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Inside Texas Football
Inside the Program: Bye Week Areas for Improvement, Johntay Cook Update, Special Teams Struggles
Welcome to Inside the Program on the Inside Texas Football YouTube channel powered by InsideTexas.com. I'm Joe Koch, got Eric Nellin. Thank you for watching. Make sure you like this video, subscribe to the channel, and head to InsideTexas.com. We got the link in the description, sign up now. It's a great time to get involved with Inside Texas with the stretch run of the season, stretch run of recruiting, transfer portal, everything. Come over and join us today. Talk about Texas Longhorns team notes with the team on buy. No game this week, but the action never stops. We'll discuss a little bit about the special teams taking a step back. What's going on with John Tay Cook, and then Eric, he wrote about the top current Longhorns on the team. We'll go through all that, but it is a buy week, but the team is going to get this weekend off. They did work throughout this week, though. What are some of the big things that they worked on over the course of Monday through Friday? Yeah, it is heating up. Number six team in the country, number six recruiting class in the country. I'm intrigued as anybody to see where it ends up, but obviously the buy week comes at a good time. Haven't been playing their best football, at least on offense the last few weeks. One of the toppings they're working on on offense is just getting back to basics. Everybody doing their fundamentals, making sure their techniques are right, making sure they're on the same page with each other. Communication across the board is important, especially with the running backs and blitz pickup. That's been a major point of emphasis this week. They're just making sure the running backs are on the same page. They feel like they've missed some opportunities due to some blow on assignments. I know Jake Majors is some of question him. Not saying he's messed up, but whether or not he's getting everybody on the same page. Jake Majors is making the right calls at the right time. It's just making sure that everybody else, namely the running backs and the guys on the right side of the line, are picking up his signals and doing what they're supposed to. That's just a lot of what they've been working on offense. On defense, again, communication always plays a big part of it. They feel like that's been part of the issue with giving up points in the red zone. They've been very good with red zone defense until the last few weeks. Even though they've been putting a lot of tough spots, they don't view that as a good excuse. They've still got to do their job and keep the opposing offense out of the end zone. Red zone defense, I would say, was a major point of emphasis. And then overall team emphasis has just been guys hanging out together, catching up, catching their breath, hanging out bonding with each other. They feel like the closer they are as a team, the more they can hold each other accountable. It helps them communicate on the field, communicate off the field, and just become closer. That's why if you follow them on social media, you see a lot of these guys out with their position coach going out to dinner and all that, just kind of bond. So there's a little element of decompressing from the season a little bit, but still focusing more so mentally than physically on what they need to do and improve on. And now get ready. It's, you know, they'll have the weekend off. And then Monday, they're right right back at it with PrEP for Georgia. I mean, PrEP for Florida. The other side of the cocktail party, four games to go, obviously. And one of the things that we have seen throughout the course of the first eight games. And remember, as we wrote on Inside Texas this week, Steve Sarkeesian sees this as a halfway point because they anticipate being able to play a lot more games as part of a lengthy playoff run. If they're going to play those games, we all know that the special teams needs to improve. The program understands that there's been a little bit of a step back. Some of that you lose due to not having, you know, your starting punter. That's where a lot of people look. But there have been a lot of areas elsewhere where special teams is kind of regressed compared to last year. Yeah, it's just not as tight of a group as it used to be. It's just not functioning as cleanly as it did before. They lost some important personnel last year. Keelan Robinson, of course, Keaton Crawford was huge. Jordan Whittington was even named as a very big special teams person, just as somebody that would help create the lane for Keelan Robinson on kick returns. He always did the right thing out on the field. You got a lot of guys that were supposed to be replacements that haven't been able to be replacements. You know, Michael Taff is not on four units anymore. He's only on two. Trey Wisener is not able to be on special teams because of, you know, the injuries that