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Inside Texas Football
IT LIVE (10/03): Texas Longhorns on bye, looking at SEC football
Good morning, and welcome to the Inside Texas Football YouTube channel powered by InsideTexas.com. We got another Thursday edition of IT Live. It is the BioWeek, but we don't stop here. Make sure you like the video, subscribe to the channel, and we have our third. Our third, Justin Wells, has made it on. So make sure you like this video, subscribe to the channel, head to InsideTexas.com, use promo code IT1, and get yourself two months of Inside Texas access for just $1 today, since we have a little bit of an extended version of Hate Week for the Red River Shootout. We'll talk a little bit about something Ian wrote over on Inside Texas, looking at the Sooners running game. We'll go through some pro football focus grades, and then at the end, as we always do, talk about what else is going on around the SEC. So, Ian, this is always a fun week for you, just because of how much attention you are able to, how much eyes you're able to put on Oklahoma. If it's also interesting in that, this is a BioWeek for both programs as they head to Dallas. Yep, it's really interesting having a whole extra week. I think usually it'd be like Thursday or Friday, maybe Friday, the week of the game where I really have a sense of what each team might do, and this week we get this whole extra week to anticipate. So I will dive in more in the next week. I have a pretty good idea of what Oklahoma's offense is going to have to do. They're the underdog, so it's helpful to think. It's not really that helpful to go into this game saying what does Texas need to do to win, because Texas is just clearly a much better team this year than Oklahoma. So the good way to anticipate the flow of the game is to say what does Oklahoma have to do to have a chance, and then build from those assumptions, that's how I was able to pick Texas to win in 2018 when the rest of the world thought that that was impossible. And today's article touched on that, which is what is Oklahoma going to have to do to win, and my cock ins needs to be Sam Ellinger, basically. Yeah, and I think one of the things that we knew about Sam was Tom Herman was not afraid to deploy him in big games. That's just a way that that offense creates mismatches. And while the Seth Lattrell, Joe John Finley offense is a little different than the Tom Herman offense, running the quarterback is going to be what they do to try to change things up. And we talked to think about how Michigan, you could tell that the game state was decidedly in Texas favor when Michigan starts doing the flea flicker in the second quarter. Like that's how they were trying to steal points, because they knew they couldn't get it in their normal state. But Justin, you know, kind of what Ian's saying, this is a big game calls for big game strategies. And as we are very, very familiar with running the quarterbacks, how that seems to happen. It is, and that's, you know, that's Oklahoma's offense this year. They threw everything out the, they threw everything out the table, out the window with Jackson Arnold experiment. And so now we get to see what Mikey Hawkins looks like as a, as a dual threat, more of a run threat than past threat. But this is Texas OU, I mean, they're going to have some stuff dialed up. I think Texas is going to be on their toes. But at the same time, look, Texas can, they can play against the, I drew said it last night. I think when they're prepared for a running quarterback, they do pretty well. When they understand that what Jalen Milrose can do, they do pretty well with those types. And so I think you saw a little bit of that with Alex Orgy in Michigan. I think Hawkins is better, at least a little more dynamic, obviously. But man, it's going to be fun because it just running quarterback keeps you on your toes. It keeps your defense constantly paying attention because even when you think he's going to run, you have to be disciplined in the past. You have to be disciplined in your gap. It's just one of those things that keeps you on your toes. Ian, you wrote something this morning over on Inside Texas and I'm going to get one of the important, the important graph from that article up on here in just a second, I think it should be, should be able to read it. But it basically goes through what Oklahoma did against Auburn in the run game and the general lack of success in certain areas and relative success than others. Yeah, really the lack of success in all areas, I would say. They had maybe a couple of plays that were pretty good for them. I think the, where were the numbers on the Dart Read play too pretty. Yeah, I think one of them was a lot longer than the other. I think that one was something that Auburn just didn't anticipate, hadn't seen on film. Even the scrambles though, you had the 148 yard touchdown run and then obviously the other four scrambles added up to seven yards, which is not very good. They also involved him taking some shots. Basically after that, that 48 yard touchdown run was very early and after that Auburn was like, okay, we need to get zone eyes on this quarterback. And then that was that I thought that it's very helpful for Oklahoma that they were able to play that game against Auburn and unveil like the Hawkins run oriented version of their offense to sort of beta test it before they play Texas because I think they'll look back and say a lot of the things we tried to do against Auburn or not anywhere near good enough. We need to change a couple things up to make this work. One of the things that you really harped on in that article is when they're in a certain personnel, it was tough sledding for Oklahoma against Auburn. Yeah, they don't have tight ends basically. They've got three tight ends that played real snaps for them in that game. Their main guy is Bower Sharp. He's a pretty good athlete. He's a converted quarterback from like the JUCO ranks or a smaller school, I think. Maybe there's a smaller school transfer, I don't remember. And he is like allergic to blocking. He's a solid. He's a good athlete though. Like when they get him the ball, when they throw him the ball in space, he can do some things. Then they've got Jake Roberts, he used to play for Baylor and he's a solid blocker. And then they've got Cade McIntyre, which is like an athletic young guy. I think he's a true freshman early in Rolley. And he's basically Bower Sharp 2.0 at this point in his career. It's one of those situations, go ahead. Go ahead. As I'd say, we've seen teams struggle against Texas when they try to go big in recent years, but also this year just because, you know, a couple of years ago you're running against Tavondre Swett, Moro, Jomo, Kyondre, Coburn. Last year, you're running against, you know, Byron Murphy, Alfred Collins, Tavondre Swett. Even this year, running against, you know, if you're bringing on 12 personnel, oftentimes Texas just says, okay, we'll match up. They go to that true 3-4. And then you've got Baron