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Inside Texas Football
Wednesday nITe LIVE (10/30) Texas Longhorns bye week notes, more recruiting on the road
Welcome to the Inside Texas Football YouTube channel, powered by InsideTexas.com. We're glad you're joining us. Got James Hayden, got Eric Nelline. Welcome in. Make sure you like this video. Subscribe to the channel. We appreciate it. It's the bye week. We're not stopping. And make sure you head to InsideTexas.com. Sign up. You join now. You'll get not only all the way through National Signing Day, all the different transfer portal stuff. You'll get the playoff run too. And I think that's what we are expecting to go over. But one of the things that we're looking at when it comes to the playoff run is snap counts. And one of the things I was able to post today over at Inside Texas was about defensive snap counts. And Eric, you made the point over on the Inside Texas message board that there's a lot of faith in Trey Moore. And justified faith still hasn't shown up in the stat sheet, but he still sees the field basically more than any other defensive lineman either at edge or defensive tackle. Yeah, I've defended him quite a bit this season, but to see that he has the most snaps on the field and limited production, you can't entirely square the circle on that. He hasn't been nearly as productive. Now he played his best game against Vanderbilt. That game set up very well with his experience and ability to play the run. But yeah, that lack of production is quite surprising, given the fact that he has the most snaps on defense. One of the things is everybody likes to shiny five star. And I get that. And Colin Simmons, man, he has made a lot of progress this year. But James, one of the things is when you're against these types of teams that make a lot of hay out of eye candy, it's nice to have someone who playing in conference USA, playing in the American, has seen these gimmick, for lack of a better turn, gimmick offenses. Yeah, are you talking to Trey Moore? Yes, yes. Yeah, I mean, but to Eric's point, it has been a little disappointing seeing that he is getting the most reps of any of those edge guys. And I think for whatever reason, we've been talking about this the past couple of weeks, whether it be the step up in competition or-- I mean, the tape showed that he was a great edge rusher. We just haven't seen the disruption there. And the run defense, he's done all right. And he finally made some impact plays against Vandy. Yeah, I mean, I think let's hope to see some more impact from Moore down the stretch. But Colin Simmons has been by far the most impressive edge. And Anthony Hill, so I think it's just been a testament to their five star ratings. Those guys have been game breakers. So-- Now they are going to play running quarterbacks. The quarterbacks that can run the ball a lot upcoming. And playing disciplined off the edge is going to be something that Trey Moore has going for him. And I was going to stick with Reed for sure. We're going to see some lagway. Even Brock Vandegrift. Kentucky's quarterback likes to run it. You go out and watch that game that they had versus Georgia. They ran him quite a few times. So I think we're going to keep seeing Trey Moore. It says something good about him that he has the most snaps. The coaches obviously liked his steady consistent play. He just hasn't been a playmaker that we hope for. Meanwhile, Colin Simmons, in his limited snaps, he gets his way into the backfield. And you know, you can't miss him when he's on the field. One of the things I looked at, I called it essential personnel. And that's guys who have played 350 or more snaps. Trey Moore was at 304. But the guys who are at 350, Jalen Gilbo, Michael Taft, Anthony Hill, Malik Muhammad, Jade Barron. Wait, where was Trey Moore at? Trey Moore was at 304. Oh, I thought he had the most snaps on the defense. OK, so-- No, he had the most snaps on the defensive line. Most snaps on the defensive line. OK, I was about to say. Right. Yeah, so go over those essential guys again. Jalen Gilbo, 350, Michael Taft, 367, Anthony Hill, 375, Malik Muhammad, 415, Jade Barron, 449. So that's the essential personnel. Like, that is your best secondary players, second-level players, maybe even your best defensive player, most likely your best defensive player in Jade Barron. And then the guy who makes everything work puts guys in the right places in Michael Taft. I don't think there's any surprise there. Taft was one of the best players on the defense, too. He's not just a coach on the field. Yeah, he's the one that's interesting to me is Jalen Gilbo. And that speaks to them not really having a number two guy that they like to play there. That's a lot of snaps considering he's not always on the field when they switch up personnel, go to different looks. But when they're in nickel, he's the guy. Now, I did just find out today that they've moved Wardell, Mac, over to Nickel. So that's not really going to impact this year. But that would be something we monitors throughout the spring. But Gilbo's got another year, so that's good. But yeah, that's a lot of snaps for Gilbo considering this time last year, it was almost all day bare. Yeah, go ahead. Another thing I noticed was just how many reps Muhammad's getting. I mean, they're playing him a lot. What do he have? He had a second most of all the DBs. And I feel like it's been a relatively quiet around the media sphere. People aren't talking about him a lot, but he's still doing his job, obviously, playing quite well. It's good when you talk about corners. He's in one of