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Inside Texas Football
Monday nITe LIVE (11/04): Florida Gators Week, Sark Presser, Team News
both everybody. We're going to try this at a new time to see if maybe you can have an opportunity to talk some Texas football and maybe, you know, watch another football game that might be going on today. Speaking of football games, I think it's only appropriate that we do a nice little follow up to last week's topic, du jour. And that was Ian Boyd's head coach and defensive coordinating position. You made it to the championship game Ian. Can you let the fine people know how your flag football team did? Not great. Not great. The championship game was, I think it would be fair to say that they had three or four kids as good as our best player. And they had a, they were a well-oiled machine. Ian's already blaming his players, huh? Blame it up. I think that failed actions that we were chasing ghosts. I was like figuring out live and trying to tell our players what was going on so we could stop it. Oh man, I need video of that. We, so we made them earn all of their drives except for one, but we could not score. How many of the drives did you make them earn? Well, they scored to say what was the final score? Okay. All right. It was 28-6. I think that's actually a little, how did that add up? They scored like four touchdowns. Is that right? That has to be right. They didn't make all their conversions. So it gets hard to do the math. So Drew, I have to ask you this, just post season. The season's over, final press conference of the year, and Mac is just throwing you guys under the bus. I mean, how, how are you going to respond in a situation like that? You know, I'd look at other options the next year. Okay. Yeah. All right. The transfer portal just opened, Ian. I mean, that's especially when the parents are about it, especially. Oh man. Everybody knew what was up. Everybody knew it was up. So much so that is it true that you got awarded your second place medal before the game was even over? Yeah. Yeah. I was watching to see if you were going to avoid a goose egg on the sideline and, and they, I was handed the runner up medals. And then I, I was like, we score and I look down and it's like nine to ten year old crossover runner ups. You brought great shame on inside Texas, man. You know what? None of y'all would have done better. I'll just say that. That's okay. It's probably true. It's probably true. Well, I mean, speaking of press conferences, Eric, we obviously, Sarcad his today. This was a, this was seemed a little bit different than his normal like Monday getting ready for a game because this was obviously coming off of a bi week. And he added some updates on some players that we hear about a lot. And I'd look for you to talk about that. Yeah. He, well, he was asked about which young players were standing out. He offered five names. I think it was two of them were real points of interest for a lot of Texas fans. We could ask about an inordinately amount of times. He started off with Kobe Black, which is no surprise. We just saw Kobe in his first real action. He had hit the field before, but he was actually getting real snaps in real time during a hotly contested football game. And you know, he had, he'd showed well. He only played nine snaps, I believe, but he made a number of plays, including the pick six that was called back. So no surprise we're hearing more about Kobe Black. The sky's the limit with him. They wanted him to keep, you know, drop weight if possible, just because they view him as a pure corner long term. So everything's positive with him. He mentioned Jordan Johnson, Rebel and Xavier Filsony obviously Texas has had some injuries at safety this season. Makuba's coming back, but Derek Williams has lost for the year. So that's opening up more potential playing time for one of the younger guys. Jordan Johnson, Rebel, we know is ahead of Filsony, but it sounds like he wants both those guys to start making a mark on special teams. Obviously, you know, Texas has had some issues on special teams. Jared Gibson, I thought was very interesting. Obviously the running game needs a jolt. We have not seen much of Jared really since the Mississippi state game. I think he only has had two carries since the OU game. So that's obviously after you know, playing, he had 13 against UTSA, 10 against Michigan. He looked like he was going to be a bit of a foundational player in the backfield. We haven't seen much of him. So maybe he's on his way to getting back on the field, which could potentially give the run game a jolt. And then Sadeer Mitchell, I was not sure we were ever going to hear Sark mentioned Sadeer Mitchell's name again. The last time we saw him was UTSA, he was supposed to play against ULM. It didn't happen. And we haven't seen him since I don't, I don't think he's been out there since then. Sark actually mentioned him twice once when talking about the young players stood out. And then another time when talking about who's going to help make up for the loss of Verna Broughton for the first half against Florida. So that seems promising. He said Sadeer's had his consecutive back to back weeks of his best football, probably in the time that he's been at Texas. So hopefully we see the big fella during this November stretch. Drew, when in your experience, so a player is and obviously we don't need to name names here, but like how, how hard is it to get out of the proverbial doghouse in the situations like this? Because it is, it is pretty clear that Sadeer kind of put himself in a really tough spot to come back from and to be mentioned in this regard, I think is a pretty positive thing. I mean, honestly, I think even Sark mentioned another player's story today and Jadae Barron. I think while Jadae has been playing the last three years, if you really look at the players