Cerrell, Alfred Collins, Bill Norton, Vernon Broughton, you know, Ethan Burke or Trey Moore, all there on that front back by Benda and Hill. Like it's just a losing proposition for, it's a losing proposition for opposing offenses just because that's a lot of where Texas talent is. So Justin, one of those things, what have you seen, I guess, from some of the transfer defensive tackles this year? Because their presence has allowed Texas to utilize and be successful against some of these rushing attacks. What we've seen is that they've got depth, they're fresh. These guys are only playing, what, 25, 30 snaps a game in some instances. That to me is huge, keeping those guys fresh, also they understand their role. That's what I think is the biggest thing with some of the transfer guys. A lot of times, a kid from the transfer portal wants to immediately start. That's a lot of the reason why he gets into the portal for playing time. These guys kind of all understand, they've all kind of carved out a role. I think that's huge. I think that's going to be really big as the season plays out. But guys like Bill Norton, Jermaine Loulay, Loulay was very active last week. He had a good grade from PFF after the Mississippi State win. We don't see much of Sovea. We don't see much of him. At least I don't recognize him as much. And then, well, he's not a transfer. I was going to say, Alex January is the young one that I really like. But no, I think they understand they're not going to be world beaters, but they do well in run fits. They do their job. They understand if they do what they do up front, the linebackers play better, the DB's play better. And they're mature, they know what they're there for. There's not a lot of, when they arrived, there was no cut, it was straight cut to the chase. They understood exactly what they were there for. And so I think they've been solid. They may not get a lot of tackles, but you know what, sometimes you don't necessarily want your D line to be loaded up with stuff like that. And so like you said, Joe, it's not the Devondre sweat, Byron Murphy show anymore, but these guys have been more than capable. And you know, that's the key to it is the depth, it's the ability to play five or six of these guys continually rotating them in. That keeps Texas fresh. And I think that's one of the reasons the defense has been so good this year. Ian kind of shifting gears in a certain sense. I think there is a comment on the message board about your article. And I think it's a really good one. Scrambling was where Oklahoma found a lot of success. That's where they found success last year in the Cotton Bowl. Do you see maybe Seth LaTrell and Joe John Finley hauling past plays, anticipating man coverage and telling Hawkins like, look, if you see back nameplates, it's time to go. Don't even go through your progression. Just go. Yeah. That's, I mean, that'd be the, that'd probably be the easiest way for them to have a chance at generating consistent offense in this game. Texas fans can look back to 2017 or 2020, where Oklahoma was in a lot of man coverage and Sam Ellinger scrambled around and really made them pay. 2017 really stood out, right? Because Texas had no business being competitive in that game, but Mike Stoops just could not figure out that he needed to keep better tabs on Ellinger running the ball out of the backfield. One play. And if Brandon Jones doesn't let Mark Andrews gets behind him, Texas wins that game. Yeah. Was that the wheel? Was that the same game where he hit the wheel? Yeah. Yeah, I'm a rushing touchdown, like six or seven minutes left in the game, given the first lead of the game, defenses amped up. They hit Mark Andrews. Man, that was it. They also, I mean, Texas was driving again because Oklahoma was worn out when Ellinger went down on the sideline and they had to put Buchal in and Buchal couldn't manufacture improv offense like Ellinger did, so the drive stalled. So I mean, if you just take out that, Ellinger almost still won that game, it was crazy. So that's, I mean, that's 100% what Oklahoma needs is for Texas to play man coverage, not contain Hawkins in the pocket and let him get out and make things happen. That's like the easiest way for this to be a competitive game. Well, I know man coverage is kind of a, a little bit of a, it's not what they all, what's the right way to turn this. It's not what they major in, right? The Texas defense, it's a factor for sure, but it's not like they're running it all the damn time. Yeah, man coverage could even be the right answer in this game, but you can't mix that with letting Hawkins get out into space. Exactly. Before we go any further, Timek, show some love to our sponsor, that is Andre the lawyer. 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? Share 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. Thank you, Elsie, and thank you to Sugar Daddy, who, Sugar Father is in the ambulance chasing business. Do that at your own risk. Trying to think of what else from at least the Oklahoma defense do you all think we need to really watch out for? Ian? The Blitz, Oklahoma is one of the better blitzing teams in college football, and they have a couple of guys that are really good at it. R. Mason Thomas, he's not a blitzer because he's a defensive end, but they will use blitzes and move him around to help him get into the backfield. Danny Stutzman is good at anything you would want to linebacker to be good at, especially in and around the box, if it involves him attacking, and then they've served a lot of different blitzes. There are safety blitzes with Robert Spears, Jennings are pretty nice, too, so that's the main one. They're the strongest mark of their defense this year is their turnover margin, how many turnovers they force, and that's mostly a reflection of how effective their blitz packages. They beat Auburn with the pick six, right, and the pick six was them actually showing a blitz and then backing out and baiting that pick. So not technically a blitz there, but obviously that that's what caused that play, was their ability to be aggressive and mix things. Oklahoma getting turnovers is like, I would say, Hawkins at 20 carries or more, Oklahoma getting turnovers that help them out, and then just generally their turnovers and defense helping them to play good scoring defense and holding Texas to 30 or less are you like your three big keys to Oklahoma victory? This is an instance where turnovers change games, obviously, and Texas has done well to avoid it pretty much, but last year turnovers changed this game. They gave Oklahoma two opportunities, three, you got to remember the turnover on downs, which I think I heard someone argue that that should be included in internal recount, which maybe yes or no, you should give credit to the defense, but it's turnovers will be something that Texas can ill afford because then you're putting that defense back out there again, then Oklahoma is going to probably try to do tempo and then they're probably going to try to make Texas work in a variety of