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Inside Texas Football
Monday nITe Live (03/25): Spring Practice Updates, Recruiting News
Guys, it's we did it. We're live. We're live back on a Monday. I'm back from Guatemala, Central America, for those of you playing at home or maybe if you're an A&M grad that just decided to sign on. We are going to talk a little bit of spring ball. In the words of Allen Iverson, we're talking practice. We're going to figure out what's going to happen moving forward. One of the things that a lot of people are really excited about during this time of year is obviously the new toys that Sarkeesian has to play with, but also depth chart. I think it's probably safe to say that we are maybe a little early for some depth chart stuff, but it seems to be a topic on everybody's mind. What are we thinking here? What are the things in terms of a fan? We're looking at this and we're seeing all these people go through the various drills. When people are going through drills, do they often have to do they do that in order of depth chart or do they just go through the drill? There's been a lot of talk about that. What are our thoughts on that, Eric? Often it is based on the depth chart. It's just a basic standing of where they are currently, but it's not always the case. I've seen Titans are all over the place, but I think it's interesting what Sarkees said today is he doesn't really want to talk about the 2D. He was as dismissive of that question as he possibly could be because he doesn't want anybody to get discouraged. He wants everybody to compete. I understand that, but I can tell you right now, we have a very good working understanding of the 2D pretty much across the board. We're free to speculate on that, but that is a bit of a template when those guys are going in order. It gives you somewhat of an understanding. Today, it was interesting in that Neto Umi Ozulu was over there ahead of Hayden Conner. That's not normally the case, but that doesn't really mean anything long-term because Neto is not going to win that job unless they have a lot of scrimmages. It probably will even go into August. So while these jobs are up for grabs, they're not really coming close to getting resolution on them. Paul, we were just discussing your deep-seated hatred for children and puppies, and I'm just curious, obviously in punctuality, what in a spring ball practice are you looking for early in the game? Is it simply like you don't want people to get hurt? You want to make sure that everything is flowing at a certain place. The new guys know what they're doing. I'm throwing you under the bus here a little bit and just tossing this out at you. What do you have to think, say, about some spring practice? I do actually love puppies' testament to the fact that I was late. My dogs in the backyard and a pack of coyotes were howling and kind of close, and they were going nuts and interacting with the wildlife and the fauna around here, so I have to go break it up. What kind of dog do you have, Paul? Three. Two doodles and an akeeta. The akeeta would have done great. The doodles I'm not so sure about. Lick them to death. Is this a hyperallergenic thing with you, Paul, in terms of the doodles, or is it just because of their fierce cuddly nature that you tend to use towards dogs? The akeeta gives me my man card. So your question is a good one. Honestly, I'm not looking for a specific thing until the pads come on, and they really start going at it in artists. I think you have to give it a little time. There are people, consistency is a big part of this. There are guys that are going to flash and then two practices later, you don't hear much about them anymore, because they just had that one practice. Eric, tell me if I'm mistaken, but I think you and Joe are only getting to see limited periods. Is that correct? Yeah, we were only able to see limited. I was only at the first one. The second one was canceled due to weather, and then Joe was at the practice this morning that they allowed. Yeah, he had 20 minutes of viewing time, which that doesn't tell you anything. We're going off of a lot of times is what we're hearing from people that are watching every minute of it. You know, we got some good feedback from what happened on Saturday, which they were up the intensity quite a bit. We could talk about that in a little bit. I'm not, you know, what you see in that first 20 minutes, you take with a grain of salt because it's what they want you to see. Let's talk about that Saturday a little bit. Now that was, am I right in saying that was the coaching clinic we had on Saturday? Yeah, the coaching clinic Friday and Saturday. Obviously, Sean McVay spoke to, I think, SARC said they had about 300 coaches in town. They had a number of recruits. And whenever that happens, you got to buck your chin strap because, you know, SARC is going to, it's not going to be a lazy practice, not that they ever really have those, but it's going to be a little bit. There's going to be a little extra bounce in SARC step. And they went from, you know, lighter no pad practice to full pads and tackling to the ground in three periods. They didn't scrimmage, but they did do some good on good in simulated stuff like a team run, which is all run or play action. I think they did some goal line stuff like that. It was definitely full contact other than obviously quarterbacks. And it was pretty intense. One thing that we cover a lot here is obviously the recruiting aspect with the players, but I'd love for you to expand a little bit. And this is really a question for all three of you, but I'll focus it first for you, Eric. When SARC is having these coaching clinics, that is a massive recruiting