LIVE: Why Texas Has LEGITIMATE Championship Upside... & Why You Should Pump The Brakes | Longhorns Football | Steve Sarkisian | Arch Manning

Summary

On Texas Football: LIVE – Why Texas Has LEGITIMATE Championship Upside... & Why You Should Pump The Brakes

Podcast: On Texas Football
Hosts: Jeff Howe & C.J. Vogel
Date: July 30, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into Texas Football’s 2026 championship potential—the reasons for optimism, why fans should “pump the brakes,” and deep context on the strengths, possible pitfalls, and rivalry dynamics of the Longhorns. Hosts Jeff Howe and C.J. Vogel dissect recent coverage and data from On Texas Football, answer live super chats, and highlight both the firepower and vulnerabilities of Steve Sarkisian’s squad. Discussion is lively, insightful, rooted in expertise, and features a healthy mix of analysis, stats, fandom, and nostalgia.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Mystique and Meaning of Jersey Numbers

• [03:26–10:00]
  • Super chat triggers a deep dive into the significance of numbers like #7, #11, #16, and tradition versus manufactured culture.
  • “You have to earn that... I think that's cool. For a while, it felt forced. If it's Michael Huff and Jade A come to a decision and say, hey, you're deserving, that's different for me.” – (C.J., 04:56)
  • Discussed honoring past legends (like Steinmark), why certain numbers weigh more, and the idea of organically growing Texas traditions (e.g., #28 for DBs, honoring Freddie Steinmark).
  • Noted the changing culture in college football and how jersey numbers now play into personal brands for young players.

Championship Optimism: Reasons to Believe in the Longhorns

Defensive Havoc & Turnover Margin

• [12:34–14:25]
  • C.J.'s Optimism: Defensive playmaking, especially from Colin Simmons (“probably the best [edge] in the country”), Rashin Biles (3 INTs, 3 defensive TDs), and John McDonald.
  • “If Texas is back...plus 1, plus 1.2 [turnover margin] per game, they're gonna bank a run to the national championship.” – (C.J., 13:16)
  • Emphasized what “Havoc creators” bring to the table: extra possessions, scoring from defense, flipping game momentum.

Firepower on Offense

• [14:25–19:10]
  • Jeff’s Optimism: Texas has more than one “eraser” on offense (players who can cover up systemic mistakes).
  • “Sark doesn’t have to be perfect on that call sheet because there’s gonna be times where Arch is going to make him right, even when the call might not be.” – (Jeff, 19:32)
  • Depth at WR (Ryan Wingo, Emmett Mosley, Jermaine Bishop), effective RB rotation, and an O-line that—while not elite—may get covered up by overwhelming skill talent.
  • Noted the emergence of the tight end group in the run game and the significance of Arch Manning’s dual-threat capabilities.

Why to Pump the Brakes: Realistic Cautions

Staying Ahead of the Chains & Discipline Issues

• [20:22–21:43]
  • Texas ranked 112th nationally in tackles for loss allowed (78 over 12 games).
  • “Texas lived behind the chains way too much in 2025. Penalties would back them up... Stay ahead of the chains.” – (C.J., 21:43)
  • Penalties and negative plays remain a source of concern, along with lingering O-line question marks.

Importance of the Ohio State Game

• [23:00–24:33]
  • Losing to Ohio State in Week 2 could derail not just the record, but the team’s psyche.
  • “If Texas loses to Ohio State, like 8 and 4 becomes a real possibility for me... that could really mess with you.” – (Jeff, 23:00)
  • Beating contenders early (historical reference: 2005 win at Ohio State) can become the emotional and psychological foundation for a championship season.
  • Drawing parallels to other programs (Indiana at Oregon, 2025) needing a “shot in the arm” win to believe.

Quarterback Deep Dive: Arch Manning & Comparison to Ohio State's Julian Sayin

• [32:13–40:46]
  • CJ breaks down tape and advanced stats showing Julian Sayin (OSU) plays similarly to Quinn Ewers—outstanding under no pressure (82% completion), sub-60% under duress, and that pressure depresses scoring output dramatically.
  • “It is simply pressure… Quinners against Georgia and Ohio State… there was 40 combined pressures and nine sacks… They do not evade pressure very well, but boy, if you give them a lot of time, they're going to absolutely dice you apart.” – (C.J., 33:26)
  • Texas’ Will Muschamp-coordinated defense must get after Sayin, not allow Ohio State to insulate him.
  • Offensive coordinator game plans (Matt Patricia for OSU, Sark for Texas) dissected—the former’s “just don’t lose it” plan for Sayin.
  • For Texas: More is asked of Arch—he must evade, create, and “erase” mistakes in ways Ewers/Sayin didn’t.

Quinn Ewers Legacy & "What Might Have Been"

• [41:56–50:20]
  • Exploring Ewers’s career as potentially the “worst-case scenario” due to missed senior year, injuries, and starts/stops that wrecked his developmental rhythm.
  • “If you play Quinn Ewers’ football career 10 times, the version we got might be the worst version.” – (Jeff, 41:56)
  • C.J.: “There’s always just felt like there was a little meat on the bone.”
  • Compares to KJ Lacey and Diabell (future QBs) and why high-volume high school experience might matter going forward.

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Sarkisian & Rivalry Record: The Importance of Beating the Big Three

• [51:10–54:55]
  • Jeff shares his statistical research: Against Oklahoma and A&M, only Fred Akers and DKR had more successful starts than Sark in the AP Poll era.
  • “If you look at success and rivalry game...Sark is right there with coach Royal and Fred Akers as two coaches that know what it takes...” – (Jeff, 52:11)
  • Regular wins against OU, A&M, and even Arkansas are non-negotiable for Texas coaches—Sark “gets it” and treats these as far more than just another game.

Arkansas: Rival or Just Another SEC Foe?

• [54:55–59:30]
  • Arkansas once felt like a major rival; now, for Texas, they’re just a conference opponent. For Arkansas, Texas is the annual circle game.
  • “There’s not been a significant moment in Texas and Arkansas in my life... in the last 15 years.” – (C.J., 60:02)
  • Hostility in Fayetteville mentioned as genuine, but for Texas, OU and A&M will always come first.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Pressure and QBs (C.J., 33:26):
  “It is simply pressure… some guys are great under it. I think Arch last year against A&M… boy, was he under duress… but that was where Texas found a rhythm.”

• On 2025’s Lingering Issues (C.J., 21:43):
  “Texas lived behind the chains way too much… as good as you are on third and 17, drawing up a perfect play—well, it doesn’t happen often.”

• On Ohio State Game’s Season Impact (Jeff, 23:00):
  "If Texas loses to Ohio State, like 8 and 4 becomes a real possibility for me... that could really mess with you."

• On Team-Building Wins (Jeff, 24:33):
  "Every team has that. That’s why, like the '08 Texas team ... for them it was the Oklahoma game. If this team's gonna be great, they need that against Ohio State."

• On Quinn Ewers’ Unfulfilled Potential (Jeff, 41:56):
  "If you play Quinn Ewers’ football career 10 times, the version we got might be the worst version."

• On Defensive Identity (Jeff, 69:12):
  “As long as Colin Simmons is a part of your defensive front, that’s the strength of your football team.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:26 – Jersey number culture/tradition
• 12:34 – Reasons for optimism; havoc defense/turnover margin
• 14:25 – Offensive firepower and “erasers”
• 20:22 – Reasons to be cautious; staying ahead of the chains
• 23:00 – Must-win nature of the Ohio State game
• 32:13 – Arch Manning/Julian Sayin advanced QB analysis, pressure breakdown
• 41:56 – Quinn Ewers’ legacy and “what ifs”
• 51:10 – Sark’s success in rivalry games
• 54:55 – Arkansas rivalry debate
• 69:12 – Defensive front as team’s strength, secondary coverage

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Flow & Tone

The conversation is high-energy, deeply informed, humorous, and approachable—showcasing both hosts’ analytical skills and love for Texas Football. Listener questions (including super chats) are addressed with expertise and candor. The atmosphere is equal parts barbershop banter and in-depth X’s and O’s breakdown.

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Conclusion

This episode provides a rich, nuanced preview of Texas Football's 2026 season: why a championship run is plausible (defensive playmakers, opulent offense, strong QB play), but also how fragile success can be (penalties, O-line, mental makeup post-Ohio State). The rivalry data, history, and “what if” elements deepen the fandom and understanding. For Longhorn fans, this is a must-listen roadmap for the emotional and football terrain ahead.

