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Foreign.
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Welcome in everyone to the Longhorn Republic, your source for Texas Longhorn news, sports and opinions with the better snark built in. We are members of the Dave Campbell Texas Football Podcast Network and the College Football Huddle and you can find more about both those great organizations in our social media bios. If you like what we do, please leave us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. It helps get the show out there. Share this on any podcast platform you found us. We'd love to have folks as part of our little community connect with us on social media onghornpod on Twitter and bluesky, Facebook and Instagram the Longhorn Republic. Or shoot us an email longhorned public podmail and.com My name is Gerald Goodridge. I'm your host this week like I am every week, and I'm joined by a man who promised to be on his best behavior, Kyle Carpenter. Kyle, how are you?
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A
Look, I I, I am excited to welcome in a friend and to be friendly. I'm not going to talk anything about his shade of orange being undercooked. I'm not going to be talking anything about, you know, who owns the rights to the block ut on which side of the Mississippi. I'm leaving all of that to the lawyers and we're just going to hear have a friendly conversation about two teams who style themselves the University of T Parentheses Exis or nsc. Yeah, this should be fun. Look I I it they're pretty good at almost all sports. Like Texas obviously is the best all sports school we see that year in, year out. But like remember, like this is the Pat Summit, Joanie Codrad, like two women's basketball powerhouses. Like they're great at softball, they're great at men's basketball with Rick Barnes as their coach. Like there's a lot of similarities in this. We just need to lean in and embrace it. We can either hate them with every ounce of our being or be really friendly to them. But like we have to lean in. We haven't had a chance to play them in football, so we'll find out after this game. But this could be a brotherhood.
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B
I think we've got our friend from Tennessee here to help us preview the Volunteers as we talk about all the time. We are smart enough to know that we're not smart enough to know everything. So we've got the experts in here help us preview the Tennessee Volunteers and we'll obviously close your show out. Some down the 40 and some bang the drum. A little bit of a different flavor on bang the drum this week, but I think you'll like it. We are near weeks away from the start of the college football season. I can almost smell it. It's so stinking close. But if you're new to the podcast, each and every week over the summer, we go through the 12 opponents on the Longhorn schedule in reverse order, frankly, just so we don't have to do Texas State twice or whoever that is on the first one. But that's neither here nor there. We've gone through each and every week and had an opponent on or had a not an opponent. They're not an opponent had a friend on to talk about the opponent on the Texas schedule. And so we are here with the we can't call the other ut, but the, the the Tennessee Volunteers are next up on the schedule. We've got Michael from the Vol Fanatic show to help us preview the Tennessee Volunteers. Michael, how you doing tonight, man?
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C
I'm doing great. I appreciate y' all having me on tonight to talk about the real ut, you know. All right, so we, we won't get into that argument. But, but, but no, I appreciate y' all having me on. Doing fantastic over on this end. How are y' all doing?
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Doing great. It's, it's always interesting. Like I looked over your shoulder and I saw an orange UT interlocking logo which we also use and the block T, which we also use. Like if the cameras, you know, you twisted a little bit on your, on your dial old school there to, to get the color just right. You know, it, it looks, there's a lot of similarities than the, the logos. You could, you could get confused real quick. But luckily this blood runs deep on both sides. Hundreds of years we know who we're cheering for and who we're not.
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B
So we're going to jump in and talk football for a little bit. It is a, a storied Twitter rivalry, we'll say, but not a ton of history between the two schools. But it's year five under Josh Hyple turned in another winning year but finished unranked, lost in the Music City Bowl. Tennessee is one of those programs that has a lot of history and a lot of pride and expects to be if not competing for the sec, you know, in the conversation and relevant for it. So like how do Tennessee fans view Hypo and kind of the Hypo era and is the seat getting warm for him?
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C
So the, the vast majority of fans, they are, I'm not going to say satisfied with what Hypo has done because obviously they expect better. They want him, like you mentioned, competing for the sec, competing for a chance to play in the playoffs, go to the national title, that sort of thing. But as far as this national, you know, the national mindset of, you know, Josh Hypo should be on the hot seat because of taking a step back last year. You know, what has he done at Tennessee? To me, that's just foolish. And the vast majority of fans will say the same thing. I mean, you look at what Tennessee went through throughout the entire, you know, 2010s decade. You know, you start off with probably the worst hire Tennessee history with Derek Dooley after Lane Kiffin abandoned you in 09. Then you go to Butch Jones where it looks promising for a minute, but it was just fool's gold before you go into the Jeremy Pruitt era. And I, I don't even like talking about that era either. You know, he finally brings you out of it. And he actually has won the most games of any Tennessee head coach going back to the mid-90s, you know, in a, in a three to four year stretch whenever Philip Fulmer was there. So, I mean, you look at what he's done, and I would say he's done a great job. Now, has he gone top end of things where fans want him to? No, not yet. I think he can lead us there. Just needs the right set of circumstances. You know, the, the schedule, the players on the team, you know, everything needs to line up. And I think that it can happen. But obviously if it goes back into a, another mediocre year like last year was you get a, you know, two or three of those in a row and I'll say probably two at the most. Yeah, you're looking at, you might find somebody else. But as far as my mindset and the vast majority of Tennessee fans mindsets, he's not on the hot seat at all. His seat's not even getting warm. I, I feel like he's done a great job so far and I feel like he's gonna get us another really good season again this year.