that we have coming in and know that they're going to have their own different development curves, we have to get comfortable with that. And so just because Sadeer had not been playing and not been contributing, especially during a time where we really needed DTs and we had to go out and get brand. I am full of them last year. I think we were out on him when really maybe his development, his maturity curve, maybe those things are just not as aggressive as we would have liked them to be. So at the end of the day, it was good to hear them talk proactively about him today. I would know that name has come up a lot, but yeah, it's just, it's going to vary from player to player. And we, us fans, us, the people who talk about this, we want everybody to be ready when they're ready and when we want them to. And yeah, hopefully he sticks around and continues to develop and can shock and surprise some people come both season if not going into next season. We appreciate you all being in here in the chat and we're going to go to someone that shares the namesake of one of our very own, that Justin Wales. And at some point during the show, that's going to be now Justin. Can we all, can we elaborate on the news about the NIL updates? It seems like Texas inherent NIL advantage are being drastically reduced. And I'm curious, I'm curious, Eric, maybe if you can bring people up to speed on, on what happened today and what, what Justin Wales is talking about. And then you've been very, very pro NIL in terms of the way that it's positively affected Texas. Do you see this, do you see this negatively affecting Texas, as Justin might think here? Yeah, I mean, I've mentioned that, you know, Texas could potentially lose its advantage with the salary cap coming in. Justin kind of reiterated some of what I'd mentioned before. You know, collectives are going away. We mentioned that months ago. Before these rulings even came out, we mentioned Texas is basically ahead of the curve on that. And the reason they are, they're ahead of the curve is because they have a very good pulse of what's going on on the political side of everything. So they have a pulse on it. We kind of relate to our readers, what's going on. So we knew collectors were going away. Yeah, I do think that this is going to reduce Texas's impact to some degree if there's a salary cap. However, they're going to be able to make up for it in ways that other schools can't just because the market in Austin is going to bear a lot more money and opportunity for players than it will in a place like Tuscaloosa. So I do think teams are going to get around the salary cap. A lot of those teams that have traditionally used bags, you know, under the table payments are going to go back to that. I think that's going to be the case just to get around the salary cap. The salary cap is going to be a baseline payment structure for every player. But to get some of those recruits over the line, the five star difference to tackle from a backwater is going to take some, you know, some hidden cash. So I think that is going to hurt Texas to some degree. However, because of the opportunity in Austin and then the fact that Texas is motivated to make NIL work in ways that other schools just simply can't, I think Texas is going to be fine. But I think they are losing an advantage to some degree, but it's going to be incumbent on them to make sure that Texas doesn't lose too much of an advantage. It forgive me for asking this, but with a salary cap, I mean, doesn't does that does that bleed into the idea that now the student athletes are like full on university employees? How do they reconcile that? No, that would be a deal breaker. I'm pretty sure with most schools. Sure. You can't have that guy sitting out before the bowl game, a whole team sitting out like that's my only. Yeah. Yeah, we saw that. Who was it? It was mentioned, not too long ago, Michigan State, I think threatened to sit out a game last year and they got solved right at the last minute and they decided to play. Now that would be a deal breaker for pretty much every school involved outside of maybe Northwestern or Cal or something like that. I don't I don't foresee that that happening. That's that's going to be ruled around. I'm pretty sure. But yeah, there'll be a salary cap and it's going to be, I think, you know, each player is it's not going to be every player is going to get something but they're not all going to get the same thing is from what I've heard. Right, you know me and I had an article in the off season where I broke down what where numbers could go. And I just speculated a $15 million salary cap. And what was there? I remember with 17 that Justin was reporting in the scoop, right? I've heard Texas's salary has ranged between 15 and 17 throughout the years, the recent years. Right now, it's believed that Tennessee has the highest at 18. So Texas is right there. But Texas has been smart about how they've done it. And I think they're going to continue to be smart where other schools go in on one or two players. Texas likes to, you know, splash it around and raise the baseline talent across the board. That's how that's how I imagine that's how that flag football team got the best of you in having multiple good players instead of just throwing it all at one. But yeah, Texas is going to remain cutting edge. But the law, the rules of the laws of the land are not going to be nearly as favorable to Texas. But they're still going to have a lot of inherent advantages that just come with being at Texas. We that joke actually was in our, in our league. Yeah, his grandparents were telling me that he wanted to renegotiate his NIL deal at one point, our best player. But this is going to be quite the content expansion for us at inside Texas when now that we have salary cap issues to work through in the future. That's a whole new, it's going