symbolism & Team Culture

[58:48–63:10]

• Rod: Meredith gets jersey #0 after reclassifying; #7 remains exclusive, possibly selected by star defender “Huff Daddy.”
• Single-digit numbers, especially #7, becoming a badge of honor at Texas.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• CJ Bower [04:03]: “I don’t think this is a stretch by any means. I think [Finebaum] believes this. I think many believe this … I think this is something that he’s genuinely saying.”
• Rod Babers [07:45]: “In that chess match, that’s a huge advantage to have a guy like Muschamp on your staff, no doubt.”
• Coach Shipley [14:33]: “Every year it seems there’s a group saying, ‘This is Texas’ year.’ I don’t know that we’ve ever been able to say that with as much confidence as this year.”
• Rod Babers [18:57]: “If you figure out how to motivate yourself, you can use those instances where you feel slighted or disrespected as almost motivational currency… Michael Jordan was the greatest of all time at it.”
• Stevie Lee [36:22]: “I’m petty… They said we’re not going to do as well [in the SEC]… Winning it will let everybody know we belong.”
• Coach Shipley [22:27]: “We haven’t played consistently good defense and we haven’t had a consistently good running game… That’s why we rely on the quarterback.”
• CJ Bower [23:15]: “I hope that cape for Arch Manning stays in the closet… I don’t think Arch could go another 12 or 13 games of health if he had to take that brunt from a year ago.”
• Hank South [46:47]: “They limited it a lot. ... It wasn’t just a free for all. They’ve kind of pulled back the reins.”
• Rod Babers [58:33]: “If they’re just average with the weapons they have, they still should be competing to win the SEC.”

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Important Timestamps

• 02:59: Paul Finebaum’s pick—Texas over Georgia for the SEC.
• 05:32: Will Muschamp’s impact on Texas staff, inside information advantage.
• 09:29: The “aristocracy” of SEC champions—breaking down the history.
• 13:40: Discussion of locker room morale and “rat poison” (external hype).
• 14:33: Coach Shipley on living with big expectations at Texas.
• 18:57: The power of the “chip on your shoulder” mentality.
• 32:55: Stevie Lee on the value of winning the SEC; O-line mentality needed.
• 41:19: New NCAA eligibility and transfer rules explained (with Hank South).
• 55:51: Offensive line preseason rankings and improvement potential.
• 58:48: Culture point—Meredith gets jersey #0; symbolism of #7 at Texas.

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Episode Takeaways

• Texas is a legitimate contender to win the SEC, both due to talent and key staff hires like Will Muschamp, but faces huge historical headwinds.
• Locker room mentality, motivation, and team culture are as important as on-field talent, with a healthy tension between confidence and “rat poison.”
• Position battles remain key, especially in the secondary and offensive line.
• NCAA eligibility and NIL rules will impact rosters, but Texas sits in a good position to navigate these changes.
• Winning the SEC would be a program-defining milestone and could quiet doubters nationwide.

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For More:

• Catch “Coffee & Football” with Bobby Burton and Jerry Hamilton (Weekdays, 8:15am CST)
• Tuesday Night Live Stream with CJ Bower and Jeff Howe (7pm CST)
• More expert analysis and practice reports throughout fall camp on On Texas Football.
  HOOK ‘EM!

Transcript

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Foreign.

[Rod Babers]

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

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Doing good baby. Doing good. One day closer.

[Rod Babers]

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

[CJ Bower]

Hey, I talked a little bit with Fine Bomb out in Tampa for during SEC media days and look, I don't think this is a bold prediction. Of course, Texas, as you just mentioned, Rod, is predicted second in the SEC out of the preseason poll. But to say, hey, I'm throwing Georgia aside, I'm picking Texas. And you know, it's one of those things for Paul Feinbaum, who has been in the business a long time, he's certainly found a way to generate clicks, generate headlines, this is one of them. But it's something that I think is, you know, I don't think this is a stretch by any means. I think he believes this. I think many believe this. You know, I think we sit here every day in this off season and said Texas is a very different talented football team that they are in a great position to achieve a lot of success and to bring back championships and put numbers on the walls at DKR this year. So I, I believe that that's what Fine Bomb genuinely believes. I don't think this is something that he's saying for clicks.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Right.

