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Rod Babers Breaks Down How John Meredith Can Make an IMPACT in 2026 | Texas Football
00:19:34
John Meredith III reclassifying to Texas football is a major shift. Learn how this decision impacts the 2026 roster expectations. Jeff Howe and Rod Babers analyze the latest Texas football news regarding John Meredith III. This breakdown is for...
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Clonmel Healthcare what can we expect from John Meredith III in what surprisingly didn't expect it is now going to be his debut season on the 40 acres. We'll talk about it here on this latest edition of On Texas Football, brought to you by Prize Picks. I'm Jeff how, joined by somebody who knows a little something about playing defensive back, Lifetime Longhorn, Rod Babers. Rod, we've talked about the what, which is John Meredith reclassifying joining the Texas football team for the 2026 season. We talked about the what. We've even gotten into the nitty gritty of how this all came about. But let's talk about expectations because that's the prevailing question. Like, okay, what can you realistically expect from John Meredith? Rod, I know college football has changed a lot since you debuted on the 40 acres way back in 1999. Yes, before there was a two in front of our years is when Rod on the 40 acres. But Rod, what can John Meredith expect? It's hard enough for a young DB to enter a room, especially a room as talented as the one Texas has. But in a matter of we weeks, Rod, you go from preparing to what you're going to do for your senior year of high school to all of a sudden now you're at One of the most competitive DB rooms in the country. What's John Meredith walking into? First and foremost.
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Yeah. Interesting. And you know. You know, so I kind of talked about it. I think right now, because you do have some confidence in the corners that you have on campus right now and in some of the depth you have right at the cornerback position to the point where you were able to move Kobe Black to safety, that there's a luxury of bringing in John Meredith where you don't need anything from him right away. And I think that actually is going to be helpful in his development and I think also for his transition to the next level. Now, don't get it twisted. I think he's got some elite traits, but I don't think Texas needs anything from him right away at the cornerback position. And I'm coming on campus. He's athletic, he's freaky. He's definitely somebody that can contribute on special teams for you right away, I throw him out there. See, he can be. I don't know who the starting gunners are going to be for Texas. That guy should be in the conversation to be one of your starting gunners. Punt block units and punt return units. He's one of those guys. He's long, he's twitchy, he's got freakish elite traits. I throw him out there because he's so big. I mean, he can fit a number of your different responsibilities and obligations that you have on special teams. So for. For me, right now, I just want to see his competitive juices. If I'm the coaches, I throw them out there with some simple, simple tasks pretty much. As a player on special team. That's what I love about social teams. Like, you pretty much got one responsibility on special teams. It's not like being a starter on offensive defense. So it's pretty easy for guys to be in a transition and just use their freakish athleticism at the next level. So that's where I expect to see him early on. But there's no doubt by 2027 I'll make. He should be competing for a starting spot for Texas. If you look at the way the DBs are situated in 26 and going forward in 27, if everything goes according
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to plan, that is very fair, Rod. I think to put that on him to. Hey, not expecting him to compete for starting snaps now, but when we get to spring ball 2027, he's going to be one of those guys that everybody's got circled that we're all talking about. This may sound old school of me, Rod, but I think the guys in that room at Corner, I do think they've got it. They've got an edge from this standpoint. They were all there for winter conditioning and spring practice, and they've been slugging it out in summer conditioning and they've been with Will Muschamp and Mark Orfe. So the learning curve for John Meredith is going to be pretty steep for him to get caught up. It's almost unrealistic to expect him to get to a point where by the opener he's going to be ready to do something. He's probably at that point just typical for what you'd expect from a freshman, especially a freshman reclassifying and enrolling when he is, but probably just trying to keep his head above water at that point. Yeah, but what I do, what I am intrigued, though, Rod is with this, if he is a prodigy, if he's a quick study, unlike everybody else in that room, probably with the exception of Bo Masco, since he's a portal guy, John Meredith a must champ guy. This is a guy Will Muschamp went out and recruited. And now that he's overseeing the defense, John Meredith fast tracks at Rod. That's when you can feel like, okay, if I'm maybe not if I'm Kate Black, maybe not if I'm Cade Phillips or Grayson Littleton or Bo Masco, if I'm those guys, I'm probably not worried. But if I'm maybe even Smoke Matthews, Warren Roberson, if I'm one of those guys further down on the depth chart, then if John Meredith's a quick study, those are the guys that I think might be worried a little bit about the freshman coming to take some snaps.