opportunity for him as well from the vantage point of the coaches, getting them on board, can you expand on even just, this obviously was something that Mac did very, very well. What is the, what is the impression that you're getting and hearing from the Texas high school coaches about SARC and how he's using this as an advantage towards the recruiting aspect of things? Well, first of all, it's a tremendous opportunity for the coaches, for the coaching staff, because you have all these guys going to see you. Normally, they're on the road to go see them. And if you're lucky, if you meet four or five at a single stop, but here you have 300 all coming to you at once. SARC is widely liked. I haven't really heard any negatives from any coaches. He's widely liked in general. I don't think that the high school coaches are any different than the layperson that meets him at the Houston touchdown club or any of the other speaking engagements that he holds throughout the state. He has, he comes across in press conferences. That's how he is in person. He's transparent, candid and genuine. And that comes across well with everybody. What, I will switch across a little bit here because Ian, and again, I don't want to, I don't want to get you in any kind of trouble because I know you have an article coming out potentially this weekend on Florida and your prediction of them winning the national championship. I'm just curious if you can expand on that a little bit because one of the things that you were talking about off air was the quality of certainly their defense and how you feel that I believe they have, I think he's in middle school. I can't remember how old the defensive coordinator is, but he's got an opportunity here and you feel that this could be, as you say, their year. And I'm just wondering if you'd let the people know about that. Can I answer the question that you directed to Paul? I don't know, I guess. I think at Florida or everywhere else, the coaches want to see which guys show up with pads that they know that they can play it around in the summer. Like the summer they do a lot of their like, who are we going to build around this year? What do we need to develop? What new tweaks do we need to, you know, to workshop for the fall? And they're going to base a lot of that off the fall, off the spring. But Florida, I'll just say this. I kind of think maybe there's a little better that people think they were decent last year on offense, inherited a tough situation. He's going to be in year three. And I thought Graham Mertz was actually pretty effective in their scheme last year. So I just think there's a chance that they could, they have a leap in them and that some of the positives have been obscured by just the brutal schedule and some of their humalt on defense. Like the guy you referenced that they promoted the defensive coordinator like mid year last year is this guy that I think is younger than any of us. There was like one of Billy Napier's like GAs at Louisiana or something. So I don't know, I don't know if they're going to be great. I think they'd have to be really good even to win nine games because of their schedule. But I think for Texas fans, I would caution against just scratching a double year next to that. Well, Ian has exposed his neck here and giving you a wide open shot. I mean, he's calling for a total turnaround at Florida. That's what I'm hearing. What are your thoughts on Florida next year? Their schedule is just prohibitive. It's bad. I mean, they're going to, so for them to go to a bowl game, they have to start the year five and one because the down stretch of their schedule is crazy. They're playing Texas. They're playing Georgia. They're playing Florida state. I mean, I think Ole Miss, it's crazy. They have some of these games in Gainesville, but it's just going to be tough sledding. You know, that's a great job. And what's interesting is when a job does fall on the rocks a little bit or you have an in-state rival that's obscuring you like Florida state's resurgence, I think people undersell how good a job Florida is. And, you know, people used to do that a decade ago with Georgia. I would always, you know, do these off season things of, hey, here are the best 10 best jobs in college football. If you threw open every job, where would you want to go start your program? And I'd always have Georgia in my top six or seven or something. Like, you know, people like Georgia, what are you talking about? They haven't done anything. And it's just like, guys, if they ever get it together, you know, and we know it's full that can be because we have seen them when they have it together. So I think this is probably Napier's last year. And I think they're going to make a change. The interesting thing to me is who they go after. And because I think it's a terrific job. To me, it's a top 10 college football job. So, but, you know, to Ian's point, they're, it's not like they're scrubs. They've got talent there. They've just been disorganized. Grandverts actually proved to be a lot better than anyone thought. I mean, I'm guilty of that too. I kind of mocked. They got him in the portal. And he played well as sort of a control, you know, game manager, very few turnovers. Yeah, I mean, I think Ian's right to caution that they're going to be teams like Florida, Kentucky. You don't, it'll be a football game for a while. You don't want to just pencil that in as a W. Thank God for our friend, Brett Nelson, who is frankly keeping us alive, not only with the super chat, please send those in. Not only does it give us the opportunity to spend someone else's money, it gives us a question to answer. And this one has to do with the Duncanville quarterback Russell. What