to be fun. I love the GM aspect of putting it together recruiting class. Now we get to extend that to the entire roster. You probably have to do a show on that article you wrote. We did. We should promote it, I guess. I'll go find it in a minute. Okay, that's great. We're talking money. We should, we should maybe hear from our sponsor. Dave, it's going to say, guys, you probably need a fiduciary financial advisor. And I've got the guy for you. His name is David McClellan with Forum Financial. He works broadly and deeply with his clients as a financial life coach. And he should know something about coaches because he won several national championships as a swimmer for the University of Texas. He specializes in financial planning and has contributed numerous articles to Kipling on the topic of retirement tax bombs. So contact David today to be your fiduciary financial planner and schedule a one hour consultation to assess your financial situations. The free consultation is available, so just give him a call. The number is 312-933-8823. That's 312-933-8823. His email is also in the description below. So this came up and I saw this was highlighted, Eric. So we'll throw this over to you. Maybe you can help me understand exactly what he's saying here is, is he looking at this as like they're being put into it. Yeah, for those that are on a podcast, the question is, how will work if someone offers an NIL deal to ours next year that is 99% of our cap? Does he have to refuse? I mean, you know, this is obviously an outlandish scenario. We'll take it even though it's to the extremes here. Somebody would, you know, somebody would back channel his agent or whoever represents him and would float that. I mean, that's what would happen there. Would he have to refuse? No, he wouldn't have to refuse, but he'd go to a team that he has absolutely no other players around him. Because it would be the John Travolta meeting where he's just standing around looking around the room with nobody else in there. No, so especially a player like Arch, you know, they're looking at being prepared to go into the NFL. They're not looking forward to, you know, college payday is going to come with the territory. They're not looking to make it to totally cash out. They want to be developed. And that's kind of the importance of NIL and where Texas is trending. I think because they've had so much success in developing players to the NFL draft, they're going to get a bit of a transactional bonus or, you know, tax break on some of these players because they realize once they become a starter at a certain position, wide receiver, for example, in the recent years, the last three years, including this one, defensive tackle, you know, they're not going to be as greedy up front because I know they'll get developed for the real payday in the NFL. You know, and according to the quarterback at the University of Texas, in the NIL era, the school doesn't even have to do anything for you to be able to make money off that. Especially when your last name is mating. Especially when your last name is mating. It's going to be interesting not not to go on too much of a tangent, but to Eric's point, the smart schools are going to want to use up their cap on positions that can't make money in the NILs is easily like you're going to want to throw cap at lineman offensive lineman and defensive lineman and then short change the skill players but make up for it with NIL. Yeah, I think they're going to do a much better job of networking with local businesses and turning and, you know, really kind of reverting back to the real spirit of NIL, which is about, you know, fair market value for their name and image and likeness. And they're so he all he follows up with, what's the penalty for going over the cap? I have no idea. You know, this is we don't even know who's going to really institute these laws yet or enforce these laws. It's not it's not going to be the NCA. We don't know the enforcement mechanism is going to be and that's something that Texas is working hard towards ensuring that whatever the enforcement mechanism that mechanism is has teeth because it again, they want to keep everything above board. Texas is going to follow the rules. This is not going to work as well for Texas if if certain schools go back to doing yeah, they got salary cap money that they're going to use, but then, you know, they just have a whole underground apparatus doing it doing things the old way. And I think to Ian's point, the idea that these NIL deals are in existence and for maybe more high profile players, I mean, there are universities have NIL departments now. I mean, it may just be two people that are doing the social media and putting them in front of brands and helping them along the way, but there are also third party groups that are helping universities with these NIL deals. So I just think that is going to grow even further into this, you know, because as we go through this, one of the things, the reason I brought up the employment thing in spite of the fact that I do know that it's a non-starter is the fact that the main thrust of this has been the whole antitrust idea, right? The fact that these people, these young athletes aren't allowed to earn money and that's not going away. They're still going to be allowed to earn money. It's just where they get that money is the important part here and that only so much of it can come from the university, which I think is a very distinguishing point that you brought up and it's really valid. Let's go over to this game we've got coming up this week. One of the questions is being asked quite a bit in the chat is obviously about legway and I'm just curious, you know, we Billy came out today, Coach Napier came out today and said that he's a possibility. I'm just wondering if, how would we be preparing for this game? I would assume that we would