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- [00:00]
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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 a bit of snark built and we are members of the Dave Campbell's Texas Football Podcast Network and the College Football Huddle. I You can find more about both those great organizations in our social media bios. If you like what we do, please give us a rating or review on Apple Podcast and Spotify helps get the show out there. Share this with your friends on any podcast platform where you find us. You could find Kyle and myself. Connect with us on social media at Longhorn Pod on Twitter and Blue Sky, Facebook and Instagram the Longhorn Republic or shoot us an email longhorn republic pod gmail.com My name is Gerald Goodridge, your my host this week like I am every week, and I'm joined by a man who's having to reconcile some feelings about the state of Louisiana, Kyle Carpenter.
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C
Kyle Rehou Gerald, I wish I could just spend this podcast talking about ranking Louisiana foods. It would be easier than than having to talk about Louisiana in any adversarial way. You know that I love that state for all its ridiculousness and beauty. We're going to talk about gumbo, jumbalay, red beans, PO boys, move a lot as et cetera, et cetera, boudin, crawfish. Come on, what do you want? Oysters? Pralines? It doesn't matter. We could talk about all that. Instead, we're going to talk football with a state that's pretty good at it, right like this. I'm trying to decide if I want to hate this team, if I want it to be a friendly rivalry. But the fact of the matter is we're recruiting the same region pretty often. They're coming to Texas. We're going to Louisiana. We're fighting for recruits. We both hate A and M, so there's a shared kind of affection there. There's, there's a lot to break down when we talk about the Tigers, the bang the Bayou Bengals, the Louisiana State University Tigers.
- [01:54]
B
So we got a lot to talk about today. We're continuing our season previews, which will be up in just a moment. Then we'll talk about some recruiting and some transfer portal both for football and baseball. And obviously we'll close the show out with some bang the drum. We are 11 weeks away from the Texas Longhorns first game of the season in college football, officially kicking off in earnest on the 40 acres, as we have done every summer. Because this is every podcast somebody's first podcast. We've done this every summer, dating back to, I think, our first year doing this. We have people on from the different opponents on the Texas Longhorn schedule to help us preview those matchups. Kyle and I are smart enough to know that we are pretty dumb about all things that aren't Texas. So we have people on that know the resources and sources better than we do ourselves. And so we have the distinct privilege and pleasure to welcome on Lewis Johnson from the Voice of College Football Network and the last word on sports.com to help us preview the LSU Tigers. Man, Louis, how you doing tonight?
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A
Doing great, man. Thanks for having me, Louis.
- [02:55]
C
It's. It's always fun when we get someone new on this podcast. We have some people we've had for multiple years, you know, that we've played every year, we get to have on here. Whenever there's a new guest, you know, there's a little bit of energy, a little bit of, we bring, we open the family, we send you in. As long as you. Long as you play nice and try to be a little bit ridiculous, you're gonna fit in.
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A
I think I'll be just fine, man. But I'm kind of feeling the laid back vibe you guys have, unlike a lot of the fan base that I'm hearing right now. And that's really for both fan bases. But ye. Yeah, man, I think we'll, we'll come out just fine. It'll be fun.
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B
We always remind people, fan is short for fanatic, right? So, like, that is just how we do. So let's talk about some of the ridiculous stuff that happened in the offseason. So we have to talk about Lane Kiffin and we'll talk about kind of the off field Lane Kiffin stuff and then we'll talk about the on field Lane Kiffin stuff. But, you know, the. One of the big stories of the postseason was the Lane Kiffin saga. You know, was hired to coach LSU after Brian Kelly was removed from the post. Lane Kiffin wanted continue to coach Ole Miss through the playoffs, and there was back and forth and yada, yada, whatever, whatever. But Lane Kiffin did not get the opportunity to coach lsu. It was kind of a dramatic, kind of drawn out thing. Like how did LSU fans feel about that whole saga? Like, what was the first impression?
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Well, speaking for the fans, if I can do so, please. I think that the fans didn't really care how to play it out as long as they got their man.
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C
Sure.
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A
Now, if you want to say, if you want them to lean one way or the other, LSU fans would Rather, he not coach Ole Miss or even attempt to coach Ole Miss. And, hey, let's hit the ground running, get the Baton Rouge and do some recruiting. Now, I think part of me has to believe that Lane knew that he wasn't going to be able to coach that team throughout the playoffs. Because if you're Ole Miss, you got pride. You know, you're not going to allow this guy to. To coach both teams. And, yeah, you've never been to the playoffs, you've never even been to an SEC championship, and you're going to let this guy kind of who's. Who's leaving you? I mean, the biggest lap in the face. And I'm not blaming him. You got a dream job. Take it. But if I'm putting myself in the Ole Miss shoes, then, yeah, I'd be a little insulted that he's going to leave this playoff team to go and see what he can build with the team who was.500 at the time. So the fans around LSU just wanted it to be over him to come to lsu. Eventually that happened. Of course, it got messy, but I put that more on the sport itself than I put it on Lane Kiffin. The schedule just won't allow you to make a clean break. It's no good time to leave. Yeah, either you leave your team that's in contention or you. You hang back and you're behind. The transfer portal is opening. Like the calendar just doesn't allow you to have a good time to leave. So it was going to be messy no matter what. Now with Lane Kiffin's history, that was just easy fodder, if you ask me, for the national media to jump in and just jump all over and you
- [05:57]
C
know, when you think transfer portal, you think Lane Kiffin, right? He's a coach for the modern era. He's been very successful at that. The other thing that he's known for, besides kind of recently being the portal guru, as long as he's been around, Lane has had a job because he's one of the top offensive minds in college football. That's just that is Lane. His play calling. It's what's known about him. What. What do fans expect on the field from Lane Kiffin in year one?