are our thoughts in terms of that recruitment moving forward, Eric? You know, it's been interesting. So I wasn't really entertained the thought of taking a two quarterback high school class in his time at Texas. But this would be the year to do it probably, because you really want to keep four around, if you can. They're going to lose Quinn years after this year, almost certainly, right? Then you've got Archmani Trey Owens and KJ Lacey, who's committed now. So that's only three. I doubt they'd want to go to the portal because you're not going to really find anybody outside of a clipboard holder that wants to go in a coaching career that they will want to come to Texas because everybody knows it's Arch's job. So I could see it being a guy like Kilo and Russell. And the reason you like that is he does have a lot of upside. He needs a long time to fill out. But he really likes Texas. I could see him stay in the course and buying into playing a little bit, you know, waiting his turn a little bit more than just going to SMU and trying to be the man immediately. It wouldn't surprise me if they didn't. Obviously, there's always the added factor that he's the quarterback for the Corey and more. So I mean, do they need that as added incentive later in the recruiting process for the Corey and maybe, but they like Kilo and obviously had they had they not taken KJ Lacey when they did early and they needed a quarterback right now. I think they'd be all over him. But now I think they're just weighing their options. Rick has a question regarding national punditry and the spring portal. This is obviously a time where where kids are going to get a sense at least of where they're falling in the program, where they're where they're going to be someone that stays in the program a little bit longer or they might actually have an opportunity to develop there. The Rick is pointing out that some of the national punditry is suggesting that this portal in particular in the spring could be in a paraphrase absolutely buck wild. What are your thoughts on that? Do we need? Are there any players in particular on Texas's roster that we might need to be concerned about? I'm not suggesting names now because I don't think that's the right thing to do. But do you see what you're hearing some there might be some players we might want to be worried about or concerned about? I'm hearing a lot more background noise than I'm hearing noise on that as far as Texas guys going in the portal. I'm not super worried about it. They have to make some room, right? I mean they're over the number right now. So there's going to be some needed attrition just to stay at 85 in August. I don't think they're going to lose anybody that they absolutely need or is projected to start. They could lose a valuable player that's on the 2D for a talented guy that would be a starter in a year or two. I don't anticipate a big loss, but you never know, man. I don't know. It's impossible to know everything on this. You don't know who's back channeling these players. You don't know who has a relationship that pre-exists when the when the player got to Texas. As far as just the overall volatility of the spring portal, it's going to be more volatile than we've seen previous spring portals for sure. I think that's a given. I think that's just going to there's going to be a carryover from how wild December and January where there's going to be like players that feel like they missed the boat on opportunities to go cash in elsewhere. There's a lot of coaching turnover that happened later that maybe the existing talent doesn't jive with the new coaches and they're going to look for a fresh start. And then of course there's always back channeling and all those things that could lead to guys just wanting to go earn. That's it. That's the bottom line. These guys want to make money and they're going to go where the grass is greener. You got to wonder how much that is like Alabama is loading up the cannon because their staff came in so late. And if they don't want to rebuild that roster from every they I mean they got pillaged right after Nick Saban left. And you know that Alabama is not going to want to go quietly into the night. So you wonder if maybe Alabama is just got their sights set on prominent players from around the country that they're going to try to poach. And then there's like you know some new staffs that had a chance this spring that maybe people are hearing it hasn't gone very well. I don't want to speculate on who that would be because I haven't heard that. But you just wonder if these guys are hearing about chatter at different programs like the Arab was suggesting that have had more recent turnover. I don't think that's likely to be a reflection on Texas. Everybody's watching Michigan. Everybody's trying to see if Michigan got their affairs in order. Obviously you know what's terrible for Michigan is that SEC cannot you can't transfer within the SEC. So people are going to be going after Michigan's players because you know that's one of the few schools that has talent that is worthy of playing at some of the top schools in the SEC. So I kind of we're going to we're going to learn a lot about what Michigan had what changes Michigan has made in the absence of Jim Harbaugh. I'd like to bring up a question from Chris Condon. He's he's asking about Keeland Russell particularly. He's claiming that the kids in alpha and has a cerebral mind set to dominate. We don't we can talk about him or we can talk about this new concept that we have in the world of separating men into different file or genus and file and we've got our our alphas our betas are all the different denations of men now which I think is not only absurd just ask