assume that legway is not necessarily playing this weekend. What are your thoughts on that, Ian? Because you wrote an article this week about the defense. I'm curious if you have any thoughts on the Florida offense. I think we're going to see them try to run the ball this many times as they can get away with. I don't think, I mean, maybe Drew should comment on the nature of hamstring injuries, but go ahead, Drew. The other worst, they just are you. Yeah, from the moment he grabbed his ham string, he did not let go. So I don't know what kind of gamesmanship that is rare. You see that. I mean, we've seen injuries in different types of bone breaks. People don't grip it. He gripped it immediately and didn't let it go for the whole time. It's just you think about the way he plays the game. He won't be effective in that same way regardless of what he recovers from or what this is intended to maybe make Texas prepare for. But I also think at the end of the day, if Texas does their research, which there are ways to do research, and they find there's some level of credibility to this somehow some way. I do think they'll be fine one way or the other just because you're really down to quarterback that just, I mean, they can't do anything with them. So I do expect them to attack us in the run game. There shouldn't really be any surprises outside of the need to try to create something explosive plays through tricks. But we should be dialed up for this. Unfortunately, I really would have loved to see lagway play. I was enjoying watching him play Saturday. I mean, that was an exciting game. He was like the same thing with a Nora Sellers if you watch this this weekend. I mean, if you watch some of these young quarterbacks play these guys who are just emerging, I mean, these are some really powerful great athletes. So unfortunately, we won't be able to see him at DKR this week. But yeah, I think we'll be fine either way, even if there is some level of scare or possibility that he can even touch the field. Yeah, Sark mentioned this in his press conference and gave the same answer that other coaches have given about preparing for Quinn Hughes in arch-manning is basically you prepare for the scheme. And obviously, we're going to go into the game with the knowledge that the backup, Aiden Warner, the third string quarterback is quite limited, much more limited than lagway as a true freshman. So this game looks like a race to 11. If Texas can win 11, they'll get to 11. They'll probably walk out with a win. But that Georgia defense was spirited. They showed a lot of heart. They were playing hard. That game continued to be worth watching after lagway got hurt. I thought it was going to be time to change the channel. But they played even showed some heart coming back and tying it up relatively late in the game. Defense did a good job. The defense has their own injuries as well at cornerback, which I'm not sure how ready those guys are to go. But if their cornerbacks are out there, they're in even deeper trouble. But it's a shame, man. Everybody wanted to see lagways returning home. He's from Willis right down the street from me. Great kid. Great family. Exciting player. Exciting future. It's just unfortunate that had to happen. So Ian, and I'm sorry, I know we're interrupting dinner time. But is there a is, how would you describe the defense that we're going to be facing on Saturday? I know this is this is Monday. We're going to go into our deep dives. Got all of our our lives with Homer and you and Paul breaking all this down. But just what's what's the 30,000 foot view on what we can expect on Saturday? They're really kind of similar to Dave Oranda defense, because they brought in Ron Roberts, who used to work with Billy Napier at Louisiana before he left so that he could work with Dave Oranda at Baylor. So like a Rob, Oranda is like one of Robert's proteges. And he's he's the co-coordinator at Florida with the young guy that everybody sees that's like 30 years old or whatever the, you know, the baby faced Austin Armstrong, Austin Armstrong. But they are, they like to play too deep. They like to blitz their linebackers and drop their edges into coverage. They have 400 pound nose tackles, like more than one of them, I believe. They're actually kind of similar as a program to Texas in a lot of ways. They Napier went in there and was like, bring me the biggest humans we can possibly get. And those are the guys that are on both of their lines and similar schematically too. But the cornerback injuries that Eric was talking about are pretty rough. They lost like a probably an NFL draft pick Jason Marshall to injury. They lost the other starter, got injured returning an interception against Carson Beck. I don't know what his status is, but it doesn't sound that great. It's Florida, so they have talented guys in the secondary, but it's possible that they're going to be starting for second year guys. And that's not, that's not winning football, to have that many young guys in the back end. Sark, Sark raved about them. He raved about their upside, their size, physicality, length, speed. Yeah, he's like, they look like us. So, you know, they've got a lot of respect for them. Yeah, you saw Carmani McLean out there got worked on probably the key play of the game, game giving up too much space to number 11 Aaron Smith. Yeah, they're, yeah, and they have to play the game of their life just to keep the offense in it. But yeah, Texas has a lot of advantages in this one, but Florida's going to come in and they're going to play hard. Texas is going to have to punch them in the mouth, take the wind out of them. When you are in the middle of a remodel, you don't want the wind taken out of this video is brought to you by Luxe kitchen and bath. 