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Inside Texas Football
Inside the Program: What Needs To Be Accomplished This Spring on Each Side of the Ball
Welcome to Inside the program on the Inside Texas football YouTube channel. I'm Joe Cook sitting in this week for Eric Nelline But we've got Justin Wells with us as always today We'll go over some of the things that both sides of the football need to get accomplished this spring We'll cover a variety of positions and then Justin this time next week when you and Eric record this show You'll be having some practices to talk about and that's really exciting Great time of year between March Madness, but I know with football We're looking forward to practices and hearing some reports from what's going on on the dinniest fields Joe you and I We're the same. We love the underwear olympics. We love the winter conditioning reports, but let's be honest We want to talk football. We want to hear about football. We want to read about football and damn it We want to see some football. I'm so ready. I think this program's ready I think the majority of these players are ready. I think there's some momentum coming off of last year I think SARC has encapsulated it almost perfectly with these new kids new comers portal kids There's a lot of excitement even more so than last year and for good reason We are just a couple of days away. They will start practice next Tuesday But before then we got some team notes to go over you can get some full details over at inside Texas calm in Eric Nalene's Texas team notes But a lot of it is what each position or a lot of different positions need to accomplish This upcoming spring during the 14 practices and then of course the orange white game on April 20th Let's start at the offensive line in Texas. Of course has four return four starters returning you go left tackled a right guard and Kelvin banks Hayden Connor Jake majors and DJ Campbell Of course, there's also a guy like Cole Hudson Neto Umo Zulu returning and even Connor Robertson and center who played for a lot of snaps in the Oklahoma game, but right tackle We have Christian Jones moving on but it looks like with somebody who stepped in for him During a game or maybe a game and a half last year Might be given the first opportunity to to replace him for the upcoming 2024 season I believe so and in in a land of large humans. He's the goliath This joker is large and in charge. We're talking about Cam Williams out of Duncanville You know going into spring. This is his job to lose Joe. You know, he's been there two years now. He's learned He's developed. He's got some more catching up to do. He still has to lose some way He still has to get some protections down be a little bit better on those speed rushers on the outside But they want it's cam Williams job to lose they would want nothing more They came to just go in in the spring and take this job because he is a Massive mauler and so that's the biggest question. I think the other four spots are pretty much Looking pretty clear and then the backups of those well as well are looking pretty clear The big thing is going to be if cam can't take that right tackle spot then what happens? Well, you you can there's two there's two ways to go You can go with the the young talented tackle in Trevor goosby who who did a little bit of backup for kelvin banks At left tackle last year. There's even the sense that goosby's probably going to be the guy at left tackle Once banks goes to the draft next year potentially I know Brandon Baker's probably gonna have a say in that as well, but goosby's been incredible from that from that 23 class That's that's really he's the one I think that has the most upside that that's the young route to go I think they could also go the safe route if cam Williams isn't ready to take that spot Hayden Conner has as many snaps on that offensive line as any other guy in the program and he is versatile He can play some of that outside at right tackle And if he did you can always move cold huts into left guard. He can play left guard center and right guard a number of spots But right now it's cam Williams job to lose. I think that's what Kyle Flood is is planning That's what these guys want and if if if Williams can have a great spring take that spot You got five guys solidified that have all played a number of seasons that have all got a number of reps that have all been in the system A number of years heading into the SEC. Yeah, looking at cam Williams. If you go to his pro football focused numbers He the big game was Kansas State. That's when Christian Jones was out. Cam Williams stepped in protecting Malik Murphy 76 snaps 37 run block opportunities 39 pass block opportunities Had an 85.5 pass blocking grade, which is great But a little bit a little bit down on the run blocking 52.0 and a offensive grade of 49.3 Also was responsible for three penalties. So you got some good You got some bad as kind of to be expected from a a stand-in starter for a six-year senior But that's going to be the position of major intrigue over on the offensive line Looking at receivers, and this is something even I touched on the other day quin yours He's back for his third year in burnt orange, but he's got a pretty much an all-new receiver core You have four true freshmen coming in You have three transfers two of which Matthew golden and Isaiah bond are already on campus And then you got the two returners in chante cook and deandre more and the big thing with quin yours and all those receivers and And most likely cook bond and golden is just building rapport And we saw a little bit last year that he was able to do it with ad Mitchell pretty quick Now he's going to do it On a larger scale with a few more pass catching options You know, that's that that's the fun problem to have Hey quin your two best receivers are about to get drafted in the first and probably early second round of the NFL draft Guess what? We replaced them with a bunch more speed and so quin's going to be happy Uh, the offensive line is going to be happy sark and mill we are going to be happy But really the wide receiver is going to be happy the key is just timing You've