Transcript

[Narrator]

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[Jeff Howe]

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[Jeff Howe]

All right everybody, welcome back to On Texas Football. Welcome to the Wheels Off Wednesday night live stream. Great to be here. I am Jeff Howe, joined as always on Wednesdays by as Rod Babers has dubbed him, the young prodigy here on Texas Football. He is CJ Vogel Lots on Longhorn. Marcus Myers, normally a part of our Wednesday show, Marcus is on assignment this week so he's out some. Marcus will be back next week but it is CJ and I taking you through your PM Live stream here at On Texas Football, wrapping up our day of programming. Shout out to Prize Picks, our lead sponsor. Tonight on the live stream we'll shout out price picks and more of our fine sponsors here at On Texas Football throughout the show. The show, you guys control it for the most part. Unless it's Sandman or a few select others. Get your questions in chat. Get fired up. You got them. Line them up. Super chats as always. Jump to the front of the line. C.J. if you give a super chat at all Texas football. You're like, you know, when the president comes to town, whatever town you're from, and decides to eat at Fill in the Blank restaurant, he just gets to jump to the front of the line and cut everybody and get whatever he wants. Yeah, you're, you're the president with the super chat. You get cut, everybody get to the front of that line.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yes, you, you instantly become the most important person on the show.

[Jeff Howe]

As I've, as I found out as a parent, the, the fast pass at Disney World works the same way. You get some of those odd looks or I'm like, hey, I just listened to my wife and paid the extra money for the fast pass. So at any rate, Super Chats are gonna jump to the front line.

[C.J. Vogel]

C.J.

[Jeff Howe]

we already got a super chat. Let's go ahead and get right to it. Savvy two with Super Chat. Thank you for the super chat. What number will John Meredith wear? CJ I know you've been refreshing the roster, but I don't put your business out there. But every, every hour, every two hours, waiting to see when John Meredith's number gets posted.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah, I've been waiting, been waiting for that number reveal. Haven't seen, haven't heard. Trying to think of what, you know, prime numbers that Texas has available for a young five star cornerback. Zero is available. Seven on defense is available, though. I know that that number is held in pretty high regard. I would assume that. Know you'd need some clearance. We're talking about the president earlier. You're going to need some Texas presidential royalty clearance to get that number 7 AOKED. But right now, those are the two single digits. Other than that, I mean, probably look somewhere in the 20s.

[Jeff Howe]

Hey, some good dudes have worn seven, by the way. Yes, I know. Huff wore it, made it what it is for sure. Demarco Cobbs Good dude or seven. Antoine Davis Good, good dude. Worth seven. But seven's a thing now, CJ like LSU's got seven. I think they do it. Maybe 18 is another one. I know Dave Aranda does the single digit numbers for, you know, their captains or you got to get voted to get a single digit. That's something Matt Rule did at Baylor, I assume. Matt Rule does it at Nebraska. Did a Temple and Baylor, but seven's a thing now at Texas. Like you can't just give it to anybody. Like you have to earn that.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah, and I, I, I think that's cool. You know, for a while, Jeff, I kind of sat with the idea, at least the opinion that, you know, something like, that should be organic, right? It shouldn't be something forced. And for a while, it certainly felt like it was forced. Especially after, I guess Going into 2025 is like, all right, well, is seven going to Michael Taft? Is seven going to Malik Muhammad? It's like, well, when you're sitting here wondering why or how or who's getting the number, that to me feels like Texas trying to become or do exactly what LSU is now. Again, if it happens organically, if Michael Huff and Jade A come to a decision and say, hey, you're deserving, that's something different for me.

[Jeff Howe]

The Sevens Council meeting in. In some secret, secret ball, like ballroom at a hotel in Grapevine or something.

[C.J. Vogel]

Hey, you got to be a part of the club. You gotta. You gotta get in somehow. Invite.

[Jeff Howe]

Have you noticed? Just random. Like, anytime, like there's anything NFL owners related or CBA related. If you read like an AP story, it'll say, great vine texture. Like, why is a Grapevine deadline? Because more often than not, DFW airport cjs, you know, being a native of the Metroplex, it is centrally located. So you just fly into dfw, go to whatever the nearest hotel is, get you a ballroom and start sorting it out. So if you ever wonder why, around CBA time or owners meetings time, you see a Grapevine Texas Dateline on an AP story or whatever. Just. Just throwing that out there. Just, just so, you know, here to educate a little bit. But, no, I'm with you. Like, don't force it, you know, Like. Like Michigan's had to deal with the wide receivers wearing number one. I kind of like the way Syracuse does it with number 44. Like, they don't just give that out every year. Like, you gotta legit, like, go earn it. You can't, like, ask to wear it. It's one of those deals, like, don't call us, we'll call you kind of thing. Yes, I thought. Cj, I. I think there's a couple. A couple things you can do in Texas. One, I thought 11 could be one of those numbers because it's not going to be retired. But from you go through Duke Carlisle to Derek Johnson, Major Apple white. Ricky wore 11 for three years, Sam. Like, there's just been some bad dudes on the 40 that have worn 11. I think 11. Like, hey, if you're wearing 11 in Texas, that means you're a guy.

[C.J. Vogel]

Colin Simmons for a year, right? Until he moved to one, you say, well, you had that run at least to get, you know, something special. But, you know, I Think today's day, when those numbers and kind of your brand means so much to kids whenever they commit, it probably doesn't hold as much weight as it once did.

[Jeff Howe]

Probably. I, I really liked. I'm only going to talk about Charlie Strong era football, probably just, just this. And it's something positive. It's something positive. So everybody hang in there. It's going to be okay. We'll get through this. I like CJ the 2015 year, Texas played Kansas at home and they wore the throwback jerseys honoring the. I think it was for the 69 national championship team and six. Yeah, I think it was a 60, 19, not the 70 team. At any rate, Duke Thomas wore 28 to honor Freddie Steinmark. And I was like, man, that is. I just thought. It's something I never thought of, but I just thought it was really cool. Maybe not even if you, if you do it for a year, maybe it's just you have one game a year where, you know, guys in the DB room vote on it and you're gonna have one DB on the team. Wear 28 for one game. I just, Yeah, I feel like that's something you can bring back. You're. You're teaching people about the tradition of the program. Like, I, I really, I loved when Duke Thomas did it. I thought that was just awesome.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah, something. I mean, was it. Brecken Hager did something like that wearing number 60, I believe. You know, it'd be cool the way that, you know, your senior day or whatever that final game is, whether against A M or not, you sit there and you, you honor a guy that started for three years. Right. It would have been great to see a guy like Anthony Hill last year, you know, who has put a lot of effort and blood and sweat and tears into this program to get it to where it is today, go out in his final home game honoring legends of the past. And again, who knows what number that could have been? Is it always. Is it always something else now? You know, you, you look at it and, you know, a lot of the jersey number rules have changed as well. We heard about that at SEC media days where, you know, to be eligible on offense or defense and punt team and, you know, numbers have to coincide with certain, you know, levels of 10, if you will, but all the way throughout. I mean, look, just don't force it. That's my big thing. Is it. Too often it feels like, all right, this is tradition that other teams do now. It's what we're going to hold on to. It's like just find a way to, to make it your own organically.

[Jeff Howe]

Yes, CB mentioned. I, I didn't have a problem with Brecket wearing 60 because his dad wore 60. So I like, when are you ever gonna have another opportunity to do that? I just thought, I thought that was cool. Didn't have a problem with that.

[Narrator]

16.

[Jeff Howe]

It could be another one of those numbers at Texas because you know, James Street's never gonna get his number retired. But you know, he wore 16. Robert Brewer wore 16. Michael Taft recently. Tremendous walk on story.

[C.J. Vogel]

It's just an ugly number.

[Jeff Howe]

It is, man. There's nothing like 28's kind of. You gotta, you gotta have a certain body type to wear the blocking numbers as. As Rod. Rod went through. We went through number science one time in the long run. Bliss days. Rod. I did because Rod War 2 in high school, he's like, it's slimming. Like single digit numbers are slimming. I'm like, yeah, they really are. Like, you saw Larry Dibbles at defensive tackle for a while. We're number one at Texas. Don't really see a lot of interior defensive linemen wearing one, but sometimes it works. All right, we're gonna move on. We're gonna talk about Texas football in 2026. We'll actually do that here in just a second. I do want to thank one of our sponsors. So we'll do that in just a second and be thinking about everybody. Just get your mind right. We're doing something off of a couple of pieces CJ's written this week over on Texas Football dot com. We're going to talk about why you should be optimistic about Texas this season. Maybe give you a couple reasons to pump the brakes. We'll do that here in just a second. Right now, shout out to one of our sponsors here on Texas Football. That's Andy Ludicky and my perfect franchise. Are you stuck in the corporate rat race with two weeks of PTO and no control over the money you can make or your schedule in general? If that's the case, call Andy. He'll take you through a process to help you find a business. It's going to fit your skill sets and your financial goals. Franchise ownership is something that's not for everyone. But if you have a desire to take control of your destiny, call Andy or email him at [e-mail] Again, that's [e-mail] and a shout out to Andy Ludicky and my perfect franchise for sponsoring the Wednesday Night Live Stream here on Texas football. All right, C.J. let's get to it. I mentioned you wrote a couple of really good pieces this week. You've been, you've been a really big part of the presentation over on the website this week, C.J. some good stuff. We'll start with reasons to be optimistic. You wrote this on the 10 Days to Camp Countdown. 10 reasons to be optimistic. And you've got 10 reasons. But I wanted each of us to kind of pick one that we really hone in on why we're optimistic. So, C.J. i'll let you go first. What is your reason? If you got to narrow down one reason why everybody should be optimistic about this team hitting its ceiling, what is it?