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On the field, I think at the very least, fans are expecting a functional offense. Last year, I don't know how much y' all had a chance to watch lsu, but it was absolutely hard to watch. It was one of the few times. And look, I've been following LSU and covering LSU for quite some time. Even with those stone age Les Miles offenses where you ran the ball two times and then you threw it on third and long, this was worse than that. This was very hard to watch. You couldn't protect, you didn't have time to get deep and stretch the field and your quarterback was hurt. So it was absolutely a tough watch. I think fans are respecting a functional offense, somebody who's going to get the most out of the players that he has put in place. And an inciting offense. You know, that tempo can kind of catch a defense off guard, create some matchups and, and hit you for some big plays. So I think fans, for the most part are expecting a more exciting brand of football, but more importantly a playoff level brand of football.
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B
I love that. So let's, let's talk about, you know, a playoff brand of football. One of the big things that you really need to be competitive in modern college football is an elite quarterback. And, you know, Lane landed his man in the portal with Sam Levitt coming from Arizona State, led the, the Sun Devils to a playoff appearance a couple of years ago. Coming off an injury though, like what, what did, what did Lane liker? What do you know that Lane liked about Levitt to kind of come into Baton Rouge and lead an offense at a team that's in flux, that needs like what. What was it about Levitt that like made him the man for the Tigers?
- [07:59]
A
Well, I think you see a lot in lever that you've seen in Lane's successful quarterbacks. Not that he's had a lot of unsuccessful quarterback quarterbacks, but you look at a guy with dual threatability, a guy who's at this point a veteran, he can read coverages. You know, there's not a lot that he hasn't seen. He's played on big stages, he won't be intimidated by the moment. And a guy that's, I think he's, he's a tough kid, but he's also underrated with throwing off platform. You know, he's got dual threat ability, but I think when I watch him, I would be more worried about him throwing on the run or like breaking the defense down on a broken play than I am about him just straight up running the ball. He is a good runner, but those broken plays often turn into big plays and I think that's a lot of what he saw in Levitt. Just looking back a couple years ago, I'm going to be honest with you, when I saw Arizona State play, go up against Texas in the playoffs, I'm expecting Texas to just wipe him off the field, I was not expecting a competitive game. Yeah, Scatter Boo was good, but the talent level wasn't close, let's be honest. Yeah, but Lovett is a difference maker at the position and I think he's exactly what LSU needs right now at the position. And he's also progressing as far as his health much faster than what I thought he would coming off the offseason.
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C
Yeah, it's. It's worked out, I guess, okay to get an Arizona State quarterback who can move a little bit and put him in LSU offense. Now that was with Brian Kelly. But like you said, Lane has done pretty well. And Lane is known for his passing ambitious quarterbacks. But Lane Kiffin, I think an underrated thing about him, especially at Ole Miss, really created successful running games as well. And we know that LSU brings back a pair of talented, highly recruited rushers in Harlem. Berry and Kaden Durham combined for about a thousand yards, almost thousand yards last year. Offensive line is interesting to me when you talk about run game, also bass game, but just you've recycled a lot there. You know, you go out and get Jordan Seaton, one of the best players in the portal, probably one of the most expensive and probably a guy who's going to go pretty high in the NFL draft if all things go according to plan. But what can you expect from kind of the run game and the offensive line in year one with the team they built?
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It's going to sound kind of cliche because I'm hearing it a lot from a lot of programs who had trouble running the ball, like Alabama, like even Texas last year. A lot of teams who really looking at it from the outside in, you look at the talent level, there's no good reason they shouldn't have been able to run the ball, but they couldn't. So what I'm hearing a lot of is nowhere to go but up. And it sounds good, but it's never a given that you're going to be better. Now, I will say this for lsu, the talent level of that offensive line has been vastly improved on paper. Well, I won't say vastly improved because you had some guys, everybody that left on that line, they're in a position to start at other SEC schools, guys at A and M at Arkansas, at Kentucky, at Mississippi State, like every lineman went on to another starting job. But you got a new staff in here too. So I think the expectation for LSU is that you have guys who are better equipped to get the most out of these guys. And the development side of that offensive line is Going to be on a much better trajectory than it has been the last couple of years. Even two years ago when you had a veteran line, LSU still couldn't run the ball. So you lose four guys in the NFL, so of course it got much worse. That's where it starts. But another thing that's going to help that offensive line, well, a couple things I'll say the dual threat ability of the quarterback that gives you an extra blocker of your quarterback can run and also a better play caller and trying not to throw shots. Look, I got respect for the last staff, but you have some proven guys now, Lane Kiffin and Charlie Weiss Jr. They have proven what they're capable of as far as creating a running game and also creating matchups. And I just think that on the sideline LSU was going to be much better off than they were last year.