those spots that you get tackles, but you may not make plays. I mean, that seems to be what happens when you're looking at the Texas defensive backs. The only other thing that Texas is probably missing that they would like, and that's a result of some injuries. There's not another safety along with Taff, who's just a mainstay back there. And of course, Derek Williams is out for the year. Makuba's been banged up to call in. Jelani McDonald, who played well. They had Jordan Johnson, Rubell, see a good amount of action in, I think, Louisiana in Monroe. But that's-- Would you have Makuba at $2.84 or something? Makuba was $2.78. So, like, not far. Yeah, and then he missed the full game last week. So, you know, I would consider Makuba, you know, he was starting to play better and better every week to it seem like. So, let me see. Luckily, he'll be back for Florida. At least that's the last we heard. I think I can get this up with all the people we need to see on the screen. Or at least, I'll start with the D-line. 'Cause I went through the other guys. You know, Trey Moore, Alfred Collins, 286, Barren Sorel, 284, Vernon Broughton, 283, Jermaine Lillet, 207, Colin Simmons, 202, Ethan Burke, 159, Bill Norton, 106. My main takeaway is that there can be draft picks again, there can be all Americans, there can be probably draft picks again, and Peekwood Kalski, whoever's at defensive tackle coach, they are gonna rotate defensive lineman and it works. Yeah, you gotta keep the big boys fresh. I'm surprised that Norton only has that many snaps. I would have, I definitely would have thought more in August. And really, I would have thought more just watching them this season, but they got a good thing going on at D-Tackle with Vernon and Alfred Collins playing well, and Lillet's coming on. Lillet might work himself into a late round draft pick. He's played some really good games, hadn't he, James? Yeah, I mean, how about this D-line? Like interior-wise, that was one of the biggest fears coming in this season. I think for a lot of people who weren't maybe paying attention or falling along our preseason coverage and stuff, but it shows that there's great rotation. And like, y'all were saying, I feel like I see Norton out there a ton because it's just every guy to put in new bodies. And that's why people have struggled to run on us. I'm really just impressed by Colin Simmons, only barely getting over 200 snaps, and he's put the impact he has so far, which really has just been quite impressive. He's lived up to the building more so than we expected. I would say, I mean, instant impact out of him. I mean, Ethan Burke also has done a lot of great stuff and then limited time, but it's just a testament to the depth, and that's what you're gonna see year in and year out as we start to get farther into the, you know, SARC's reign here. It's one of those things where even Simmons himself acknowledged like, I got to get better against the run. I got to get better against all these things. If he's saying that, the coaches obviously told... - That was always the question coming into the season. How much is Colin Simmons gonna play? Well, just tell me how he defends the run. It's all gonna be dependent on that. And he hasn't been terrible by any stretch. Sometimes he plays it wrong, still makes the play. I thought, you know, we've seen him play some, with more discipline as they get deeper into the season. Vanderbilt was just not a game that sets up well for a wild cult. You need a guy that's gonna play a little bit more under control. But yeah, Colin's, yeah, it was always gonna come down to how much, how well he played the run. Yeah, everybody wants the five star to start immediately. I like the way that they're doing it right now. - Yeah, and I think that's one of the things we'll see him develop as he gets older. Like right now there has been a tendency where he's, you know, thinking SARC first, SARC first. And when you play against the guy like, you know, of the Italian Manziel, or you play against guys like a lag way, a little more of the running style. It's gonna be harder for him to get his numbers. But that's why you see Trey Moore up there in his snap count, 'cause he's so great against that kind of rope-a-dope, gimmicky, you know, off spread option offenses that we're gonna be facing in the next few weeks, honestly. - And to Moore's credit, I mean, just distinctly was seeing those snaps last year. Moore took them. It's just how it works, you know. The best guys are gonna play. And that's what's happening. And that's not to say, Finkley's a bad player. It's just that Moore is who he is. Anything from this group right here, looks like Benda and Lefau basically splitting it right down the middle at Will. Jelani McDonald, seeing a lot more. He's had a multifaceted role. Anything stick out to y'all. And then of course I put down there, Maurice Blackwell, 121 snaps. - Yeah, I mean, I'm surprised Maurice only has that many snaps, but, yeah. I mean, McDonald and Lefau are complete football players. All their lacking is experience. Those guys, there's no hole in their game. They can cover, they can hit, they can run. They're smart, they're tough. Literally no weaknesses in their game. Pretty much strengths across the board. They just need a little bit more experience. The future is very bright with that second group. But I can't wait to see Mikuba get back. We do expect him back for Florida last we heard. He was, like I said, he was starting to play a really, really good football. - Anything there, linebacker-wise or otherwise for you, James? - I'm just really impressed with the