[CJ Bower]

What was his comment a year ago that Arch was the best quarterback that we've seen in the SEC since 10 Tebow? That's probably a little extreme, right. That that's probably playing into the Elon Bucks on Twitter just a little bit too much. But this is. I mean, this is a prediction that the number two team in the preseason poll wins the title. I believe he believes it. I think some of us believe that as well.

[Rod Babers]

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

[Coach Bob Shipley]

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

[Rod Babers]

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

[Stevie Lee]

So I want.

[Rod Babers]

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

[Coach Bob Shipley]

I.

[Rod Babers]

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

[CJ Bower]

Oh, without a question. And again, knowing the intricacies of that own defense and how you can work around it, what you know works, what does not work, what tendencies and keys that they really hone in on for Kirby. And look, it was actually funny. I went back and looked through the 20, 24 SEC championship. Just the box score the other day. It's lost in time that quinn threw for 358 yards in that game. Oh, yeah, whatever it was. I. I know Texas didn't run the football all that well, but they certainly found a rhythm throwing the football. Of course, there's the big catch and run from DeAndre Moore in that game. I believe Matthew golden went for about 150 yards receiving as well. They found something that worked. Now, with an offense, with the firepower that this group has, are you able to replicate that success moving the football while cashing in for points? Because was it five field goal attempts for Bert Auburn in that game? And of course, we don't need to rehab. We don't need to rehash. We needed to move it to the left hash. Yeah, I know, I know. That was my best work. I'm sorry. But point is, it goes back to the execution, goes back to the red zone and making sure that drives end up with a PAT rather than a field goal attempt. And that's something that with this group. Can Sark get that the get them over the hump? I hope so.

[Rod Babers]

And I went and did some research on just yes, the SEC title is one of those things that it seems like there's a this almost aristocracy within the SEC that wins SEC titles and everybody else is just playing for second, third and fourth. Here's the. Here are the numbers. Since 2014, you've only had three teams win the SEC title.

[CJ Bower]

That's crazy.

[Rod Babers]

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

[CJ Bower]

That's crazy.

[Rod Babers]

It's a freaky, freaky stat. So Texas would disrupt that. I will say every few years, every like seven years, you do kind of a new champion, which is good and kind of breaks up the. The monotony of the. The monotony of the monopoly, if you will, that Georgia, Bama and LSU and Auburn, Florida pretty much have on the SEC title. But it'll be. It would be something new because like I said, it's been Georgia, Bama and LSU since 2014. And Texas has how many conference titles since in like the last 30 years? 5?

[CJ Bower]

4.

[Rod Babers]

You won then you win the last Southwest Conference title, first Big 12 title,

[CJ Bower]

three in the Big 12. And then 2023.

[Rod Babers]

Yep.

[Hank South]

And then.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah. So they're five. Mac had two of them. I believe that's where you so it you were like, oh man, you've only won five in 30 years.

[CJ Bower]

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[Coach Bob Shipley]

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[CJ Bower]

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[Rod Babers]

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[Coach Bob Shipley]

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[Coach Bob Shipley]

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[Rod Babers]

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

[CJ Bower]

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

[Coach Bob Shipley]

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

[Stevie Lee]

I

[Coach Bob Shipley]

hate to keep beating a dead horse. But, you know, every year it seems like there's a group of people that say, this is Texas year. This is Texas year. I don't know that we've been able to say that with as much confidence as we can this year. Although there's nobody could say for certain this is Texas year. You know, until we get that offensive line proven, until we get that red zone proven, until we see Will Muschamp's defense proven. You know, there's a lot of get that running game proven, there's a lot of ifs. But it does seem like the pieces of the puzzle are there. And it hasn't phased Georgia much to have that hanging over them as they start the season, because more times than not recently they have been the U12 champions. I mean, SEC, sorry, yeah,

[CJ Bower]

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

[Rod Babers]

Yeah.

[CJ Bower]

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

[Rod Babers]

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

[Coach Bob Shipley]

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

[Rod Babers]

Yeah.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

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

[Rod Babers]

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

[Coach Bob Shipley]

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

[Rod Babers]

Yeah, good point, coach.

[CJ Bower]

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

[Coach Bob Shipley]

was,

[CJ Bower]

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

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Exactly.

[CJ Bower]

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

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Well, how many NFL quarterbacks is Cam Newton? Has there been that the team success revolved around him? NFL quarterbacks are like Georgia quarterbacks, Alabama quarterbacks, they manage the game. They don't get you in bad situations. You know, they're not, maybe not incredibly flashy, they may not have incredible stats, but they manage the game well and they do that with a great defense and a solid running game.

