LC, Coach, and Ian discuss Arch's absence from NCAA Football and what we should look for throughout spring practices. Subscribe to Inside Texas to stay locked in with your favorite team every single day https://www.on3.com/teams/texas-longhorns/join/
Inside Texas Football
IT Roundtable: Faux Arch Manning Controversy, Spring Ball Progress, Positions of Intrigue
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to your Saturday round table. In the off season, we have the opportunity to talk about subjects that just go beyond the game that's coming up. And the first thing that I want to talk about today is a lot of the punditry has opinions about whether archmaning should or should not be included in the EA Sports 2025 college football game. Obviously, there is some concern that it's a quote distraction that he's not in the game, which is totally absurd. The other thing is that he's holding out for more money. And that's kind of what I want to talk about. Because what I think has happened now with this NIL, the name, image and likeness, is we haven't really taken seriously what it means to put your name, to put your image onto something. These players are getting paid $600 to be in a video game. Now, I can tell you from my own personal experience, having worked on several video games, $600 was my day rate. And these people are asking for $600 for the entirety of the game. This thing will make hundreds of millions of dollars. And these players will make 600. The other thing that we don't have control over, or we, I say, arch doesn't have control over, is how he's going to be represented. The thing that gets really tricky with name, image and likeness is a lot of these kids. They're very young. There's money in front of them. And they're giving away their image, their name, their likeness. And a lot of that is also their rights in how that's represented. Certainly, there are contracts that get really deep into this. But when all of this started, the first thing that popped into my mind, and bear with me, if you will, was Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Now, certainly, this has nothing to do with them. McCarthy read scare, but it has absolutely everything to do with John Proctor. John Proctor really cared about his name. Because it is my name. Because I cannot have another in my life. These kids don't get another name. They don't get anything else. This is their name. They're being represented. And Arch thinks his name is worth more than $600. I don't have a problem with that. Never mind some of the classes that's going on that says Arch has probably $600 in his sofa cushions. He probably does. That's not the point. He understands from a fundamental level that I am a person. This person is taking my image. They're taking my likeness. They're taking my name. And they are profiting from it. And I'm making $600. So do I think that the kids, the 10,000 kids that signed up for this did something wrong? Absolutely not. That is their want. But I also don't think that Arch should be raped over the coals because he decided that his name, image, and likeness was worth something to him. That's my rant. We're going to bring in now Ian Boyd and Coach Williams to talk about some spring ball. But I have a feeling that Ian might want to contribute to this conversation, just based on his facial expressions. I really want to see now if you can come up with an excuse to put Daniel Day-Lewis's alter scene from There Will Be Blood up on one of these you want to get into the the milkshake and see where the I abandoned my child. He told me I want him, but I would never guess he'd pull the crucible. He does he can get a bit yelly that DDL. He really likes into it. He really dialed it up in that one. Absolutely. I you made a lot of great points. I think I want I don't know this, but I wonder if some of the guys that are out promoting the game are getting a little extra. Also, I'm sure they are. Yeah, 600 to be in the game, but maybe an extra bit to promote it. If you're one of the main guys, in arch-manning is kind of going to be one of the main attractions to owning the game. No, I hear you. Yeah, the main attractions, but you know, he's like, how many people are going to want to play as Texas? And then if things go poorly, maybe like, I was going to stick arching here and see what things would have been like, right? That's going to be people want to play with arch-manning. And they're going to want to see what ratings are and all that. And to your point, if he's in there with like backup ratings, you know, they have him like a 80 speed, you know, or whatever else. And he's like, no, that's not me. Why not? Why not? At least fight for a fair buck in exchange for that representation or or have some influence on how he's portrayed, right? Yeah. And that's, I mean, by holding out, he's maintained leverage. And that's something that that and again, I don't begrudge these kids that signed up for it. It's super cool to be in the video game. I am all for that. I think my problem is with the national punditry and even some folks here with us at on three that are given this kid a really hard time saying like, oh, he's basically holding out for more money or this is a distraction to the team. You know, he should just be on the team or he's disappointing the fans like, look, this is entirely up to him. The whole premise of name, image and likeness is so you as an individual athlete have more power and more say over what your college career looks like. And because we have a kid taking advantage of that, I don't necessarily think