- [12:07]
B
So let's talk about a guy who's probably not on the sideline but, but maybe in the booth a little bit. One of the holdovers from the last staff. There's a lot of turnover, but defensive coordinator Blake Baker is still around this year. Lane decided to keep him for good reason. LSU has been defensively on an upward trajectory. I think they were a top, like 15 or even might be top 10 defense on some advanced stats that I was looking up. But there's a lot of continuity with there. But again there's like probably five or six guys that are going to be new starters that are new to Baton Rouge, new transfers in. So like how, what do we expect from the defense and how does it really pair with Kiffin's offense? Because one of the things you hear a lot of defensive coordinators complain about is, you know, managing a defense with one of these high tempo offenses. How do you see Baker making that adjustment and what do we expect from these new guys on campus?
- [12:57]
A
Look, I'm going to be honest with you as far as making that adjustment, that's going to be kind of tough until we see it. It's tough to project that because we haven't seen an offense like that at LSU in quite some time as far as that fast paced offense. But as far as what I expect the defense to be, I'm expecting more improvement. I mean, you just mentioned it was on an upward trajectory. And I want to remind people because locally people really remember what you bad at. You know, what you didn't do more than they remember where you were successful. And look, just a couple of years ago LSU was ranked in the 1000s in everything. Pass defense, run defense, they were 108th in total defense in 23 blade. Becker comes in, they move up to 61st in total defense his first year. And this isn't, you know, a very different team as far as personnel is concerned. His second year you go from 61st to 27th in total defense. And now you're going to have more talent than you've had at any point during Blake Baker's tenure as the D.C. and most importantly on the edges. Blake Baker is known for an aggressive defense, but he's had to have that because he hasn't had the talent on the edge to get in the backfield and be disruptive. You haven't had that Colin Simmons that you guys have on that defense. So now you get a Jordan Ross from Tennessee, you get a Prince William Allen from Ole Miss who had nine sacks and now you don't have to manufacture so much of that pressure and you can let your guys play more sound on the, on the back end and not be so risky. So I'm definitely expecting improvement on that defense. You know, maybe you go from. So you went 108, 61, 27. Okay. You should be top 15 total defense and look numbers on everything. But turnovers are. And I think when you get that, that pressure from the four man front is going to lead to more turnovers. And I also want to say how important it was to keep Blake Baker and keep some continuity on the team. You got like over 40 transfers. You need. You desperately need some continuity somewhere. I'm expecting that offense to need a little time to kind of jail, particularly up front. But I think you're asking a lot to want a playoff team and you have. You got to gel on both sides of the ball. So even though you got some new players on that defense who are going to contribute, for the most part your leaders are back in place. You guys like Whit Weeks, you guys like to Marcus Cooley on the back end. DJ Pickard is returning for his second year as a starter as a true sophomore. So that was huge to to keep Blake Baker. And lucky for LSU he didn't take that two lane job.
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C
Right. I was going to say like a successful season for you probably begets like a bigger head coaching job for him next year. Like he's. Baker's going to be a hot commodity. So it's interesting you want success, but maybe not too much success where you keep him another year. It's an interesting place you find yourself. You said wit weeks and it just made me think how exciting Thanksgiving is going to be this year. I assume there's still some connection there besides just coaching. We'll leave that one for a different podcast. But we do like storylines. That's how we think about football and how we think about the things we cover. It doesn't have to be the TMZ storylines. But for you, Louis, who is, or what is, I should say, one storyline that you're watching about this team in 2026?
- [16:15]
A
Well, I hate to sound redundant, but my big storyline is the O line. I think that's your biggest question mark right now. You got a lot of skill on this team and even though you got different guys coming from all over the place, I don't worry about them utilizing that skill with this coaching staff because I've seen them do it with so much less talent than what I'm looking at right now on this roster. But it all starts up front and I think bringing back Braylon Moore as center was huge. Getting Jordan Seaton was huge. But you got a couple of guys who aren't proven and these are some critical positions. Although I will say any position up front is critical. But your left guard, Bo Bo Borderline, who's kind of lined up right now, he'll be a first year starter. And at right tackle you got Weston Davis, who was a Texas native and athletically he's not missing anything. But he had some ups and downs last year, but that whole O line did. And I think that might be more so a product of coaching than his actual ability because he's got great feet, super athletic guy who's a great basketball player in high school too. So you expect him to come along, but you don't know that it's still an unknown. So I think that's the biggest key for LSU rolling into 26.