a nine. But let's talk about Russell. Do we think he is uh well that's that's who they were asking about a minute ago the Dunkinville quarterback Keeland Russell. Yeah I mean we're going to see what nobody ever talks about the middle between the alphas and the betas which I think is like you know probably 90 percent of America. Well it's probably a hundred percent of America but people don't want to claim that they're a guy. Well even like everybody would assume Ian's a Ian's a beta because of you know he's kind of uh I don't know he's a little goofy at times but Ian is Ian is mentally stronger than most people I know so that's I would consider he's an alpha in some ways and it's you know don't judge a book by its cover. But if I had to fist fight somebody you know Ian might be on the short list you know you just that's just how it goes. Yeah Keeland Keeland's got good mental makeup he's got a lot of upside a lot of passing talent getting bigger stronger good leadership and tangibles. KJ Lacey has a lot of good leadership and tangibles natural pastor not nearly as big. I think he's probably got a stronger arm than Keeland despite the size difference but you know we're going to see how it plays out. Sark it's you know it's hard hard press to find me ever worrying about quarterback with Sark. I think he's in a good place but like I said you want to carry more than four at the same time you know who your starter is barring injuries for the next two years after after Quinn the next three years actually so you know he might try to try to run a little fin at the position and and and put reserves elsewhere. Ian do you have anything to respond there? I'm I'm totally understand if you don't. I mean Eric just said if he had to choose someone to punch in the face he was obviously I'm paraphrasing here but that's ostensibly what he just said. Eric's a little bigger than me is what he's getting at. Oh right. I'm not an enormous person. Speaking of enormous people let's let's talk a line here for a second. Okay. With a group that is so well established in terms of a position group like we have a very good idea certainly on our ones and twos there. How would the team want to run through spring practice especially you know we talked a lot about this this being a longer timeline of development with that particular position group. How do you keep them engaged? How do you keep them involved and how do those guys from jumping into the portal? Well one thing they can do is just rotate now and not necessarily show their hand. You know like if coaches don't want a guy to transfer they can always just rotate who plays where get guys first string reps here and there for maybe positions that the players would like to see themselves at in the spring and not make it obvious like what the pecking order is going to be until you know after the after the portal window is closed. I mean that's yeah that's part of it but they're having robust and real competition too. I mean it's DJ Campbell's going to start. We know that and Jake Major is going to start. Cam Williams is likely going to start. I'm watching that left guard position because you know Cole Hudson could theoretically start there and DJ Campbell or Neto Umi Zulu could theoretically start there. Now people I talk to tend to think Hayden's going to hold on to it but I think that that's a little bit more of an old Mac Brown mindset in which you know the guy started so he's going to keep starting. I'm not so sure about that we'll see. Well with that with that in mind there's and this is this goes back to a little bit of the you know Ted Cruz, Nick Saban, Bromance that we're starting to see but they're talking about this idea of development and whether that is actually a driving factor in bringing kids in and I have to imagine that at some point during this new NIL era kids are going to actually start about caring if they're not already getting into the league. So when you get to these higher level programs I would have to imagine that when you're in a system like that especially when you know you've got Kyle Flood you've got this whole system working through that these kids actually care about staying in the program and getting developed so they can move forward. Paul do you have any thoughts on that? Yeah that's most likely to happen on the O-line from a distance standpoint. O-line are the most realistic of any guy typically on a football field in terms of their estimation of their own abilities and those of their teammates and they're more they're also hierarchical like young O-line understand 95 percent of the time unless they're very special they shouldn't be out on the field right. Now they may have recruiting quotes and everyone's going to hit me with those when the guy's a junior or something in high school and they're ambitions. I'm going to start as a freshman to be all American and I'll be out by junior year and I'll be a first round draft pick and then they get to the campus and they go against Tabandre Sweat in a one-on-one and they're like okay I guess I got to go get strong and this is going to be a three-year project right. So the contrast is that a wide receiver back when we carried 14 wide receivers or whatever it was with under Tom Herman your 14th wide receiver who was fourth on the depth chart believed in his heart of hearts that if he could have just gotten out on the field Texas would have won the game and he would have he would have balled out right. O-line are self-deprecating they make fun of each other they they they're good at establishing a hierarchy now where it gets complicated is when you've got a really talented guy who's not quite there yet technically right. So NATO Omeo Zulu there's a lot of programs