foul. It was great to see him get an INT. Yeah, he's just been at these to really come on this year. Mikuba, like obviously when he gets back, it's gonna be even harder for Florida to throw it over the top on us. So I just think this defense really is, it goes three deep in a lot of these positions. Like the death chart is, you really see it when we get dinged up a little bit that it's still, you know, we're not really yet thrown on. So it's just, it's really been, it's the most complete unit on the team by far and it's really shown when you look at the snap counts and you see these guys making impacts with, you know, I mean, some Nord and a hundred snaps or LaFalle's lower on the snap list, put it down. But I forget there was a couple other guys that were low on snap counts and then they're still making great impact when they get in there. Yeah, if you go back to the off team, Terry Joseph and Blake Gideon took a ton of heat, pretty much all off season. That was that in the, you know, the defensive tackles were gonna drop off dramatically. That was the concern. And, you know, we said the concern was whether or not the defense would play as a whole, not that the individual groups had talent, were missing talent or coaching. You're seeing Gideon Joseph with the retooling of the secondary, being able to move Jadae Bear in a corner was huge. Portal additions, portal subtractions, were everybody's big as the additions. And yeah, we knew coming in that they had the pieces to have a really good secondary. And right now they've got probably the best secondary in the country. Yeah, I think a lot of the blame they got was focused on Washington, that game. And I've said this a lot. Like, yeah, did they play great over the course of the, you know, season? Yeah, were they volatile? Yes, did they go against the best quarterback performance I've seen in a football game since Joe Burrow in Austin in 2019? Also, yes. And so these guys have proven they're good coaches and it's playing out on-- Well, '22 and '22 secondary was good, though. I mean, you know, maybe Gary Patterson deserves some credit for that. But that 2022 secondary was leaps and bounds better than the year before. I was, you know, only it was unrecognizable compared to the previous season. And I struggled a little bit on fourth down, third down, money down, defense. But that secondary was good, better than the last year, you're right. Recency guys played a part of it with the Washington loss. But those guys are, I don't think nobody's complaining about them right now, that's for sure. Yeah, and I mean, statistically they stack. I bought Kobe Black. That's a good mention right there. Kobe Black finally gets some reps. And Joe, I mean, he didn't even play. Did he play 10 snaps on Saturday? No, he played nine, but he made-- He played nine snaps. He had an I and T that got called back. He might have had a PVU. But Kobe Black played impressive. He had the highest defensive grade. And then like, as we're talking about, the secondary is just, I think a lot of that is communication. Because Michael Taff was talking in a press or a couple weeks back just how the communication is so much better now. And you bring in a veteran like Makuba from, you know, say what you will about Dabo now and how he runs Clemson. But that's a great culture, right? And you bring in Makuba, pair him with Taff. I mean, that was a match man in heaven. Like, those-- I mean, Taff was saying like, hey, no one's running free anymore. There's no bust in the secondary. He feels like anymore. And I think a lot of that is the athletes. And then just the way they talk back there. It's just nobody's getting past us right now. And it's been really impressive to watch that turn around here to here. A lot of people lost some faith in Kobe Black because Ryan Wingo got him in the scrimmage. But now everybody sees that Ryan Wingo is going to get pretty much anybody that covers them. We knew Black was a player, but then we found out, you know, a couple of weeks ago that they wanted him to actually lean up a little bit, which means they only see him as a corner, even though he's a bigger kid, with the ability to grow into really a ridiculous safety if he wanted to be. You know, they like him enough to where, like, now, let's make a concerted effort to keep the weight off him because he's got all the traits they want for him in a corner. Before we keep going, guys, we've got to talk about prize picks. And I was telling you before we started, I officially become a hater when it comes to how I make my selections on prize picks daily fantasy made easy. I went through some of mine earlier. Ashton Genti, more than 184 and 1/2 rushing yards. And then the Penn State kicker, more than half a field goal made feels like an easy one. I know it's wide out. I know it's all that. But hey, it's the Penn State offense with maybe a backup quarterback versus Jim Knowles and a Ohio State defense. The other one, kind of a little bit of the best of both worlds here, Tyler Schuch, less than 252 and 1/2 passing yards against the Clemson Tigers. And then Nico with less than 209 and 1/2 passing yards against Kentucky. I know you like that one. So hey, I've been up and down. I think you may be able to get a better record against this if you go ahead and make the opposite selections I do. But go ahead to prize picks, use a code inside Texas. You can get $50 instantly if you play $5. It is daily fantasy made easy. It is-- and I'm just going to go through the sports right now because there is literally everyone. You can get NBA, college football, NFL, the World Series for as long as