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B
I love that. So let's, let's put our last kind of football specific question out there. So it's too early for wins and losses predictions. I hate doing them anyways. So we're just going to put that to the side. But let's think about just from an overall perspective. We're sitting here December or January, late at the end of the year and you say, man, LSU had a really successful season. How would you define a successful season?
- [17:58]
A
Playoffs. Very simple. Playoffs. Whether it's realistic or not or whether it's fair or not around here, when you look at a new coaching staff and you look at this influx of talent, look, fans aren't gonna care about a team getting chemistry and gelling and this and that. They won't. Okay? The way they look at it is, oh, well, you're spending this amount of money. Oh, it's a playoff team. And look, we all know it's not that simple, but that's the way people are looking at it. And I think the only way you can describe a successful season is gonna be by them being a playoff team. Now personally, I think, I mean, I won't even say I think 9 and 3 is obviously a big improvement from I think what 5 and 7 LSU was last year. 6 and 7 went to the bowl game and lost against Houston. But Yeah, I think 9 and 3 is a solid year. But I think the goal is playoffs. And I think the majority in this area won't look at it as a success unless they make the playoffs.
- [18:57]
C
I like that there is no such thing as a year one anymore in the era of the transfer portal. Fans and players and everyone just expects success. And so I like that that for you year one doesn't exist. It is, it is playoffs. You have the names at all the spots, you have the transporter, you have the talent, you have the recruits, you have everything you need. It's lsu, by God, you better get to the playoffs. Year one, I like it. That's, that's great. So that's where we kind of put a pin in our first half of the show with our interviews. Typically we like to cover the team right then we have a section we're calling this year Shooting from the Hip. We've changed that five or six times each year. That's what we're going with this year. We're hit you with just some rapid fire questions. So I'm going to, I'm going to start it off real easy, little toss up a softball to you amongst friends. You, you told me before the show and I won't put you completely on blast, but I'll just say from the jambalaya capital of the world in Louisiana. So I need to know right now from you, my friend, what is your Louisiana food hot take?
- [20:02]
A
Okay. My Louisiana food hot take is New Orleans food is overrated.
- [20:06]
C
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
- [20:08]
A
When you hear people who come from out of town and they visit, you know, of course New Orleans is the biggest tourist attraction in Louisiana. And people talk about the food and for good reason. It's good. Don't get me wrong. But if you really want the best food in Louisiana, you want to go to southwest Louisiana and the 337 and see people bring out the black pots and look, bring your blood pressure pills. You're gonna need them. But that's where the best food is in Louisiana.
- [20:35]
C
I respect it. I put Gerald, I believe, and my friends on Darrell's Po Boys in Lake Charles, and I've eaten my way through Lafayette. I do spend a lot of time eating in New Orleans, that is true. But I try to branch, so I will take no offense to that because I eat my way through most of Louisiana. But that's a good one. Honestly, as someone who deeply, deeply loves New Orleans, I still. I feel you.
- [20:58]
A
Hey, don't get me wrong. It's good. It's just. It's not the best.
- [21:00]
C
All right, fair enough.
- [21:02]
B
I get you. I was in Baton Rouge for work a couple of weeks ago, and they were debating about all sorts of very local stuff. So I get it. Like, everybody has their regional pride and it. I. I need to spend more time in south southwest Louisiana. That's really what I'm saying. So these get more silly as we go. I'm just letting you know. So everybody, I think if you're a college football nerd of a certain age, which we all are, are familiar with the meme Joey Freshwater and Lane Kiffin's pseudonym, whatever you want to call it, when he was trying to creep around. Do we have a petitioner? Can you start a petition for him to start going by Joey Gulf Water? How do you feel about that?
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A
Hey, look, I'm all for it, but I won't be the one that starts it. I have. I have no intention of getting banned from the LSU facility. So, yeah, I would love to partake in the silliness of it and enjoy it from afar, but, yeah, I won't be the one to get this started.
- [22:02]
C
That's fair. Just, you know, whisper it on your breath. See if it catches on. Let someone else say it out loud. A question we like to ask because I think it's really interesting. We're well into the NIL era, but we've been asking this since it first was kind of announced. We've gotten some really interesting answers over the years. But if you could take the nil, the true essence of it, of taking your name and image and likeness and pairing a player with a company, with a brand, with a. With a product. Think back of all the great Tigers over the years. If NIL had always existed, what would your dream pairing of one player and one product. Company, whatever. Dream Nil pairing for. For an LSU Tiger.
- [22:36]
A
Okay, so this one probably wouldn't go over well with the administration, but you gotta say Tyrone Matthew and Good Day Farms, which is the local dispensary in Louisiana.
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C
That's actually perfect. That. Yeah, you're right.
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A
You can't beat it.
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B
I had Tyron Matthew in my head, but I didn't know where we were going. So I love that our vibes are similar. Okay.
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A
Hey look, match made in heaven for real.