running back. So they can't afford that. So that you have the proper replacements for the guys they lost are not able to be there. You got replacing Keaton Crawford has been Warren Roberson and that has not gone well. Replacing Trey Wisener, who was just expected to play a very big pivotal role, he's supposed to be the Keelan Robinson on special teams this year. You've got Ryan Niblett. So there's just been a little bit of drop off. And then, you know, you don't have the same amount of leadership that they had last year. So, you know, there's great leadership on the team, but I think special teams right now is lacking that. There's just been a minor drop off here and there. But, you know, we're seeing that have have results on the field, negative results on the field. As you alluded to Warren Roberson, those holes, they've got to get that fixed because that's been a killer. Matthew Golden looks ready to return one. I'm just, you know, he's got to get the blocking ahead of them, you know, and they just got to tighten up the their units. They're just not as sound as they were last year. It has nothing to do with Jeff Banks. You know, Jeff Banks has been coaching special teams at a high level for a very long time. He knows what he's doing. He'll get it right. It's just a matter of how soon you'll get it right. And, you know, to look at the individual specialist, which I think a lot of focus goes on, Ian Ratliff, admirable. He's not a scholarship punter. Michael Kern had a decent game against Vanderbilt in his return. But he's a freshman and that applies to even punting as well. Bert Auburn hasn't had a ton of opportunities. He's been, you know, here and there on field goals, nails on point after attempts. Will Stonestone has done his job. So, you know, you look at the highlighted spots. But then you also think about you were going through some of the guys who are not playing on four special teams. I got a couple more like Jelani McDonald has seen his role increase with the defense, meaning some of the snaps that he sees on special teams have gone away. Similar applies to Leunga Lefal, who was on a lot of different teams last year. So there are still some core guys like Maurice Blackwell, you know, like you mentioned some of the other guys, but the talent that they have playing there, you know, we just see it in the holds. I think that's the best way to show how much it has changed with Warren Roberson. One guy who will not get you penalized and who will help you. That is Andre the lawyer in L.C. Take it away. This video is brought to you by Andre the lawyer. If you're injured, trust the team that secured millions for their clients and help thousands of Texans with their injury case. Car wrecks, slip and falls, 18 Wheeler accidents on the job injuries and wrongful deaths. Don't let insurance tell you what your claim is worth. Hire Andre the lawyer to fight for you. Principal offices in Dallas, but they serve Texans throughout the state. So don't wait and call Andre the lawyer today at 214-444-8808. That's 214-444-8808. The contact information is in the description. Texas wants some special teams help. They could look at Andre because he's a he could get up there and block the field goal. So we'll keep on going. One of our most asked about players, especially over the course of the preseason, the early portion of the season and even now is John Tae Cook. A lot of players a lot of people saw a picture posted by wide receivers coach Chris Jackson did not feature John Tae in it kind of freaked out. Jackson had to follow up and say he was sick. Obviously that's the case, but you know, overall Texas has kind of tightened up that wide receiver rotation. We thought about it being six or seven deep earlier in the year. It's about four deep now with it being D'Andre Moore, Ryan Wingo, Isaiah Bond, and Matthew Golden. John Tae Cook's not one of those names. So what's going on with John Tae Cook? Well, we talked about it being six deep coming into the season. We also mentioned that as a season we're on that that rotation might tighten up and that's what we've seen so far. You know, Sart recently said he liked to get John Tae Cook more involved. You know, I think that's the case. There's a lot of speculation. John Tae is going to portal after the season. Nothing is set and stone decided or anything. It's just barely November. There's a lot of football left. I know people hear things here and there, but just take it from us that there's nothing set and stone with what's going to happen with him at this time. The main issue is, you know, he's got Silas Bolden ahead of him. That's the big deal is that Silas goes absolutely hard as hard as anybody on the team in practice. And, you know, he's ready to go out there and make plays that feel like he's earned the chance to go out there and play. So that has him ahead of Cook. And then, you know, with Bond out, the natural replacement for Bond is Ryan Wingo. So that's why Ryan Wingo got the start versus Vanderbilt. It's not necessarily