it lasts. Soccer, NHL, you can even get some esports, tennis, and MMA. So go ahead and hit up prize picks, use the code inside Texas, get $50, or excuse me, play $5, get $50 instantly. Real quick, some of the offensive numbers. Some of these are what they are. You expect some of the main skill guys to rise to the top. The offensive line first string, they're going to have a lot of snaps. And that includes Cole Hudson. But I think what we've seen is a wide receiver core that we thought might be six or seven deep. Probably just about four right now, Eric. Yeah, four or five. Geandra Moore's playing a lot. Wingos played a lot. Bond's been injured. Matthew Golden, first touchdown since week two. That was good to see. I mean, there's going to be a greater distribution on offense just because they play more snaps. The defense plays, well, they're not on the field a whole lot. I wonder how many defensive snaps they play last season compared to this point as a team. And then offensively, getting 70 snaps against Vanderbilt is quite the heavy lift. Alabama was held to 45. So there's a lot to distribute here. Gunner Helm, that's not a surprise. He's going to be on the field, whether 11 or 12 personnel, one time in, two tight insets. So yeah, this all makes sense and looks right. Wingos, that's actually a lot of snaps given how much time you missed. I think Arch-- and that's further down than this article on Inside Tech. So as you can see, yours right there, 350. I think Arch was at like 195. There he is. So seeing different action. Are you taking anything away from this here, James? I mean, shout out Juan Davis getting 200 people before the season, right? I've expected Nye Black to be getting more action, but if you've been following Inside Tech's, I'm sure you knew Juan Davis was coming. But yeah, the wide receiver room getting shortened down. It's kind of what SARC's known for last year. You know, sure, I think it was like really like four guys. Had over like 300 yards last year or 500 yards. It was like-- he doesn't typically spread out his room a la like Sonny Dyches with TCU going like 10-D. We thought maybe he would do that this year, but this kind of shows you that while there are so many weapons, he has his favorites. He knows his go-to guys. I mean, it's really nice to see Ryan. We can go get in there. And then the Andre Moore's got three touchdowns on the year, I believe. So this has turned into a really good, diverse receiver room where there's just a lot of weapons, a lot of guys to go to. I would say also Trey Wisener having more snaps than blue is something of no. For sure, as he's kind of taking the lead there. One of the things that I noticed when going through this was you see how essential Gunnar Helm is to this whole entire operation. But you also see Matthew Golden. You can see the personnel switches in real time. And that's due to, look, Juan Davis getting half the snaps just about, and DeAndre Moore. They split time pretty regularly between 11 personnel or three wide receiver sets at the minimum, and then two tight insets. And that's not diluted at all by the big tight end stuff. I know it's another YouTube show. So we get the question surprise. Cook has been phased out. I mean, it doesn't appear as if there's any reason for Sartre to give Cook a lot of time because of what we know about how Golden, how Bond, how Wingo, how more have played? Come on. It's not about ability with Cook. I don't know what it is, but it's not about ability. Just as they'll split Bond and Wingo, they'll split Cook and Golden if they feel good about it. There's something about it that they're not liking. There's a reason he's not playing, but I don't think it's ability. Yeah, so that's why a function of Golden having so many snaps is they're not playing Cook. Whereas Bond has not only been hurt, but they split him with Wingo as well. DeAndre and Cook could also play behind DeAndre Moore too. They're just not playing them. They've got their reasons for it. Whatever they are, they should probably stay in the locker room. These are the guys that haven't seen 100 snaps. Any real surprises here? These are all scholarship guys. There have been a few walk-ons I've seen time, but any big surprises between Gibson, Niblack, Spencer Shannon, Ryan Niblett, Jordan Washington, Parker, Livingston, and Belton Gardner. I mean, if you went by the first couple of games, you would think that Jerry Gibson would be getting more play at this point. Mario Niblett, we would get more than he has. We're starting to see him at least starting last week. But we knew that he was running third tight end coming into the season. Juan Davis had jumped him. Now I'm not surprised by any of the other guys. I mean, wide receivers already. We already talked about that. Niblett's playing running back pretty much full time. Spencer Shannon's a year away. None of that surprises me outside of Jerry Gibson first, and then maybe Niblett. The only one that I'm a little bit-- I think we need to get from C. Sarkisian and what's going on with Belton Gardner. And I know he's very protective about injury info, but you brought that guy in for all the injuries, and here he is being injured. The real instructive stuff, I think, was the backup offensive line counts. Kind of reveals not only a little bit about each spot, but a little bit of the depth chart as well. We all know Kelvin Banks leading the way. Trevor Goosby, right there, 47 in the limited snaps. Malik Ogbo, excuse me, Malik Ogbo right behind him. And I'm curious if there were some instances of that big two tight end set. If that's what pro football focus