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A
And one thing, like our, our brethren across the, the Mississippi, the UTs on either side, whether they're good on the field or not, ut. And again, I'm saying this for fans of our podcast and yours, who, who, who know that to mean their own school, ut, meaning both schools, knows how to stay in the news. Like we just can't stay out of it. Whether we're winning or not, you know, we're going to be newsworthy, Twitter worthy. It's going to happen. So two years ago, it's the Nico fiasco. Joey Aguilar stepped in, acquitted himself very well. Now he's in the NFL this year. You have kind of a battle, it seems like from the outsider perspective, with a former top 150 quarterback in George McIntyre and a top, top prospect. And Faison, Brandon looks like competing for the starting job where they're early camp days, but are there indications or vibes of which one looks like they're going to take the reins and make it their team?
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C
So you get a lot of media folks that are saying, Faison, Faison, Faison. It's his job to lose at this point. And I kind of lean that way for a few reasons. One, the kid has absolutely lived in the weight room. He's lived on campus this off season. He's put in the work, he's put in the reps. Not saying that George McIntyre hasn't, but he wants this and he wants it bad. And I also say that, you know, if the quarterback battle is truly as close as what the coaching staff, the, the players, all that make it seem, that tells me that either Faison is, you know, really, really talented and he's really caught onto the offense and all that, or George McIntyre may not be progressing quite like he should have given that he's already been on campus for a year. So I kind of lean that way. But I do know this as well. McIntyre has really, you know, stepped in and he's helped his mechanics out. He's really put on a show so far in the first part of fall camp. But is it enough to be able to win that starting job? That's the million dollar question. If I was to go with anybody right now, I would lean Faison because of the upside. But I still feel like it's, it's anybody's, you know, anybody's spot at this point.
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B
I mean, and I've, you know, I've gone through and watched some of his tape and like the kid is talented and he's a big quarterback, like prototype, 6, 4, 200 plus, like he looks the part and so I wouldn't be shocked if he got it. But you know, a young, whoever it is, a young quarterback, one of their, an advantage they're going to have is they're bringing back a pair of wide receivers that did a lot of damage last year. Brandon Staley, Mike Matthews, both back and this is kind of a two parter one. Like what do we expect as kind of a repeat performance from them? And really, you know, Tennessee likes to spread the field and Hypo likes to have multiple receivers out there. So who are the next couple of guys up to that Texas fans should be looking out for when when they face off?
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C
So I'll start with your first part. What should we see from Staley and Matthews? As far as Staley goes, he, he's going to play that slot position and that is a, a big, you know, difference maker in his Hypo offense. You look back going to his first year on Rocky Top. You had Javante Payton played that spot and he really had himself a breakout season in Hypo's offense. 2022 obviously it was Jalen Hyatt, you know came out won a blitnikov that season. Squirrel White in 23 and then 24 as well was Tennessee's leading wide receiver as far as yards touchdowns as well. Last season Chris Brazel did lead the receiving core in yards and in touchdowns, but Braylon Staley right behind him with 830 something yards receiving and six touchdowns. It's just the way that this offense plays, it kind of runs through that slot receiver. So I really expect Braylon Staley to have a good year and I'm super excited about Mike Matthews because of a comment that he made at Tennessee's opening press conference last week. He said my number one goal this year is not to drop a single pass because while he had a great season last year, over 800 yards receiving, four touchdowns, he was also in the top half of the SEC in dropped passes. So great season but could have been even better had he caught the majority of those passes there. So him coming out and saying I'm determined not to drop a pass this year, that's got me excited for what he can do. As far as the next wide receivers up, I would say that your wide receiver 3 starting the season is probably going to be a guy like Travis Smith Jr. He is a very talented true sophomore. He battled the injury bug a little bit last year but I definitely expect to see him get some time. You've also got true freshman five star wide receiver Tristan Keys that Tennessee was able to flip from lsu. I'm super excited about this kid, but is he going to get that starting spot right away? I don't think so, but he's definitely going to see some time. Super excited for him. You've also got a guy like Redarius Jackson, he came onto the scene pretty well last year as well. Another talented true sophomore. And then I would say that the other guy to really look for or sorry Two guys to look for. Joaquin Dotson, he is a true sophomore as well. Expect to see him get a little bit of time and then the other one, I expect to see him a little bit more in the return game, but definitely expect to see him get some time in the rotation as well. Is going to be a guy like Tyreek King, true freshman from Knoxville Catholic as well. So I feel like you've got a really deep, really talented freshman and sophomore wide receiver room. It's just a matter of all right, who's going to step up and win that, you know, wide receiver, three positions.
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A
Yeah, it sounds like talented quarterback talent and wide receiver but, but youth and you know that has upside. It has question marks. I played in my dynasty with Texas recently. Radarius Jackson killed me. I don't know if that's any indication. Couldn't cover that guy. But one thing, when you have kind of the growing quarterback receivers who are stepping up, you know, solidifying themselves, one thing that's really great to have and that's just a guarantee at the, the running back position. And I think Tennessee is set up about as well as any team in the SEC with known quantity there. One of the best running backs returning to Sean Bishop coming off a thousand yard season. Do you expect more the same and and for him to be as good as he was last year. The offensive line went out and got some transfers. Do you expect the offensive line to be better be the same? Like what are we looking at for the. The run game and the blocking.