that's a problem. Just like I don't think it's a problem. If we've got a running back driving around in a Lamborghini, if that's what he wants to do. I don't think you can have it both ways. Coach, when you are, when you're in Vegas, did you have, did you have, what was the name, image and likeness stuff going on over there? Definitely like it's not like it is a text. I could tell you that, you know, they had a lot of small time deals with different restaurants and things like that are some casinos, smaller casinos, not the big ones. So it wasn't as big as you think being in Vegas, but there's opportunity that I tell you that. And is it the type of thing where the the the kid needs to show up at the casino and sit at the blackjack table for 27 minutes and he gets his NIL deal or what does he need to do? So they have like gay parties they go to, right? They pretty much helping with the day party, promoting it. Just small outings and events, you know, small time commercials, all of them going to the restaurant filming a commercial that they're eating and then promoting that restaurant. So stuff like that. You know, else be something else that occurs to me. I don't know if you guys remember the old Madden games, but Peyton Manning was kind of notorious in those games because he has like kind of a big forehead, right? And the way they would depict that in the game, his head was like enormous. And he just he looked cartoonish, even when they tried to make the game more realistic, he still looked like cartoonish and and silly. And they may have scared the family away from them. This may just be payback. Yeah, you're you're from this here is that this is some long form of retribution that the Manning's have been planning. Yeah, they got they got together with the O'Bannons. They're playing the long car. They're making sure that the NIO gets in so they can ultimately deny EA the opportunity to work with them. It's it's completely plausible. And I agree that that could be the case. Let's let's move on to football. If you guys don't mind, we've got a spring game coming up. The only reason we're talking about it now is because other schools have already started spring ball. What's when we're in this position when when spring ball starts, let's talk about practice for a second coach. What are we what are we hoping to achieve in a spring ball practice? Yeah, you want to get your basics down. And what I mean by basics is, you know, you're your most popular plays are the ones you run the most. If you're a veteran, you know, been at three or four years or a guy who's just now coming in, everybody's going to be on the same learning curve, right? We're going to start with play one, a can be a simple inside zone run, right? We're going to run that thing until we got it down perfect. And then we move on to the next play, the next one, the next one, and so on. So in a practice, you just want perfection, right? You're just trying to build something, see what your team is, see what kind of team you're going to have, where your strengths are, where your weaknesses are. It's a time to focus on that. Plus, there's an evaluation period going on. Who can remember the playbook? Who can, you know, get their come out and shine and can be consistent because, as you know, in spring evaluations, there have been guys hit the portal after the spring season. Spring football, because they realize they're going to be at the bottom of the depth chart, right? So you got a lot, a lot going on during the spring. And is there anything in particular? And again, I don't, we are going to be talking spring ball ad nauseam starting in the next couple of weeks. But is there anything in particular that you would be looking for in, let's say you had the opportunity to be at practice? What are the things that you would be looking for there? Well, I'd be curious what they're tinkering with. We've been using kind of all off season that Texas might want to have more single high coverages because it's a better fit for what both Nansen and Johnny Nansen and Pequikowski have done in the past. They were very good in two high coverages, but whenever they try to develop their blitz package, it always shows up that they don't know how to marry the front and the back as well. And every year, there's some fresh problem that emerges in that, trying to find that union. So I know they'll tinker and do different things and I'd be curious to know what exactly they're going to do and how they'll take advantage. And then also know what they're going to do without sweat and Murphy, like we just did a deep dive or removes that they might be way more slant and movement based up front, because they just have very, they have good athletes on the defensive line, but they're very different kind of athlete than the 366 pound debondry sweat or the always the lowest man, Byron Murphy. They don't have anyone like either of those two guys on this roster that's at least not that's like at the top of the depth chart. And then, you know, Quinn, what is year three look like with Quinn? Usually when a quarterback gets this deep into his college career, you really see an uptick in the sophistication of the pass game schemes that they run, maybe his role in the protections or audibles. So there's, I mean, this team is going to look different next year and there's a lot of that is going to start with stuff that they're going over in meetings right now and that they're going to go try to put to work in those spring practices coming up in a few weeks. Coach, you've been through spring ball. What do we, when