qualified that as? No, I haven't seen him wearing 80 this year, have you? If it was a blowout and he was playing left tackle, I was probably trying to finish my story and get something ready for right when the whistle blew, so I would not have noticed. Left guard, Cole Hudson, kind of bouncing a little bit between both, but Neto, they're right behind. And you see the other thing, the backups, 47, 47. We can go to Connor Robertson, 57, so a few more. Anything from left tackle, left guard, stand out to y'all as far as what the second string looks like? Nope, we know the second string is coming in the season, so that doesn't surprise me at all. Connor Robertson, Hayden Connor with four from center. Cole Hudson, that's the other thing, there are six starters, and Cole Hudson sees his time. Jaden Chapman on inside, maybe that's something. And then Brandon Baker, I think that's indicative of the faith they have in him. So we've got a lot of great questions from y'all. We talked about Florida a little bit. Lagway may be battered in Bruce next week, he's a tough kid, but I think Georgia will keep the heat on him. I think Eric, and correct me if I'm wrong, 'cause you know, are familiar with him as a prospect a lot better than I am, like the upside with him is that he can push the ball way down field and he can steal yards on the ground. And especially with Graham Mertz out, I feel like this is one of those situations where we're really gonna see lagway's arm over the next couple of weeks. - Yeah, he reminds of a other former Florida quarterback, Cam Newton, obviously Cam made his name at Auburn, but he started off at Florida. He's just a big, strong, powerful guy. Can run it, can throw it. Everything he does is powerful. Throws it down the field powerfully, runs it powerfully. He's extremely well-built. Kind of like a super Sam Ellinger maybe, just he's got the leadership and tangibles that I think Sam had. So yeah, he's gonna be, he's gonna be great in some time. I don't know, it's not gonna be this weekend, it's probably not gonna be the following weekend, but he's got the ability to become great. It will it be at Florida? I don't know, will it be next year? I don't know, but it's gonna be a learning curve for him. It's gonna be, that's a tough defense to go again. It's been early in your career, back to back to the Georgia and Texas, good Lord. But he's got all the ability in the world. We'll see, they're showing some signs, at least some signs of life. Napier seat has gone from molten hot lava to slightly less molten hot lava, whatever that would be. But I don't know, he's gonna have a tough week, I believe, a tough two weeks, but he's got greatness written all over him. - Yeah, I mean, obviously we expect a lot out of him in the future, just because it's the one of us best and many was and the recruit he was. But outside of that Samford game, I mean, he's two TDs to five INTs. I would imagine if you're gonna kind of look down the road, kind of compare maybe the Tennessee game to what he'll get over the next couple of weeks. Like, he'll probably be trying to do some things on the ground, but I just don't know that he'll be able to be in a position with Florida 'cause they just have a lesser team going up in both those games where you're gonna be able to see him display all of his dynamic ability. I think it's gonna be tough sledding over the next couple of weeks. Florida got back on track a little bit, but it was against lesser competition. So, yeah, I mean, lag way. I'm not too worried about him and his roaster says like, yeah, I think he is gonna get beat up a little bit over the next couple of weeks, particularly in Georgia this week. - They could have wanted Tennessee, but Billy Napier, how do I make this PG? He backed out of it. They could have tried to win that game and elected not to. - Oh, Mark Stoops against Georgia. (laughs) Man, basketball season's right around the corner, right, James? Yeah, they're only ranked like, I think they're ranked lower than Texas actually preseason and Kentucky basketball. - I hear that. We'll get to that in a little bit maybe. This from Scott, Scott MR512. I know we like to see the edges make sacks, but I feel like more Burke and Sorrell are very good at setting the edge. I feel like Simmons has some room to learn there, but when he goes, he goes. Eric, you've been singing the praises of Baron Sorrell for a long time and as someone who just makes his defense do a lot of great things because of what he brings to that jack position. - Man, he's about as reliable as it gets on defense. Great guy in the locker room, great guy in the weight room. Just one of the five or six leaders of the team, really. Strong at the point of attack, tough to move. Really, that's why he's gonna get drafted. He'll get drafted as a guy that's probably playing first and second down. I don't know if he'll be off on third downs in the league, but he's gonna play. He's a tough guy to move, strong, good motor, and just really reliable. Coaches love reliable guys. You feel comfortable calling a play that leans a lot on Baron 'cause he's gonna do his job. - James, what do you think on this one? - Yeah, I mean, that's kinda what we've been harping on is just, that's the one thing. Simmons has obviously room to improve. I mean, the kid's 19 years old. You expect that. Burke has really been great on that. Moore showed that more so against Vanderbilt and Baron Sorrell. I mean, probably Eric's favorite player aside from Vernon Broughton, but Sorrell is just great. And that's what you expect from a graduate senior guy who's been in the program. He's a