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Use the promo code IT1 and you're going to get two months for one American dollar which is a really nice deal and we highly recommend that you come join us over there at Inside Texas.com. Let's talk a little bit about this weekend Drew. What games stuck out to you? What were some things that you were really kind of glued to this weekend? Well I think there was a game in the South Carolina's game. I was just checking that out. Lenore Sellers was a player. I've been watching them all year. He is someone who, if he didn't get injured earlier this year, probably could have kept them on track to really be in the mix here. I mean he's that dynamic. Yeah, just in physical as a runner too and they play great defense. So yeah, I watched South Carolina to see how that game would stack up as well as Florida, Georgia. But yeah, my reflection on all of this though is that Texas still has to handle Texas' business. It's fun to sit back and watch certain teams lose games when they have a ton of hype and a ton on the line and have a big road game ahead. That's fun. But you still got to handle your own business. So my thought, because as I'm watching these games, I thought I'd be watching a lot more big 12 this year. I haven't been watching that at all. I really, I thought that I would still, I have not been watching big 12 at all. So that's one thing that didn't happen. But what I have noticed, if I'm just being honest here, when these last four games with these teams, when I've seen all these teams play Florida, Kentucky, Arkansas, and A&M, they're not going to look at the OU film or the the Vandy film or even the Mississippi State film to determine how they want to test us. They're going to look at the Georgia film because they actually have players in the trenches that body for body can bang with us. Now how they're deployed and if there's time in town and all the other stuff, it won't matter. But we still have not played the gauntlet. We're about to play just from physicality that's necessary in the trenches. And that starts with Florida. So we're going to see, and I honestly don't think these teams, they're going to look at the Georgia film and say, hey, we got to see if Texas is real in the trenches. So one of the things that, yeah, what are the things that kind of came up with this is this idea of more parity. I mean, do you see more parity in the SEC? Yeah, I mean, you look in the trenches. I mean, that is a difference maker. I do think, you know, so you know what I did watch Iowa State and Texas this weekend. That game is, they're not playing the same game. They're just not. Now, it's still a game that was enjoyable to watch. They play good sound defense. They're flying around. I mean, the backs are still really good in the league. They get guys in space. Yes, all of those things are great. I mean, playing great defense, making great plays, but it just starts in the trenches in this league. And that's why Florida can struggle at parts of the season, but go play against Georgia and Georgia has to play well. That's why South Carolina, once they cleaned up things and got the North Celas back, they were prepared to play against anybody else in this league. And Texas cannot say to this point, we've played comparable beyond Georgia, you know, comparable talent. And so, I think from where Texas has built its team to be in the trenches, yeah, there's parity. So we've got to show up this week and for the next four weeks, because it won't be all those teams are going to take the Georgia mentality and approach to this game. They're not looking at Vandy and OU and the Mississippi State film at all. I will say, Michigan is big and NFL rich in the lines, but they were not ready or skilled or fast enough at the other spots like Georgia was. So that we were maybe a little misled by the Michigan game about how ready Texas would be on a week, week out, week in, week out basis to handle teams like that. But we'll see. I mean, the Georgia game, there's, there's also a reason to believe that that was a little bit of a one off. We're definitely, it looks like the Georgia we saw before the Texas game that was, you know, scattered if he making, making mental mistakes on defense, Carson Beck, this is the story of the weekend and me was where the hell of the quarterbacks this year. Carson Beck has been quite disappointing through another three picks, had a couple more that should have been picked. He's scattered brain right now, he's making a lot of bad decisions. And their defense, you know, they gave up the bomb, Malachi Starks lost his eyes. They did not look as assignment sound as they certainly didn't look as assignment sound or even as cohesive or, or as energetic as they were against Texas. So that was the team that, that everybody had seen and thought, man, Texas is going to handle them. And of course they played the, you know, the game of the year against Texas. But where the quarterbacks have no idea where they are this year, Dylan Gabriel's, you know, by far the best quarterback right now on any team that's a real contender. And then injuries this, this week stood out to me. Texas had, in addition, a lagway, Lavyon Moss is out for the year, Texas A&M's talented running back. He got hurt on an impressive run. And then Taylor and Green, Arkansas's quarterback went out twice, I believe, and I'm not sure his status going forward. So injuries rear their head. It was a good week to be on the buy and be on the couch for, for Texas players. Is there a, like, moving forward with this, and I'm curious what your thoughts are, because it seems like the, the chatter or the talk is, look, we need to limit roster sizes and expand the length of the season, which seems incredibly counterintuitive to me. How, how are these guys, because injuries are a major deal, how are these guys, how would you prepare to take care of your body over that longer period of time? I mean, you can only do what you can do, right? I