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C
I expect the offensive line to be even better from last season. You're actually returning four starters from last season squad and really along with that the one transfer was Lance Herd from. He was originally from lsu, went to Kentucky but he split time with true freshman David Sanders last year. Sanders is going to be filling that spot this year. You've got Sam Pendleton coming back at center. You've got second team all American Wendell Moe that's going to be filling the spot as well. You've got some, you've got a lot of reps coming back as Tennessee does have the most starting snaps in the SEC coming back at 76% from last year. But you mentioned it. We got a couple of transfer o linemen that I feel like are going to step in and make their presence known as well. This is probably as long as they stay healthy. The deepest offensive line room that I have seen Tennessee had since hypo has been here. Now am I saying that they're going to be the best offensive line in the sec? Absolutely. Not because that's yet to be seen, but I feel like there's plenty of guys that you can plug and play. And you, you know just as well as I do that the biggest thing when you have an injury or you have to make a substitution on the offensive line, you need that team, you need that O line to stay at this level. You don't need to bring in a sub for whatever reason and all of a sudden drop down to this level. And I feel like the guys Tennessee has, they're going to be able to keep them up at this level regardless of who's in there. And then desean Bishop, the amount of muscle mass that he has put on this offseason, my word, the dude is just absolutely built and he is, he's all in on this year. He is ready to go out there and have an even better season than he did last year. I'm super excited about this kid. I don't know if y' all know his story, but he's actually. He had some scholarship offers from schools I believe, like Appalachian States, maybe East Carolina. He had some smaller school offers and Tennessee talked to him. And that was about the time after the Jeremy Pruitt era where we had scholarship productions going on and Hypo basically told him, said, look, we want you, but we can't really offer you a scholarship because of this. So he came on campus as a preferred walk on and now he is the RB one at Tennessee, obviously on scholarship now. And he has just been more than anything that Tennessee could ask for. I'm super excited about desean Bishop this season.
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B
I love, I love those kind of stories where a guy takes a bet on himself and really it, it shows out. Texas had a couple of those. Michael Taff is one that, that jumps to mind for Texas. I love those. I mean I, I am a crier, naturally, but like the, the videos of the guys getting, the guys getting put on scholarship who are walk ons. Every time you just get the tissues, it's, it's going. So the last question on, on the real football stuff before we start having some fun. Tennessee was, let's just be real, like kind of mid on. On defense. Not, not terrible last year.
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C
No, no, no.
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Be.
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Be completely honest. They were terrible last year. Like they were ranked 14th out
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year.
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You can be brutally honest.
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That's fair. Okay. I was, I was going opponent adjusted efficiency. They were like in the 40s. Right. That's mid. Right. But, but you're like they were not good and you know, part of the issue and this will like get philosophical. It's hard to call a defense for an offense like Tennessee's where it's fast, it's up paced and so they went out and got a guy who's got experience doing that. And Jim Knowles, he was at Oklahoma State with Mike Gundy in a similar role at Ohio State for a national championship team in a similar role. Jim Knowles has been a pain in my keister for quite some time in his years at, at Oklahoma State. Not only did they add Jim Knowles, but I think they added like 11 or 12 transfer players on the defensive side of the ball. It only, it seems like there's only one way to go is up with this defense. But like what do we hope or what are, what's, what's the early buzz around Knowles coming in and kind of changing things.
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C
So man, this, this defense is locked in and you all know how, how coach speak is. You know, when they're up at the, at their press conference, they're talking to the media and you know, you can tell just by how they answer questions, how they hold themselves on the podium, whether they're confident, whether they are, you know, questioning things. You could tell their demeanor, how they feel about their team. Jim Knowles is super confident in this team. I mean it's, he made the statement the other day in their opening press conference. They had me ready to run through a brick wall. He was asked the question, you know, what, what do you, what do you have to do different this year to make sure that your team, you know, they tackle better, make sure that they're able to stop folks a little bit better after last season? He said, well, you know, the game hasn't changed. You just go out there and you plan to stop the folks. You go out there and you do it. Okay, let's go, Let me take the field right now. But no, this, I feel like the mindset is just completely shifted with Jim Knowles. I, I feel like that th, this team this year, I'm not saying they're going to have a, you know, top two, three defense in the conference, top 10 in the country, because you mentioned it, that with a, with an offense like HYP that is so up tempo and, and everything, it's hard to have a defense that good because the, the other team's offense is going to get that many more possessions, giving them that many more chances to score. So the stats are going to be a little bit skewed. But if you can give me a top 30 defense in the entire country, give me a top, you know, Five to six defense in the conference to go along with the offense. That's probably going to be top three. Top five. I feel like that's solid. And that's one thing that we have yet to see from Hypo. You know, he's had the number one offense in the conference twice in his five years at Tennessee so far. Been in the top three to top five two other years and the one year that he didn't have a top five offense was the year we went to the playoffs because the defense was so elite. If you could get a top offense with a very decent defense, Tennessee is dangerous and, and that's what I hope happens this season. Will it happen? It's yet to be seen, but that's what's got me excited is the, the opportunity, bringing Jim Knowles in means for this defense. It could definitely be improved. How improved is it going to be this year? But I, I like what I see so far. The linebacker room this year is going to be absolutely elite. You've got your senior leader and Ariane Carter coming back obviously getting suspended for two games. That's a whole different tangent. I could go on for, you know, a whole different podcast about, but I mean, the dude last year was leading the conference in tackles, missed two games due to an injury, and was still topping the conference in tackles by the time he came back. You brought in a transfer of Mari Campbell from Penn State to come with Jim Knowles and then guys like Edwin Spillman, Jeremiah Teelander, Jaden Perlati are all guys that really made a difference last year. That they're defensive line is a bit of a question mark. You don't have a James Pierce Jr. Or Joshua Joseph on the, on the edge anchoring things. The edge, I would say is a little bit light due to some injuries and transfers going on right now. Interior, I feel pretty good about as long as they stay healthy. The back, the secondary positions, I feel like you have some really talented guys there, you've got some experienced guys there, but how are they going to play together? Because you mentioned the transfers Tennessee got. Several of those were in the secondary. Guys like Quay Moss from Kansas State, guys like TJ and Tavon Metcalf from Michigan. I mean, all those had a lot of success from their time at their previous schools. But how are they going to jail in this offense? I mean, sorry. In this defense, you know, I, I'm excited, I'm intrigued. I'm also nervous to see what this defense is going to do this year.