ways to stop that Hawkins run game. Here's a good comment from AR. Is it wrong to say this game is giving me Michigan versus Texas vibes? Justin, I see a lot of parallels. It's just the styles seem different. I don't get Michigan, Texas vibes here. Texas, Oklahoma is its own entity. It's its own thing. I think even the offenses are going to be similar because they're both kind of in the same position, trying to figure out quarterback, trying to figure out their identity. There's similarities there and Michigan's defense is really good and Oklahoma's defense is good. So I see that, but I just can't combine those. I just can't take one of those out of the other. I put Texas though you in its own category. It's hard to I see where he's going with this, but I just I think this game is so much bigger than that, especially after the way they lost last year. That to me was probably the biggest, biggest factor Ian. I think what he means is like it's a it's sort of a hyped game, but it's one that Texas is going to end up just controlling from start to finish and like just, you know, the bully move where you got your hand on the little brother and he's swinging wildly and he can't reach past your arm. I think AR is feeling like that's going to be what this game turns into and everyone is afraid to say it because you know that the stakes of the game and the intensity of it could make something crazy happen. AR, if I'm right, let me know. Yeah, I think for sure it could be this could absolutely be that like Oklahoma's past victory are extremely limited. So the most likely version of this game we get is one where Texas just dominates from start to finish. There's like so many different paths this game could go down in that way. I already commented on the O.U.R.S. Michigan defense is Venable sending as many blitzes as someone like Wink Martindale would. Oh yeah, they're a little different in their style, but Venables is very much a blitzing guy. He blitzed me and Paul did a deep dive on how many times he blitzed Texas last year and it was, I want to say at least 20 or 30 percent. And it was effective. I'm going to go through some of the comments. Make sure you get your comments in and we'll try to get to as many on the show. We'll go all over the place, but want to keep it on this topic to the Texas linebackers and edges. Have enough discipline to keep the O.U. run game and check. Well, the defensive line getting mismatched depth be a problem Ian, this one's for you. I think the linebackers and edges are going to do a great job. My only hesitation would be Colin Simmons. Colin Simmons has a tendency to rush up the field and then try to make up for it by just running place down from behind. Maybe he could get away with it this week too, but this is the week to tighten that up. Sorel, Burke, more, these guys are all vets, they're all going to know the score. I keep that guy in front of you. And then the linebackers are, from what I've seen of Hawkins, he takes only a cursory look at his receiving options before he tucks it and bails. So I absolutely think that Hill and Benda can manage that. And then I don't understand will our D line in total getting mismatched, mismatched depth be a problem. I understand where Texas has a major advantage going into this game. Yeah, I don't understand the question. There's not matchups against the Texas O line that are concerning for the Texas D line, basically. So like backups or starters either way, there's not like a, you know, they're tackled like they've had NFL tackles almost every single freakin season since Bill Beatenbo ticket took over. And this year they very much do not. It's not the normal Oklahoma offensive line. The way that this game used to go in Lincoln Riley was Oklahoma is how it's like flipped. Like Texas has all the NFL offensive lineman, Texas has the overpowering offense. But then unlike Lincoln Riley's team, Texas also has a great defense. This is maybe the best this Texas team might be the best team either team has put on that field in the last six years, 15 years. Oh, it's the most complete I could you could argue that because of how supernova going off screen with my hand for a reason. Some of those late teens offenses were that it could paper over defense, but it but it's not as complete. So it's not as good, right? Like the 2017 Oklahoma team, right, supernova offense, and then they got in a shootout with Georgia that they lost because Georgia ran for like 2000 yards. And then 2018 supernova offense again, couldn't stop Alabama's RPO game to save their lives blown out in a shootout. So I mean, what in this Texas offense might be supernova too, like what there's, I mean, this is this would be a good question, maybe for one of us to write up, but I don't know with the last. Yeah, to go back to like 2009 Texas to get a team this good, right? Yeah, it's been a while. We've been waiting for a little bit and that was and oddly, it's kind of odd that you mentioned 2009 because who was the quarterback for Oklahoma that year that was Sam Bradford was a starter, but he got knocked out because he was hurt. So it was Landry Jones. That's right. Because I was looking through box scores and that was a will must champ defense. I think they turned five turnovers of Oakland. The 2009 game was ugly, it was worse game, Texas played all season, 16 Nebraska. Yeah, well, yeah, that was a bad one too, but let me tell you something, if Cole McCoy doesn't doesn't tackle old boy on the interception, that's a pick six. They lose that game. And Texas was clearly better in 2009, especially after they locked Aaron Williams came down that corner on that nickel blitz and knocked Sam out, he had been knocked out versus BYU in week one. They knocked him out again, you think, Oh, you got him right where you want him. That's Texas offense could score all they had a difficult time. Marquis Goodwin squirming out and getting to the end zone on a touchdown play. Look, that was that game was that game was tighter than it needed to be. I will quibble a little bit. I think we're agreeing that this may be the more complete team that stepped on the field, but I think those offenses papered over enough. They didn't because they we know they didn't because they went to the playoffs and they got their doors blown off every year. I know what you mean by what you're getting at. Let's go to one or two recruiting questions. Justin, in your opinion, are there three or four guys, SARC and the staff are all in on and maybe really going after during the bi-week and going forward. This is a good chance to for us to plug inside Texas.com, we're going to have a lot of information. Obviously, we know Texas is working to flip recruits. We know other schools are working to flip Texas recruits. So inside Texas is a good place to be during the bi-week when the coaches are on the road recruiting, but Justin, are there three or four guys that SARC and the staff are all in on? Yeah, there might be more than three or four guys. They're having a flip party this cycle and everybody's invited. SARC's