mean, what they're doing today doesn't necessarily change with another, you know, another few weeks of the season. We'll say they have far more data and understanding of these guys than we ever, I mean, they measure speed, explosiveness, dehydration, that they measure everything. So I think they, there's just the data that they keep on players now. They can use that data more effectively to kind of both advocate for, for some relief, where needed, but also be able to push players and kind of know where guys are and build their rosters in a way where they can make up, where they just know that there's some injuries that, there's some positions where they need to be deep. So I really, the process is the process. I mean, you play a game, you ice bath, wake up, check, you know, you check out on all your boobos, your boobos, your elbows, your everything that's banged up, and you get back to rehabbing and cleaning up, and you're always going to have something that's hurt. And you just grind through Tuesday, you grind through Wednesday, you taking care of your body every day, and you're eating the right thing, and you're putting the right things in your body. I mean, it just is the process, is the process. If they make the season longer, I don't think that'll change anything. Just get it, you know, you got to get lucky. Having two bi-weeks is nice. And then if they win the SEC championship, they'll have a bi-week for the first round of the playoffs. So that's another reason to win the SEC championship. Yeah, if you, if you, if you get that first round by also, you get like a huge time off before that first game, but then the rounds after that, you get like 10 days off between each game. So the grind of the playoffs, I mean, if you get a serious injury, it is what it is, but there really is advantageous to get that by as long as you don't lose, you know, your first game from the layover. Who do you, who do you think's going to win the SEC at this point, Ian? Man, I don't even know. I need to see, I need to see Texas with a Quinn healthier. I thought he looked healthier again against Vanderbilt, but I need to see that with Isaiah Bond and a more elaborate game plan. I need to see what Sark cooked up in the lab in the bi-week to get the run game going or try to get guys more open downfield. I can't, I just don't believe in Georgia. I, they, you don't want to play them in a one-off for the reason that we saw, but it's Carson Beck cannot carry that team. They don't have the same run game they normally have. Yeah. And they don't have Lad Makonke and Brock Bowers. Yeah. And they've got Ole Miss and Tennessee back to back. The thing with Georgia, that stuff though, is I mean, Georgia is still winning even when they play bad. You know, Ohio State just did it. And so everybody else really has to be almost perfect. It feels to, to compete with Georgia even when they're not playing perfect. Carson Beck didn't play great against us either. So it's, it's, it's hard for me to kind of go against Georgia at this point. They can't, they still can't afford to lose another, I don't believe. But at the end of the day, it's, it's hard to go against them when those guys do tee it up and actually lock in. Cause really they've been playing a lot of games where they're still winning and they're not playing well. Yeah. If they played Texas this weekend, you'd have to pick them to win again just on how they won the first time. But I'm not even sure they're going to make it given that they have the teams, the head of them Ole Miss this weekend. Ole Miss is going to score on them. And then Tennessee, Tennessee's defense is really damn good. If, you know, if they turn the ball over, you know, Nicko's capable of making plays. That's, yeah, I don't know, man. I think, I think they're going to drop one against Ole Miss or Tennessee. I think I would take, I think I would take Texas in a rematch if it were like this Saturday with Georgia. And I think I, I think I would make Texas my favorite just because bond, a healthy return bond in that passing game. I just don't see another team with a, with a gear that scares me. Like you need that championship gear for those big games. And I've still, I don't see it on another roster, really. And you believe this in spite of where our run game is? Run game is overrated. A voice like this. You've always said this? He hasn't, he hasn't printed our t-shirts and throw pillows around his house. Yeah, Sark was mentioning today about how they need to get back to, to, to getting his balance back on offense. That's, I think that, you know, the lack of balance is hurting the passing game and hurting the pre-action game. You know, I think they need to run game for the past game. Yeah, Sark doesn't think it's overrated. So unfortunately, I think Sark needs it. Maybe you should let him know that he doesn't need it. We knows. Why do you think he's dialing up all those shots all the time? The past, the past sets up the run. No, yeah, this guy's right. Oregon doesn't have a championship. I mean, he might be right. I don't know if I'm sure. Oh, man. But they had the best quarterback of the, of the real contenders. And that's, that's a forced multiplier. They've got athletes on offense. And I don't think their defenses, I mean, if the offense comes, comes to play, their defenses might be good enough. I think whoever wins the championship is going to hit a run between now and then, or something clicks. It has to be us, man. Right. There's no reason for it. It can't be us. Yeah, that's, yeah, that's what I don't, I don't. I look at that to November being for Quinn, figuring things out and then, you know, starting to hit his stride and, you know, because out of all the quarterbacks that are not playing great right now, the most upside, because I'm not sure Carson Beck's not coming back. I mean, you know, he hasn't been great all