that would love to have that guy on their team because he's got a lot of potential co-huts and you know so that's why I think the anointment of Hayden Conner I'm with Eric I'm holding off on that one it really depends on what they value in the offense because Hayden is a good pass protector but if one of those guys can offer comparable pass protection but then bring a lot more athleticism and a little bit more explosiveness I think that you're gonna have to look at Hayden maybe as the sixth offensive lineman but you know offensive line more than any other position group is more willing to let it shake out over time and if you're Kyle Flood you can you could be square with these guys it's not just about dangling hope you're you can actually say man you're in the running and a lot can happen over the summer go get stronger go work on this go work on your drop step and then we'll see you in August go try to win the win a job like it's open you know no one here is being anointed we know that there's three guaranteed starters Calvin Banks Jake Majors DJ Campbell those other two jobs in whatever permutation it takes it's wide open and if anyone thinks that someone who just started last year is going to automatically inherit I don't think that's our program I don't think that's how it works I'll be honest staying staying on that side of the ball and actually contrasting it with with what we've got going on the other side of the ball is this the year in where Texas might be the might be a more offensive team than they are a defensive team I mean last year our defense really really balled out in a lot of positions that's not to say the offense didn't play well but it was something we we absolutely had to hang our hat on is is this year that the offense maybe maybe edges out the defense and keeps us in games more it sure looks like it the way Cirque talks about this team you get a little bit of that sense some of the practice reports that we've had themed indicate that the offense like the first team offense is really effective early some of that you know the defense has a lot to replace and they'll probably figure out things that they haven't figured out yet but uh I mean just when you look at the talent on the team and the uh draft talent across the offense there's so much of it there's got to be some comment here that Eric is just laughing. They're given they're given Paul some grief about his Malcolm Gladwell hatred let's call it what it is it's just it is unabashed hatred it's true yeah okay good news Cam Williams is on his 9999th uh kickstep so one more 10,000 one more and he's your starter it's a magical number based on violinists in Vienna even though he got the study wrong all right all right sorry sorry Ian sorry well uh yeah I mean they have Quinn yours they have this veteran line and then they reloaded the skill talent with up and coming talent in the portal if this team isn't scoring you know 40 points it's 200 oh sorry if they're not scoring like 40 points a game something probably went wrong um and when you when you can do that you have a lot of leeway on defense and I the sense I get and maybe Paul or Eric disagree I kind of doubt it is that this team is is going to want to be like an offensive driven team that defensively figures out how to get situational stops when they need them but otherwise the offense is kind of going to carry the team isn't that I mean Paul isn't that essentially SARC's emo I mean we all we all understand we've we we hear the press conferences of course everybody wants a balanced team but I think genuinely if SARC had his druthers I mean he would just absolutely demolish teams on the scoreboard and run it up so the defense wasn't necessarily even that much of a factor is that a fair assessment yeah I mean but he also has to consider he doesn't play fast right which is a cheap way that overpowering offenses do pile points on poor to above average defenses right he doesn't do that and he is pretty big on you know he doesn't just give lip service to special teams and to to defense and stuff like that I think he likes you know he was on those USC teams right he he saw that how good they were when they had the wild boys you know defensive line and they had dominant defense and it complimented the offense I mean he understands what it looks like so yeah he doesn't he doesn't take some of those shortcuts would he love to have an offense that absolutely destroys people absolutely I mean that's that's what he's building towards and I think the thing that maybe supports Ian's contention is we're going to lose some really good draftable talent on offense right Octavian Sanders Xavier Worthy Adni Mitchell I mean dude these guys are going to go really high and those were sort of the stars and of course Jonathan Brooks is going to go really high despite his knee injury but I think people may underestimate the incremental benefit of your quarterback and your own line returning that that really makes a difference not only for SARC but college football in general and you just make a lot fewer drive killing mistakes when you bring those guys back so even though you have the upside of these incredible athletes outside and carrying the ball just that ability to have this really high floor consistently and then you add you know talented guys like Bond and guys like more develop and John take hook etc I don't have to tell everybody the players but I think people underestimate the degree to which bringing back your quarterback and your offensive line is it's not a sexy but it leads to just much more precise and just sort of mistake free offense at least as close as you can get to that and really that's the thing that derails offense particularly a