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A
Yeah, it'll be interesting. Complimentary football like you said, if you have the offense and defense complementing each other, you get dangerous. I just hate the fact that the way that Texas fans will think about this is you went and got a Oklahoma State defensive coordinator to compliment your Oklahoma head coach. So we back in our day have battled both of those, those fellows for a while. All right, think about this season now and all that you've said and fast forward, you know, past the end of the season into basketball season, you know, into the start of 2027. If you're looking back on Tennessee's 2026 football season and it's successful, what does success look like to you?
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C
To me, because I have high expectations for this team this year. Success for me is going to be 9 and 3 or better. I feel like that that is a good level for Tennessee. Now, national media, Tennessee's win loss projection via FanDuel was seven and a half coming in. So you're telling me seven and five, eight and four for Tennessee this year. I think that nine and three minimum, that is success for Tennessee. Obviously. Anything better, I'll take that all day long. But I, I think 9 and 3 is a successful season for Tennessee this season.
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B
That feels good. I mean that shows progress and I think from last year to be a big step up. So that's the, the, the end of the real football season stuff. So we're going to jump into what we call shooting from the hip. And I always make this joke. This, this segment is near and dear to our hearts. We renamed it probably four, five, six times in the, in the years we've been doing this podcast. But we just ask some silly fun questions. We'll start with a, with a, a toss up. We, we've had a streak of barbecue forward conversations and teams on the schedule. What's the best barbecue in the state of Tennessee? Whether that's your favorite place or the type of barbecue food that they make.
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C
So here's what I will say. I cannot speak as much for Knoxville because, you know, as I mentioned y' all earlier, I don't live in the Knoxville area. I am in Tennessee, but I'm about four hours away from Knoxville in middle Tennessee. So I would say that my favorite barbecue is actually in Murfreesboro. It is a place called Slick Pig Barbecue. It's a little small, you know, family owned restaurant they have voted to have or they've been voted the best smoked wings in Tennessee several different times. Fantastic. I like the, the brisket there as well. Just a nice family oriented restaurant. My wife actually worked there during high school and then right after high school for just a little bit as well. She's the one that first took me there, and I just. I love going there. It's got some very, very good barbecue.
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A
Very nice. I. When my brother played in college, they played Middle Tennessee State years and years ago, but they came to Texas, so I didn't get to take a trip to murphy'sboro. But good to know if I'm ever up in Blue Raider country, I'm going to the Slick Pig. Is that what you said? Slick Pig.
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C
Slick Pig. And it's actually right off campus.
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A
All right, that sounds good. So this is interesting just because we've asked this over the years. Usually the first time we have someone on, it's always fun to thought exercise and, you know, it's been years into the Nil era where it kind of means something different. But when we started asking this question, nil wasn't the boogeyman and the bad word, but it was kind of this really fun, exciting thing of being able to pay players in different ways. But it was kind of like naming or a player with a brand or something, right? Like, imagine you're pairing them up. And. And so we like to ask this question because it kind of is an interesting thought through the history books. If you had to take any Tennessee player could be on the current roster, but think all time and pair them up with one iconic brand or just brand that makes sense. You know, pair them up for their Nil advertisement. Who would you choose and what. What brand, man?
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C
Kind of put me on the spot.
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A
I know, I know it's tough. It's a tough one. It's. It's out there.
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C
I would say probably Eric Berry. Okay, pair him up with. I'm gonna kind of throw an off the wall thing here, like Dodge Ram. Okay, pair. Pair those brands up right there. You know, Eric Barry, one of the hardest hitting safeties of all time. And, you know, just pair him up with a Dodge Ram. As far as, you know, there the brand goes. Get him in those commercials, have him kind of, you know, put. Put his stamp on that. I. I feel like that would be a, A great brand right there. Probably not a. A fun brand necessarily. Not as fun as I could do, but I, I feel like that would be a good, you know, kind of brand deal there.