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah, it, it's two sided.

[Jeff Howe]

Right.

[C.J. Vogel]

It's the Havoc creation with Rashin Biles and John McDonald and Colin Simmons specifically. But beyond that, it's that turnover margin. Texas was top five in the country last year in turnover margin, only nine turnovers. I went through it earlier this afternoon. I guess stumbled upon. I know rods talked about it at length. Jeff. This year Arch didn't really have any turnover issues in the second half of the year and the team just didn't fumble. Right. And I'm knocking on wood right now. But that's something that you look at. You say, hey, Chad Scott did anything right last year it was that these guys in the backfield did not fumble at all. And credit to those running backs at the time. Does that carry over this year?

[Jeff Howe]

Right.

[C.J. Vogel]

Two new backs coming in, a brand new coach, freshman that's expected to see a lot of snaps. Fumbling is going to be important. But I look at it in the sense of this and I mentioned it on Monday as well. If Texas is back into that conversation where they are plus 1, plus 1.2 on the season and turnover margin per game, they're gonna, they're gonna bank a run to the national championship. Like you're stealing.

[Jeff Howe]

Yeah.

[C.J. Vogel]

A possession, at least one over your opponent. And again, let's see how it all plays out. But that is something right now with the firepower on offense that Texas has and what I hope is the talent paired with the scheme of Will Muschrant on defense that if you're giving Texas one extra possession over your opponent, I'm going to take them to win every football game on their schedule.

[Jeff Howe]

Yeah.

[C.J. Vogel]

So that's my optimism is again the guys right now, Jeff, that I look at as true Havoc creators. Colin Simmons, probably the best in the entire country, off the edge. But Rashin bows three interceptions last Year three defensive touchdowns. Sign me up. I love that.

[Jeff Howe]

There, you see it on the screen. CJ's reason for optimism is havoc on defense, especially Simmons and Biles. By the way, our. We're gonna wrap up the top 40 on the 40, the top 10 players on the roster tomorrow. 10 to 1 countdown. Spoiler alert. Rasheen Bos and Colin Simmons are both going to be in the top 10. You just have to tune in and see where. But no, I'm with you on that. And cj, that's why my reason for optimism is firepower on offense. Like, it's, it's not on Art. It's not all on Arch. Like, I know last year, I love the, I love the phrase Rod Coin so much that I've kind of stolen it from him and made it my own in the off season. But Arch is the play. Arch was the play. Arch Manning was the identity. Offense, cj, that's something I, I kind of cultivated that opinion in my mind early in season. Like, really right around the Florida game, I'm like, man, this office really doesn't have an identity. Except it kind of reminded me of like early Sam Ellinger where it's like, hey, man, snap the ball to the quarterback and let's all just cross our fingers and hope he does something. Pretty miraculous. That bails us out right here. And towards the end of the year, Art started doing that. But you got to have more around them. Love the mix you've got in the backfield. If used properly, I think it can be really effective the whole year you could have a stable that allows you to have some staying power. Really digging. I think maybe an understated part of this offense is the tight end group. Maybe not. I don't think you're having anybody catch 50 balls like gunner Helm or Jatavian Sanders did, but.

[C.J. Vogel]

Right.

[Jeff Howe]

I think in the run game, those guys are going to earn their keep for sure. You know, Michael Mason is setting the edge and then Nick Townsend blowing up anything that moves. And man, you've got way too much firepower at receiver.

[C.J. Vogel]

Way too much.

[Jeff Howe]

It's not gonna be all on Ryan Wingo. I mean, when Emmett Mosley and Jermaine Bishop are going to battle it out, really to be your. To get the touches as a number three behind Coleman and Wingo. Dude, you've got. I know, I've said. And it's not like I'm telling like an industry secret here, revealing something behind the curtain. Like the offensive line is not markedly better. It doesn't really matter what you have around on offense. I think depending on the opponent, it, it, it might not matter what the offensive line does. You might just be too good at the skill positions for, for that to, to really cancel out some of what, maybe, maybe areas where you might be deficient on the offensive line. And that's the thing for me. C.J. i heard, I heard James Franklin say what you want about James Franklin as a coach, but I heard him use this term and he was talking about his, I think it was his 2016 Penn State team with Saquon Barkley. And, you know, they, it was a team that was good in a playoff format, had a real chance to go in a national championship. And he was talking about, we had a lot of erasers and guys that just at the end of the day, what I take that to mean is, man, it does. Everything can break down around him, but can he still make you right? Can he erase all the mistakes? Can he cancel out areas where you're deficient, you know, as good as Vince Young was and keep. I'll try to frame this the right way, but I know it's not going to come out right. I don't know that anybody I've seen at Texas at the quarterback position, mass deficiencies, better than Colt McCoy did, like just with his ability to throw the football, the precision passing, the timing, the rhythm, kind of how he, he was an extension of the coaching staff. Vy was an otherworldly athlete, but I just thought the way Colt played the position canceled out a lot of, just erased a lot of mistakes. C.J. whether it's Arch, the running backs, the receivers, you just got a lot of dudes on offense that are going to erase mistakes.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah. And I think a lot of those mistakes, or at least some of them, right. A fair portion that we've been critical of over the last couple of years is the play calling itself, right. It's the situational awareness of where your team is, where they're set up for a four down, you know, territory, what that red zone area looks like. But I think we've all kind of beat it into the ground at least recently. Texas didn't have a red zone issue when their talent was the best running back in the entire country to Bijon Robinson. Hand the rock to that guy and he'll, he'll make you right now with the talent that Texas has now. You don't need to drop the most perfect playpool play call. You don't need to have the most perfect pass or have the blocking scheme blocked perfect or perfectly that's something that I think this pure talent that we're talking about will make a lot of the situations.

[Redclick Advertiser]

Right.

[C.J. Vogel]

Or at least cover up the holes that we're discussing at least right now, Jeff. So that's something that I'm optimistic to seeing and I'm intrigued if you're Steve Sarkeesian. I mean, 2023 comes to mind. Right. Xavier Worthy, Adnai Mitchell, Jordan Whittington, tight end spot was very, in very good hands. Jonathan Brooks, you know, stable of backs, young backs. You at least had some fun tools to work with. I, I think this is deeper. I do.

[Narrator]

Yeah.

[Jeff Howe]

Yeah. You, you were good. And with that offense, I think it's been Stark's most complete offense so far. You were good enough to go win a national championship in 2020.

[C.J. Vogel]

You know, question mark, Jeff, in that offense, was, was your quarterback going to stay healthy enough? I don't have any issues or at least any thoughts right now that Arch won't be.

[Jeff Howe]

Knock on wood.

[C.J. Vogel]

I know.

[Jeff Howe]

No, I'm with you. And speaking of Arch, before we move on, just, just like I'm, I'm fond of saying, I like saying, because I think it's true, man, when you got a quarterback that can hurt you with his legs, that's a legit, a legit scrambling threat that can ad lib and make plays when, when it breaks down around him and he can still keep a play alive. I always say, man, as a defensive coordinator, you can have the, the right personnel in the right covers, right blitz, whatever. He can make you wrong. Well, that means on the other side, that guy can make you right. And Sark doesn't have to be perfect on that call sheet because there's gonna be times where Arch is going to make him right, even when the call might not be. C.J. let's go to, let's just throw a wet blanket on this because we're talking about Texas in a lot of areas being good enough to go win the championship. You're pumping the brakes. Why? If there's a reason to pump the brakes, what is it?

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah, look, we just talked a lot about how fun the offensive firepower could be. Wide receivers, tight ends, running backs, the quarterback. Look, they still played behind the chains way too much last year. That was something that, again, we've talked about it with the Florida game, the Oklahoma game, that first half against Ohio State. Even when Texas was finding ways to move the ball, penalties would back them up. And I have it here, you know, they were 112th in the country. They allowed 78 tackles. For loss over 12 games. Do that quick math, right? I mean, that's six and a half a game. So that's something that I look at and say, should the offensive line improve, should the running game and itself improve, especially with the talent, the running back position, absolutely. But still, there's part of me that thinks there's, you know, you got to sit there and at least see it before, you know, blanket is much better, so. And then penalties. Again, beating the dead horse here. Texas playing behind the change is something that, as good as you are on third and 17, drawing up a perfect play. Well, it doesn't happen often. When it does, it's talked about for years and years because it was your best opportunity to beat one of the best teams of all time. That's another low blow. I'm sorry. But again, stay ahead of the chains. Texas lived, lived behind the chains way too much in 2025.