good one like SARCs in Texas it's it's second and 17 second and 14 that's what kind of derails you but when you don't make those mistakes when you don't have dumb errors don't turnovers it's it's going to be a hard offense to get off the field and that's going to be I think appealing to SARC they also and they also they're likely to be better at that but still maintain the explosiveness because of what they were able to add a wide receiver in the transfer portal plus you know maybe John take hook ends up being up there as well but just that just that combination is I mean think about how many points Texas would have scored last year if they were good in the red zone yeah I mean going back to Paul's point about SARC being you know not giving short shift to special teams in defense he's sort of a total football coaches he will take the air out of the ball late in the game and try to run it and that's how they iced Alabama he's not that that could put a cap on on point expectations is he's he's not afraid to put the ball in his running backs hands and ice the game for long stretches of time I mean you know they last seven minutes first Alabama when they had Bijon and Rochon they iced some teams didn't pass much in the fourth quarter I think the offensive line is humming and the the running backs are as good as we think you know that you might not see many high scoring fourth quarters we got a we got a super chat from our friend Hough Tex and this is going to we're going to move obviously this is something that Paul was just talking about losing a lot of high relatively high draft players throughout this year moving forward obviously Quinn is going to be on this list but what who are our draftable players in 2025 and are we are we potentially going to have the most that we've had since 1983 this is a fun history question for Ian obviously Hough Tex thinks the answer is yes. I think they're going to have more draftable players in 2024 than in 2025 actually yeah I agree that yeah so I would go it'll be one year but he gave us $10 so and we appreciate that he's a good he's a great poster he's a meathead he's a he's a weight lifter we like that but you know we've talked about this before but the early round draft picks on offense next year Kelvin Banks, Quinn Ears, Isaiah Bond, Gunnar Helm won't be early but he'll be drafted I think. Let me see perhaps Matthew Golden if he's healthy and already we're drawing straws on offense so you know they're not gonna have the defensive tackles that you think Barren Sorel will get drafted I feel confident about that just because he's hard to push around. Let me see David then. In 1983 they used to have like 20 rounds though. Then you had 12 rounds yeah so that that's an important distinction there were 12 rounds and NFL draft back then there's now seven I believe. Yeah seven. So that even if you if you equalize it that 1983 class was just ridiculous it's like it's infamous like how many dudes Texas had drafted it was just nuts but I think up with Eric I think 2024 will be the most that we've had Mac Brown teams I seemed like there were always five to seven you know the good ones but I don't remember an explosive year we have like 10 or even 14 or like Mama and Georgia and LSU due of late. Yeah it was even lower than you think I think five was the upwards end for most those years. Well and sadly part of that was you could kind of get a deal on good Texas players who were getting like a Texas discount because there was a perception that these guys were not being developed. So you had multiple Texas free agents going to the league and having great 10 year of NFL careers Adrian Phillips being one of them. Do we think some of the questions that were coming in the chat here is do we think blue goes in the draft? Yes okay yeah that's a good one to name yeah I think he's gonna he might run for 800 yards next year but it's going to be on a few not a lot of carries right super explosive got good hands the NFL loves running backs that can catch out of the backfield so that's going to be a big selling point for him. DJ Campbell I mean he'd love to he's got a long way to go technically he's got to become more assignment sound he's definitely got the athleticism and the physicality to do it he's got to put it all together. He's going to put it together this offseason that remains to be seen. Auburn's not going to be drafted what what's what do you mean why not what he's like super cool. Yeah why would you I mean hey that guy should be a Texas legend he's put Texas ahead in very dire moments where they had no or tired games where had no business coming back into it Alabama at home a couple years ago you know they gave them the lead Texas Tech on the road. He should be a legend they went on to lose like three of those games so to me he's a legend but I don't know that he has the leg that the NFL is looking for but he does have the consistency and he's pretty good between 40 and 50 yards. Kickers get degrees before they go. Oh okay all right. I mean just because they're not their earnings are there's usually very little impetus for them to get out. Yeah so that's why maximize an IL and degree and whatever else. What's working man Paul might know this Paul's a little older than me. So refrigerator Perry went to Clemson came on the stage in 85. I don't know if 83 was the invention of refrigerator Perry but I am old enough to remember I was seven years old in 85 that that was when he kind of took the country by storm so similar to icky shuffle a few years later. Yeah he was he was in the first round of the 85 dropped and he was a rookie and the big issue talking about how football has changed oh my god the big issue with refrigerator Perry was buddy