- [26:12]
A
I think he was in the same draft with Earl Thomas. They may have been safety one and two. That was a good year for safeties.
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C
That was a fantastic year.
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B
I could see a local like Dodge dealership have him trying to. Trying to shoulder into a race.
- [26:25]
A
I thought it was going to be T. Martin in a golf course. I don't know. I wasn't sure where you were going
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B
with I. Eric Barry in a smoothie shop also was another opportunity.
- [26:34]
C
Yeah, that's. That's a great point.
- [26:38]
B
So we. This is a random thing that I also do the first time we get somebody on. So. WWE superstar Bianca Belair was an athlete at the University of Tennessee before she joined. She was a track star at Tennessee. And so I. I say all that to ask this question. Which Tennessee player would make the best professional wrestler? Which one would you say would make
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C
the best professional wrestler the best professional wrestler? I would say probably James Little Man Stewart.
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B
Got a nickname already. I love it.
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A
Tell us about James Little Man Stewart.
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C
Yeah, J. James Little Man Stewart. He was one of the. One of the better Tennessee running backs of all time back in the 90s. He. He was a very flashy guy, but let me tell you, he. He was smaller just because obviously his nickname, but man, the power that he ran with, I. I feel like that dude just. He would be a fantastic WWE star. Just, you know, like you said, he's already got the nickname there and just his flashiness. I feel like he would be fantastic.
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A
I love it. Jaguars. That's how I googled him. I was like, I know that name. James. Yeah. Jaguars. That's right. Throwback. I like it, man.
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C
That's a. Yeah. I feel like if there was another one, it would be. It kind of sticking with the little thing. Leonard Little, very, very talented defensive end, outside linebacker guy. And just the. The way that he was built as well, you know, he. I think he came the year after that national title team in 98. But I feel like that would be another guy that would probably be a very good WWE star.
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A
I feel like defensive end, outside linebacker is just such a perfect body type transition. It makes sense. You're tall, you're fast, you're strong like that. Yeah, that makes sense.
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C
Yeah, I, I could have gone with a, you know, with a couple of easy names like, you know, Al Wilson, hey, Reggie White. You know, something like that.
- [28:30]
B
What.
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C
What fun would that be if. If you're just gonna pull the obvious, right?
- [28:34]
A
I feel like Reggie White may have actually done something for a WWE back then f. Promo or. I feel like I remember that as a kid. All right, so there's a lot of teams, two of probably the most famous teams in the country that wear orange. Both call themselves ut. There's a lot of teams that Wear orange. Probably a dozen or better. If I had to go down through the list. What's your least favorite shade of orange in college football? Or who has the. The orange uniforms that drive you the
- [28:59]
C
craziest, least favorite shade of orange?
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A
I can, I can tee up a few for you. If you're not obviously Texas and Tennessee. Then you go Clemson, Oklahoma State, Miami, Syracuse, Auburn, Florida, Virginia, Oregon State. There's a few of them.
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C
I would probably say Florida because, you know, that's, it's a very, I would say almost like a puke orange type color.
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A
I like it.
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C
It's stick with blue, stick with green. I, I feel like they should go away from the orange type color in there. It's just kind of a background color to me. You know, they did, they kind of did their version of like the NFL color Rush jersey and they did that all orange. And I was like, what do we do in Florida? This, this is gross. Like, just take this out of the closet. Never put it on again. Yeah, I would definitely say Florida.
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B
Our last question for you is the hardest one of the day and we do it to everybody. We want you to say one nice thing about. You can pick either rival Alabama or Florida. Pick one, but you have to say one nice thing about either of those schools.
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C
Feel like this is a very easy one. I would say a very nice thing about Alabama is they have a fantastic song that they sing at the end of the third quarter because it's a song about Tennessee. I mean, Dixieland Delight. So I mean, that's very easy to say. You know, they're thinking about Tennessee constantly when they, when they sing that. So definitely, definitely they're into the third quarter song.
- [30:26]
A
I love it. I love a compliment that just is ready and loaded with the back end attached to it. That's good.
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B
Well, Michael, man, we appreciate you taking the time out, brother. If folks want more of what you got to offer, where can they find you on the Internet?
- [30:39]
C
And the best place to find us is the Vol fanatics show on YouTube. That's where we do most of our content that we put out, putting out Countdown videos every single day right now to the start of Tennessee Football. We go live every Tuesday night at 8:30 Eastern Time. And we also are very active on Facebook as well. That's where we have our biggest following base right now. And then TikTok is also starting to grow a lot. Those are the three best places that you can find us. And you can also find us as well as you guys and 80 plus other podcasts on The College Huddle. Eric has done a great job getting the College Huddle going, building that as well. Super excited to see the future of the College Huddle as well. But those are the places that you can find us.
- [31:26]
A
That's right. Go follow and subscribe and find all the good content they have there. Michael, this was. This is fun. We appreciate having you on. Look forward to having you on in the future.
- [31:34]
C
Absolutely, man. Appreciate you all having me.