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I'm glad you brought that point up because not only is he considered like a prodigy. Right. Are you talking about the, the highest, what rated players actually, that Texas has recruited in the modern era. But he's compatible with the, with the Must Champ scheme. To your point about him being a must champ guy. Right. One of the first calls that must champ had in recruiting when he got to Texas because must have wants to play. And he's now saying it out loud more. You probably experiences at the Texas high school coaching clinic there that they want to play aggressive, sticky man coverage. That's what Texas ultimately wants to do. And I think they want to play even more press man. So I went back and looked at before Must Champ's time there at Georgia because Georgia, he's not. He's influencing the defense. He's not necessarily calling the shots. Right. So I went back to last time he was calling the shots on defense there at South Carolina. And look at their man rates, right? How often they played man coverage. So how about this little stat? So out of 421 cornerbacks, this is PFF that had at least 100 coverage snaps in 2020. This is what the South Carolina cornerbacks, this is where they ranked in man rate 14th, 22nd, 31st, 33rd and 71st out of 421 cornerbacks. They were playing a lot of hand coverage. And now we looked at my spring showcase notes from obviously spring showcase that we had. Well, Must Champ was obviously the architect of that defense. You had over 50 man rates, over 50 press rates as well, which would, which would have been some of the highest rates in the country. So I do think he, I think Stark has also talked about it. I think must wants to play especially situationally more aggressive press man coverage if they can do it. And John Meredith with the, the length and the long limbs and the wingspan six to frame the, you know, the, the twitchy clothes, twitchy explosive coming in of his breaks and the closing speed that he has as well, he really does have all the traits you would covet for a press man coverage corner. He's the prototype, the archetype, whatever you want to call it. So I think ultimately that would, that's going to help him transition and that could help him play earlier in must Champ system man coverage is simple. You're playing a lot of zone coverage, which Texas was playing a lot of zone. Under pk there is a lot of route, you know, diagnosis. There is a lot of, you know, understanding route concepts, you know, progression reads for your cornerbacks, going from quarterback to number one to number two, number three, a lot of eye discipline. You don't need all that stuff in man coverage. You got that guy. Go cover that guy. Now you want some, some technique discipline for guys to have good technique. And by the way, I think he actually does have pretty good technique. He's got so, so much raw potential that his closing speed, his length, his physicality. One thing that's also going to help him transition early. He's a really physical player. Go watch his film. It's a guy that will run through a block. All right. To go destroy a wide receiver screen. That is a non negotiable in must Champ system, zero point. He's really compatible football character and football trait wise with the Must Champs King.
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You know, we're always looking for ways
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I'm glad you mentioned the Texas High School Coaches association convention in Houston because Will Muschamp did give a presentation and funny enough, his chalk talk was he basically gave a defensive back clinic and he walked through what the kind of his checklist for defensive backs, right? Like he likes guys that are 6 foot and above. Not to say if you're sub 6 foot you can't play, but make it a point to say as he's running down this checklist, hey, if you're deficient in one area, you better be elite in another area. That's why Will Muschamp can go help recruit a quandary digs. That's why he still says maybe the best all around DB he's had in, in a lot of areas is Earl Thomas. Earl Thomas is not 6 foot, so. But he's running down the list of qualifications, Rod, you're looking at. Okay, he wants guys that are tall, got some length, can jam, guys can really get aggressive man coverage because he said, hey, in man to man coverage, you win at the line of scrimmage and as he's running all this down, guys that can play the ball, guys that are at least you got to be a willing tackler. And I'm thinking, man, all this sounds like a John Meredith checklist. Like, this looks like John Meredith is what this looks like. Basically Will must champ wants in a db. So I say all that to say this, Rod, I've always felt like corner is one of those positions and it's no disrespect to you. And the other corners out there felt like corner is one of those positions that the transition for a guy from high school to college is probably easier than other positions, especially when you look at offensive line or quarterback or any of those other spots. You think in 2026, even as nuanced as coverages have gotten, and Will Muschamp demands a lot out of his corners, is it still realistic to think if a freshman is a prodigy? And that's the caveat we're using for John Meredith, can he come in and kind of make some noise earlier than you might expect?
