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Inside the Program: Practice Schedule, Sark's Combine Success, Transfers Continuing to Turn Heads
- And welcome to Inside the Program. On the Inside Texas Football YouTube channel, powered by InsideTexas.com. I'm your host, Justin Wells. With me is always my co-pilot, Eric Nolene, managing publisher at Inside Texas. Listen, we got a ton of stuff to talk about in very little time. Eric, we're gonna go team big today. That's what Inside the Program's about, but we're also gonna finish it up with some recruiting. Also, please like and subscribe to the Inside Texas Football YouTube channel. Help us keep climbing. We're going for that 7,000 subscriber mark. We really, really appreciate it. We're gonna talk about the schedule going forward in the team as they're heading into spring break. The Combine heroes, you know, Steve Sarkeesian used those guys as an example this week. A little bit of seven on seven. A couple transfers we need to mention, and then we got a nice little interview. We're gonna show you guys at the end of the episode. And so, I'm gonna jump right into it, E. You know, my son's in spring break mode already. He knows he'd get down to school early today. He's been talking about it for four days. I guarantee you, these players have been working hard. They've got to work out today. Then they're gonna scatter. What's the latest on that schedule? Yeah, my boy's already sitting on the couch right outside. I'm urging him to be quiet so we can get through this. But, you know, yesterday was their last team run. That was a celebratory feeling in the locker room after that. You know, the team run is kind of a culmination of team agility drills and just the hardcore part of the winter off season workouts. And so, they got through their last one of the previous few weeks and they were, they were quite happy. They know that they can almost taste spring break. The sand is in the air, the ocean air is permeating throughout the locker room. They've got one more workout that's probably taking place right now, I believe. And then they're off. They're off until Sunday the 17th. They return on the 17th, get together as a team, have a team meeting, talk about, you know, what's expected of them in the following weeks. Monday is a lift and a run. That's the 18th and 19th, they start practice. So, you know, that first week won't be in pads, but they'll be running around, getting after it. There's going to be a lot of popping, even though they can't go to the ground. You know, they'll be full of energy. So, yeah, it's exciting, you know, between football returning for spring break, for spring practice and recruiting, I think we've got a little bounce in our step right now. - You know who else has some bounce in his step? It's Steve's occasion. He's the birthday boy today. - Who? - It's his birthday on March 8th. He also shares a birthday I just learned with my ex-wife. - Oh, wow. - I don't really know how to read that. - Yeah. - Other than one is a lot better as a football coach than Austin than the other. The thing that Sart does really well, Eric, is that he uses current things for motivation. He's always pulling from different angles, and it was brilliant of him this week. He started talking about the combine and the guys that, how they performed, but it wasn't so much how they performed. It was what they did for the program. It was the sacrifices that a lot of those guys made. You know, when you send 11 guys to Indianapolis, that's a big deal. Eric going to detail a little bit about how Sart used the combine and some of those guys for his advantage. - Yeah, you know, I think first order thinking would have you saying, hey, look, just believe in the process like those guys did and you'll be fine. You know, that's what I think a lot of coaches would do, but what he did, is he said, hey, for every guy that went to Indianapolis, there's an example in this locker room of what that guy went through. So if they can do it, you can do it. You know, Jordan Winnington battled through injuries. Xavier Worthy experienced a ton of success as a freshman. I had some, had his struggles as a sophomore year than had a good bounce back year. Jotavian Sanders, how little did he play as a freshman? He was only on special teams, not a single reception. And two years later, he's off to the NFL. Tovandre Sweatt was almost off the team of time or two. I mean, that guy, you know, he did not buy in. Took him a little bit to buy in, but once he did, obviously he won the Outland trophy. He's about to go in the first or early second round. So I think Sart was very wise to use those examples, not as a success of, hey, look, we develop these guys, we're the heroes. It's, hey, if these guys can go through it, they have adversity, they battle through it. Look where they are now, you can do it too. So don't get dismayed if you've battled injuries. Don't get discouraged if you didn't play as much as a true freshman, if they did it, you can. And, you know, three of those guys were back around the program this week, Sweatt Worthy and Mitchell. And so, you know, they got the heroes welcome, like I mentioned, it was a pretty celebratory locker room on behalf of the success that their teammates experienced in Indianapolis. And now I think the way that Sart used it, I think really got the players' attention. And, you know, it's uplifting when the coach uses it that way instead of saying, hey, look, I got these guys where they are at, it was real smart the way that Sart played that chess. - And that's why we think, you know, one of many reasons why Sart is the guy. You know, he figures out, he's so good at, he's transparent, he figures out different buttons to push. - Yeah. - Sart's, you know, Sart's just got a good beat on this program. And we talked about it in the live stream on Wednesday. It's his voice. That's where it starts and stops. And I think that's the biggest thing. Right, real