multiple sack guy in multiple years. So it's just, he's one of those guys who's doing everything right when it comes to running against the run and also he's thrown in some sacks on the pass rush. So Sorrell is just all around the really, he's tight player who just knows what he's doing. - It's interesting that Moore plays the run so well because, you know, you would think it's lack of length that maybe it's keeping him from becoming a great pass rusher as he steps up in competition, but it really hasn't bothered him versus the run. He plays the run very intelligently. - Oh, Joe, you got yourself muted. - Dang it, Karen, before we keep on going though, gotta give some love to our other sponsor that is Laura Baker. - Hi, I wanna tell you about Laura Baker. If you're looking for a new home in the 512 or even at this point, let's face it, 737 area code, there's only one number to call. That's Laura Baker at 512-784-0505. As a member of the elite Andy Allen team with Keller Williams, Laura has helped Longhorns find the home of their dreams in central Texas. Just ask our resident sex symbol Ian Boyd who moved all the way from Michigan to Texas with Laura's help. Laura can help you find what you're looking for in the 512, the 737 or even parts of the 254 and the 210. Just give her a call at 512-74-0505. Her email is in the description as well as the rest of her contact details. She's a friend, give her a call. - Thank you to Laura, thank you to LC. Thank you to David Keith Williams for joining again. Eric, he's pointing this one your way as fans, including myself, there are plays. Many think to benefit Texas, but it seems as if Coach Sarkeesian does not have them in a playbook, and let me get his other comment here. What's your view about tight end seams? Running back middle screens in wheel routes benefiting Texas. I know that they have wheel routes 'cause they, I've seen SART give a whole entire clinic on mesh and that read one is the wheel. - They run wheels a lot. - Read two is the out route, but what about some of these other plays that our buddy doesn't think is there right now? - And I have not seen Texas run very good running back middle screens going back about four coaches now, but the one that has stuck out to me a lot is the seam routes, lack of seam routes when you have a guy like Gunnar Helm. I think it's, they just like to leak them out in a coverage and use them as a constraint receiver more often than not, it seems as opposed to being a primary guy down the middle of the field. We just, we've never seen that. We saw, we didn't even see that a ton with Jotavian Sanders. Remember Jotavian Sanders only had two touchdowns all last year, I think Helm had two himself. For the amount of catches they had, I think they combined for 60, to only have four touchdowns is not all that much, especially when you factor in Texas with redstone issues last season. For one reason, they just, I don't know why they don't use it. I'm sure SART has his reasons. I don't know enough about the game to get into SART's brain, but I've wondered about that as well 'cause I think Gunnar Helm, even though I don't think Gunnar Helm is the most sudden athlete, we've seen that tight end position, but he's got a lot of length and good hands to go up and get the ball as well. So that has been one that's surprising, but they run running back wheel routes, rail routes quite a bit. That's, you know, we had dead receptions on that just this past weekend. So that's not a concern. I think, and this goes to some of the other questions we've had in here, you know, that was not the full SART game plan against Vandy. He had it really, he had a lot of his calls muted. I think some of that was just, they didn't feel like they needed it versus Vandy. I think some of that was just a game to get Quinn Confidence. I think that was the whole design of that game plan. Saw a lot of easy throws and saw a lot of plays where the guys were just out-athlete in Vanderbilt. They had a huge advantage in that regard. I think SART took it, got his ass to the bye week and is now gonna go back into, you know, kind of rethinking what the offense does best and how to design around the offensive strengths. - One of the things that Helm does and recall that Iowa State touched down last year and maybe even the touchdown against Oklahoma last year, it's that little league pattern, where he'll block, run a little out route. And then boom, he's running up the side almost on the same trajectory as a wheel route. - Yeah, SART likes to make it where about three different defensive guys have to have eyes on Helm at some point during the route. Somebody's gonna lose them. And yeah, we've seen them, it's a constraint. Everybody's focused around the wide receivers that are more explosive and they leak them out in the coverage. And it's really just a play call. I think it was Jimbo, not Jimbo, it was Kirby Smart was talking about Helm. And, you know, yes, he's a good player, good blocker, all that, but he also benefits a lot from play calling. And I think, you know, the focus on the skill players. So I think that might play a new reason why they don't run as many seems. But, you know, I think he's got the ability to go up and get the ball, and he's got a size advantage in the back end too. - I mean, and whatever they're doing is clearly working 'cause he's leading the team in receptions and yards. So I think kind of to your point, it's when you have all these weapons and the speed on the outside, it makes sense to just dump underneath like the little leak route to Helm. And we see him doing a great job, yards after catch