going to be on the road Friday. He's going to go to Hitchcock, go see Kellogg Johnson, wide receiver commit from A&M. He's going to see Malcolm Simpson, D-line commit from Nebraska. There's different guys that they're still going to check in on Riley Petajon at McKinney. They're going to bring him in for the Texas Georgia game. I think that's somebody that they're still all in on. They would still love to end up in this cycle, especially if Nathaniel Owusu-Boutin kind of leans more towards Michigan and Notre Dame. Mad very emo seems like it's a USC Notre Dame thing right now with Texas still in the mix. So the fact that they're still talking to Riley, I think, is big and significant. They've got about six spots left, I think, in this class. Dailin McCutchen's a guy that they'd like to see. That's another flip candidate, four star from Florida State. It's funny, this class is almost over. It really is. It's almost wrapped up. But this is where Texas and SARC do their best work is in October, November, December when it comes to recruiting. This is why the long game pays off. And so those are just three or four. They love a handful of defensive tackles. I wouldn't be surprised if Kenny Baker pops into Georgia on Friday, goes to maybe see Kevin Nguyen, goes to Walter Mathis, goes to Joseph and Batchu. And Batchu, I believe, is going to be in Georgia this weekend for a game. So that'll be good to get in front of him before he gets on campus. Yeah, there's a handful of guys that they're all in on. Those are three or four. I can probably hang a handful of more, but there's only maybe six spots left in this class. I think that's going to be the key with SARC is watching how they really watch the numbers before they close this thing up, because there are guys that want to flip. There are guys that are reaching out to Texas that said, hey, you remember me? You remember when you offered me? I'm still beautiful. Come call me. That's what happens with Texas when they're number one, number two in the country. The team looks great. When everything is going in the right direction, Texas is a machine when it comes to recruiting. And so it's going to be fun to see how SARC picks and chooses these guys, because there's a handful that want to flip and they're going to wind up with a top five class, if not a higher class at the end of the day. It's an interesting one from Sugar Daddy. I'll give back to some other good recruiting questions. Any chance we've been hiding Nye Black for this game? I don't think so. So for some reason, dog Cleeman decided to just take a deep shot. So it makes no sense at all because he started posting about some Tampa Bay guy who was back at practice. And it's like, here's I'm already like, very weird. Gunnar Helms tied in one. Juan Davis has earned the tied in two job. I think there's some stargazing that goes to this where you look at the five star from a couple cycles ago compared to the fifth year senior or something like that fourth year three star athlete. Juan Davis is just doing things better at tied in than Nye Black right now. And part of me has an idea that maybe like Jotavian Sanders needed a development year where he didn't keep a red shirt, but he didn't play conventional tied in that much. His freshman year. Maybe they see something similar with Nye Black because they know he's an athlete because they know he can do a lot of great things with the ball in his hands. I think even last year he was he started to seed snaps to the main whoever the main tied in is is that Alabama now oats is that Otis? Is he still there? I was thinking Cameron led to but I know he's not there. He was just pure receiving and he's you need to do more than that. And I think that's just something that we're going to see Juan Davis be in that role instead of Nye Black at least this year. So I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It's just the case. We're close to the right answer, which is has Texas been hiding Juan Davis for this game. How many how many throws that they've made to Juan Davis two and they've targeted him a few times. Yeah, I was thinking about this the other day because Oklahoma lost their starting nickel in the Tennessee game Kindle Dolby dislocated his ankle like deck Prescott might have seen in that game. He's done for the year. Oh, God. Yeah, it was watching to see it was bad. I was working. I hope he gets back. I was watching to see like who are they? What are they doing in nickel with that with him gone and they were moving mood. What do you Washington in there figure they could maybe play Peyton Bowen or Billy Bowman there if they needed to. And I had a better a better thought, which is what is Oklahoma going to do when Texas is in 12 personnel. They don't have good Sam linebacker play. They're supposed to maybe be getting to son McCullough back this week, but he like missed most of fall camp. They're going to be up against it against Texas is double tied in sets and Texas has not thrown to Juan Davis very much. If you've watched Davis in like spring games or whatever, that is absolutely something that may could have been holding back like leak plays. Basic shots down the field. I think Texas could end up spending a ton of time in 12 personnel in this game and just having Oklahoma and hell with that stuff. That also sets up something we like and that's backs protect deep shots because if if they're going to get blitz happy, you need your guys and if they're going to get blitz happy, that's probably going to leave bond and golden out on islands. It's an opportunity to take deep shots and Sarkeesian usually has a good counter and punch for that. They've got a real big cat last year in this game. Yeah, one of that was a wild red save you on cat play. And then the other was it was a leak out play like go to the pile on Justin, here's a good one. Do you think Bama is better this year after watching that Georgia game? I don't know what they're compared to last year. David's a big Bama guy. Yeah, I think so. I think they are on offense obviously they're they're better on offense. The offense aligns better quarterback plays more mature they've got they've got the running backs are a year older. They're basically the same backs. And then they've got Ryan Williams, which they were kind of they were looking less than at the receiver position the last year or so. But Ryan Williams really injected some energy in that room, but their defense is not like it was last year. I think the secondary is is a little more susceptible to big plays. If you watch that Alabama Georgia game, it wasn't two teams driving down the field with the long drives, staining drives. They were big play in each other. I mean, it was explosive play after explosive play. And so I think Bama is a different problem than they were last year. Last year you just had to make sure you could you could score and get pressure on Jaylen Mirro. Now you may have to out score them because Milro is diamond up like he is playing incredible there. It's it's like it's like they hired a offensive