[Jeff Howe]

Cisco. I just think it, I just think it needed, CJ's need a little more nuance like that, that nugget about 112th in the country and tackles for loss allowed, man, you know, like even you hit on it a little bit. CJ and I think we talked about this. Maybe we talked about it last night. I don't remember. But it's a good time as any to reset it. Even if you go back and watch the game against Texas A and M, man, it's not like Texas just moved the ball up and down the field against A M all night. Both those games, the two rivalry games, which I'm gonna touch on those here in a little bit in a different way, but both those games, man, Arch bailed out the offense big time in both those games. And yes, Trey Wisner played a role without question. But man, if you, if you had anybody but Arch Manning at quarterback, cj, I not saying you lose those games, but it's probably a lot closer than what the final score was us in both those games.

[C.J. Vogel]

No 100%. And that's why it's so important. Again, the schedule. And I'll lead this into your, your point here, Jeff. You're playing too many teams with too many talented quarterbacks for those margins to be shrunk the way that they were a year ago. And that leads into. Well, you especially can't have another slip up week two when you have a nine team, nine nine sec team schedule waiting for you.

[Jeff Howe]

Look, here's the reality, and take this for whatever it's worth. This is just my opinion. If Texas loses to Ohio State, like 8 and 4 becomes a real possibility for me. Yeah, I, I really think that because I, it's not just the totality of playing nine SEC games after that, but CJ I, I really think if you lose that game on September 12th, that's why I, I'm not afraid to call it a must win game. It's about as must win a game as Sark has had since he's been here. If you lose that game, C.J. i think from a, I think it can get in your head a little bit for maybe for Sark, for Arch. Like, I, I just. Where is that team going to be at mentally with another loss to Ohio State this time at home? When you, you beefed up this roster, you did everything you did in the off season and still coming up short against Ohio State. I just think mentally that could really mess with you.

[C.J. Vogel]

Well, yeah, that, that, that's my whole thing is like, I don't think as a result of losing to Ohio State, you go lose to Oklahoma or ole Ms. Or LSU. But what does that long term look like for you? Say Texas gets into the playoff even after losing to Ohio State, you're still looking at a team right now that has never beaten at Georgia, that's never beaten in Ohio State.

[Jeff Howe]

Right.

[C.J. Vogel]

Sark needs to have a feather in his cap over one of the better programs in America. And that game too, Jeff, I think just for, you know, getting in the playoff alone, that's great. That's obviously what you hope. But when it comes to winning and at least putting yourself in a position mentally to win a national championship, you at least need to know that, okay, we've been there. We can do this.

[Jeff Howe]

Yeah, I like this comment said, who do we beat? Week two in 2005, you beat Ohio State. But I, I know we can look back at that and granted it's 21 years ago, but I think we forget how bad that team needed that win. From a confidence standpoint. Yeah, you got to think of where the program was at the time. Like in the course, we wax poetic about the 05 team all day. You're still in the midst of a five game losing streak to Oklahoma. And as talented as you were early in the year, it was, can Mac Brown and Vince Young go in the big game? Because they didn't really do it in 04. Yes. Vy had the great Rose bowl against Michigan, but you had a shutout loss against Oklahoma the year before. So it's, can you, can you go win these big regular season games? And going up to Columbus, I believe that was the first night game at the Horseshoe when Texas went up there in 05. When that game, man, everybody you talked to, C.J. that was on that team, the shot in the arm, they got of confidence and juice and belief. It was it. It pretty much carried them through the rest of the year. Like they felt like, hey, we go on the road and beat Ohio State. By the way, go look at that Ohio state roster in 2005. I mean, that's Ted Gans, Antonio Holmes, AJ Hawk, Dante Whitner, a lot of first round draft picks, a lot of Pro Bowls, All Pro selections. Like that Ohio State roster was really, really talented. But C.J. rifle is. Oh, they felt like, hey, if we can go on the road in the Horseshoe and beat Ohio State, we can be anybody, anytime, anywhere.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah, I, I liken it a little bit last year to Indiana going to Eugene and beating Oregon 30 to 20.

[Jeff Howe]

Yeah, that's fair.

[C.J. Vogel]

That's a program that desperately needed a shot in the arm to say, hey, you do belong, right? I know for the entirety of the sport, you're Indiana. You're the. Losing his program ever. The year before you get to the College Football Playoff, you have a great year, but you get smoked by Ohio state and Columbus 38 to 15. And then you played Notre Dame in that College Football Playoff first round. And well, you're competitive, but you know, by the end of it, you lose by 10. But at the same time, it's like you're never in a position to win that game. You go on the road to Eugene, and that's after playing, I believe, illinois, beating them 70 to nothing. And then the three cupcakes right on your schedule, that's a real title contender. Where now you sit there and say, wait a minute, we, we just beat a team that many folks believe could be one of the better in the entire country. That's us now. We're one of the best teams in the entire country. For Texas, I think it's very much the same. You know that you can beat Oklahoma, you know that you beat A and M, because most of those guys in that locker room have never lost. To him.

[Jeff Howe]

I loved something, you know, shout out to, to my guy, Chris Hummer, he and I, on the 10 year anniversary of the national championship season, we did like a off season series of articles like kind of Looking back and Looking Forward and we did. It's one of the things I'm most proud of that I've done since I've been doing this. We did an oral history of the, of the, of the Championship game against usc, basically, whether it was like Roy Miller or Brian Iraqpur Huff, Selvin Young, like we had, I don't know how many interviews we have, but basically we went from like the, the pre game all the way through the end to where Selvin Young's telling the story about how they wanted to go out and party, but they got back to the hotel room and Vy had like a full body cramp. And like it's Selvin and I think Vince's mom and Steve McNair trying to get the cramp out. And so I was like, I just want to go party. Here's Vy like with a full body cramp. But he earned whatever view I wanted to do that night or whatever he needed that night he was going to get. But Michael Huff, at the end of that, we, we made the last line of the article said was Michael Huff. And we left it on questions like, well, if we beat the greatest college football team ever, does that make us the greatest college football team ever?

[C.J. Vogel]

See?

[Jeff Howe]

So yeah, I totally get what you're saying. If Texas beats Ohio State, like that can give you that kind of. Every team has that. That's why, like the 08 Texas team, that team deserved to play for a title because for them it was the Oklahoma game. We didn't know how good Texas was. And that's why, and that's why Jordan Shipley's kickoff return in that game, that's what made it so special. Because you got to remember, ou's up 14,3 at that point. And me, I've been at that point, I've been through 63, 14 and 65, 13. And Will Muschamp has gone on record saying that's the best college offense he's ever coached against Sam Bradford, Jermaine Gresham, demarco Murray and Trent Williams was on that team. And you're thinking, I'm thinking, oh, I've, I've seen this before. This is going to be a bad rerun. I've seen this before. It better. Something better happened pretty quick to change the momentum. And Jordan Shipley delivered one of the most prestigious uppercuts ever in that series with the kickoff return. But all great teams need that. C.J. if this team's going to be great, they need that against Ohio State. And because in a nine game SEC schedule, it doesn't matter who's better than who. The talent's going to be close enough that, man, there's going to be, it's probably going to happen to Texas. It's probably going to happen to Georgia. Like everybody in the league is going to go through it. Almost like we talk about a baseball weekend. There's me one weekend, man, or one game where you just don't have it. Like it's, it's just one of those weekends where Florida, one of those Saturdays. It's. Yeah, it's like the Florida game last year. It's. You play like your C minus game and if it's on the road against the right opponent on the right day, that could be a loss. Like I, I just think this league is too balanced, it's too deep for anybody to go undefeated against the nine game schedule.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah, no, I do too. And you didn't see it a year ago. Sark made the comment obviously at the beginning of the season in 2025. But that's again, we can talk about differences between SEC and Big Ten it undefeated season in a nine game SEC schedule. I just, that's tough. I don't see it happening.

[Jeff Howe]

Yeah, I don't either. But you know, we'll, we'll see what happens. But that's, that's our reasons for optimism and maybe a couple reasons to pump the brakes a little bit. But you can get more from that from CJ and the rest of the staff over at on texasfootball.com all right, let's shout out another one of our sponsors here on the Wednesday night live stream. This is a great opportunity for me to let everybody know that this edition of On Texas Football is brought to you by Prize Picks. We're always looking for ways to make watching the game a little more fun. That is exactly why we love Prize Picks. It's America's number one sports picks app and honestly we Prize picks about as simple as it gets for Player Picks. All you're doing is choosing more or less on player stats, locking your lineup and that's it. All you got to do. If you're someone who likes picking teams instead of individual players, Prize Picks has you covered there too. You can now pick the winner spread or the total on games or even fights. Prize Picks is available in most states including Texas, California and Florida. So chances are wherever you are you can jump in today. And one of our favorite features about Prize Picks is you can follow users too. If you like to up pick picks they're making, you can tail them with one click. You follow your friends picks too. So there's multiple ways you can get it done with Prize Picks. But here is the best part. This is the best part about price Picks. If You've never tried prize picks before. Play your first five dollar lineup, and if you win, you'll get a hundred and fifty dollars in bonus lineups. Just make sure you use the code HMA when you sign up. They actually just updated this offer, so there's never been a better time to get started Again. Download the prize picks app. Use the code HMA. Play that first five dollar lineup, and if you win, you'll get that $150 in bonus lineups. Again, the Prize Picks app code HMA. Good luck. And as always, please remember to play smart. Play responsibly. Play price picks. All right, cj, the floor is yours. We put a pin in this last night. You had a quarterback point you wanted to make, so I'm gonna. I'm gonna take this that I set off to the side last night. I'm gonna move it back here. The floor is your. Cj what is this quarterback point you wanted to make that has me intrigued?