wise. So I don't know that they're necessarily gonna get vertical with the tight end anytime soon, but what they're doing for Helm is working and he's being more productive than I think anybody anticipated. - And like the Snap Count shows, like the starting alignment are above 500. He's next at 487. Like he is-- - I do think they'll get more vertical with Jordan Washington and Nick Townsend. Otherwise, there's no point in having tight ends like that. And, you know, he mentioned that they put in no black to get more of a vertical threat as well. Even though I've never known Juan Davis to lack the athleticism to do that. - We'll see if we see more of that coming up down the last four games, but it is something that I've wondered about. - Bi-weeks are always kind of the time where it's like, "Okay, we take stock of everything." And there's some basic questions. And I do like this one. What's the strength of the Longhorn offense right now? - That's really nice. - It's a receiving personnel. And the problem with that is the receiving personnel is dependent on your force multipliers, your force multipliers being ideally your offensive line and your quarterback. And so they're kind of reliant on, A, the offensive line, buying them time. B, the offensive line creating a run game. They release pressure on the passing game. And then C, your quarterback taking advantage of the run game and the offensive line buying them time right now. Blitzes are getting home, so they're not, they have not been able to fully take advantage of the wide receivers. But going back to this pass game, I don't think they were really focused on pushing the ball down the field. Ian Boyd's gonna have a great article on that in the morning. He got his hands on some all 22 tape to see just how Vanderbilt was defending Texas and how Sark was countering that defense. Really, Sark wasn't even trying. He made it easy on Vanderbilt as far as defending the deep part of the field. But Texas just feasted underneath and to the sidelines, pretty much all game. So there's rhymes and reasons for Sark. That's why we talked about it in the off season. The all gas, no brakes, moniker does not, does not always apply. It's a good sound bite. It made a lot of sense when they came in from Alabama averaging 50 points a game. But that's not what we've really seen from Sark in his time at Texas. I think all gas, no brakes truly stands for every day, focused on getting better throughout the off season, throughout the season. It's a program mindset. I don't think it's necessarily a game day mindset. - Yeah, I mean, I think we've seen Sark take more of almost an NFL approach with his underneath passing and just taking what's easy. People now are talking about the ADOT, everyone's talking about the average depth of target this week, trying to use that to dog on Quinn a little bit. But in the first part of the season, Quinn had one of the lowest ADOTs as well, and people were praising him because he's making that easy read. And like we're saying, it's just, they probably didn't open up the full playbook to play against Vandy. They were just taking what was easy to get in Quinn. That's why you see 17 straight completions in the second half there. But yeah, the strength is definitely the receiver room. And hopefully we'll get to see that fully on display as Quinn settles back in and gets back. Contribal in the offense as we saw at the beginning part of the season, you know. - Would you rather have a great ADOT or a higher completion percentage? And I know that that lacks a lot of context, but like I would take 17 straight completions knowing what the Texas offense is. Over like, oh yeah, I'm popping an ADOT. Well, what if those targets all fall and complete? - Well, that's gonna depend on who they're playing to. They're not getting all that yak against Georgia, you know. Otherwise you would have just done that to Georgia. If it's so easy, you just do it every week. So every week is gonna have a different feel to it. Here's a good one. Listen to Coach Shipley on another channel. Yesterday, he made a great point about Texas running a bunch formation, which is good for, not good for protection, run more spread. Yes, if you go to our video on Monday morning or Tuesday morning, I should say, we had a lot of video discussing this and some of it was just receivers not running the same route and not on the same page with the quarterback. Sometimes quit not finding it. There are ways to beat that and create more space. So I don't necessarily agree with Coach Shipley on that. Although what he's saying makes sense in theory, but there's a lot of ways to make defenses pay for trying to come after the quarterback. Those receivers can find space in a hurry. They've got a speed advantage against almost everybody. I think that, I think the coordination between the quarterback and the wide receivers when a bunch needs to be on the better page and they also need to recognize and diagnose a lot quicker. That's part of the problem is, I think they're not doing what they've been coached to do. Execution I think is an issue there. - The thing with the bunch is that it very much declares a secondary. Like you know what you're gonna see from the back end once you have all that close. But then like you mentioned, yeah, it falls on the offensive line to react to what's coming and make sure they can get everything there. What do you think on that James? - Yeah, I mean, like on the blitzing, it hasn't been great in the last two, two weeks of diagnosing it, Quinn's perspective, I mean from Quinn's part and then also on the aligns part. There's been some misdiagnosing of blitzes, which hasn't been great. 