minded coach. And that's just amazing for guys in Tuscaloosa, because they've had Nick Saban for so long, the DB Tasker. Now you've got a quarterback Whisper now you got Caitlin D'Bore and him and Milro, they're looking really good. I think Bama's better on offense. I don't think they're better on defense. And I think that's kind of a wash. Ian, anything I got nothing. They have Ryan Williams in a passing game this year. Did you know he's only 17? They're better. They're better. They're better. That's kind of scary. Jaylen Milro is much improved. He had like a camera, but it was I want to say a 20% sack rate last year. That feels like too high, but it was something abysmal. Saban had that guy like they're loosened up and they are much more aggressive. There is there is a tidbit from Sark on Monday that I remember being part of the reason there was a hang up when Notre Dame hired Tommy Rees, there was hang ups elsewhere that Sark obviously has an offense, has a unique way of doing things. He leaves. They bring in Bill O'Brien doesn't go great doesn't I mean it's all relative champagne problems I feel like, especially when you're winning a Heisman. But then Bill O'Brien leaves and takes a quick pick stop in Columbus before going to Boston College and they were having trouble getting people to want to come be the offensive coordinator at Alabama, not because of like Milro, but because there was I think I remember reading this, Saban was like we run the Alabama offense. When you're Nick Saban, even though you're a defensive coach, you have that cache. You can say we are running this offense, but it limits your talent pool as far as coordinators searches go to Tommy Rees and I mean Tommy Rees is a tight end coaching NFL now, but he didn't get a coordinator job in college again. Anyway, Sark mentioned that it was pretty easy for Isaiah Bond to understand the Texas offense because there are aspects of it at Alabama, even after Sark left, that we're still there, comes to Austin and starts to get it. So just an interesting tidbit and that's in stark contrast to what Kayla DeBore, who even without Ryan Grubb, he knows offense, he knows how to win football games. Can he build a program? That's the question we'll have to find out about. I like this one kind of recruiting kind of game and scheme. Does Venables not last, okay, does Venables last as a head coach while not recruiting elite quarterbacks? They haven't landed any yet. There doesn't seem to be any on the horizon. Seems like they don't have a plan for offense going forward. I think they have a plan for offense called hiring a new coordinator, but I'm curious what you think about the quarterback aspect. I think that everybody needs to get back to the world that we had in the 2000s before the 2010s, where a quarterback having five stars next to his name means nothing, okay. Five star quarterbacks are busting all the time. He's saying this as Texas covers five star recruits, recording quarterbacks, generational talent. It does not matter if Sark gets a five star or a three star mark, it's going to be fine either way. I mean, arch manning is awesome. They're going to be great with our training. Sark has and could again, plug in Mac Jones. Oh, Cody Kessler, was he a three or four star? Hmm. He wasn't anything special like the guy he replaced, Barkley, Barkley was a five star. He wasn't even that great, it does not matter as much anymore. Mike Hawkins has traits that you would expect to have found in a five star. His athleticism and his arm strength are legit. He's only a true freshman, Texas, probably going to rag doll him next Saturday. But he's, what are we doing here? I mean, Justin's going to laugh. That's fine. It's just what we're used to, Ian, that's just, it's just what we're used to for the most part, for the most part. It does not matter. That is not what's going to break or make, for inventibles being all in on the five star jacks and Arnold, look where that got him, got him in big trouble. And if he gets out of it, it's going to be because the three star saved him. So don't, defenses evolved. The spread offense is not an easy mode cheat code anymore for plugging in five star quarterbacks with raw traits. You have to actually learn the position and learn how to read defenses now. So we got to, we got to read, get to get back to an older paradigm of how you view quarterback play. Texas is spoiled in a sense, because they're, they're two best quarterbacks in the SARC era. So far, we're going to see our Quinn Ewers in arch manning. They weren't just five stars. They were the number one player in the entire country. And Justin, I think SARC can do what you're talking about. I think SARC doesn't have to get five star quarterbacks. I believe that Venables, I think does. No, I think we plug and play Paul Thompson 2.0 and you're going to get the next Paul Thompson, the next Mikey Hawkins. I think they need to be able to develop those guys. Hey, there's going to be a new OC that comes in there and you know what they're going to go for? They're bringing in Kevin Sperry, who's a high four star low four, five star quarterback out of Rockford, uh, Prosper Rock Hill. That, that can throw the dime. He is a, he is a bonafide young guy. I think SARC can get away with a Trey Owens, a KJ Lacey that aren't the number one in the country. I don't know if Venables can do that. I don't think that sustainable is my point. It's, it's Sam Bradford was a three star. Quinn Ewers was a five star that was an elite athlete at everything he did point making. Those Hawkins, it's the rankings don't matter. They're on quarterbacks. The services don't do quarterbacks. Well, they never have. Quinn Ewers for his first two years in college kind of sucked unless he had like a month to prepare for the other teams a lot better than Jackson Arnold and Mikey Hawkins. It's impossible to know because Jackson Arnold didn't even have receivers or offensive lineman. He didn't have Xavier Worthy, he didn't have Jitavian Sanders. Arch Manning is a red shirt freshman and only now getting in the mix sum. It works for SARC because he's giving these time guys time to develop and he's surrounding them with NFL talents. He could do it with a three star quarterback just as easily if he had enough time to program him. Maybe he will. Trey. I know Trey Owens is a four star, but maybe he will Trey Owens. I disagree vehemently with your position, Justin. This is a good point from Sugar Day. I hope Oklahoma goes for the three star out. Trust me on this one, Ian. I will be behind you 100% if Venable goes, you know what? These four star five star quarterbacks, they're too much for me. I can't handle this. Let's go for the two star. Let's go for the three star. Let's go for the guy that's gritty, that's got, oh, you DNA in them. That's what I will do. That's what it does. Texas will be playing against a new head coach and Norman in three years. I would do that and save that money on getting him receivers and linemen. Now, which is a five star quarterback. 