- [31:36]
B
So that brings us to the part of the show where we whip around the rest of campus and we down the 40 and it starts with some more football, actually, because it is watch list season, awards list, season, whatever you want to call it. But Texas has a bunch of names on those lists. Regime, Biles and Colin Simmons on the Nagursky trophy watch list. It's the second year for Colin Simmons, Brandon Baker, Trevor Goosby, both named to the Outlander trophy watch list. Connor Robertson on the Remington watch list of just 40 players. And then Gianni Johnny Spectic. What's. Do we have a official pronunciation on?
- [32:13]
A
I think it's. I think it's. Is it Spectac? I believe it's Spectic. We'll find out very quickly when he drills a 60 yarder against Ohio State before halftime. I don't know. I believe it's spectacular.
- [32:25]
B
Anyway, he's on the gross list.
- [32:27]
A
I like having an Italian sounding kicker on a Groza list. Like, it just feels like I do my hand like the Italian. Clint, you know what I'm doing right now, even though this is a. An audio medium. No, Gerald. That's some good lists. I like seeing, you know, a lot of linemen on there horns have won. Don't forget two of the last three Outland trophies on the offensive and defensive side of the ball with Sweat and Banks with someone in between the two of them. But. But yeah, it's. It's. I don't know. Let's let Goosby go. Keep that streak alive. Robertson winning the Remington means we had a really, really good season. I don't necessarily see that one, but that's cool. Yeah. I hope we don't have to use our kicker so much because we're just scoring in the red zone every time and putting up points. So maybe that will hurt. Spectrum. I don't know. They all play into each other, but ultimately Simmons and Biles are fighting each other for the Bronco Nagurski for the best defensive player of the year. Obviously. I don't know. These. These are fun talking pieces. We'll prove it at the end of the year.
- [33:30]
B
The struggle is that maybe they split the votes on that, but that's either here nor there. Moving on to football, the sport that's gonna start us off here. Weeks five named the SEC watch list Ashlyn Anderson, Maya Brandon, Ava McDonald, Hannah Tate and Amalia Villarreal on the list for SEC preseason honors.
- [33:50]
A
Yeah, they start their season Wednesday. This will come out into your earbuds. Tuesday maybe. Listen a day late. Maybe it's today, Wednesday versus Houston Christian, then take on Pitt on Sunday to open up the calendar year. We've been teasing this for the past couple weeks to open the show. It is. It is Longhorn week. It is game week. It is sport week football. So a few weeks away, but Texas Athletics officially kicks off this week with soccer on Wednesday. They wrapped up their preseason with a 10 win against the Texas Fighting Texas Aggies at home, admittedly in Austin. But I mean that's a good sign for for Coach Bates and the new look regime. And she not only went out in the transfer portal, as you hear some of those names, who are the SEC watch list or a few transfer portal players, but is keeping the recruiting pipeline going as evidenced by 2027 signing top player currently in the state of Texas, Carolyn Swan from our beloved Solar SC called up to the U17 national team. So season kicks off, but we know Coach Bates isn't building for based on what she did in her time on the west coast. Isn't building for immediate success one year she's building a program to be competing every year, making deep runs and hopefully bringing home championships.
- [35:06]
B
I mean, we'll see how it goes for them on say on a Happy Trails kind of news. Women's basketball assistant Sydney Carter joined the Auburn staff, but that opened up a spot and that means that Texas brings on Victoria Vivians to backfill that spot.
- [35:23]
A
Yeah, sounds like a Adam Sandler female character in his movies. Veronica Vaughn, Vicky Valencourt, they're all double V's. Victoria Vivians played for Vic Schaefer, keeping the V's going. And Elena Lovato on the two MSU Mississippi State teams that went to the national championship in 2017 and 18. First team all American four time all SEC performer. A shooting guard there six one average 17 over 17 points in her career. Go along with over five rebounds. Went number eight overall in the 2018 WNBA draft. She last played in 2024 in the WNBA for the Storm. Played the majority of her career for the Fever. She also coached a year for her alma mater before Vic brought her home. I guess Home is where the coach is, not where you played. But yeah, she's, she's got an interesting experience because she actually coached and then left to go try to continue her career in Mexico and then decided, no, I'm actually going to hang them up. And, and it's found her way to one of the best spots in, in the country for her former coach at one of the most solid programs in the country, Texas women's basketball.
- [36:36]
B
Yeah, I mean, you know, the director of scouting role for her at Mississippi State last year is huge. And Texas continues to add, you know, she has coached in the G League even, and in the Trailblazers organization. So she's got a lot of skins on the wall, for lack of a better term. And, and again, a big addition to the staff. Linda Teeler joins the Crystal Conti staff as the, the, as the deputy athletics director for strategic initiatives and administration, which is a lot of words to say. I don't know what that does. Gonna be interesting to see what that role is. But there's been, I mean, there's a lot of talk about athletic departments that run themselves like organisms, like companies, like big, big companies in Texas. Adding basically a senior vice president with a really long title is reminiscent of a lot of companies I've been around.