- [23:04]
B
So this next one again is a silly question I like to ask all newbies on. So if you don't know, I'm a. I'm a kind of a wrestling fan. Booker T is one of my all time favorites from Louisiana. Ricky Starks AKA Ricky Saints is from New Orleans as well. Was featured in the big WWE Pay Per view this last weekend. I say all that to ask you this. If there is a current or former LSU player you think would make an incredible professional wrestler, who would it be and why?
- [23:32]
A
I would have to say T Bob A bear. Don't know how, how well you guys know T Bob, but he, he's a big guy. He's got the big, you know, wrestling body and plus just the, the over the top personality. I think he's a natural professional wrestler and he can get, you know, as crazy as anybody you've seen on wcw, wwe, whatever. So he would fit right in and I think he would really enjoy it too.
- [23:57]
C
It's hard to get more like legendary in the state of Louisiana than an A bear named T Bob, you know what I mean? And yeah, that's. He played offensive line right back in the day. I feel like an offensive or defensive lineman is a good answer most times
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B
he gives me, gives me Dusty Rhodes vibes is what I'm feeling when you say that. Exactly what I'm feeling.
- [24:18]
C
I like that. I like that. All right, so who. This is always a question that's interesting. Who do LSU fans or who do you at least specifically consider LSU's biggest rival?
- [24:30]
A
Oh man, that's tough because I've been around for a lot of them. You know, we don't have a true rival. So when I was at lsu, Auburn was the big game. You know, the SEC west always came down to LSU and Auburn because Alabama was down at this point. This was like one of dubose and Mike Shuler days. Of course, Nick Saban leaves and comes back and it's Alabama. But between Auburn and Alabama, LSU in Florida was the biggest game in the SEC for a few years. So I guess I gotta go with Alabama. But that's gonna quickly change the Ole Miss. Very quickly.
- [25:08]
C
Yeah, I'm sure that makes a lot of sense actually. All right, so let's stick with Alabama until the hate really builds up. Now we'll follow up that question with. Can you say one nice thing about Alabama?
- [25:20]
A
Well, I mean, it was easily the most dominant program in the country for quite some time. Look, I'm, I'm not one of those guys who like, oh, how could, how could Nick Saban dad go to Alabama? Blah blah. Nick Saban followed his dream just like Lane Kiffin did. He went to the NFL, didn't work out. When he came back, like, who's not going to take that job? Like, who's going to. I don't want to go coach Alabama where I got all the resources and everybody's going to worship me.
- [25:44]
C
Right?
- [25:45]
A
So, yeah, I mean, you'd be crazy not to take that job. So even though it's not fun to watch LSU go up and, and let Les Miles run Leonard Fernet up the middle 50 times a game and get his head bashed in, that's not fun. But I won't let that take away from how great Alabama really was. And you know, they're, you know, they don't shaky ground right now. Even though they're not looking terrible, they're not what they were and you're not going to have another dynasty like that. But good luck explaining that to fans again.
- [26:16]
B
Fan is short for fanatic. Man, Lewis, I really appreciate the time, brother. If folks want more of what you've got to offer, where can they find you on the Internet?
- [26:24]
A
Hey, check me out on TikTok and Twitter @CFB Lou. At CFB Lou. Of course, college football Lou. And again, last word on sports as well, right, for lsu. Boys College Football Network is where I talk about lsu. So check me out. And guys, again appreciate y' all having me.
- [26:41]
B
We appreciate it.
- [26:42]
C
Thanks for coming.
- [26:43]
B
Great stuff from Lewis. And again, we really appreciate him joining us, really, honestly as we've had a good run like friend, almost instant friend of the show status. We really appreciate him joining us. But that brings us to the part of the show where we whip around the rest of campus and we down the 40. And I say rest of campus, we're still going to start with football because June, Kyle June has been hot with two T's at the end recruiting wise for Texas. Three weeks ago, Texas was sitting at number 17 overall in the 247 composite ratings. Texas now on June 29 at 9:01pm we have to timestamp because these commitments are coming fast and furious.
- [27:23]
C
Right?
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B
Texas now sits at number five thanks to a flurry of additions to the 2027 class. Run it down through the list, three star offensive tackle Lewis Roa, four star cornerback Montre Jackson and four star defensive lineman Jason Johnson all committed to Texas over the week for the 2027 class. And then you have to look at 2028. Sark and A.J. mill. We got their guy for the 28 class as well because American Heritage quarterback Neiman Lawrence made his decision to come to Texas. Texas over A and Miami, which had a really sad hat. If you're doing hat science. You knew Miami instantly was not in it. Notre Dame and Michigan a four star, the number 73 player overall. So there's a lot of fresh talent. Kyle. I feel like Texas has been very focused on the trenches in this class and I think is a good sign based on what we've seen recently.