100% 100% but that's not until that happens. No. So Sugar Daddy brings us up. Look at Trey Owens. He's better in Arnold and Hawkins. Don't care what stars if SARC likes him. I'm going to wait to have a take on that second sentence. But Steve's occasion looks for certain things in quarterbacks and that is ability to be able to withhold or withstand pressure and hits in the pocket, which has kind of been a problem of point-users, but we saw arched Manning do well with it. Trey Owens has a capability like he's going to be a big boy. The arm talent to look down field. We know these guys have that and then the ability to read defenses and that's the toughest thing, the ability to go through progressions, even when SARC kind of puts it on easy mode and puts it on half a field, that's always tough. But if you look at what Oklahoma does, let's give Oklahoma like a best-case scenario. They have a guy who actually, let's say Jeff Levy was still there and Anderson and Andrew Anthony were healthy and they don't lose Caitlin Green. It's a lot of what-ifs, but let's say they have someone who knows how to run their offense at a healthy at wide receiver, manageable at offensive line. Jackson Arnold's not making like super complex reads. He's throwing the ball deep and he's throwing it short and then get some stuff over the middle. That's why Nico is such a hot name right now. Like if you put Nico and SARC's offense right now, it would probably be, it'd probably be what arch, maybe Malik Murphy, would it be kind of like Malik? Probably a little bit better. Probably a little bit better. But that's what you're looking at. But now Nico is in hypo's offense and even hypo's still got the reins on a little bit, but he's, it's more simple for quarterback, it's simpler for quarterbacks and it allows them to play early and then it still kind of makes them a little bit iffy at the NFL. Like I know this is going to sound funny and I'm going to move it on to the next topic after this. Last year, Shadoor Sanders made like a comment about like how Sean Lewis's offense like wasn't getting him ready for the NFL. It's like dude, you're passing all the time, you're hitting completions, you're hitting all these guys. Like what do you mean? And it's true because the NFL in SARC's offense to an extent is so reliant on making post snap reads that aren't always easy. That offense that Tennessee's running, that, you know, Sean Lewis and Colorado were running last year, it's a huge step up once you get to the NFL, whereas what Texas is running, it's closer to it. It's more pro style and they still pass the ball a lot, but it's more pro style. The problem for Oklahoma is they don't have the talent right now at quarterback or receiver or the health at O line. They don't have a good guy coordinating an offense he doesn't really know a ton about. So yeah, the quarterback thing is so complex, we'll just finish with that. There's so many things tie into if this guy is going to be successful. If this guy, listen, Colt McCoy, two star, three star out until Skola, he had the best offensive line in college football in 2006 as a red shirt freshman that everything, every factor is different. I just, I'm with Ian, I want to make sure people understand I'm pro boy. I am a big boy fan. And if Brett Vinnables goes by what Ian says, Brett Vinnables won't be a coach there in three years. That's okay with me. It's one of those things, if you're an NFL team, like if you're, you know, Bryce Young has got his own problems, but he got ruined because he went to a God awful team. I'll tell you this, I would much rather have Dabel, than Kevin Speer. Yeah, and just to keep sending, keep those Bulldog picks coming. That's been a real hoot around here. Hey, I've told you I was going to spam her and I was hoping you were serious and it's been great. Good. Hit this one from Drew Lockhart. Did y'all through the NIL increase that Smith and Williams are getting? If you're referring to the on three NIL valuation, that doesn't mean that they just got like a big raise on three has a algorithm where they determine how much they stung thing about the prospect or the player, how much their value is. There's info on the site, but no, they didn't just get like a big pay bow. I will, at least it was not publicly announced. Maybe it happened. This one from our buddy David Keith Williams got to get to one of his questions. The all of you, Amari Winston as a replacement for Juan Davis after the season. Don't think he's athletic as Davis. I do think Davis has the athleticism via factor for 2025. Wrong guy. He's on the wrong guy. He ain't a replacement for Juan Davis. Nick Townsend will be coming in as the replacement for what Juan Davis is doing right now. If we get Nick Townsend, if they can get Nick Townsend in the rotation as a freshman with Jordan Washington, buddy, I like that, I like that a lot, I don't think they, I don't think Winston is the same caliber as Townsend. And so if I was going to use one of those guys for 2025, it's going to be Nick Townsend. I'm not, I'm not touching, I don't, I wouldn't think it's Winston in that regard. I would, I think Townsend is the get in that. And that's the guy you want playing early next year. Physically, I think he's ready for the college game now. You might be. Will Randall time. That's what I was kind of thinking, um, at least at that role. Yeah, maybe I could definitely see Townsend overtaking him at some point next year. I have no idea how Will Randall is. He always needed to convert to blocking. He needed to have the Cape Brewer career path. Thank you. Shannon is a big physical kid. If you watch practice, that's a good kid. I think he's a big part. Does he, does he catch the ball? We don't know because I don't know if I've seen him throwing the ball yet. Yeah. That's true. One more and then we'll get to our SEC stuff. How many sacks is Colin Simmons finished with right now? He has. I'm trying to look six, thirteen tackles six sacks, one fourth fumble. He had two last game, one against Michigan and then. Two against UTSA. This force, he has four sacks, guys, four four four points in the game. That's what it was. They had six total in the game last week and they were all, I think they were all my backups. Can he get you? Yeah. Probably. He'll get to ten. If he doesn't go to pursue as bad, he'll get to ten in a month. He's like the chase. He's the chaser. He's going to start eliminating some of those angles. Wait till this guy starts getting his crap down. Colin Simmons, like Anthony Hill said, in one of the media availabilities a couple weeks ago, he's just scratching the surface like there's a reason he was a freak and I'm glad Ian is an anti five star edges because that joker is legit. That's where it's like you're ranking on athleticism and it's a lot easier to rank in size. Yeah. Yeah. He's only a package player right now, Colin Simmons. Sugar Daddy's right. No one puts it. No one does. Sugar Daddy is a hundred percent right. All right. Let me get this screen up. We can start going around the SEC. I think we're all of the of the belief