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah. No, look, I was watching some Ohio State tape, trying to get an idea of what might be the same, what might be different. You know, where can Texas attack knowing that they're going to be a little bit more exotic this year than last year, especially up front. And, well, it just led me to think that Julian S. Fella looks really familiar. The way that he plays quarterback, Jeff, he. He looks like a spitting image to Quinn Ewers for me. And I tweeted this out earlier. Some folks agreed, some didn't, but I. I have some numbers that makes me think, all right, this is a pretty accurate comparison here. Julian saying 4.0 touchdown interception ratio, Quinn 3.7. Pretty close. They both take care of the football very well. Obviously they both find ways to score touchdowns with pressure. This is the big one for me. Julian S. Gets pressured about 26% of his snaps. Quinn was around 24%. Wind pressure. Julian Sands completion percentage was 59%. Quinn's 51. 59. 51. Right. Not great. Pressure obviously affects both of them.

[Jeff Howe]

I didn't realize it was that low

[C.J. Vogel]

for Quinn, but yeah, with no pressure. Julian Sane's the most accurate quarterback in the country. 82%. He is playing routes on air to the best wide receiving group in the entire country. And when you give him time, that ball is going right between the numbers right here. Quinn ewers 72. 72 and a half percent, again, north of 70, had a really, really strong group of wide receivers. Both guys in between 10 to 20 yards. As surgical as you will find. Absolutely phenomenal. Julian saying 66% Queen over 69, 10 touchdowns, two interceptions for Ewers, eight touchdowns, one interceptions for saying again, you put them in that range where, okay, the play action's working, the deep outs working crossing routes, you know, kind of those rising crossers, they'll put the ball wherever they need to go. But here's where the biggest conclusion of all of them came. And I was watching a lot of the Miami game and I even went back and watched a little bit of that, of that Indiana game. And Ohio State offensively averaged 12 points in those two games. And you sit there and say, well, why they have a, the most accurate quarterback in the entire country. They had a first round wide receiver in Cornell Tate. They have arguably the best wide receiver in the country in Jeremiah Smith. Why are they averaging 12 points to Indiana in Miami? It's pressure. It is simply pressure versus Indiana. 12 pressures, 5 sacks, 10 points. Sounds pretty familiar. Miami 17 pressures, 5 sacks, 14 points, 2024 Quinners against Georgia and Ohio State ring a Bell. Texas scored 15 points and 14 points. There was 40 combined pressures and nine sacks in those two games. And Quinn got benched in that game. They do not evade pressure very well, but boy, if you give them a lot of time, they're going to absolutely dice you apart. The other thing I wanted to mention is, look, the pressure to sack ratio for saying is a little bit better. It's about 16. Quinn's was about 25. So on 25 of the pressures that Quinn received, he ended up going down with the sack. The self sacks against Georgia I think obviously come to mind. But Quinn scrambled a little bit better, had north of 200 yards scrambling in 2023, saying last year only 48. So when given space, Quinn probably a little bit better of an athlete saying it better at finding that space to maneuver through. But I couldn't help Jeff but realize just pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure. Some guys are great under it. I think Arch last year against A M is, I mean we talked about

[Jeff Howe]

that earlier in the week.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah, boy was he under duress often in that fourth quarter. But that was where Texas found a rhythm. They found ways to get the ball where it needed to go. Jack, injuries, his legs, scrambling, whatever. But boy you pressure these guys or saying, I mean there's, there's a recipe there.

[Jeff Howe]

No, for sure. That's good stuff. Hey, you know I, I want to go to. I apologize for rambling right here. Nil and rev share mentioned it. CJ This, I think this kind of does dovetails from what you were talking about. So Texas only allowed 203 yards to Ohio State, but no sacks, no interceptions for Ohio State in that game. Very misleading defensive play performance. Hill and Simmons, no shows. Colin Simmons showed up. Colin showed up. Just probably not the way he wanted to with a couple of critical penalties. So. And Collins talked about that he was pressing a little bit and we got the Colin Simmons we expected to get last season by the end of the year, but I think to nil.

[C.J. Vogel]

REV.

[Jeff Howe]

Share's point, C.J. like, I just felt like in that game, specifically, Ryan Day and Brian Hartline did a really good job of insulating Julian, saying, like, they made it a point to say we're going to trust our defense against Arch. We're going to trust because Sark can go watch whatever film he wants. He has no film of Matt Patricia operating the Ohio State defense. So Matt Patricia had an advantage going into that game. It's almost like Ryan Day said, we're just going to make sure Julian sand doesn't lose this game for us. We don't need him to go win it, but he could definitely lose it and we're not going to let him lose it. And if that means we got to put Jeremiah Smith on the shelf for this week, then so be it. But we'll play ball control, field position, take our chance with our defense, and that was a winning formula. So, yeah, I do think it was a little bit deceptive from a Texas defensive standpoint and, and likewise with the Texas office. I mean, how many of us, myself included, came out of that game saying, oh, man, Texas gonna be able to run the football. Look, they just ran it up and down the field. Ohio State last, because Matt Patricia was saying, hey, take that run all you want, Sark, because I don't think you're patient enough to stick with it. Number one and number two, Arch Manning is not going to beat us throwing the football down the field, period, point blank in the story. And that was Ohio State. That Ohio State staff, I thought on both sides of the ball last year, called the exact games they needed to call to win that game.

[C.J. Vogel]

The scouting report was perfection.

[Jeff Howe]

Yeah, right.

[C.J. Vogel]

Exactly that. But you're, you're completely right about saying. And that's exactly what I came away with. It was like Texas just out gained Ohio State by about 140. But it was the two turnovers and of course, red zone conversions. Texas getting stuffed on the one. Ohio State needing four attempts. They found way to punch it in on fourth down. And what did they do very well with Julian saying at the time is, we're not going to put the ball in harm's way. We're going to find a way to get Jeremiah Smith involved. Now, he didn't help himself out. I believe two. Two drops really, you know, kind of hampered his impact. But when they did take a shot, it was one on one with Jalen Gilbert versus Carnell Tate. And if you're Ohio State, I think you sit there and say, if you're going to give us that, take that, we're going to take it. So, absolutely. They did a great job. How much do the training wheels come off this year? That's going to be interesting.

[Jeff Howe]

Yeah, I. I just felt like Indiana kind of. And again, like, can. Can. Does anybody have the kind of team defense like Indiana last year played some of the best team defense in college football I've seen in a long time.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah.

[Jeff Howe]

So it's not easy to replicate that, but I felt like if somebody could replicate it, Miami had the personnel to replicate it with those pass rushers, and they had guys that could cover in the secondary. They were able to replicate it a little bit in the Miami game. Man, it totally flipped on that Keonte Scott pick six early. And I think for Julian Saying, probably, and I'm not inside Julian Saying's head, I don't have any inside intel on the Ohio State program. But I got to think, C.J. coming off the Big Ten championship game, you did where it was underwhelming and the offense wasn't up to snuff, to come back and be like, all right, now we're gonna get. We're gonna get back on track, and then you come out and throw a pick six. Like, talk about the mental side of it, dude. That's gotta. That's got a mount on you. That's gotta weigh a little bit. And I just. I don't know. If you watch that Cotton bowl, it just seemed like Julian saying, never really got his feet underneath him. And if you're Texas, that's probably what you want to do. And again, stop me if you heard me say this before. If you're sarc, this is one of the reasons why you made the coordinator change, because Will Muschamp's gonna force the issue getting out.

[C.J. Vogel]

Absolutely.

[Jeff Howe]

Not Gonna let him sit there, sit back and play seven on seven, because that's not. That's not what playing quarterback's about.

[C.J. Vogel]

Have to make them feel uncomfortable. And if you do that, Look, I don't. I don't think anyone in the country will shut out Ohio State, But I think a hundred times out of 100. Jeff, if you play Ohio State and you sit there and say, hey, we just allowed 14 points, you'll take that every single time.

[Jeff Howe]

Yeah, for sure. No question. I got a queen yours point I want to make. I want to shout out another one of our sponsors, but let's carry this over. I got a queen yours point I do want to make. Shout out to another one of our fine sponsors here at On Texas Football on the Wednesday night live stream. Shout out to Laura Baker. This edition of On Texas Football is brought to you by. Accomplished Austin Wheeler, Laura Faker, Laurie and the Andy Allen team at Keller Williams can handle all your real estate needs in the greater Austin area. Laura's not only a die hard Longhorn fan, she's a longtime Austin real estate expert. So whatever your real estate needs are in the greater Austin area, give her a call at 512-784-0505. Again, that's 512-784-0505. And a huge shout out to Laura Baker for sponsoring the Wednesday night live stream here at on Texas football. C.J. i'm gonna borrow some kind of a, a phrase term. I don't know what the word is, the nomenclature here. I'm looking for it, but Bill Simmons is fond. I'm a Bill Simmons P1, and Bill's fond of using this. And I, I think this applies to Quinn. If you have that career generator and you play Quinn ewer's football career 10 times, the version we got might be though. I think it's the worst version.