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C
Yeah, I, I think there's. We've seen ups and downs. I guess if you'll say it with, with Kyle flooding some of his recruiting success and, and even how it's showed up on the field. I like what they've done in the portal as well, you know, in, in the higher end and then I like what they've done in this class. Really building in the trench. I believe they're fourth offensive line commit Roa and they also went, you know, around the country on some of these. They picked up California, Florida, Alabama. Right. They're, they're showing to be a truly national brand, which is important. They seem to clearly like the way. You know, it's funny now it's like, oh, I like the way that high school recruits their kids. We'll take that school's talent. American Heritage giving us pretty close to consecutive quarterbacks. So that's pretty cool. But, uh, yeah, it's, you know, I like getting trenches both sides. Right. You get defensive tackles, defensive linemen and then defensive backfield in this. I, I like both Montre Jackson a lot and I think Junior Tuopo is going to be like a, a really good player. I, I feel like you look at Gideon and, and you know, safety play at Texas and you, you tip your cap and what he's been able to do. And I feel like going into Alabama and getting a guy who originally was a. This is an Alabama vs Auburn recruitment as most of the, you know, elite talent historically always has been for kids from Alabama. You know, it ended up being Oregon thrown in there as well and Indiana as well, but really was, you know, the two Alabama schools versus Texas and Texas gets a really versatile player in a Will Musham defense that could be like, you know, like you think about Texas as a Great safety a few years ago back in the true DBU and and of recent vintage for sure. And then you think about Alabama when they were really good, they put a bunch of safeties in the NFL. Like feels like the next line in line of that level of talent. And so I'm pretty excited about two of them specifically. But really good week. Just it felt like every time you opened up your phone it was a new recruit was popping.
- [30:18]
B
Yeah, I mean as somebody who like part of my gig at BN that I still do is writing about recruiting and it was a very busy couple of weeks for me. And again, you know you talked about Junior Tiopo, but like Texas has really done a. I like what Texas is doing because it feels like they are really focusing on like landing some of the must get like in state guys. Like I feel like Johnson is another kid. We'll talk about one more in just a minute. But then like going and finding like their guy from out of state like you mentioned, Topo, you got Lawrence again from Florida. Like you recruiting is so much more national now, but when you're dealing with the University of Texas, like they have to still prioritize some of this in state stuff because Texas does produce some of the best players in the country regardless. And one of those that we're going to talk about is a potential. Again, we don't have a ton, but the, the recruiting momentum is still happening for Texas. We're starting to see predictions for five star offensive linemen. Ismael Kamara, also known as the French franchise freak as folks call him. He's a pretty new to football, only playing his second full season. He did not get to play earlier. He's now transferred around but again he is now in the state of Texas and again trending to the University of Texas. A number I believe two offensive tackle in the class will potentially play at Texas. And again, we don't know what he's gonna play because yeah, he's got a lot of versatility.
- [31:55]
C
Yeah, in, in the good way. Not that he's a tweener and we don't know what he's gonna play because he doesn't have a position. But like size of a tackle, moves like a guard, brains like a center. Like he, he kind of has all of it. Even being new to football. He's just going to keep getting better. Like he's a really exciting, one of the most exciting players in this class. Like, and that's funny to say about alignment, but if you like the trenches like Gerald and I do, that that is a true statement. But I mean I'm also excited. Gerald is someone who is just leaning all the way in thanks to Wemby, to my Frenchness which I don't know, I didn't see it in my 23andMe but maybe I'm excited to have another French freak to, to cheer for for three to four years. Wemby will be forever because he will play for the spurs for the next 20 years. But yes, it is, it is very exciting. Hope that one pops. We've we've, you know, had some good strong vibes the past couple weeks on, on folks we trust, giving hints on, on various people and most of them have come true and it feels like there's, there's smoke for sure with Kamara and so let's hope that, let's hope that pops because that, that would, that would really be the icing on the cake for, for Flood and a really good class that has both developmental projects super high upside. Even even Kamara a bit of a developmental five star if you will and then just like some solid four stars who you know are going to be should be good. It is the hardest position obviously to project but getting giant freaks who are multi position and really talented is a good way to stop the cabinet.
- [33:26]
B
Yeah in I think part of the conversation and we'll have this probably another day where we're talking recruiting later is like Texas in some of these especially offensive line recruitings isn't going to win all of these big names because of just the way that they're going to spend their money. Sark has said it in multiple different ways but ultimately like you know, when you look at you know, well we're not gonna he who should not be named that ended up at Texas Tech and kind of dis Texas last year. He got paid a lot up front and Texas is going to do that. Sark has basically called it like dead cap money with some of these guys, especially when you have to manage this kind of roster. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays itself out quickly. We've got some baseball news to mop up. Texas baseball finish number five at the end of the year in the D1 baseball rankings. Should see another again a good year still. It's wild that Texas had all of this success but it was still kind of a frustrating way to end it at the hands of Georgia twice but big ups to them. Transfer Portal when you are listening to this you'll probably have I don't know, we'll call it 36 hours left to get your name in the transfer portal. But coming in for baseball, Long Beach State outfielder Trevor Goldenance from Huntington Beach, California. A great hitter. And again we mentioned last week Texas was probably looking for another outfielder. And so again, Potter Thomas in the off season played itself out.