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I think so. And I agree with you, by the way. So no disrespect. I think cornerback is one of those positions kind of like running back. I think wide receivers probably in there too, where a guy can transition if he's a prodigy and have success and have productivity early on as a true freshman. So if you're playing high rates of man coverage which we assume and predicting that must champ will high rates of man coverage, I think that also is going to help a young player transition. You and I for years talked about Leonard Moore was one of my favorite DBs coming out of the Austin area. When Notre Dame recruited Notre Dame, what do they do play a lot of man coverage. They play out a press man and he was a prodigy. One of my favorite quarterbacks coming out and I was like, I think he's going to be a good player for Notre Dame early on because they play a lot of press man and he was able to start for him right as a freshman because playing and I actually I'm also an example of this too. When Bo Reese was playing in Texas, you went back in 1999, I started two games as a nickelback. But when I started as a sophomore, we were predominantly a man coverage team. And that's what helped me play early and start as a sophomore was that we were just basically playing a lot of man coverage. That wasn't a lot of route diagnosis, not a lot of progression the reads defensively I didn't have to have some of eye discipline. All that coming within the scope of being a technician playing press man coverage. But it was easy just go cover that guy. Go play sticky coverage on that dude. So I'm with you. I think John Meredith because of that, you know, I'm not saying this season in 2026, but who knows. Hopefully that's not the case because you're the guys that you have projected as starters are going to play really well and Ross to the occasion. But he can play sooner rather than later just because of the compatibility with the must champ scheme and the must champ, like you said, kind of the football character that must champ covets at the cornerback position. He pretty much checks all those boxes.
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The we'll. We'll wrap it up with this Rod. If nothing else. I like the fact we saw during spring ball this staff, they challenged Katie Phillips a little bit. Especially when you look at how the depth chart was positioned by the end of spring practice, you could tell they were challenging Kate Phillips a little bit. Bo Masco comes and makes an immediate impact. I think they're still trying to figure out how to maximize Grayson Littleton. I like this Roddy for nothing else and I'm with you. I think John Meredith if he's going to make an impact in 26, it could be in the kicking game. It could be on special teams where in a five for five world you don't have to worry about do we play him in more than four games and he lose, we waste a year like, no, just get him out there, let him play. And if he's ready, he's ready. If he's not, then you don't feel like you've got to rush him out there. However you want to slice it. But when you look at that corner room, Rod, I like, if nothing else, you're bringing a really talented body into a room where the guys at the top of the depth chart are going to continue to feel the pressure to keep working to maintain their status atop the depth chart. And I love that for this team.
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Yeah, you bring those guys in that can, you know, start at the bottom of the depth chart and work their way all the way to the front putting pressure on not only the second string guys, but putting pressure on the starters as well. And that's that competitive pressure that's really going to uplift that entire room. And I felt that, by the way, because I remember when I was a veteran on the team and bringing a young Michael Huff and young Cedric Griffins at a young Nathan Basher, trust me, it really does push you to the top of your game to have those guys in that same room who you know are really talented and are gonna play like because their talent is undeniable. But you gotta have that Robbie mentality that I had, that yes, I know Huff daddy's gonna be good and probably better than me. Same thing with Cedric Griffin, Nathan, but you ain't taking my job, all right, so. And you have that mentality and everybody in that room gets better. And I think you may be having that right now with John Meredith, Smoke Matthews, some of these young players coming in who are some really, really bright spots and tremendous upside players.
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All right, Rod, thank you for the time, the knowledge, the intel, the expertise, as always, that was really good stuff. Big thank you to Matthew behind the scenes for producing it, doing the great job that he does for us here at On Texas Football. Thank you to prize Picks for sponsoring this edition of On Texas Football. You're not going to get better defensive back analysis in the Texas market or heck, maybe anywhere. Then you're going to get it on Texas football since we've got Rod Babers on our team and you're not going to get better Texas coverage, whether it's the recruiting trail or anything going on on the 40 acres than what we've got going on over@ontexasfootball.com so make sure you check out the site. Make sure you like this video, make sure you're subscribed to the on Texas Football YouTube channel and make sure you got your notification set. That way, anytime we drop a new video or go live like we did when John Meredith announced he was reclassifying and joining Texas in 2026, you're not going to miss any of our Longhorn coverage or breaking news. Rod for Matthew for the entire On Texas Football staff, I'm Jeff Howe. Thank you so much for watching and listening. And until next time, with a great
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