[C.J. Vogel]

Oh, okay.

[Jeff Howe]

Because I think it goes back to. And it's, it's, it's weird because of, because you know, Quinn, his last high school season was 2020 and everything was wonky and the nil rules in the state of Texas, like, Quinn's an interesting case study because he's almost, he's, Quinn's almost patient zero for this. Like, he really is. I just gotta feel like the injury his junior year at South Lake on top of not getting that year where for that position specifically, you need, you need reps. You gotta have reps. And he didn't get those in what would have been his senior year at South Lake because he was red shirting at Ohio State. Then you throw in the injury early on in Texas. I mean, gosh, he was, he was cooking in that Bama game. CJ and then it came to an abrupt end. He was never really the same after that. And it just seemed like we never got to see. Rod and I talked about this. We never got to see with Quinn that sustained run like we've seen with all the great Texas quarterbacks. Like, go back however far you want to, you want to go back to like James Brown. Like James Brown, Major Apple White, Chris Sims, go down the list. Vy Colt, per. I'll take David Ash out of that mix because David Ash went through some of the same stuff. But you get to, you get to Sam, obviously now with Arch, we never saw Quinn get to have that sustained uninterrupted run where he could really build on one performance after the next because of the injuries. So I just feel like C.J. there's just a ton of stunted growth there, like, and we'll, a lot of it will never know. I do think again, if you play quinn yours career 10 times, I do think the version that we got is the worst version.

[C.J. Vogel]

You know, it's, it's really interesting. That's the angle because I, you know, I, I, I think most would agree that was a successful quarterback career at Texas. You go to the playoff twice, you won a Big 12 championship. You help us send Texas to an area in the college football hierarchy that just, they quite frankly just hadn't been in, in about two decades, but they still always just felt like there was a little meat on the bone. And what's also a bit of a shame is, you know, two games that Quinn lost in 2023, I thought he played phenomenal football outside of the two interceptions against Oklahoma. And I believe there was an interception on the first drive and then a fumble later. I think he ended up having a span of like going 29 of 32, passing the football. He was phenomenal. Right. And that was a game where you basically can make the argument that after digging that hole, the defense let him down.

[Jeff Howe]

Right.

[C.J. Vogel]

That final possession, time management, whatever. And again against Washington, you didn't really have a run game or when you did have a run game, you didn't stick with it enough. You throw for 380 and you lead what was looking like one of the most heroic comeback attempts in that fourth quarter. You sit there and say, man, you know, one extra completion here, 30 seconds, run off the clock there. You know, those are two major wins in the cap of Queen Ewers you just didn't quite get. Now, who knows if those nagging injuries or whatever was basically just poking him in the side for his entire career. Jeff just never happened. Who knows? And I, I think that's a really fascinating, it makes you think like, what could have been, which is what you never really want to think as a sports fan. Right. But it's completely valid.

[Jeff Howe]

There's a lot of discussion in the chat about Quinn's oblique injury. Cj if I'm remembering right, and I've slept since then, so I may be wrong. I think he did that like in the Tuesday practice, the week after, like the Tuesday after the Michigan game, I think is when that occurred. If I remember, I think it was early in that week leading up to the UTSA game.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yep.

[Jeff Howe]

And then he tried to tough it out and like, dude, the version of Quinn, we got an Ann Arbor, like, go. I'm not. This isn't me just saying it to say, like, go back and do some Google searches and find articles. It's, this is the number one pick in the draft. This is the Heisman front runner. Like, this is the guy. And it's just kind of, kind of a microcosm of Quinn's career. You see, when you see him at his best, you're like, this dude. This dude can lead you to a championship. Right. And then a couple days later, it's an injury, and then he misses a couple weeks. And then you kind of got to start bets. Two steps forward, two steps back.

[C.J. Vogel]

You know, in that conversation, I don't know if you did this intentionally, but something picked up. It was, you know, you just didn't get a lot of game throws in your senior year. Right. Talking about Quinn skipping a senior year, going to Ohio State, enrolling early, etc, there's something in there that I think is very. It will come up and be a very important topic of debate probably next year when Arch departs for the NFL. KJ Lacy was throwing 50 times a game at Sarah Land. He's in that 40 to 50 pass attempt range basically every game from his junior to senior year. You don't end up with the second most passing yards in Alabama State football history without doing. He has a lot of game attempts. On the flip side, Diabell does not only 228 pass attempts his senior year. Now, another guy that had to deal with some, you know, significant injuries or at least lingering injuries. But that's something that I look at and depending on how this season goes, I think that's going to be a major deciding factor, Jeff, when it comes to when the bullets are flying and you're having to play the quarterback position at a high level, the one who's had more attempts, the one that's had more experience. Doesn't matter to me the level in which they've done this because the instincts will kick in that's why I'm not sitting here at any point saying after arch it's dia. Because I think that experience and that extra snaps that KJ's had in his career, I think that's going to be the ultimate deciding factor. I do.

[Jeff Howe]

Yeah. I, man, I agree. Like, you know, I'm not, I'm not gonna compare K.J. lacey to Tom Brady. Right. I'm not gonna do that. But even going back, did I, did I think Tom Brady was going to have a Hall of Fame career? No. That he was going to be the greatest to ever play the position? No. Nobody thought that. I didn't think in a million years that'd be the case. But I was surprised he lasted till pick 199.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah.

[Jeff Howe]

Because I'm like, okay. All the guy did was even though he had the battle with Drew Hinton, I'm like, he played big time football in the Big Ten for two years and anytime Michigan was in a bind, like he's making a play to win them the game, like, that's gotta mean something at the end of the day. Like, I know he's had probably, he had probably the worst combine a quarterback has ever had and did not look the part. But I'm like, that there's so much more that goes into playing quarterback than that. Like to actually do it over and over and over again. The fact that you're just completely discarding that, it didn't make sense to me. I'm not saying he should have been in the first round, but the fact that he lasted till 199 in the draft was pretty absurd because like, there was plenty of information to go on that led you to believe, okay, maybe this could happen.

[C.J. Vogel]

Take a flyer on him and, and you know, that's something for Quinn specifically that you said there. You say, well, he was, I think, quarterback, 16 taken in the NFL drop teams, the dead last quarterback. And I believe there's a kid from South Dakota State that was taken ahead of him. There was Curtis Rourke from Indiana who had a great year, but had one working, one functional knee. Right. He played his entire senior year on one acl. And then there was Graham Mertz, who,

[Jeff Howe]

dude, that was the one that like that, that almost broke me.

[C.J. Vogel]

Graham Merch was terrible at Wisconsin and then he went down to Florida and was bad there. So much to the point where he got injured. They brought in DJ Lagway. They said, we like what we see with Lagway, but we're going to give you one more shot. And it wasn't until he just. He basically blew his knee out that they said, wait a minute. Our offense is actually working right now. So, look, was Quinn the perfect quarterback? No, Jeff. I do like the perfect practice, though, of, you know, the. At least thinking if you had another go at with Quinn.

[Narrator]

Yeah.

[C.J. Vogel]

Probably ends up more beneficial for everybody involved. But I just couldn't believe that given the body of work that Quinn had at a very high level at Texas.

[Jeff Howe]

Yeah, the grim merch thing. Like, it. Look, and maybe I'm proven wrong, but like, I, I watched Tyler Schuck play quarterback at like, the nine different schools he was at, and I'm like, I never got it. I don't get it. But apparently NFL GM's front office people get it. I. I don't know. I don't know. I didn't see it. We'll see what happens. But hey, I do want to get to something, though. And we got some supers to get to. We'll get to the supers. I see. I see you guys with super chats. I only want to get to this C.J. because I don't. I don't want to waste the time that Matthew spent making the graphics. So shout out to producer Matt for the job he does. I wrote an article earlier this week over on texas football.com about Sark and rivalry games. And I crunched some rivalry numbers. And it's, it's Sark's record against Oklahoma against Texas A M. And I, I threw Arkansas in there just because. And we'll talk about that in a second. But you look at Sark's record in Those rivalry games, C.J. sark's 3 and 2 record against Oklahoma. I looked at Texas coaches in the AP Poll era, their first five games against Oklahoma, the only two coaches with a better record against OU, Fred Akers and Daryl Royal, both were 4 and 1. Sark is also one of three Texas coaches. And by the way, the AP Pole era, that starts with the 1936 season. We're almost talking 100 years of football here. Sark, Fred Acres and Daryl Royal are the only Texas coaches in the AP Poll era to start 2.0against Texas a M. And if you look even at Sark's record against Arkansas at 2 and 1, the only Texas coach in the AP Poll era with a better record against Arkansas through their first three games, Darryl Royal was 3.

[C.J. Vogel]

0.