- [34:46]
C
Yeah, I'm very excited to really get good at pronouncing. Golden Nets. Golden Nets. I just, I like it. It's got, it's got a ring to it. Kid from Huntington beach, had family that lived there. It's real nice. It's hard to motivate yourself to do anything other than surf, so good for him. On picking up a baseball hit.369, a real nice batting average as a freshman for the dirt bags. Again, to be, to be a dirtbag is a compliment in baseball. He took over throughout the years. Starting center fielder missed about a month with a hand injury, so doesn't have like a full season of stats. But in his condensed year, 27 free passes to only 14 strikeouts. Not a lot of extra base hits. So power is something he'll need to work through. Has speed on the base pass and you know, as a Natural center fielder. Good.986 fielding percentage will be interesting. He'll have to work probably on some either gap hitting or getting some more power to really be an everyday player. But could very likely be a rotational or again, late game sub get in there or a pinch runner. Like he's got some things he can do. I hope he proves me wrong and comes in and locks down an outfield spot. That means he's doing some things that the coaching staff likes. There's a lot of upside here for the freshman, but again, I think the Kent State, you know, Aiden Robbins, direct replacement we got, probably gets an automatic spot. I don't know if I feel that way with gold Nets yet, but again, happy to be proven wrong. A kid who committed to TCU out of high school and didn't go there, that just shows he's got good decision making.
- [36:11]
B
Great decision making from him. Some kids that, you know, we're happy about their, their time at Texas, but we were sad to see it go. Good decisions for them maybe, but still sad. I'm gonna run through them real quick. Texas had nine guys declare their intentions to go elsewhere and or commit elsewhere. Maddox bonsor, committed to NC State. He start, started 14 and played in 36 for Texas. Presley Corville, committed to Coastal Carolina. Andrew Iris, we mentioned him last week being kind of forced out via some transfer stuff. Committed to tcu. Jason Flores, who is A right handed pitcher for Texas. Made nine appearances, two starts, 675er, but never really lived up to his top billing. Is out in the transport as well. Uh, Will Hill, Jaden Ferguson, Cooper Rummel, Cade Bing and Callum early all made their intentions known that they're going to find a new place to play.
- [37:04]
C
Yeah, Texas has been stacking arms. So not incredibly surprised to hear some of the names you're unfamiliar with because they never really contributed. Kate Bing was a guy I think had big hopes and never really materialized. Jason Flores, definitely a guy. Even freshman year he was much better and showed potential and upset like he was probably. Everyone thought just our lock for a Tuesday starter who would be a weekend starter in the upcoming year. Couldn't lock down that Tuesday spot because he just really couldn't get it going. Sark really talked about or sorry. Schlesnagel talked about him a lot, like glowingly. I mean it really seemed like he was maybe trying to speak it into existence because Flores has the stuff and the thing about him, out of all these people, Monster had great contribution. Was kind of forced due to injuries and some players going to the draft that we thought were going to be contributors in the outfield really played a lot more than I think they thought. But he played well for us. Hate to see him leave otherwise. A lot of guys who probably should go elsewhere to get their playing time. Corville had upside as well, but Flores might be the one out of all of them that he's going to land somewhere. And I'll be watching closely because if he puts it together, it's going to be one of those that really irks you because he could be a top, you know, 20 starter in college baseball. Like he's that level of upside. We'll see. We'll see where, where it goes. But all in all, Texas didn't lose a guy who contributed meaningfully, who they were counting on based on performance, not just potential next year thus far. And that's great. Right, because they brought in a few, not a ton of. But they haven't lost a ton. So they're really. Sloss has said he wants to look at developing the recruits and continues to have some of the best high school recruiting classes and not be overly reliant on the portal. And so, you know, you got to let some players go out based on the exit interviews and none of these are red flags in my mind.
- [38:38]
B
Yeah. And again, I think, you know, this is part of a sign of, I think a healthy and growing program is that you're going to see some of this attrition and especially in baseball because of just the way that the rosters are structured and playing time and all that. It's going to be a normal thing. But that brings us to the part of the show where we honor one of the best traditions on all of college athletics, Big Bertha and we bang the drum Brought to you by Joe Rui So Kyle, what are you banging the drum on this week?