year. We've seen Quinn be great this year. And I think we saw him get better between, you know, after between Georgia and Vandy. Sark seems pretty optimistic based on the practices he's had. I think it's going to be Quinn too. But, you know, I would like to see that run game start to show more consistency. We've answered this question, but I think it's just, it's worth repeating is obviously you want the buy. But if you don't get the buy, that 5c is pretty sweet. I don't understand anybody disagree with that. Obviously, I want to, yeah, you want Texas playing that in that SEC Championship game. You've got signing day on the 4th and you've got the SEC Championship game on the 7th. You want coaches recruiting through the whistle on all these high level guys saying, hey, get ready to watch us this Saturday, Texas is on the way up. Not, we're not even on the way up. We're back, you know, we're playing for all the marbles. And then you want to have that chance to play for that by week. The 50 is not a bad place to land. Unfortunately, if you lose that SEC Championship game, you probably won't be the 50. They'll probably give to somebody else. Yeah, that's a lot, right. Just because they're more on. And they have to avoid the rematch too. You can't, you don't, you don't want the 5-1 rematch to be the SEC Championship game again. Yeah, that's, that's a frustrating thing because it disincentivizes you to make the Championship game and lose. It's kind of, it's ridiculous, but yeah, we'll see how it plays out. Another thing with the five or six seed though is you get that home game in DKR in the first round. And maybe that's too late for recruiting. But, I mean, it's never too late for recruiting, right? Recruiting is a 360 drive. So yeah, it's never too late. And especially you can have the portal open up. And that'll help too. There's a, there's an algebra question here. This is, I'm going to put this to you because I know how much you hate the run game. So if Quinn throws for X yards and X touchdowns against Florida, not only does Texas win, but fan confidence for Quinn is restored. It's that last section that, that might be the more, the more telling stat. What are your thoughts on that Ian? Yeah, I think if he had 300 yards and or four or more touchdowns, then everybody would be like, we're back, baby. Quinn's, Quinn's on top of the world. Everything's going to be fine. It ain't about stats, man. That's, that's not what it's about. He just had three touchdowns in the first half against Vanderbilt. And nobody would say that he's back. Yeah, five though, Eric. So that's different than I want to step up in the pocket and stretch the field. Take advantage of, uh, you know, the, the mismatch, offensive, uh, offensive mismatches that'll have water, reverse their injured corners, uh, step up in the pocket and play confidently. I'm no really care. The stats will follow. Yep. At home, whether it be nice, like it happened. Yeah. I think he might though, and it could also be a mirage. It's Florida beat up in the secondary now. And if Texas picks up their pressure and Quinn's just sitting back there all day, then that's something in the, that's something itself that we need to see for Texas to hit its ceiling and do better job handling pressure, you know, running backs, picking up the blitz. So that would be, that's something we need to see going forward anyway. It's yet to be seen since he came back again. So you, I mean, we're still waiting. So it doesn't mean at this point, the competition doesn't even matter. It's, it's, can you consistently do that? Yeah. And, and with that, with that, Drew, because we're, we're not going to maybe get this too much of you this weekend until maybe we get to the pregame. But what, what do you want to see out of, out of Texas against this Florida game? What's going to make you feel a lot better going into the rest of the season? I mean, go look at Florida. Defense go, go watch their defense and yes, they're banged up and yes, that was a rivalry game and yes, that was an emotional week. But I mean, if you heard Billy Napier's press conference today, he's not taking this week off. So yeah, I want to see how we play on offense against this defense. Vandy was not the test that Georgia was or that, that this will be at least in the trenches. So I just want to see how we're going to execute. I want to see if we can run the ball and do what we want to do running the ball because at the end of the day, Sark wants to run the ball and run it. Well, can Sark do and get what he wants out of this game plan the way he wants to? That and then it comes down to Quinn. I just want to see them come out and execute a clean game, their game plan. You know, Sark talks about he wants to or we want to dictate to the defense, what they're doing and kind of being controlled of the game plan. There's nothing stopping them. Right at this point, they're coming off a bi-week. They're at home. They've seen the film. They know what they want to do. So doesn't mean perfection is necessary, but I do want to see them have command of this team. There's no reason for that not to be the case. Yeah, if they pick up the blitz and run the ball better, we'll actually get a true measurement of where Quinn is, you know, since that Georgia game. So I think we need to, he needs to get some help from those factors though. Those would be better indicators also because Florida has a big physical front on defense and they know how to blitz. So if Texas just dominates the line of scrimmage in this game, then that's a better tell than whether or not Quinn throws for X yards or whatever, unless it's 400 yards. And then I think we should probably feel pretty good. Well, that's the thing too. It's given all this perspective. Like look at what we're talking about, right? Like Texas is playing Florida and we're not even thinking about whether