[CJ Bower]

Yeah, I, I've always said that there's two jobs of the quarterback on offense. Two jobs protect the football and find a way to get your team into scoring position. Right. Anything else can happen inside of the red area. Your kicker Is there for a reason if things stall out. But you cannot turn the football over and and put your defense in tough situations. Texas obviously did that way too often in 2024. I thought Arch in the second half of the year we talked about it. With 18 touchdowns and two picks in the final seven games. That's how you play with a complimentary style of defense. Run game still wasn't there, but you took care of the football right. And Texas was able to put points on the board as a result. This year what you hope is that that havoc that living behind the line of scrimmage continues with your front seven and as a result you win the turnover battle. But Arch again the big key, take care of the football. Texas was great at a year ago, right? I believe they were what, top five in the country. Turnover margin plus per game. If they can do that again this year, coach, I think that that's the most important individual statistic of the entire 2026 season. Turnover margin.

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[Hank South]

Love it.

[Stevie Lee]

All right.

[Rod Babers]

Good stuff, gentlemen. All right, let's thank our sponsors. Before we move on, let's take our friends over at Von Lane really quickly. Friends over at Von Lane are ready to remind you the season's getting started. Obviously training camp beginning. Guys starting to report for training camp. And I know a lot of you are making your plans for football season. Well, Von Lane is crossing the red River. Starting September 8th, Von Lane is relaunching its Dallas, Oklahoma City route with multiple daily departures seven days a week. Riders have been asking for this to come back. So hey, they're just.

[Stevie Lee]

Hey.

[Rod Babers]

By popular demand with our friends over at Von Lane. They're listening to the people. It's finally here. So whether you've got business in okc you got family up there or you just want to catch a game without the three hour drive? You can book that right now with our friends over at Von [e-mail] and also von Lane is, is, trust me, better than most of those travel options out there. Whether you're driving yourself or whether you're flying, you got to deal with TSA and deal with bag checks and bag fees and security checks and delayed flights. And if you're driving yourself, that can also bit stressful because you got to drive yourself and you got to deal with the round trip and you get there, you jet lag and you're tired. Our friends over at Von Lane, they take care of all of that. Von Lane serves Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Plano, the Woodlands as well Oklahoma City, Nashville, Memphis and Atlanta. So head to Von Lane.com that's V O-N-L-A-N-E.com and use the promo code OTF 26 for 20 off your first trip with Von Lane. That's gone. Lane, your private jet on wheels. Also, are we thinking sponsors? Let's thank our friends over at Prize Picks as well. Prize picks just making your sports viewing experience just that much better. And right now, prospects, they have actually upgraded not only their awful, but they've upgraded a lot of the amenities as well. They are the number one sports picks app in America. And honestly it's about as simple as it gets. You can pick player stats all right, Just really easy on a few player stats and pick your lineup. Or right now you can pick teams instead of individual players if that's your thing. Prospects you covered there as well. You can now pick the winner, the spread, the total on games, even fights. Prize picks available in most states including Texas, California and Florida. So chances are you can jump in right now. And one of my favorite features is that now you can follow users online. If you like their picks they're making, you can tell them with one click. You can follow your friends as well and probably troll them if you follow their picks. And here's the best part. If you've never tried prize Picks before, play your first $5 lineup and if you win, you'll get $150 in bonus lineups right away. All right, so just make sure use the code HMA when you sign up. Just updated this offer so it's a perfect time for you to take advantage. Download the Prize Picks app today, use the code HMA, play that first $5 lineup and if you win you'll get $150 in bonus lineup. That's prize picks code HMA. Good luck. And as always, play smart, play responsibly. Play prize picks. All right, let's dive into some super chats now. We got a few of them. We apologize about the delay. How about this one from nickel Laney Morell? I'm sure I mispronounced it. If I did, I apologize for that. Thank you for the super chat says any predictions for z hits with LS6? They fought to keep to keep Mac. Where does he fit in as a good coverage nickel with Grayson and X feels to me R Bo Masco. Okay, thank you for the super chat there. Uh, yeah. What's the zealous Hicks. I mean, he had an injury, I think in the early in the off season I got over there, but I. I don't know if I see a role form in the secondary currently right now with this iteration of the secondary. And he's. He's a physical freak. I mean, he's huge. Did he. Was he an early. Was he a reclassification? C.J.