'Cause we even saw on the famous corner blitz strip sack that really turned the tide of that game you had it underneath route, right? So, I mean, if you're getting blitzed and you've got man coverage, how many guys can keep up with Bond or Wingo if you just send them on a quick drag? So, I think we definitely just needed to see some better reads and quarterback and offensive line on diagnosing blitzes. - Got this one, I like this from Paxton. If Texas has 10 penalties again, what's the fix? Win sprints. - Bear crawls across the field. - Exactly. - So we haven't, this is another one of my few pet peeves 'cause we've never really seen penalties punished with like lack of playing time, at least I haven't really noticed it. I get why it used to be the case when they lacked the depth, but now that you can't say that they don't have depth. So, yeah, I don't get it. And some of the penalties were BS that hold on helm was costly, but that was BS. But Paul Warren Roberson, what's he doing up there? You know, he doesn't, I mean there's been times where they should have pulled Hayden Connor, man. - Throw Netto out there for a series, you know? Again, we came into the season talking about how great experience was, the veteran team and all that. But when you have 10, when you have 10 penalties, something's not right in the prep week, something's not right with their focus for that game. That should not happen with the team as experienced as Texas is. - I agree up to the offensive line. Like because that unit is so cohesion based, it sucks, but you just kind of have to ride it out. Because what are you going to do and put Brandon Baker at right tackle? - Well, I mean, maybe, maybe. - I think I'm with you on Warren Roberson. I'm with you all. - One series isn't going to kill you on offensive line. Come on, you know, that's, and I'm, you know, Cam is, you know, first year of experience. I meant the example I used to say in Connor, it's pre-snapped penalties, which we've seen too many of in his career. You know, I get it when Jake Majors does it. You don't really want to put a new center in there, but I think you got to send a message. They rotate so much on defense. It's not going to kill you to do a little bit on offense. - Well, especially against, you know, let's say we get up against Florida or so. These lesser games, maybe you don't want to mess with that when you're playing Georgia or earlier in the season when we saw Cam limbs get that penalty against Michigan. But yeah, oh yeah, I guess it was multiple, but they were, you know, really assuring him, reassuring him, giving him some love. But it has, it has become a problem in these past few weeks. It just kind of hit us out of nowhere. It would be nice to see more of like, "Hey, you screw up, you're out." Like, Sark isn't necessarily in the same position as, say, Caitlyn DeBor, where people have talked about some of the stuff they've had going on with undisciplined players. And, you know, DeBor doesn't quite have that depth that he will have in three, four years, like Sark has now, for example. So he's got to put up with some of that crap. But when Sark has the talent and depth that he does right now, when you go two, three deep, you know, four and five stars at most positions, sell someone out and knock some sense into him, let 'em know that you get punished when you screw up. 'Cause 10 penalties, yeah, against Vanderbilt, that'll slide, but in Kyle Field, that would be a problem. - Does Texas have refs in practice? Yes, they got guys wearing the Zebra stripes there. I think they get 'em from TASO. So they've got guys who come in and, you know, are looking at it like a referee would, not maybe not like a SEC ref would, but at the same time, it's guys who know what holding looks like, know what grabbing outside the pads looks like, et cetera, et cetera. SEC refs hate us 'cause of the bottles. Do y'all think that has an effect? - No. That would mean it would have to come from up high. There's just no way. There's no way the SEC rust in a game that they didn't even have were gonna care about that. - And this also speaks to your point. They can't run a kickoff back without a penalty. - Yeah, and that's been on Warren Roberson over and over and over and over again. So. - I mean, Jeff Banks is still a special teams guru. We're not gonna do this thing where we just totally forget about his time at Texas, his time at A&M, his time at Alabama. That's not because of Warren Roberson holding calls. - Last thing, roaster, not to jump ahead. Can we focus on the headset encryption topic? Roaster, I know you're on inside Texas. Everybody else who's watching this should come over to inside Texas. I know there's an active thread. Our buddy Max Olson put out a good article about that on ESPN. And something I thought was buttoned up is obviously not been some issues with it in the big 12 and in Jerry world. So just hope that Texas doesn't have to play at a big 12 team or in the Cotton Bowl. But we'll talk about that over on the inside Texas message boards. That is a place you should go. Head to inside Texas, sign up. You will be able to get all the best insight whether that is upcoming team info ahead of the Florida game, recruiting Intel. Gotta have some great stuff as we are five weeks away from National Signing Day. Of course, the transfer portal and more. So make sure you head over there. Also, make sure to like this video, subscribe to the channel. We appreciate everybody joining. Eric, thank you, James, thank you. 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