that there's no such thing as a boring week of college football. I love that week because bi-week ain't never played nobody. Exactly. If you say that joke for three years, Missouri at Texas A&M. This is the only ranked versus ranked. This is the only ranked versus ranked matchup in the SEC this week and A&M is a two and a half point favorite, Justin, it's going to be a this is Missouri's first big test and it's going to come against a probably a backup quarterback. Biggest game in the SEC this year this week and it's at big 11 am kick off. So congratulations, college station for that you've accomplished nothing. No, this is going to be a test. This is going to be this who the winner of this game is going to tell us exactly who they are. If Missouri wins this game, that's exactly what we thought Missouri is. They are a really good team that's going to compete there and look for a playoff spot. If A&M wins this game, I don't necessarily know if it links to a playoffs, but it tells them the Notre Dame game is in the past. Marcel Reed is the guy. That's going to be the guy they're going to lean forward to and we're going to have the same conversation about Connor Wegman that we're having about Jackson Arnold in two and a half months. This game is going to be this this is the revealing game is going to reveal one or the other from these two programs. Ian? Yeah, I'm curious if Missouri is a run game versus the A&M front. A&M's defense was actually not playing the run that well early in the season. Pretty weird, curious phenomenon that so I was surprised that A&M was the betting favorite. To me, that feels like a nod to Kyle Field in the talent level in college station. Missouri seems to me like clearly a more figured out team at this point. Missouri had been tested. That's the biggest thing for me. Has or has. They kind of been tested at maybe not by very good teams. Yeah, better point, better point, better point. This will be when we learn more about them. Vanderbilt, yeah, I wasn't trying to, yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right. We'll see. And then I think A&M's offense is just going to be a slog all year, but that defense if they can figure out how to stop the run, it's a it's a threatening unit. They have talent up front on the defensive front. Yeah. How about the deep south's oldest rivalry? This is one of those games where I feel like Auburn could could do something crazy. But Peyton Thorne is still their quarterback. So probably one of these might be a Georgia game where they haven't really put together a complete game since the first week when they throttled Clemson. This could be Georgia going guys, we've been kind of hanging around the room, screwing around. We had Bama beat after a big comeback. I think this is Georgia's week to like obliterate Hugh Freeze. I'm curious how much staying power Hugh has, like I get the idea of let's save our quarterback bullets for next year, but you can't go, you can't miss a bowl. I feel like and they're in big jeopardy of doing that. They just do snite. That's true. A big time quarterback and I'm not sure that's going to help, like I don't know what's the remedy for Freeze, aside from throwing quarterbacks under the bus. I just think he has a hard time. He has a really hard time. I'm a Dr. Bowe Wallace guy myself. So you can see where I'm coming from Dr. Bowe. They need myself. Go ahead. Auburn took kind of a long-term path to coming back, which was if you're a coach, you love that. More hope your son recruiting than like Portal. Yeah. And so I assume that he's got the right people behind him to get at least three years to show proof of concept. And they're going to be like Auburn Auburn in the quarterback transfer portal in December is going to be the big thing. Yeah. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch that. And somebody brought, hold on, where's Jeff G. Yeah, Auburn fan base is terribly impatient. What people think what people think Texas boosters still are. There not anymore, in my opinion, still are Auburn boosters actually are now. When someone's wrong, throw cash at it. They're still pwning up and recruiting. So they are. They must be. They must be okay. There's an all in mindset there. I just don't think the process of it is very well taken care of about the rebels going to Williams Bryce Stadium for two dollars back. We know about one or sellers. How long he's out. Oh, that's the key for South Carolina. They're actually somewhat competitive with him. I think they're not a bad team with him without him. That team is different. I'm looking at the availability report and all this coming off last week's loss. You know, they'll be a little bit more sharp this Saturday. Sellers is questionable as is rocket Sanders. Whoa. Cheesh. The the Ole Miss injury report is funny. Like there are double digit players who are questionable. I got a question for you, not a sidebar so much, but we're seeing these SEC injury reports Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays. Are we going to start seeing coaches put guys on there just to put them on there? Because we are over the last few days of last few weeks. These things have changed a little bit, I don't know, man. There's something weird about it. I think there's a system to it, but there can be something strategic about how you put a guy on there and how it could throw off a team the next week. I don't know. I just know how SEC coaches think and I feel like that report, I don't know, there's something weird about that. I think the strategy would be keeping guys off of it and very right, right, right, right. But if you put somebody on there that isn't questionable, you had just put something in a defensive coordinator's mind that he didn't think about two days ago. Kiffin is going the NFL route, like it is a proud owner, I guess, of Josh Allen on my fantasy team in the last couple of years. Every week, Josh Allen has like a Q next to his name and for the longest time, I'd be like, oh, God. You know, he's going to play. He's going to play. Tom Brady used to be questionable every single week, Bill Belichick would do that. So that's what Lane Kiffin is doing is he's screening you from seeing any real injuries by just like, I swear, he just go up into the training staff and he's like, who got tape or ice this week? Right. Questionable. Problemable, probable, probable, right, for the NFL, it's predicated on how many reps you get in practice. And I think it's just like, that's it. So like Brady, during his prime, probably just needed to practice half the time and because of that hit the questionable meter. I don't think that's what's happening here. Brady didn't miss practices though, but there's some strategy to this. Yeah. And it's also, you could probably take the hockey approach where being, you don't have to put what is ailing them, you just put questionable, then it has to be anything. You know, in hockey, they say lower body injury or upper body injury because they don't want other teams targeting, you know, if the guys got a broken arm that