[CJ Bower]

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

[Rod Babers]

Right.

[CJ Bower]

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

[Rod Babers]

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

[Stevie Lee]

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

[Rod Babers]

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

[Stevie Lee]

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

[Rod Babers]

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

[Stevie Lee]

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

[Rod Babers]

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

[Stevie Lee]

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

[Rod Babers]

Action. Okay, that's true.

[Stevie Lee]

Good point.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Good.

[Stevie Lee]

Good point.

[Rod Babers]

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

[Stevie Lee]

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

[Rod Babers]

It just happened.

[Stevie Lee]

You know what I'm saying?

[Rod Babers]

When he said, I was like, damn, that's so true. Like, we end up elect. We end up electing and voting for the guys who we already know were just the leaders on the team. It's almost a waste of time to do it. But I know, I don't say I disagree with electing the captains, but it was just. It was simplistically brilliant. Like, no, everybody knows who leaders are. What the hell you talking about?

[CJ Bower]

Yeah, the cream on your chest to be told you're a captain. It is probably.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah.

[CJ Bower]

Not the guys that you want there anyways.

[Stevie Lee]

Yeah. 100.

[Rod Babers]

That's.

[CJ Bower]

It.

[Stevie Lee]

Blew my.

[Rod Babers]

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

[Stevie Lee]

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

[Hank South]

That's true.

[Stevie Lee]

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

[Rod Babers]

Yep.

[Stevie Lee]

So we need to win that under. That would be winning the, the sec underneath that. I believe that Arch needs to be in New York. If he wins the, the Heisman or not. That, that's, that's okay. But he needs to be in New York, and if he's in New York, that means we had a really good season.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah.

[Stevie Lee]

So I, I. Then there's some other accolades that needs to happen on the, on our team as well, but those are the four that I think that we need to. Or three that we need to actually get accomplished this year.

[CJ Bower]

What needs to happen on this offensive line, Stevie?

[Stevie Lee]

Oof. They. They got to come out that first game and show that they're nasty and physical. They got to play through the whistle. Right? They gotta, they, they. They gotta play into the echo of the whistle, is what my coach would say. If you driving somebody into the ground, drive them all the way into the ground, they got to be nasty and show people that they're nasty and do it every single week. I don't know how much depth we have on the offensive line, but the starting, what, six, Five or six?

[CJ Bower]

Yeah.

[Stevie Lee]

They need to be nasty. Nasty like and, and, and, and establishing the run first because we got some really good running backs. Give them a sliver and be, be dirty. Be nasty in there. You know, I told y' all earlier a few weeks ago that we need to cut down on the penalties.

[CJ Bower]

Yep.

[Stevie Lee]

Well, we need to cut down on the offsides penalties and jumping penalties. If, if I get a personal file for driving somebody in the ground, I'm cool. With that. I'm cool with that. A couple times. A couple times. But yeah, yeah, but, but being nasty and, and, and dirty, not dirty without outside the rules of the game, but just being, I mean, we played with some nasty office lineup.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

Yeah, we did.

[Stevie Lee]

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

[Rod Babers]

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

[Stevie Lee]

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

[Rod Babers]

Yeah, appreciate that.

[CJ Bower]

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

[Rod Babers]

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

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[Rod Babers]

All right, appreciate that. And I actually we are going to bring on my man Hank south in a couple of minutes because we're going to talk about the that decision, the latest decision that allows the 20. The court decision allows the 2020 an extra year of eligibility. There were clarifications about that that it has to be. Well, unless there was an injunction in your specific case that it has to be with the school or unless you were already also in the transfer portal, if your name was already in the portal, that it has to be with the school. I believe that you are last committed to. I don't believe you can. 22 class members can transfer each other's schools. I believe that was the clarification. But Hank south is going to join us and give us the latest because I think he was in on call that actually gave some more details about the the latest decision that allows the 2022 class one more year of eligibility. All right, let's get to a couple of super chats before that. How about this one from Silver Spur? Sicko says, when will Bobby let us christen the new office? I believe I've not seen it because I've been in the Pacific Northwest for a week or two, a couple of weeks. But CJ I believe has seen the new place.