anything negative that John Tae Cook has done on the field, you know, the drop. I've seen people blame the drop on that. Sark, once you drop the ball, Sark will go right back to you. Sark understands the drops are a part of the game. We saw him do that earlier this season with Jaden Blue. He's done it in years past. I mean, if drops were an issue, because everywhere it would have been benched a lot. So it's not, it's not about the drop. But I do think that John Tae just needs to keep work and keep his head down, try to emulate Silas Bolden and his work ethic and let his natural talent, which he does have a ton of do the part. If he sticks to the script, he's going to have a great career at Texas. You just got to stick to the script. One of the things that we wrote over on Inside Texas this week was snap counts and what it says about each individual unit where, you know, guys are viewed. You can kind of take away the pecking order. And at wide receiver, it goes, you have Isaiah Bond and Matthew Golden leading the way. Golden has 424. Bond has, you know, due to injury 290 right after them, Ryan Wingo, then comes DeAndre Moore. And then after that, Silas Bolden at 118 and John Tae Cook at 114. So like that's, there is a clear mark with the top three, top four. And then there is the next two Silas Bolden and John Tae Cook. And like you mentioned, Bolden's work ethic off the field or excuse me, on the practice field as him. Well, we've seen how Bolden plays. He plays with absolute hair on fire. That's how he practices, you know, that that foam of recovery made in Red River Shootout. That's indicative of how the guy goes in practice every day. So he's going to be a possible artwork. But, you know, John Tae needs to emulate that and just fight through it. And he's going to be fine. I know he about to start talking about the top five current Longhorns, but we should talk about the receivers and lead into that. Because when I talk to a source to do that, you know, the first, first water receiver asked about. So I, you know, I assume Isaiah Bond needs to be on there. He goes, yeah, but if you're only doing top 10, I don't know how you leave any of the starting three off. Um, because, you know, Bond is probably the most well-rounded and, uh, viewers number one target. And we've seen the absence, his absence hurt Texas clearly last week on, uh, against Vanderbilt when there were times where viewers and we can go, we're on the same page. Uh, but the source also said DeAndre Moore is the leader of that room. You can't leave him out of a top 10 and Matthew Golden's kind of the go-to guy. And you just mentioned Matthew Golden having the most snaps out of the, the entire position. He's been a fixture at the position. Golden didn't quite make the top 10. DeAndre Moore's balling out. I had him in the back half of the top 10. Uh, not only is it because of his production, he's got 17 receptions on the year and five touchdowns. Uh, Jordan Winnington, as great as he was and as much as we love him, had 92 receptions last, the last two seasons with two touchdowns. So that just tells you what more brings to the table on top of the leadership and tangibles. But I did have Bond at number four. You want to talk about the rest of these five, Joe? Yeah. Uh, go check out the article on inside Texas. We have the, the full top 10 from Eric. Uh, but we'll go over the top five. Uh, number five, you had Alfred Collins, um, someone who is having a, the year we expected him to have. Well, and this was again, this is how they're playing currently, uh, and which I don't think all the readers understood because, you know, I had people saying that Quinn Hughes has led them to a seven and one. Well, Quinn Hughes has not led them to a seven and one record because he didn't start a couple of those games, right? Um, uh, so, you know, it's, it's more about current. How are they playing in, in the last, you know, the over October, let's call it. Um, after Collins is playing very well, he's actually not just, you know, doing his job and making it easier for the linebacker. He's making, he's making his share of plays too. I think it's 12 tackles in the last two games, uh, which is a very high number for an interior player. So I've got him number five and the aforementioned Isaiah Bond at number four. I think we're learning as much about bonds importance in his absence as we were when he was out on the field. Um, I think he's the most well-rounded and most explosive receiver, uh, of the starters. I don't think anybody's more explosive necessary than Ryan Wingo, but he's just not on the same exact page as yours, uh, mentally, uh, quite yet. It's, you know, obviously he's a true freshman, so you're not, you're not surprised by that. That motion touchdown against Georgia indicates a lot. They know that someone they can get, uh, the ball and need to, to get, uh, in special situations in order to set up scoring. Uh, number three, you had Gunnar Helm, uh, the guy who has also been out there for a lot of