Ryan was furious about his weight because William Perry weighed 310 315 pounds when he showed up to rookie camp guys. That's acceptable that I mean could you imagine like just it's completely different so people don't may not remember but that amazing 85 bears defense. Steve McMichael played NFL interior defensive line at about 275. Yeah Dan Hampton was 270. Richard Dent was actually a big defensive he's like 260-265 and then refrigerator Perry was a giant fat guy and that was the joke because he weighed over 300 pounds. Yeah I used to have to talk about the evolution of man you can see it. I go to a high school now and I'll see five guys bigger than him you know it's it's crazy that's you know he took the world by storm being that big now you go anywhere and you'll see guys that size. Well and Eric as a recruiting guru you know that if a guy is 300 pounds in high school he's college ready. I read that in every scouting report. Oh man. What do we and I know we we kind of touched on this but I think it's let's just let's just answer the people's questions. What are our thoughts on could Kim Williams be a one and done guy do we see that obviously we talked about out or with Barron what about Collins what about Terrence what are our thoughts on these gents. And you know Kim has a lot of quickness for a size but you know just the other days that that's something we should probably talk about is there's a lot of excitement about the speed at Edrush that they that they have it's increased obviously with Colin and and Trey Moore and even though Ethan Burke you wouldn't really call him a super quick guy he can get to the the quarterback in a hurry because of his length Colton Vosick was mentioned as well. So Cam is getting a little bit more he's getting some tests based on that on the speed element so I think that's going to be a question mark for him this season how does he do against quickness because we know he's going to do all right against bigger guys you can't really beat him inside you can't run through him but around the edge is going to be the question for him but you know if he puts his run blocking together he's got some really good quickness moving downhill he looks really comfortable with his weight as a run blocker I'm not so sure he has that same level of comfort with his weight transfer as a as a pass protector yet but you know we'll see I mean you know if he puts it all together yeah he can get drafted maybe not the first round second round you know who knows but yeah we'll see how that plays out you know Paul's mentioned this we mentioned this before is that you know we don't really know who's who's going to break out you know it's it's early for that we'll have a better idea in August but even in August we might not know. Following me and Paul's theory has been that Cam Williams is like a pill load hole or Adrian Healy or Daryl Williams are these huge guys that Oklahoma's had for years and years and those guys usually spend four or five years and call it before they go pro because they the technique they didn't need technique in high school so that's usually comes kind of slow maybe the weight has to be totally disciplined and submitted to their football goals and things like that so I don't know if he's it's usually more like a guy like Kelvin Banks or Sam Cosby it's like six five long natural 310 or like work their way to 310 and are just like freak athletes this is the guys that usually are like three and out. Yeah one of the things that we look for when we're we're building a spring program is developing some adversity for the players so they can we can test what their metal is and I think it's important it would be something that I would like to hear at least is when you're working with a group of guys and one of the people you've been working with a long time says that you essentially have a very punchable face I'm curious Ian how are you able to maintain your composure and still work through that and develop high quality content. Well he looks like he's hydrating for a fight. Well I mean you've definitely thrown down the gauntlet area either a fight or Tom Herman's gonna give him a year analysis tomorrow. Yeah I made I made my weight earlier so now I gotta I gotta get it back in time for a flight down to Eric's house tomorrow. Well you're going to yep this is full service. That's amazing that's really it's very kind to me. Time to be a lot of tech that there's going to be no consequences. Tyson vs Jake Paul undercard right here. Guys that could be a murder. I mean we might actually being paid. That fight's not going to happen. I refuse to believe that fight's going to take place. Oh my gosh I mean I assume those are all fixed so yeah but Ian reminds me of my best friend my best friend is a little undersized as well but he's extremely crafty. He's I would never punch him. I would never punch you in either. Now I don't punch anybody you know it's been a while. Your best friend is your wife. This is weird. Well it's weird that you spar with her. Hey look man that's not our place dude. I'm not one of those my wife is my best friend guys because I always like the retort to that which is well my wife would let me go to a strip. I mean my best friend would let me go to a strip book. But the other side the other side you know you have to say something like I love making love to my best friend and that sounds terrible too. Yeah well again guys this is really not my place but I appreciate your vulnerability here. This has been an excellent opportunity for you to just express what's on your mind. I do have a question for you again Eric what type of skiing do you like to do. You're very keen on staging you're seeing making sure the skis are in there. I'm