quick, I'm gonna pay the bills and tell you about Andre the lawyer. If you ever get injured, if you're ever in a pickle, if you're ever in a situation where you've got to have someone, Andre the lawyer is your guy. Call him at 2-1-4-4-4-4-8-8-0-8. He's gonna help you with any injuries on the job injury, slip and falls, anything with workplace, 18-wheeler accidents, anything that, where you find you're in a bad spot, give Andre the call, a long time, long horn, big time inside Texas guy. Please give Andre the lawyer a call at 2-1-4-4-4-4-8-8-0-8. Eric, just a little bit of seven on seven this week, kind of getting a little bit ready for it. We had heard that there was a few things going on, not a whole lot, but what was the gist of what we had voted to get posted this morning? - Yeah, the last two Wednesdays, they've had this sort of informal seven on seven. And we call it informal because it's not nearly the pace that it often is. You know, I don't think it's just not as intense. You know, the purpose of this, yeah, you want to stoke competition a little bit, but you really want to get the guys back to making football moves, not weight room moves, not agility drill moves, but actual football moves. You want to stoke the competitiveness a little bit, but you also want to make it fun. You know, seven on seven is fun for these guys. You go watch Saturday in any park in Texas, and there's probably a high school seven on seven going on, and the guys have fallen out and having fun. I think that was part of it as well. But just to kind of get, you know, wide receivers and quarterbacks on the same page, the DB's get a chance to try new coverages that the coaches are already working to install. One standout we have heard in back-to-back weeks has been Isaiah Bond. He's one of the three transfers we'll talk about today. He just seems like he already knows the playbook. He's already making plays in seven on seven. He's coming in with that maturity and speed, and he looks locked in and ready to go. You know, Bond probably watched the combine. He probably watched Xavier, where I am not an individual. And so Bond's going to be the guy in that conversation for fastest Longhorn next year. You know, I guarantee you he's going to want to go for that. And so I love hearing that about Bond. You know, there's two, you know, Texas brought in a handful of transfer from the portal this offseason. There are two guys that we keep hearing a little bit more and more about when we talk to sources, and they're both on the defensive side, and they're both in impact positions. Let's talk about Tia Sovea and Trey Moore and what they're doing so far to get acclimated to the team and to really earn the respect in that locker room. - Yeah, we'll start with Trey Moore. You know, I was at a small speaking engagement yesterday in Houston, and one of my buddies was there, and he had been around some people that know some things recently. And he kind of even went higher than what we had said about Trey Moore, about him being, you know, a stud and showing out the people he talked to raved about him. You know, the sentiment on the team is he's, if you watch the last six weeks of workouts, he's one of the two or three best players on the team, maybe even the best player on the team. We know he's extremely explosive, works very hard, quiet, puts his head down, still has a chip on his shoulder coming from UTSA. So, I mean, I'm starting to get really excited about him. Obviously, I want to hear the number one thing that I'm going to look for is, hey, how does he do against these longer and more athletic offensive tackles? If he starts having some success in spring ball, then it's time to get really excited about him. But so far, early returns on Trey Moore are good. And one thing I have to always remind myself is when I'm starting being a little bit skeptical, just because of the jumping competition. Hey, I've seen the guy play and he is quick off the ball. There's no doubt about it. He's very well balanced. He's light on his feet. But Nick Saban wanted him. And Texas rolled out the red carpet for him. So, those are two heavyweights going for, going for an edge pass rusher that had 14 sacks last year. That's the bottom line of it. He's showing out. Tia Savant, very similar to what you had originally heard. We keep hearing the same things. He's a quiet guy, but very hard work and a beast in the weight room. Very strong in the weight room. Lower body strength is there. Obviously playing defensive tackle. They're going to miss a lot of that lower body power that Byron Murphy provided. Tia Vondre sweats a whole different guy. Nobody can replace him. But if you can make up for the loss of Byron Murphy, at least to some degree with Sevilla, I'm not saying he's going to be Byron. I'm not saying he's the first round draft pick. But if you can make up with him, and then if he can be a strong rotational piece, you're on your way to really making sure that that's not as big of a detriment that we thought defensive tackle might be. Yeah, and the beauty of these portal guys, we know how picky and that SART can be with these guys. They have to be obviously fits in the locker room and in the culture. And that's why the portal can be so beneficial and yet dangerous. If you don't do it right, you can bring in the wrong guys. And so I love hearing about those other ones. Generally, inside the program, we cover the team top to bottom. But we're going to finish. We're going to talk a little bit today about recruiting. Specifically in the Houston area with the defensive backs and the secondary. Both of us were on the road yesterday. I went to attract me where my guy was under the weather. He didn't actually make it. We have to talk about this. This is like the recruiting bloopers because I had a similar episode. So tell them what happened to you. So I was headed to Lobo Relays in Longview to watch Zion Williams from Lufkin. And Zion texted me 15 