- [37:33]
A
That's right. Dadsia, I believe, is her short acronym. I'm sure she'll use the deputy athletics director for Strategic initiatives and administration. Dadsia. Now this is someone who, if you're in the business of college athletics, you are very familiar with. Former NCAA senior vice president of championships, longtime collegiate athletics administrator, and just for good measure, a UT Law School graduate, she was 21 years at university of Florida as the deputy athletics director there, overseeing women's sports and as well as men's basketball. So throw that one in there. They did pretty well in that sport. So she's, she's done a lot there before that. She was the associate commissioner of the Southland Conference back when that was Greg Sankey. So she's, she knows the SEC through Florida. She knows the SEC leadership with Sankey. She spoke about knowing Crystal Conti from just his experience. She was over all NCAA championships and he goes to a lot of them because his teams are in more than any other team in the, in the country seemingly. And she also in her kind of PR brief, thanked the lost Dodds who took her under wing when she was in law school and kind of showed her college athletics. So you don't get a lot of the lost Dodds shout outs here a few years later. So Shout out to an all time great athletic director there. But yeah, she played college basketball, women's basketball, to be specific, and has stuck around in the biz and, and is a name that people are reverent and very, very respectful of. She's been a mover and a shaker for a long time and bolstering that squad as again, we've had, I believe, blanket on his name. He went to be New Mexico's athletic director and then we just talked about Wisconsin's new athletic director. So Texas is, is Delonte is bringing out his own kind of coaching tree, for lack of a better word, for Fernando Lova and others who've gone on to be big in the game here after applying their time at Texas. So we'll see if Teebler's here long term and partners with Del Conti or she's a future athletic director at a big school. I could see that too. So we'll see. Either way, happy to have her.
- [39:44]
B
Both things can be true. So we're going to do a little bit of a different approach to our bang the drum this week because there's a lot happening. We're going to talk a little bit about the first week of camp and kind of the hype coming out of it because it's hype season, Kyle, and that is what we're bringing the drum on right now.
- [40:03]
A
Yeah, Gerald, it's, you know, it's, it's exciting. We're in that part of the preseason now again, not the off season where footage is analyzed when it's released on social media like the Zagruder takes are flying, practices are open. And so you're getting the tweets are out there, the, the post practice press conferences, you know, further push narratives. We are in that time where every coach and every team around the country and every fan base hears that they had a great day of practice, that the defense is flying around the ball, the offense, you know, has upside through the roof. Guys really put in work in the off season in the weight room and now it's showing, like, take all the caveats for what it is. With that said, Gerald, does Texas have the best defensive line in the country or is the offensive line bad?
- [40:55]
B
It depends on if you are reading Texas or not. I mean they could. That's always the conversation is depending on what narrative I need to. In what drum I need to bang is which what we're talking about. And I think I, um, I, I think Texas probably has one of the better defensive lines and I think we also have to take into account that like not only do they have this high level of talent, but you know, must champ really is his whole shtick is create chaos, create disruption. And so I think that is going to be a lot of it. You know, Justice Terry getting a bunch of, of a bunch of ink spilled about him. I, I mean I do think there obviously are still questions, but as somebody who was one of the lone people saying hey, this offensive line might suck last year, I don't feel like that. I feel like the offensive line, they'll probably be some growing pains, especially at the guard positions. I think it's probably why I say that left guard is going to have some growing pains ultimately next to Trevor Goosby, but you're next to Trevor Goosby, so that works out well for you. So I think it's probably somewhere in the middle, but again, I do think that the level of talent that they brought in in the trenches combined with what Milk, with what Will Muschamp likes to do is probably again the answer somewhere in the middle there.
- [42:14]
A
Yeah, I've heard talk of them being able to rotate 12 defensive linemen in SEC play, not against Texas State or UTSA, but like in the thick when you need conference. Yeah, they feel that confident and that deep. We've talked about how deep the defensive tackle room is where guys like Gifford who came in played too many snaps at Arkansas and you saw good snaps from at the beginning of the game and worn down snaps in the fourth quarter. Like he can stay fresh and they can rotate him out like Hero Canoe is going to be a guy you're gonna have to drag off the field because he could play all game. But you have so much that you want to get in and rotate in in that defensive tackle room and then we talk about moving. And again, if you listen to our defensive line preview from a couple weeks ago, I definitely was was hitting on this and it seems to be coming to fruition that both Lance Jackson and Justice Terry could be our two best interior. And when it comes to pass rushing downs like and Justice Terry just literally is taking every ounce of oxygen and, and every bit of ink. If we still use such things about stories about him like just disruptive, just being a force, a chaos agent. And, and I am of the opinion that when you look at Texas's schedule, we'll see what Ohio State looks like. Right? Like we'll see exactly what their defensive line looks like. But this could very, very, very, very likely be the best defensive line that our offensive line sees all year. Like just, I mean again it could be because we have the best defensive line unit in the country. Sure. It could also be just again, they are a top, what, six, five. And, and it is the best one that our linemen see and they get better as they, they gel. It's a bit of musical chairs like you talked about. No one looks as bad at last year when we say left guard. Like people get anxiety. No one looks as bad as last year. But we've seen Seymour, Chapman, Sikorski and Jackson Christian, who's kind of our backup center, all taking snaps with the one. Seymour was taking snaps with the three, which people started panicking on day one. But I think they're just vetting him in as he's a transfer and has the least kind of time in the system. He, he's moved up to taking snaps with the twos and now the ones. Kojo is a really interesting one. He's healthy. Had the knee injury last year. That kind of, if he was healthy. I don't know what that looks like for offensive line last year, but getting some work even though he's our swing tackle, also getting some work inside and then, you know, Hudson's back as of Friday, so interesting to see just how that looks. I use the analogy, Gerald, and tell me if I'm crazy. It's like I played baseball growing up and it's like the donut in the, in the batter circle as you're sizing up the speed of the pitches and you're swinging, you take that donut off. It feels a lot lighter. Like when they push around Texas State or UTSA or just slide down a little bit even like Kentucky or on our Tennessee show, Tennessee, like it's going to feel a little bit lighter than this Texas defense. Like this is. Am I crazy there? Like this. This will make them better and make it feel a little bit easier against anyone not named Ohio State or Georgia.