- [39:03]
C
GERALD I said last week that I wasn't going to bang the drum on EA Sports video game rankings ratings I should say. But I looked at more of them and I, I have to, I just can't not so I'll start at the top with the easy stuff. Just so we all know Gerald and I love this game. It was gone for more lives for a long time. We've had a couple seasons of online Dynasty. It's been fantastic way to keep in touch with a small group of friends. We love it, we absolutely will play it and we'll probably play as Texas obviously even though they're really good and we don't always like to play with with winners. So you know, who knows. But Texas Overall tied for fourth best team in Notre Dame with an 89 overall rating behind 91. Oregon and Ohio State and Indiana at 90. So Texas right there in the mix with the best teams. Offense is tied for third best with Indiana and Miami at 90 and defense at 88 tied for seventh with Ohio State and OU. So that was what I was going to say last week because that's what I saw and then I went a little bit deeper. Mainly I got really excited when I saw Arch mannings attributes. He has 90 acceleration which I just was really excited by because it's true 90 breaks act they're expecting arch just to be tough to take down and I like it. He's a, a Josh Allen type 94 injury 93 stamina the, the, the war horse that is arch obviously 97 throw powers, the one that catches the eye but we'll see what the accuracy looks like in real life and in the video game. GERALD but just to run down, I don't know if any of these jumped out at me as like oh that's really surprising. But the top six rated players because I want you to hear the sixth for Texas, Colin Simmons. Number one, not surprising Trevor Goosby number two, Cam Coleman, Rasheed Biles, which I hope people are on the Rasheed Biles train. I don't think he's got hyped. He should be. I don't Think he's got hyped enough. It's possibly the most impactful transfer in the country this year. Arch Manning at fifth and the sixth ranked player. Which man if this is true watch out folks. Jelani McDonald coming in tied with Bo Mascow, Hollywood Smothers Relate Brown both up there as well. Brandon Baker rounding out the top 10. Really need Brandon Baker as a guard to be one of our 10 best players. I feel really good about that. So there's players names you didn't hear who you're like oh I don't know, we'll see how Hero, Canoe and others do. But I'll just say all those players are around the 90 rated mark and that's pretty darn good. But it'll be interesting. I the the fastest Longhorns was interesting. Wingo with 97 speed, Relique Brown, Phil Semi, Jermaine Bishop all the way down at 4th. We'll see. But it was interesting. I'm happy if anyone wants more. If you can't find it online DM me I can give you some of this but you can you can also google it yourself and find strongest, fastest, most agile etc but Jelani McDonald the breakout player of the season TBD.
- [41:52]
B
I'm going Rasheen Biles as my breakout player. The people should be talking about more and our linebacker preview will be sometime in the middle of the summer and we'll talk about why. But I'm begging the drum this week on Weird Conversations Around Women's Sports. Kyle and I started this podcast during the Charlie Strong era and so we've always been women's sports fans, but for a long time women's sports were all we had to hang our hats on. The football team was not great, the basketball team was not great. But volleyball's winning national championships and you know, the swim team was winning national championships and softball was doing great things. And so the the conversation around women's basketball right now is really weird and really polarizing, specifically around, you know, Caitlin Clark and and the the narratives that people are building around her and her treatment in the league and blah blah, whatever, whatever. But I'm the Longhorn. Tie to this is that professional win bag Manny Acho went on Al Gore's Internet and said that Caitlin Clark is not worth the level of drama that she's bringing to the wnba. And I don't understand what that take is rooted in other than him misunderstanding literally everything. Do I agree that there are a lot of people that are using Caitlin Clark as a stand in for their weird politics and bad acting. Yes. But I also think that Caitlin Clark was one of the most successful women's college basketball players of all time and is now, again, becoming a talking point for a lot of people. And again, people make some weird comments and use it as a thinly veiled way to call black women thugs and things like that. But ultimately, like, saying that she's not worth the drama just feels like you misunderstand, like, sports and what sports are today at a. At, like, a fundamental level.
- [43:39]
C
Yeah. I mean, look, put some respect on Caitlin Clark's name. She's at least one of the top two most famous athletes from Downling Catholic in West Des Moines, Iowa. Of course, her and Tegan Kavan grew up in the same neighborhood, but, so, you know, number two ain't bad. Caitlin Clark. No, I. And. And look, I'm more of a Page Bucher fan myself, but that's okay. Caitlin Clark has done a lot for the game. And as. As two people who love Longhorn sports more than anything, but also love women's sports and. And ride and die, you know, for the day that those are just called sports. You know, this. Anything that, like, detracts and adds negativity just feels like it's it, ain't it, chief?
- [44:21]
A
So.
- [44:21]
C
Yeah. Come on, Manny. You're better. You should be better.
- [44:24]
B
That's all we got for you this week, Kyle. Where could the good folks find you on the Internet?
- [44:28]
C
Oh, you can follow me on my jambalaya reviewing. But now you can follow me on Twitter and Blue sky at Kyle Carmen. Also follow the Texas Pregamer at Texas Pregamer.
- [44:38]
B
You can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky, G.H. goodridge. Follow the show about those spots at Longhorn Pod, Facebook and Instagram. The Longhorn Republic. Shoot us an email Longhorn Republic pod@gmail.com. we'll be back on Thursday starting our Texas position previews with the one that we all want to talk about because everybody's already talked about it a thousand times. Arch Manning and the Texas quarterback. Thanks so much for tuning in. And until next time, hook him.
- [45:01]
C
Hook him. I don't hate lsu. I wish I could hit him.