minutes before I get there to say, hey, man, I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you I'm sick and I stayed home today. I'm real sorry. OK, well, you know what? That happens. That's part of it. I reassured him that everything was cool. Just to get some chicken soup, get some rest. He's got a track next week. I'll probably come out there and come see him. It happens, Eric. It happens. You had something similar as well. Yeah, I was over in Summer Creek Turner Stadium to watch him track. And I was looking around, I saw Summer Creek there. And I remember that Chad Woodfork the Edge from Summer Creek runs, runs track, runs-- he runs 100, the open 100. And so I got caught up talking to some other players and coaches. And I started to leave. And I forgot to check my text message that I had out to Chad. And I had gotten out of the school traffic because I was leaving right as school was exiting. There's 300 buses like in that Batman. It's like that man with the jokers leaving out of the bank. There's buses everywhere. I'm stuck in traffic. I get on the other side of it. And I check my phone and I'm like, oh, man. So I circle back. It's a long ass walk to the stadium. But I love Chad. I wanted to see Chad and get the latest on him just to figure out what's going on with Texas. Obviously, I think the final chapter's probably been written on that recruitment. I don't think he's going to end up at Texas. I'll go in a little bit more on that at IT. But a great kid. I'm glad I made the return walk. It felt like a little bit of a goodbye of sorts. But yeah, talking about Houston DBs, Justin, you had a good-- you noticed I'm pretty smart where the DB class could be made up of all Houston players if you look at who they're looking at. Yeah. And we've seen this before. But it's just always interesting when one position group comes from kind of the same region. In some instances, we've seen multiple guys from the same school. In this one, it's a lot more spread out from Dorian Brew, to Cade Phillips, to Caleb Chester, to Kobe Sellers, to Cortland Gallery. I mean, any Texas fan would be happy with that kind of a haul. And I think Texas is in a great spot. You've seen all those guys at some point in the last few months. What was the latest from Cade Phillips and his trek at Hightower? Yeah, we're going to leave that to the video to the interview. And I'm going to have to apologize for the quality of the video. It was a little windy. It seems like every trek I go to is windy. And it was a little low tech. But we are going to be up in our game on the technical side so we can bring more interviews to the channel. But Cade is just a-- he's a little-- obviously, on video, it's a little bit different than when he talks to them in person. You get a camera on somebody. We're examples of that. Well, you're not. But I am. Your personality doesn't always come out. But that kid, man, he's a highly favored kid, man. I mean, he's got Stanford after him. He's long jumped in 24, 7 and 1/2. I think he said it's the second number two in America. He's running under 22 seconds, which is a benchmark. He's running under 400-- he's running under 50 seconds in the 400, another benchmark. And then he's a two-way player in football. He's 62, 180 pound-- I mean, what is going on? They don't draw him up like this. I was upset. Caleb Chester was not there. Another high-priority cornerback for Texas. He was not running track with a Fort Bend Marshall. But when he said he wasn't there, he sent me a picture of him. And he was still at school. And he was in his UT gear. So he was pretty jazzed about that. So I think Texas is in good shape with Chester and Phillips, especially. We'll have plenty of time to talk about the other guys. But let's let Cade Phillips take it away. Cade Phillips, not only a football star, but a track star. He's not a long jumper today. First, why aren't you long jumping today, bud? I got first place today. I jumped 24-2 today. Yeah, what are you second in the state, first in the state? Second in the country. Second in the country with a 24-7 and a half, I believe. Sir. Pretty good. All right, let's talk a little football. Just catch this up on your recruitment. Which schools and coaches are you talking to most? And who do you plan on visiting? I've been talking to A&M. I listen to Texas, Kansas, and Baylor, Stanford. But I'm going to take my officials to UT, A&M, and I listen. Got you. Would you say those are your top three right now? Yes, they are, man. What-- how often are you talking to Texas? Unlike an everyday basis with Coach Gady. Coach Gady, do you ever talk to Coach Sarkis here? Yes, sir. We've been texting anything. We've gotten on the phone. What about spring visit? We know you have some gene officials. Are you tied up with track practice, or are you going to make some spring visits as well? I'm going to try to get down to Baylor and Kansas. You know, A&M, I'm going to go there and text me. Go to A&M, and I'm going to finish it. I did. Yes. Is everybody recruiting you as a safety? I mean, you've got offensive safety. You've got, you can play corner with the athletic system. What's your preference? I prefer to play corner, but I'm never going to do something. What are you looking for in the school outside of football? You know, somewhere, I could get a good degree, you know, somewhere after football, I could get a good job of school. One thing that jumps out when I look at your offer list, you've got Stanford and Cal. I mean, you know, that means academics probably means something, huh? Yes, sir. Got you. What are you going to make a decision? Definitely. I mean, that's what it's about. That's what I'm waiting for. Got you. That's a common spot. Well, hey, inside Texas, we appreciate your time, buddy. That was fantastic. We sure do appreciate you watching. Thank you for making us a part of your day. Thank you for watching the Inside Texas Football YouTube channel powered by InsideTexas.com.