[CJ Bower]

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

[Rod Babers]

is what I think I'm gonna, I like that. OTF hq. That's good.

[CJ Bower]

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

[Rod Babers]

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

[CJ Bower]

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

[Rod Babers]

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

[CJ Bower]

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

[Rod Babers]

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

[Hank South]

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

[Rod Babers]

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

[Hank South]

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

[Rod Babers]

Yeah.

[Hank South]

General provisions.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

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

[Hank South]

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

[Rod Babers]

Yeah.

[CJ Bower]

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

[Rod Babers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Hank South]

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

[Rod Babers]

That's, that's usually when it's, it's good when it's not working really for anybody. It's called compromise. Hey, thank you brother for taking the time. We appreciate it and hopefully we can get you back on the show, man. Talk about something other than legislation and, and lawyering a couple more days. All right, thanks. All right. It's my man, Hank South. Thanks. We appreciate him taking time because he was on that call. It was just. Man, I can imagine how much legalese and lawyer speak was on that call. And Hanks just taking one for the tea. Taking one for the team. Thank you, Hank. All right, let's get to. Oh, matter of fact, I want to get to this one thing about PFF actually, because we had Stevie on and I was actually going to get to it right when Stevie got off because he was talking about the offensive line and how they got to get nasty and that kind of thing. Well, PFF put out their preseason highest graded SEC offensive lineman. They listed like the 10 highest graded offensive linemen going into this season based on last year's grades and the lone ones, obviously Trevor Goosby is at the top of that list, but Melvin Ciani also made it to the top of that list, too. And Texas was only, I think, one of two SEC schools to have two players ranked on among that top 10 list of the highest graded SEC offensive line. I think Missouri also had two. They had an interior offensive lineman and Kaden Green the tackle as well. Thank you very much, Matthew. Is it possible that Texas goes from. I don't know if they're the worst SEC offensive line, but they were one of the worst offensive lines in sec. To be in one of the best, if not the best, you're definitely going to have one of the best tackle combos as this metric is laying out in the country. I mean, you're in that conversation potentially have the best tackle combination in the country. Can the rest of the offensive line, you know, pick up and obviously pull up, pull their, pull their weight? That's. That's the question.

[CJ Bower]

Boy, would that be fun, huh?

[Rod Babers]

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

[CJ Bower]

Oh, definitely. You got to see him a little bit in the spring, right? I mean, he checks the box from the eye test, right? He walks out there like that. Looks like a guy that has a future in the NFL. Then you watch him move and say, oh, a little bit of a surprise, right?

[Rod Babers]

He's.

[CJ Bower]

He's a little bit more nimble in the feet than I would have thought given his size. You know, he's a big dude. Pass protection for. For Arch Manning should definitely improve. I think that is going to be well known, especially Brandon Baker. Kicking inside. I thought Connor Robertson did just enough that was, you know, perfectly fine for him to return. Feel good about where he was going into 2026. Of course we'll see what that left guard spot entails. But that left guard spot, again, I don't think it. It certainly cannot be worse than a year ago. But I don't know what to expect right now in terms of strengths or deficiencies. I do think that that offensive line will pass protect much better in 2026. I can't right now give you an answer on the running game. I. I need to see it first. I need to see what they look like in fall camp and we need to hear how they do against what is a very veteran led group on that defensive lineman. You know, the scrimmages and live ball situations start to really heat up and fall camp.

[Rod Babers]

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

[CJ Bower]

All right.

[Rod Babers]

Yeah.

[CJ Bower]

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

[Rod Babers]

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

[CJ Bower]

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

[Rod Babers]

Yeah, the set I, I, we got, I gotta get, I'm getting clarification on this, guys. I'm talk to Huff and say, hey, did start give you the power to decide who wears the number seven? Because I believe he did, coach, and I don't think that's ever happened before, but I believe that's what's going on. It's got to be because seven is a cool number. You would take the seven if he was a young bug like CJ said, that's a single digit. The seven is clean. And on offense, it's always somebody with the seven. Keelan, Robinson, Khalik, Lock, and always somebody with the seven Hub dad is, he's deciding. And you know what? Respect. Because respect for that man. All right, that's legit. You got to earn seven on the 40 acres at DBU, baby.

[Coach Bob Shipley]

And you gotta have about five Lambos in your garage.

[Rod Babers]

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

[CJ Bower]

Hook them horse.