got to this is the time The work they put in the spring is what we're going to see fruition and fall And so this is where it starts you've got to get and they are they've already been doing seven on seven stuff Every other Wednesdays throughout winter conditioning So they've already sort of started to to acclimate themselves to that arch manning is known to knock on a few receivers door You know at late at night and say hey, let's go throw it to facility And so that's when you've got a quin viewers and you've got his backup arch manning that are just so prepared and so driven Those receivers gravitate to that and so I think that's what you that's what they want to accomplish in the spring Isaiah bond and matthew golden notably look john tae cook the andre more they're used to catching those balls bond And golden they're going to have to have an adjustment, but that's that's part of it That all that takes is repetition. All that takes is work that takes routes And at the end of the day, you know It that's the key for those guys in this spring to accomplish If you if they can get on the same page and get to understanding each other and then carry that over into the summer For those voluntary workouts and that voluntary At seven on seven that we'll see in the summertime. That's when I think you'll start to see The fruits of the labor Voluntary But not least on offense We got to talk about tight end Jotavian sanders has obviously gone to the draft and texas probably knows what they're going to get at the top two spots With gunner helm coming back for his senior year and amare ny black transferring from Alabama to texas After that there's some questions at that third spot if they even get to that spot at the position Yeah, there's there's there's kind of a gap there and you've got a handful of guys You've got the you've got a guy that's been in the organization a long time in one davis And and you hope to see some flash from him because they're going to need a backup in that role They're going to need a guy that comes off You know, you injuries happen every year You're going to have to have another guy that they can rely on and one davis has the athleticism and he has the and he has the experience It's just not a lot of game reps And so and then you've got spencer shannon and will randal from the previous class Both those guys are still coming along both of those guys I think they need a solid spring to stay in the conversation Of of the plans of what this tydian room is going to look for look look at moving forward And then you put in a freshman in jordan washington who's got probably as much athleticism as any of them Outstanding basketball player multi sport kid out of out of houston And so he I don't think he was going to be leaned on to play this year But if you don't see one davis and a spencer shannon and will randal really assert themselves Don't be surprised the jordan washington start snaking some of those reps and gets you know A little bit bigger and stronger and gets the timing down in the summer and then all of a sudden in the fall He's getting a few late game reps and so yeah, you nailed it It's gunner ham. I'm mari and iblock and that na black and then everybody else I think one of those guys is going to have to rise up to at least give them a good shot at running uh, 12 personnel on a regular basis and so Uh, let jeff banks go to work. Let him figure it out. That's why he's one of the best in the country when it comes to young tydians It's blocking blocking blocking and that's kind of what we're looking forward jordan washington and you know Even will randal one davis a little bit less so which spencer shannon, but for the most part blocking let's look at defense real quick and uh, just in the The storyline maybe on defense is the fact that texas is losing two top 50 picks in the middle that defense Probably a first rounder as well to all americans to vondry sweat baira and murphy Uh, there are two guys there at the top and and alford collins and vernan brought and who saw a lot of snaps Last year and in backing up those two Uh, those are probably going to be your front line guys, but after that there's a just a wide array of play Players both young and old who texas is looking to get some earn looking to They're trying to find ways to trust them here in the upcoming spring. That's it. That's it It's about earning trust on that side of the ball kenny baker, you know This is his first spring with texas and and getting to know these guys What you want is what alford collins and vernan brought and offered last year When sweat and murphy were at 25 30 35 snaps a game, which is exactly the rotation Pk wanted you had collins and brought that you could rely on to come in to me That's the most important question. It's not the starters. It's going to be who's going to be the backups Who's going to hit that rotation on the back end? Tia sevea is the first name that stands out. I think that guy is is unbelievable I think he could push brought in for a starting spot like sevea is a vet And he is a professional and this guy has an intensity about him Obviously, he's tied in with johnny nanson really well gerry bled so is the one that's kind of the the flashy Name right now because we had seen a lot of good stuff from him coming out of the the bowl practices He's had a tremendous winter. He's gotten bigger. We we already knew the physicality he plays with the athleticism Now when he's hovering in that 280 290 range, he's a grown man And so I think bled so is is is one that we could see a Baron sorrel type breakout like we saw from him two years ago Um, and it's a deer mitchell at some point, you know this he wasn't relied on last year The expectations for him were low because of all the guys they had ahead of him And he and I think he took that stride now There's there's a little more urgency in his in his point in his corner And so I think sevea is a guy who has an immense size all the talent a good motor If sevea mitchell comes out of the spring ball as one of those guys in the rotation That's a tremendous check for pk and for baker in the developmental box to finding that backup rotation real interesting