[Jeff Howe]

So basically, if you look at success and rivalry game, CJ in the AP pole era, Sark is right there with coach Royal and Fred Akers as two coaches that know what it takes to get it done around. And look, we can talk. The Sark have his faults. Absolutely. Are there things that drive everybody nuts about Sark? Yes, there's things about Sarko that drive me nuts. But man, he understands. He really comprehends and has his mind and body and soul wrapped around the fact that no, these are not just another game on the schedule. You h. If you're the head coach at Texas, you have to beat Oklahoma and Texas A and M and I even thr Arkansas in there, you have to beat them more times than you lose. And Sark has done a great job of that.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yes, yes. And even if, like, he'll never sit here and say success is beating the three of those schools, but you'll hear it from all three of those coaches. Right. Elko has come out and said, big boosters want us to beat Texas no matter what we do in the year. And what was it, Pittman a few years ago at SEC media days in Dallas, hey, if I do anything this year, it's to defeat Texas.

[Jeff Howe]

Right.

[C.J. Vogel]

That's what we're based off. Or that's how we evaluate and measure success. It's funny looking at those three losses, right? The Arkansas 20, 21 loss.

[Jeff Howe]

Tough, tough sarcasm words about that. Like I, I was in Fayetteville, like, yeah, you got. You got taken. You gotta. As Rod Babers would call it. That's an old style biblical butt whooping. You got that?

[C.J. Vogel]

Yes, yes. But I, those, I mean, you could very, very well make the argument that Texas should be 50 against Oklahoma.

[Jeff Howe]

Yeah.

[C.J. Vogel]

If it wasn't for the heroics of Caleb Wilson or Williams. And look, I. Again, that late last second comeback from Dylan Gabriel, you know, they basically just ripped out both victories. Right.

[Jeff Howe]

Right.

[C.J. Vogel]

From your hands. In which Texas could have been on a pretty significant win streak in that series.

[Jeff Howe]

Here's. Here's one thing I do want to bring up to you though, C.J. i don't think there's any question, like we know the hierarchy and where Oklahoma and A M are. Texas fans, like, those are. They're 1, 2 as far as rivals go. It's however you want to rank them, rank them. How do you feel about Arkansas? Because if you go back to the Southwest Conference days, like, yeah, Arkansas was just as much of a rival as the other two, but I was in the second grade the last time Texas and Arkansas played where that was an annual game because Arkansas left for the SEC after the 91 season. CJ you can't just pick it up after 30 years and be like, hey, all right, we're still right. Was like, nah, man, we got some lots happened in three decades.

[C.J. Vogel]

Like we can't, you can't just pick

[Jeff Howe]

it up like that.

[C.J. Vogel]

They're. They're a team in the conference to me. And that's about that. I don't think that there's a sport that if they were to come to Austin, folks stop exactly everything that they're doing for that weekend. Say we got to go beat John Calipari, we gotta go be Arkansas. Baseball, they're great programs, but that traction doesn't sit there the way that what I now assume or at least feel like Georgia has. And I'm not considering Texas and Georgia be rivals. Right. To be a rival, you have to have a give and take. But that's exactly why I'm sitting here saying it doesn't feel like that with Arkansas now in football specifically, it's going to be a while before I feel like Arkansas, Arkansas is going to be on that same level as Texas and A M or in Oklahoma. And Jeff, to be completely honest, I don't know if I'll ever get that feeling again because it's revisionist to me. It's. This is what it used to be. So we have to do it now. Why you're going to start playing LSU every year. You've already started to play Georgia like this. So, you know, I don't care about Arkansas.

[Jeff Howe]

I do think though that the Texas Arkansas game will stay an annual game because I think from the Arkansas and the SEC can't accommodate everybody. But for Arkansas fans, that that's the, that's the game they want every year.

[Narrator]

Yeah.

[Jeff Howe]

And so from that standpoint, C.J. i would say, hey, if you're not familiar with how you should feel about Arkansas, think of it when in the Big 12 days, anytime Texas played any of Tech, Baylor or TCU like it's an in state game. There's history there. But it means a lot more to them than it means to you.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yes, and it always will. It always will that someone made a comment in here earlier. I don't, I don't want to go down that rabbit hole because this again, Jeff, the whole rival or do we consider them a rival? Do we consider them not? Is is peak offseason discussion and we're about a week away from not having to debate who's arrival and who's not.

[Jeff Howe]

Goodness, man. Jerseys or whatever else. Yeah.

[C.J. Vogel]

Texas Tech would have been phenomenal. Would have been phenomenal. And they're in today's day and age. Texas fans I know will never want to admit that Texas Tech is a team that they even acknowledge. But in the sense of what Arkansas means to the grand scheme of the rivalry situation at the University of Texas, Texas Tech would have eclipsed that almost immediately in my eyes given what's transpired over the last two years in, in Lubbock.

[Jeff Howe]

But I'm, I'm will I'm willing to give Arkansas fans the benefit of the doubt. Like, all right, I'll, I'll play along. C.J. i'll be a willing participant in this. If it's yes, if it means that much to the Arkansas fans, then okay, I'll, I'll, I'll play along because like I said, I don't think this game is going anywhere. I think it's going to be on the schedule. I think it'll be. I mean, shoot, we might get to a point where I think it's more likely that because I know the, the rivals that your, your permanent rivals. Permanent air quotes are going to rotate. I think it's more likely that Texas keeps Oklahoma and Arkansas and A M falls off and is replaced by somebody for a four year period. I think that's more like it. I hope that doesn't happen because do the two game. The two games have been awesome. Like I love the fact that they play every year, but I just feel like that's if, if Arkansas wants nothing else, if they, I think they would they have to hold on to address the power. The powers that be at Arkansas, whether it's Hunter Yuricheck or anybody else would tell Greg Sankey, if you give us nothing else on the schedule, just give us the Texas game all.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yep, I completely agree. I also kind of hugh Arkansas is kind of just that abandoned orphan in the conference. I mean if it weren't for them holding on to like the Pinky of Texas walking across the street, they'd be left at the stoplight. Like who else is there? They tried to force that Texas A M Arkansas rivalry at Jerry at Jerry World and it was cool for about

[Jeff Howe]

a year or two.

[C.J. Vogel]

It's like this was, this was cool but like outside of the two schools fan bases who were probably a little upset that they Dave's games aren't already on campuses, no one was tuning in outside of those two markets. And beyond that in football, Arkansas again is, you know, dropping the bucket for what the SEC brings to the table. So they have to sit there and kind of hold on to Texas for that one game that even their own face fan base will get up for.

[Jeff Howe]

Yeah. Syracuse. Horn says. C.J. i wants to know, C.J. if you've ever been to Fayette, Nam, I believe you have. I've been in 2021. Look, my wife's side of the family is from Arkansas, so anytime we go up there, I love wearing my Texas gear and having people shoot dirty looks at me. But man, it, it is going to Fayetteville in 2021 there was about as hostile of a road environment as I've ever been in following this program.

[C.J. Vogel]

Oh, yeah.

[Jeff Howe]

Like, it was, it was every, it was everything you thought it would be and then some. Yeah, go ahead, C.J.

[C.J. Vogel]

i'm sorry, real quick. Let me, let me clear this up. Arkansas is a bigger rival than Tech. Absolutely. I'm saying if they started playing every year, Texas, Texas Tech, every year at their given state, given the back and forth with the coaches, given the relevancy of both programs being in the College Football Playoff and multiple years recently, that would then become a bigger, bigger rivalry. Without question. There's not been a significant moment in Texas and Arkansas in my life. At least not in the last 15 years. Yeah.

[Jeff Howe]

Harrison Saunders says Frank Broyles versus Daryl Royal was a rivalry. Dude, if Sark wants to. And granted, coaches don't have the shelf life now like Coach Royal had. Where you're there for 20 years just doesn't happen. But beating your rivals is a really good pathway to success. CJ I want to give you some Darryl Royal numbers because I, I, it just puts into perspective Coach Royal is the goat. We all know that his name's on a stadium, but this is, this is Daryl Royal's record against those three teams against Oklahoma, his alma mater. 12, 7 and 1. Basically, he went a long way toward getting the legendary Bud Wilkinson run out of Norman because he just kept beating, started beating him every year. 17 and three against the Aggies and 15 and 15 and five against Arkansas. So against those three rivals, Darrell Royals record 44, 15 and one.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah, that's pretty good.

[Jeff Howe]

That'll work, man. That'll work.

[C.J. Vogel]

That, that helps get your name on the stadium real quick. I did have to look this up. Frank Broyles from 1958. Jeff. To 1976. If that's the rivalry that we're going off of, then, yeah, I'm, I'm completely fine dismissing Arkansas. Completely fine.

[Narrator]

Yeah.