snaps. Now that I'm looking at it, 487, uh, just behind basically the starting O line and he's someone who's performed, not just blocking, but receiving as well. Yeah, you know, we knew that he was going to be the main state, whether or not 11, 12 personnel, he's got to be out on the field, uh, leads the team in receptions and yardage, which is not exactly how a Steve Sarkeesian offense is drawn up. I don't think he's going to lead, uh, the team in yardage and receptions, at least I hope not for the entire season. Uh, but I wanted him to pick his spots and have big games like we've seen so far this year. You know, he's, yeah, he's, he's an easy guy to get the ball to. He's got great size. He's got a knack for finding the soft spots in zone coverage. And of course, Sark is, is very good at scheming him open with all the other surrounding skill talent. So expect Gunnar Helm to continue to have a very big season, but I hope he's not leading the team in yards and receptions, uh, following the, the college, the game and college station. Number two, you had Kelvin Banks. What more can we say about him guy who's going to finally break the, uh, the almost 20 year streak of Longhorns offensive lineman not taken in the first round. Yeah, they got close. Right. Sam Cosme who's proven to be a beast in the NFL. Connor Williams, uh, went with Connor when I think 38, maybe I don't know, I could be wrong. I know he slipped a little bit, but yeah, Banks is going first round and he's just a complete player that he's going to get dinged a little bit for, uh, for lack of length. But he's got the feet, the makeup, the body mechanics, the intelligence to make up for that. Um, he played a very good game, a dominant game against OU, uh, one of the better games of his career. I thought, uh, and he played well against, uh, Georgia held his own against Michael Williams. So that times have been protected, uh, predicted to go top five in the draft. That one sack he had, uh, that Williams, I guess got credited for, you know, you were sad four seconds to get rid of the ball. You just had room to step up in the pocket. The, the scouts are going to not ding banks at all for that play. They'll probably give him praise for it. Uh, Kevin Banks, having the junior year, everybody hopes we got to, got to enjoy it. You know, we don't know when his last game is going to be. Hopefully his last game is January 20th. Special player, uh, should be on the, the Outland, uh, you know, any, anything that's associated with the Outland he should be involved with. And then number one, uh, speaking of trophy's Thorpe, so my finalist, Jadae Baron. Yeah, it's a pretty, uh, stacked room this year for the, the Thorpe award. Um, you know, I think right now he's probably going to finish, I think it would be a finalist, uh, which means you'll, I think they go to three for the finalists. Um, but you know, Travis Hunter seems like they've already printed the trophy with his name on it probably. Uh, he's a great player too, but you know, Baron has been absolutely complete. Um, you know, he's made us right. You know, I could not figure out why NFL draft, uh, scouts were not taking him last year. I predicted him to go second round last year. Um, I compared him to Brian Branch from, uh, from Alabama that went the second round right before that. Like, you know, he's just a complete player. I think people misunderstood him playing nickel as a sign that he couldn't play corner. Uh, when the fact was he was playing nickel because he could play corner. That's what they want out of that position. Jalen Gilbo could play corner. Uh, I don't think a lot of Texas fans realize that. So yeah, Jadae Baron, complete player, as little as he's targeted, he still has a lot of ball production, three interceptions, some pass breakups, he's great and run support. Uh, smart player, savvy player, great team leader. Uh, what else can you say, man? He's, you know, he better. Now I'm saying he should go first round. Uh, they'll probably, probably go ahead and get him in the second now, but I'm telling you that guy was always a stud. I don't know what the NFL was thinking, but I'm glad he came back for what it's worth. He is the top ranked player on the Longhorn defense, uh, above a certain snap count in pro football focus is great. So definitely somebody who has made the most of his extra opportunity. Eric, thank you for going inside the program with us. Make sure you like this video. Subscribe to the channel. Uh, also if you're on podcast, give us a five star rating and review. And of course head inside Texas.com. Our link is in the description. Now is a great time to sign up between signing day coming around the stretch run of the season coming up, playoffs upcoming, no better time to head to inside Texas.com. So Eric, thank you. Thank you to Andre, the lawyer. We'll see you next time on the inside Texas football YouTube channel powered by inside Texas.com.
Bye week is a time to regroup and reload. What are the Longhorns focused on improving?