that trio you've got a Obviously a senior an adult someone who's been in college football for a while knows how things works Uh, you've got a incredible athlete at uh jure blood so and someone who if you remember When anthony hill made that big sack of of jalen milro in the alabama game He was on the field and then you just got the large human the the big guy I think he's 372 right now and that may be the largest in the program along with with connor strow Uh, we're on the offensive line. So you got three different profiles and of course alex january Uh here in his first semester at texas trying to work his way in there as well Uh, the other uh aspect that texas kind of needs to work on Uh is pass coverage and our e and boyd has has talked about this a lot how texas when they're playing based defense Uh, they their quarters schemes work. Uh, you've got good linebackers who get their pass drops Uh, you've you've had, you know a front four who made things work But blitzing is not totally pk's forte And it's something that they have to figure out if they want to be a more complete defense This upcoming season. Yeah, well, you know, that that that's where you got That's where the team aspect comes in Because if the quicker those edge rushers get to the quarterback The better those coverage skills are going to look like on the back end in the secondary And and to me that starts with ethan berk. He's the incumbent. He's the one that has progressively gotten better Stronger kind of coming off of a few injuries. I think he's a guy that could have a solid year Um, you know, baren serrel. He's been, you know Mr Mr jack for a while, I guess and but i'm gonna tell you the name is tremor You know right now tremor he didn't take any vacations during spring break. He went to work That everything we have heard about tremor has been true and then some When i talked to a couple utsa guys back in the winter time They couldn't tell me enough great things about more and i swear it seems like everything has been legit And so getting to the pastor's going to be the big thing texas did better last year at that Getting to the pastor get from the previous year of getting pressure, but not necessarily getting to him That's going to be the biggest thing with that move to the scc get some Some, you know Some solid guys back there and let's see what collin simmons can do Can he make an impact as a freshman because talent wise upside wise he has the most potential? Yeah, it seems like your your issues with coverage whether it be you know in quarters or match three or whenever you want to run back there You can solve a lot of it with that front four getting home and we know that alford collins and and vernan broughton They're probably they may be a little bit better play in the past Uh than the run right now at least as far as anchoring that's always kind of been broughton's Question he could he anchor he can get the past rush going pretty well from the interior and collins can as well But i'm i think you hit the knee on the head With those those rotations probably see eath and bert move over a little bit to jack Yeah Trey moor and collin simmons playing there in buck and that's not even to mention some guys like jamaan tap Who is it has a big off-season ahead of him colton vasek who was listed on a promising weight there during the When they were released eroster and of course zina umozulu like remember the conversation around edge a few years ago in the wake of going from tato or lando not using them to the blip of joseph o side to Just they're being not much as far as path rush on the roster It seems like it's in a way different situation now. They just set to figure out how to deploy them all Listen if zina is really 240 Which i'm not going to be surprised because he was in the 225 230 range his senior year at allen If he's up, I think I think they listed him at 243 zina's going to make an impact sooner than we thought and even if he doesn't he's going to push the guys ahead of him Which that is exactly the peak carol You know talent in every position type of mentality that that sark took from him And so zina's the one that I you know everyone talks about collin and for good reason you're wearing number 11 As an impact freshman in texas In texas There's going to be something good there, but man if zina's at 243 remember what we saw at the under armor practices and in the under armor gain That was the one that not enough people talked about but let me tell you when he when he pins his ears back zina gets after it He's got an older brother netto amu zulu who's playing on the offensive line So they've been hitting each other since they were born And I love the fact that zina's gotten a little bit bigger there The the beauty of that spot right now joe is there may be a couple questions about rotation There's no question about depth. I think there's talent there. There's depth there It's pk's job to figure it out. It's gonna be fun to see how those guys manage against kelvin banks That'll be a great test for them over the course of this spring and uh should be something to track Just another good another good test is going to be cam williams trying to handle tremor I think that would be that that's going to be a iron sharpens iron top of Matchups as well. I can't that's a that's one of the things i'm looking forward to spring ball There's so much talent out there. The match ups Are talent laden and so in that regard you're gonna see some some some guys really come out You're gonna see some guys really assert themselves. There's a good vibe there right now joe We dive into a lot of detail about texas notes As spring practice gets started next week. Make sure you come to inside texas. Check us out You get one month for one dollar. Thank you for watching this video. Make sure you like the video subscribe to the channel We're gonna have so much on this channel over the course of spring football Once again, eric nalene will be back next week for inside the program Justin thanks for uh helping me and in my pinch hitting efforts and will you see we will see you next time on the inside texas football YouTube channel powered by InsideTexas.com.