you're there on the field, what are you looking at? What are you wanting to see out of your players when those practices start? Yeah, from an older group, you, veterans, you want to see, you know, how they progress, how they progress since, you know, the previous season, right? What things are they learning, what things they keep and remember, you know, it can be footwork. How many steps to take on a certain route, getting their body in position when they run a certain route and blocking, right? You want to see how they progress. The younger guys, you just want to see how much they know, right? So you can see how much you can add to their plate and get them prepared for the season or the, in the spring going into a summer and fall camp. So those are some of the things that you can, I looked for, honestly, and take notes on so that you can work on it, come summer time and then fall camp. Now, let's take this again from the perspective that we gave in that. Now, let's say you're on the field at the Texas spring ball game. What is it that you would be looking for individually to see whether there's things have been accomplished, those progress is the new guys? Yeah, I want to see the relationship between the receivers and Quinn. What does that look like? Are they on the same page, right? You can kind of tell if they've been in a bubble or somewhere else, just running routes and throwing and catching, because I think that's very, very important. And then they're talented, right? But are they on the same page, right? In the playbook and thinking the same things. So that some image in light of protection, like you want to see how the office line and Quinn office line look, right? Protection wise, when somebody presents a different front and they're just making calls without the coaches, right? Are they picking up things on their own? So things like that, I think are important. That's what I would be looking for. In your experience, having a new set of receivers coming in, and this is almost an entirely clean slate for Quinn, what is a reasonable timeline that you would expect those guys to start getting on the same page? I would say before, before a fall camp, right? Well, one would help, right? Yeah, before a fall camp, I would say that. It just depends on how much they work they're putting in now with those guys. Like, how many hours are you really putting in? How many hours you put in the film room together, so that you can get on the same page? Is Quinn going through and teaching them the playbook and say, Hey, I expect you to be here and taking complete control? I think it'll tell. And I think we'll be able to see a little bit of it in the spring game, right? But it may not be up to par for most fans, maybe, but we'll see. So Ian, with all of this, and you have, to a great degree, documented not only what you hope to see and need to see out of a one high defense going into this and what the defensive line needs to be doing, can you talk a little bit? And again, we don't need to go into too much detail here, but what is it going to mean for Ant Hill moving to the mic position? There's far more, he's going to have a heavier intellectual load this season than he has in the past where it was literally, you know, shooting him out of a rocket and using his raw skill to get to the quarterback in the ball. What what again? This is a question I'd love to hear your comments on as well, coach, but what is a reasonable timeline for a brand new mic to get in there and start to really fundamentally get the mental game down? You know, usually it takes a few years. I'd say like, for most of the guys that Texas brings in, they like start to figure it out their second year, and then they really put it together their third year. That's like the jail and forward timeline. I think that's pretty common. It'll range on the how quickly a player learns to process that information, like their what Eric calls like a football IQ, just their, you know, ability to process the angles and spatial reasoning, right? And then also the degree to which they did it in high school matters a lot. So I think what Anthony Hill has going for him is that he actually played inside linebacker in high school for he didn't, he wasn't healthy every year, but he played three years at that position as a starter at a high level for Dan Ryan. So those are like, those are like, that's like when you have a quarterback that started from sophomore junior senior year in high school. And it's like, this guy's already banked a ton of reps, and he's watched the chess pieces move and knows the patterns from all those reps in a way that you can't get without the experience. So he's a little bit different. I think in the run game, he could be like a very realized player this year. I think as a blitzer, he could be a very realized player in coverage. They actually didn't have him do that. It didn't Ryan, basically, they just kept him protected and in the box. And Texas last year did the same thing, probably so they could get him on the field faster. I think in that realm, he's like probably on a more normal timeline, like third years when he'll really start, probably start to show a little bit this year and then really put it together next year, which then goes to how do they want to change up the coverage schemes if he's not ready to be jailing forward in coverage? We'll see. We'll see. We'll see like in the season. They're not going to show that in the spring. We're not going to show it's the answer to this question in the spring game, probably, Bo. Is there anything