these crazy hockey players play through, they don't want teams targeting that. So I feel like it's more strategic to keep players off than to put them on. And then why does the SEC League office want or need an injury report has to do with gambling? The general gamblers. They don't want, they don't want Vegas creeping in more. They want there to be a clear line for Vegas to not cross. And this is a, I think we've written a lot about that and we've touched on that topic, but they just want kind of like in the NFL, they want all the information they can available. So when Vegas is making lines and betters are betting, it's above the water as it can be. Yeah. Anything to see here, I don't think there's much, maybe avoid a let down game. Yeah, they apparently killing to bore, put mouse traps around their facility. Is that why Ryan Williams has a hurt finger? No, but that's why Jeff trailer did last year. Yeah. Don't eat the cheese and then don't eat the cheese. I, so 13 and a half on the road in Fayetteville at night is a lot of points for the voles, but it might not matter. Arkansas is still, they're feisty, they're, that's perfect way to describe them. They are feisty. If tail and green can just limit the turnovers, they can be a solid team. They've got big guys up front, they got big backs, they can move the ball. Tail and green just has to be a little bit less turnover. I don't know about their defense. This would be our, Tennessee's got their tackles coming back from injury. So that's right. I forgot they were out of you could be back to lighten it up this week. The line is spectacular. James Pierce is going in the top five next year. He's really good. I think I think Tennessee can pull away late on this one. I got Jamal McCoy for a pick six for two reasons. One, he did it to me in college football a couple of days ago, NCA 25 to he's a White House kid. You got to rep the beast Texas, baby. Oh, is he? Yeah. He's trying to get Texas on him late. He wound up going into, he committed to Tulane and he was also a baseball prospect. And he signed with Oregon State went up there, was really good. The back 12 came down and offered by everybody out of the portal except for Texas, which was the one he really wanted Tennessee said, no, brother, we got you. Come to the other UT. And so now he looks fantastic. As of two weeks ago, he was the highest graded corner in the SEC. Yeah, well, it's just like a lot of time. Did you lose their top receiver? What? Kobe Hudson. No, he's he's doing the red shirt portal. Wait, who? Kobe Hudson? Kobe Hudson. I said, oh God, I can't remember his name. I saw something on Twitter about it yesterday. I don't think so. Kobe Hudson. Let me look it up. So if you can't see UCF is a two and a half point favorite in the swamp at night. UCF that wow, this is going to be a butt ugly game. This is the game that they fire. They fire a Napier after this game. Unless it's a richer rule will be over, so. And if you dropped a two and three with losses to UCF in Miami in year three at Florida, like, yeah, it's, it's time. But I mentioned this plenty before, if you fire Napier, you're firing the head coach. You're firing the plate caller. So who on that staff has qualified to be the interim in both or one of those roles. And that may not be something they really have to worry about. Because just doing the task will get that program and fan base satisfied. Well, I guess they could let him coach out the year and just be in search. You can't let him coach out the year because then that screws you for the end of this recruiting cycle and the portal also signing day is what the first week in December. Fire him before the Florida state game. You got to fire him and get him out or you're going to completely. This will be a trend. This will be the worst type of transition class. That's why you see coaches get canned in late October, early November when they're starting to get removed. It's the process of getting someone in as quickly as possible that can secure a class for 2025 and still be relevant in getting portal guys so you can be competitive immediately. The longer he hangs around there, the longer that band aid is hanging by thread. You got to rip it off. This will be a very interesting case study just because this is one of the biggest programs to come open out of turmoil in the thick of the NIL and portal era. Auburn did, obviously, and we're seeing what that's like, but Florida I think has better capabilities than Auburn. So I'm very curious to see how that goes. They get everything I know fixed. Florida can be a power and national power like they were in all sports. About 15 years ago, there's another school from the same state as Auburn that also qualifies here you may have forgotten about. Yeah, I guess maybe not turmoil, but. Well, the difference between that is I, you know, the kids go to Alabama for saving. It's also Alabama. It's a winning program, winning tradition, and they got a winning coach. Like they lost cable downs. They lost Isaiah ball and they lost a few other guys, that's true, but the bottom obviously did not fall out. This I'm wondering like if the bottom falls out talent just flees and then they have to hire the coach, that's what I'm kind of thinking of. I don't know, it's a tough task and they're going to give Scott Strickland his third crack at it and the lost odds got three head coaching hires and the fourth was not his. So Scott Strickland has entered the lost odds territory I suppose. Anything else or is it time to start figuring out what to put together for the bi-week or run inside Texas. It's it's it's about that time, Joe. We got some recruiting stuff. Listen, I got some recruiting stuff right now that I'm going to be putting up. As soon as this shows over, got to do some editing, got to do some back checking, some confirmation in, but we're going to have some recruiting stuff. I'm sure Joe's going to text me something else. We're going to have up soon that I'll be writing and you got to come see us, man. It's not a better time. I know we say that every single day, but we mean it every single day. I T one gets you two months for only a dollar. Come hang out with the best community in college football at the best website in college football inside Texas.com. Makes sure a lot of Texas is crafting a lot of recruiting stuff this week, so yeah, this is they're on the road. They're on the road. You know, if you notice, SART doesn't send out a ton of guys during game weeks. There'll be a few that that kind of go out, but not many. I think that's a lot of getting stuff fixed. Get the game win now. When you got a bi-week now, they want to go out and see the eyes of these 20, 25s. Look at these 20, 26s that they've offered or could potentially offer and then write down the 20, 27s that they will be inviting to camp next year. Thank you for watching. We'll see you next time on Inside Texas, before YouTube channel, part of InsideTexas.com. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
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