[Jeff Howe]

Coach Royal got to Texas in 57. So they were, they were contemporary. So. And David Keith Williams mentioned, too. Lou Holtz versus Fred Akers was good. If Fred Akers, that was seven and three against Arkansas, but did Have a couple road losses, including that loss, I believe it was in 82. Two. No, it's 81. The road loss from Texas was number one in the country. That probably ended up costing Texas a national championship. Definitely led to SMU getting to share the conference championship. But hey, cj, let's get to some of these supers before we're done here. Brandon Morgan with the super chat. Brandon, much appreciated. Thank you as always. Sincerely, we do appreciate it. So if you had to pick on the defensive side, which defensive player you would want to lead this defense as a leader? Baron, Michael Taff or Makuba? Who'd you go? I guess if we're having. Dude, with all due respect to the other two, like, if you're telling me I get not just from a leadership standpoint, I know that's going to be there. If you get another year like today Baron had in 2024. I'll take that all day, every day. Yeah.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah. From that safety room, Jelani McDonald is going to make that jump. I know that that's kind of who they've been leaning on as their vocal mouthpiece as the leader of a defense. It's going to be Collinson. He's made it very apparent. He spoke about it SEC media day saying, I know what I mean to this program. I know what I mean to this defense. That's who they're going to lean on this year from a pure leader. Of those three, I think Taff was probably the biggest leader. But the performance on the field, give me John A. Baron.

[Jeff Howe]

I, I just give me today. I'll, I'll, I'll take today. No disrespect to the other two. Just give me today. So Brandon, thank you. Thank you for the super chat, Brandon. So I, I don't know, Brandon, if you were asking like, which defensive player now is going to lead that way or which one of those three that we take, but CJ and I just covered both sides of that for you, so hopefully Justin Yarrow. Justin, always appreciate the, the questions, comments and the supers, thank you very much. And one day closer to fall Campos, who be y' all's dream guest on the show other than me. I can tell you this. Not sing, man, until I can tell you that much. I know I, I, I love you. C.J. doesn't, but I do. I'll tell you this because we, we got, we got this question. This was in a thread over on texas football.com for me and I, I don't think he'll ever do it, but I, it would be Chris Sims. I would want to be the, the show, the, the entity, whatever. If it's coffee and football, it doesn't matter. Be the public. Got that public bridge to build between Chris Sims and Texas. Like, I know if you listen to pro football talk again, there's plenty of clips out there like, Chris loves his alma mater. He's. He's pro Texas. But for me, cj, I just, I, it's long overdue to, to mend that fence publicly. I think that would be cool. Yeah.

[C.J. Vogel]

Dream guests, given the last 12 days, I'd like to hear from Kyle Shanahan.

[Jeff Howe]

I mean, yeah,

[C.J. Vogel]

there's some, some noteworthy news in there. Dream guests. Look, you know, it's really interesting. We've, we've had a lot. We've been very fortunate to have a lot of very successful, you know, historic Texas. Longhorn figures. Kevin Durant set him down. Talk about his time at Texas, talk about some of his achievements in the NBA is one that I look at and say, hey, you're now in a way a representative of the university. Given the relationship with the KD brand, I'd love to hear about from Kevin Orant and sit down.

[Jeff Howe]

I know he's not here, but, man, if, if, if there was a way to resurrect Augie Garrido and have Auggie do something weekly, I would, that would be, I'd be. That would be fun to do that. Love, love being around Augie the time I was. Yeah, for me know, it, it would probably. Actually, it would. I, I say Chris Sims, but I would want somebody that's been around Texas like, I think, like maybe not. He might not do it in this form. I think a sit down where you could get just an honest time out of Greg Davis, I think would be, Would be fascinating. Sandman, we're hashtag4craig always on this show. The Undertaker. The Undertaker is a good one. I think I would be. I think I would fanboy it up too much. I don't think I could conduct that interview. I think I just have to. To watch. But no, I like somebody like Greg Davis, like somebody like that or somebody that was in like, you know, the personnel department or that was inside the football office or whatever. I think somebody like that that really has stories to tell, I think could be fascinating.

[C.J. Vogel]

That would be. Interest anybody that would be, you know, willing to just kind of divulge in behind the scenes stories that the common folk outside of the program wouldn't know about that. Would someone tell me everything?

[Jeff Howe]

Yeah, Sandman, that's another interview. Stone Cold Steve Austin is one of those interviews. I couldn't be a part of it. I would fanboy way too hard. That was, there was something else I was going to mention but I, I got sidetracked and forgot. But no, that's, that's good, Justin. Always appreciate the cool questions. Terrence Jones with the super chat. Thank you, Terrence, for the super chat. So, Jeff, C.J. i don't know if y' all talked about the ship, but do you think Arch can break Colt McCoy's single season passing records this year? Yeah, we talked about it. C.J.

[C.J. Vogel]

what'd you say?

[Jeff Howe]

The, the kind of the, the per game number would need to be for, for Arch to do that to get to 4, 000.

[C.J. Vogel]

275 in 14 games gets you right to 3850, which is one yard over. So if that's the mark, 275 gets you to what about 3312 games? That, that's the, that's the mark. And I'm Matthew. Jeff after the show. I have an idea. But yes, Terence, I think that was one of the, the buyer cells that I had in the article today. Arch breaks the single season Texas passing record this year. Bye. Bye. Bye.

[Jeff Howe]

The arcs march to 4K. I think I'm, I'm ready to start the campaign. Yeah, I think it's very, I think it's very, very doable. It's very feasible. So Terence, thank you for the super chat. Rocky P. Last super chat. Unless someone beats the buzzer here, Buy or sell, the secondary could be the strength of the defense by the end of the year. So it's actually going to be scary. You're selling all the way.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah, I'm not even touching that. I'm not even looking down the aisle.

[Jeff Howe]

I just think your defensive front's too good. Number one and number two, like I, I guess, I guess Rocky. My question would be is it a strength of the defense because they're forcing turnovers Like I look, you're gonna give up some points like there's a risk reward to the way Will Muschamp calls defense as well. But going back to what we talked about at the top, cj, I think Sark is fine with that. Hey, if that's just an extra possession for the offense, like we'll make up that score, like you've got the firepower to do it. That's why you can have some risk reward on defense now because that, if you get us a turnover, that's great because you get an extra possession if you give up a quick score, we're not going to sweat it because we got the firepower to go match it and, and get the momentum back. So. Yeah, I, I just, I don't, I don't. I wish we could go more in depth with that Rocky, but I'm kind of with CJ. I just think your defensive front, as long as Colin Simmons is a part of your defensive front, that's the strength of your football team.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yep, 100 on that. And again, I just don't know who Texas is going to try it out as their number two safety, nor do I think, I mean, is he going to be as impactful as a Makuba, a TAF or anyone that Texas has had. Jelani. Probably not. And for that, probably not going to be as deep.

[Jeff Howe]

That's gonna be that because I mean, I think we'll see who lines up left guard number one next week in practice if we see the offensive line together. But who's that number one safety and if we get practice windows, does it change? And if not, if we hear after the first scrimmage, does it change? Like that's. That to me is every bit as in say this, the safety spot next to Jelani McDonald. Every bit is intriguing as left guard this year.

[C.J. Vogel]

Sasquatch.

[Jeff Howe]

None other than Huey. Thank you. 0 shows I've been a part of since Jonah Williams was mentioned.

[C.J. Vogel]

He's going to be the Loch Ness Monster, Jeff. You hear about him, you vaguely see him. Is he real?

[Jeff Howe]

I. I hope he is. I hope he is, man. Because we talk about the talents, just we know, we know what Jonah is. If he's healthy. If he's healthy is the key part though. Yeah. All right. I think that is gonna do it for the Wednesday night live stream. Cj thank you for the time, the knowledge, the intel, the expertise. As always, big thank you to Matthew behind the scenes doing the great job that he does for us, the MVP of on Texas football. I do not say that tongue in cheek, Matthew. Seriously, we would be in a world of hurt without producer Matt. So do appreciate it. Thank you to our sponsors tonight, Andy Ludicky and my producer franchise Prize Picks and Laura Baker for sponsoring the show. Hey, if you're not a member over@ontexas football.com make sure you get over the site. Check out everything we've got going on over there. Make sure that you like this video. Make sure you're subscribed to the on Texas Football YouTube channel and make sure you got your notifications set. That way, anytime we go live or drop a new video, you're not missing any of our Longhorn coverage or breaking news. C.J. will be back tomorrow night for for the Thursday night live stream. That's the winning drive crew. It's C.J. it's the coach, Bob Shipley, and it's Lifetime Longhorn Rod Babers. If you had a question we didn't get to, you can direct it to the guys bright and early tomorrow morning. Coffee and football. C.J. any final word, final thought before we're done here?

[C.J. Vogel]

No. I'm gonna go get some ice cream

[Jeff Howe]

and watch movie probably hashtag band Sandman.

[C.J. Vogel]

Yeah, get him out here.

[Jeff Howe]

And hashtag for Craig. Yes, thank you. Thank you for that in the chat. All right, so for Craig, for C.J. for Matthew, for the entire on Texas football staff and even, yes, for you, Sandman. I am Jeff Howe. Thank you so much for watching and listening and until next time, welcome.

[C.J. Vogel]

Oh, that's good. That's good.