- [45:02]
B
I mean, that's, that's the thing is like, you know, when, when you go good on good in practice, you have the opportunity to again be ready for the type of level, I mean, Texas there, there are only a couple of teams on Texas to schedule that recruit at the level that Texas has. And again, they're, they're going to play one of them early. I think we do have to talk before we wrap this up about the, the clip that set the world on fire. Cam Coleman touching God, for lack of a better term, tipped ball at the line from Arch Manning. Cam Coleman says that's okay. I've got this and just does freak Things just absolutely freaky. Reach, reach back. What's the vertical in that? Pretty ridiculous.
- [45:48]
A
78, 93 inches. I don't know.
- [45:51]
B
Jumping out of the.
- [45:53]
A
Yeah, I think he may have bumped the top of the bubble, which. That thing's kind of old. You got to be careful doing that. Yeah. I mean, I. I jokingly said my take is Cam Coleman just, you know, unseated multiple years of Jeremiah Smith to, on one clip, name himself wide receiver number one in the draft. That might be a slight exaggeration, but you see the, like, all of the receiverness that he did in that one play. The hands, the body coordination, the ability to go get the ball at the high point, the. The jumping ability. Like, all of those things. Like, legitimately, Gerald, as good as we've had in Xavier Worthy and. And golden or A.D. mitchell, like, I don't know that anyone could have made this catch. And again, there will be other catches, but this one particular catch, since, like, a. I don't know, my mind goes back to, like, a Roy Williams. And maybe that's crazy, but to be that tall, that athletic, that, like, good, like, I don't know. It's. It's. I'm trying to ease the hype a little bit, but, man, that's like, I. It's hard to do all that.
- [46:55]
B
I'm gonna have to eat some crow because there was somebody early in the off season said that, you know, Cam Coleman had the opportunity to be the best Texas wide receiver since Roy Williams or something like that. And my response was, he's got a lot of work to do to be the best transfer wide receiver of the last three years.
- [47:14]
A
Sure.
- [47:15]
B
And that's. You might be able to. Right. Like, just based on what we're seeing. And I'm not going to back down on that because Adai Mitchell, Matthew golden, both were huge for Texas in multiple spots, so he's going to have to do it in full pads when it matters on Saturdays. But, boy, you know, the thing I keep coming back to is he was really good with Jackson, Arnold throwing him the ball like, you've got a real quarterback now. Like, it might be time. He might. I might have to eat crow when the time comes.
- [47:45]
A
Yeah. And in every, like, SEC person we talked to who played Auburn and we didn't play him when he was on Auburn talks about, like, God, he's good. I'm upset that y' all got him, you know, like, it's. It's. It is a kind of universal feeling that, like, his upside has never been tapped. And again, you think about how good that freshman Jeremiah Smith, Cam Coleman and then even when Williams showed out at Alabama's freshman year and has regressed. Like I said back then, like Colton was sneaky, scary. Coleman might be, you know, just as good or the best out of all of them. And then I remember when it was like, man, it's a really bad situation. Auburn, it'd be pretty cool if someone could get him in the transfer portal. We like whispered it under our breath and then it came and he was in the port. I was like, man, it'd be really stinking cool if we could get him. And it's happened like, like the thing that every 12 year old on a dynasty mode or in this, you know, now college football dynasty mode wanted to do is like go get that guy who runs fast, jumps tall and makes touchdowns like Texas did that. So now there's nothing to do but just go out and feed him the ball and let him make highlight catches and let him put up crazy yards and continue the pipeline of NFL wide receivers under Steve Sarkisan.
- [48:57]
B
It's going to be fun to see. That's all we've got for you this week, Kyle. Where can the good folks find you on the Internet?
- [49:04]
A
Oh, you can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky Kyle Corp. You can also follow the Texas Pregamer at Texas Pregamer.
- [49:09]
B
Follow me in both those spots at gh. Follow the show both those places at Longhorn Pods, Facebook and Instagram. The Longhorn Republic Shoot us an email Longhorn Republic pod@gmail.com. we'll be back on Thursday talking about defensive backs and what the heck will must champ is going to do with them, along with some familiar names both on the coaching staff and on the sidelines. Thank you so much for tuning in again and until next time, hook them.
- [49:34]
A
Hook them. If it ain't burnt, it ain't turn.
- [49:46]
B
Sa.