you'd like to add to that coach? Ian, you did a good job. That was a great answer. No, that was excellent. I would like to see this though, right? Is he going to be the guy with the communication with the green doubt on this helmet, right? Because that kind of what kind of how fast he's able to pick up things that they trust in to make calls, then he's actually probably trusting me to see, you know, for him to be able to understand what he's seeing up front. If if somebody's pulling, if there's a false pull, he's able to make the calls and get people lined up. I think that'll go to his development as well, so we'll have to see. You didn't ask me about my wealth of experience throwing timing routes to my eight-year-old in the backyard. You're kind of, again, we want to we want to keep the people watching and listening. So I was hoping that we might be able to close with that. But again, yeah, let's get to it. So are you on a three-step drop? What's happening here, Ian? You know what? I'd actually help if I did that just to sync it up. I'm on more of a quin, quick drop, and then wait and not use the timing of the footwork to make the throw. But I can tell you from experience that timing up a fade route is a lot harder than it looks. And you need a lot of bench reps to get it right. So quin in these new receivers to coach this point. Right now in the bubble outside of supervised times, when they can actually use a football over the summer and in this fall, are all going to be necessary to nail the timing routes if they want to do what we expect them to do. So we've also got a brand new tight end that we're going to be looking for as well. Now, obviously Gunnar Helm is going to be here. So that adds some experience to that if they go into 12 personnel. But what are we thinking? I mean, again, the same question with those receivers, is it the same timeline that we would expect with a tight end? Or is the route tree different enough to where that can be accommodated more quickly? Depends again on what the tight end did in high school. Nowadays, a lot of these guys come in as basically they played receiver in high school. They were just a big receiver that blocked now and then. So usually it's the blocking where they have the slower developmental timeline. They have to learn how to block, they have to learn all the techniques, and a lot of times they have to gain like 20 or 30 pounds and learn how to carry it comfortably to even attempt it. The receiving game is very different. A lot of times they can do it pretty quickly in their careers. It seems to me, Coach, probably have a smarter take on this from experience. But it seems to me like, if you have a guy that's maybe even a freshman, if he gets the entire off season to work with the quarterback, he can get to a point where he can be a featured 1000 yard level volume receiver. It's usually like one good off season will pretty much do the trick. And that's partly why you see teams like Lincoln Riley's teams or like Mike Leach's teams back in the day. They could always reload at receiver. So long as their main guys were healthy in the off season, that's one off season would be enough to get the new guy up to speed. Coach, what are you there? So we had some call like tight ends can work because that's position I worked with was tight ends. So tight ends schools, then we didn't we didn't make them go out and do anything, right? It was meant it was volunteer with tight ends school pretty much. Hours of blocking the sleigh working on footwork, right? And then you would kind of report back, but they held each other accountable on blocking, learning the routes and all the NFL concepts. We learned so they learned every route, right? Within the playbook in the route tree. But blocking, they had put in so many hours blocking the sleigh so they can get proper footwork. And so they got to do it on their own on their own time. That's how you get better at that. But yeah, that's kind of that's kind of what we did with tight end school and then we have receiver school, quarterback school. And they kind of got together and just put in hours. As the as the spring game is approaching, we asked you to check out inside texas.com. There's right now a lot of articles about what is going to happen with our new defense. What kind of recruits do we have coming in? It is it is only a dollar for the first month. And I highly recommend that you check it out because the level of insight there is something that you just can't get anywhere else in closing. We're going to close up a little bit early today because let's face it. It's Saturday and we want you to enjoy the weather that's changing. We've got spring on the horizon. I want us to think for a second back to the money that is being made the last time that the NCAA EA sports game out game came out. It made around $80 million. So let's put that into today's terms with inflation. That's over $106 million. They spent $6 million on those kids. So roughly six percent. These guys are not going to be hurting for cash. I have no problem that arch decided that his name was worth a little bit more than $600. And I think that it's going to be a trend moving forward that these guys are actually going to understand what their name is worth and move forward with it. I do want to thank coach for being here. I want to thank Ian for practicing with his son in the backyard so we can understand the passing nuances far more clearly. And we want you to again please check out InsideTexas.com for all the insight and news that you just frankly can't get anywhere else.