just curious are you more of a Nordic guy or downhill what's your deal. I just like to cruise now you know now I'm afraid when I hit high speed that's something that really ticked me off a couple years ago. First time I ever said hey I should slow down a little bit I might get hurt. So now I'm just trying to stay upright and I bought the wrong skis due to a shared friend between me and Paul. He talked me into these these rockets and they're there very fast. So I just go slow these days and try to cruise. They're just there could they make me happy. Well that's nice. That's really good. Thanks. We're in the trust that we had this opportunity. Let's see so yes there is a bunch of background noise we need to express this. One of the things that Ian is doing I gotta tell you in the offseason he works at the drive through at the local Dunkin and East Rutherford and he's just got to make sure that he can get his vocals up to the specs that they need in order if you're going to order a nice latte or maybe some crawlers. So yes the sound quality is a little bit off. We're going to be discussing that with Ian later and we appreciate you pointing that out. Everyone thank you for that. Before we get going is there anything in particular let's see UT boys here I guess we should somehow notify the authorities. Great. All right spring ball is in the air. We've got a spring game on April 20th. A lot is going to happen between now and then how many more padded practices should we anticipate before the spring game Eric. Oh padded practices I'm not sure he'll have a couple scrimmages you know they'll they'll mix it up like they do in the season a couple without pads and then you know they'll go he'll just change speeds on it you know but yeah I expect they'll have a Friday padded practice this week. He'll probably go pretty hard before they give him a break until Monday afternoon and they hit the field again next Tuesday but it's kind of just that Sarcs whim he's going to have the the pulse of his team and see if he needs to dial it up or dial it down. Ian if you had to bet one of your children the one that you don't like which one not which child but do you think that we have a thousand yard rusher this year? I think so it seems like Sarc usually likes to lean on one guy when he has it so I feel like Baxter maybe the guy they would like to be the volume guy and I think Blue also has an outside shot of getting to a thousand just because he's so explosive and I think he'll get worked in the offense a lot so I mean they almost have the profile of a team they would have like two 800 yard guys right but I think they'll get at least one of one of them to a thousand I think it's possible they could get two guys to a thousand this year just depending on if there are blow outs and who gets carries in those blow outs. There's going to be a thousand yard guy and especially if Texas plays 14 or 15 games right? Yeah it's easier but it used to be a big deal in the NFL right to be a thousand yard rusher when it was a 14 game season and then 16 game season it meant you average what 62.5 yards per game you just didn't get injured and now it's you have to average what just just at 60 yards per game if you can play all 17 so it's not quite the rare rare error it used to be in college obviously it was rare error back again the 11 regular season game right and for whatever reason bowl games didn't count do you guys remember that like your career rushing statistics they wouldn't count your bowl games and then all of a sudden they changed that and they started counting it but yeah I think the more games you play obviously they have a higher probability I also just think that you're more like you're likely to have one of the guys the major two guys get dinged up so one guy will have a 150 rush you know you have a couple 150 yard rushing games and get into a thousand it's not quite as daunting so I think I think they'll get there and I don't know I think it might be blue we'll see it could happen where they you know Baxter gets a start again he's got to prove that he can stay healthy he was battling myriad injuries last year it wasn't just one so maybe it's something that that we need to watch for next year and then you know if blue gets a crease just like on the field if blue gets a crease he's not going to look back so it could happen where the similar to how Brooks had his breakout when Baxter you know was able wasn't able to stay on the field what is the over-under on how many games we see arch in this year I'm gonna say five I was gonna say four and a half yeah I'll say four and a half I'm assuming that's pretty front loaded well you got it you got to assume that Quinn might miss a game or two in the SEC slate because he has been the last two years so if that happens then you have that plus whatever the front loaded games are that Eric is referencing okay well that was a really fun question I'm really glad I am well Quinn could get hurt and then you can have blowouts you know there's gonna be some blowouts so it's not about that betting the under right no one wants to if we posted those odds it took odds on inside Texas no one would take the under right because it's not fun right all right gentlemen we have reached 46 past the hour it is well past my bedtime I know young Ian has to get his microphone fixed so we want to thank you all for joining us tonight if you have any further questions or things that you would like to expand on please check out inside texas.com still a dollar for the first month after that it's it's free that's what Ian pays for so check us out inside texas.com we want to thank you all for being here we've really enjoyed this time with you (upbeat music) (upbeat music)