they're going to win or not. We want to see how they win. The reason why we want to see how they win is because we expect them to be in contention for a championship and we know it was necessary to do that. So it's great that SARC has gotten this team to this point. Like what we're being critical about has nothing to do with whether they're going to win this game this week. That's everything to do with the expectations we all have is that this roster was built to win a championship and they have the players to do so. And now we just need to see them execute a game plan that shows that they're on track to just kind of pick up some steam and keep rolling. That's where we are. Here's another good one too. Yeah. Yeah. Less penalties that will sustain drives 100, 100, 100, 100, 100. I probably would have gone with the fifth 100 there. But yeah, quit shooting yourself in the foot. It drives me insane. I spent all offseason bragging about how much experience there is on the roster and then they started getting all these stupid penalties. A lot of them, there's no excuse for them. They worked on that. SARC said they mentioned it quite a bit that they worked on the pre-snap penalties and also the ones where maybe technique is breaking down on the offensive line or bad technique in the secondary, not getting the head around in time. That sort of thing. So hopefully we see improvement. But yeah, you know, you get excited about having an experienced team. You think that they're not going to shoot themselves on the foot, but they've been taking dead aim. Do we know what's the point spread in this game? Speaking of expectations. Somebody in the chat should help us out on that. I'm not sure I didn't have last thought. What was it? 17 and a half when I last thought. That's the joke I made when when lagway went down. I thought you actually knew it. I was like, damn, that was pretty. That's funny because I was thinking 17. I almost put that in my article the other day and I was like, yeah, maybe I'm way off on that. So I'm not going to because I don't really follow that. It's up to 21 now. It's up to 21. Yeah, because they're going to score 10 points. Yeah, yeah, still. Drew, this is a this is a question. And this again, just mid season stuff. How do how does how does the team address penalties mid season in practice? Is it just do it in the film room or how does that actually get addressed? I mean, you got to look at film and see the cause first. I mean, some of these penalties were, you know, the defensive line doing a shift and guys are jumping. Other penalties are it's communication. It really comes down to what's the cause. So going back and looking at penalties at home, penalties on the road. I mean, that's what makes the difference is looking at what the cause is and drilling it down into those individual players. That's where communication and connection kind of comes into play because it's not just, hey, don't do it. It's just not that simple. It's it really is. As repping, like, hey, you have to be you have to sit tight until it's time to until you see the ball snap. And so you just got to know what each player's trigger is and coach it out of him. But you really do just coach it out of him. Yeah, pull him and play somebody else. I would love to see that happen a little bit more often, but me too. That that's the way to do it. That's been one of my. Is there is there a particular issue? Why do you think that doesn't happen, Eric? Is it depth? I mean, what why doesn't that happen? I think he tries to keep confidence instilled in his players. You know, I don't know. It's kind of like when they you'll see a player drop a ball. He'll go right back to the next series. I think it has something to do with that. But there have been way, way, way too many preach that penalties going back their entire tenure here. You know, you're four and you're three for a number of these offensive linemen. You're four for some of them. You're five for some of them. And we just should not be seeing that. No, well, and this is here's a question. And thank you to to Roaster for this, obviously the the Toyota minivan fund for for Ian is really starting to add up there. But this is the main dollar question. At this point in the season, you see Campbell and Williams return. What are your thoughts on that, Eric? Yeah, I think Campbell for sure based on okay, conversations I've had recently. Williams is going to come down to how the how the NFL season because he has tantalizing sides and athleticism that has people raving. They might still take him in the first round just because he's so rare. And then at that point, I would, you know, I would think he would still leave. Right now it's tape and consistency is not what you normally see with a first rounder, but he is somewhat of an anomaly that is with his movement skills and size. Somebody might take him talk him into the first round and stash him for a year just because they feel he has that much upside. Tape isn't there to be a first rounder, but the ability is, of course, hopefully they can coax him back with NIL. And you have a lot less concerns about your offensive line. If you get both those guys back right now, it's a Campbell's much more likely. Williams, you know, Sark said right now he's viewing this as they have half the season remaining. If Williams really turns it on over the second half, and hopefully they are playing up until January 20th, and he plays well, he's going to be gone because he doesn't need a huge sample size of good play for teams to move on him. If do you think Eric, the part of the pitch to moving him, bringing him back would have to be moving him to left tackle or is that doesn't matter? I don't really think that matters for the NFL. They'll put you in a camp and if you can play left tackle, they'll put you there. Maybe it would highlight his versatility a little bit more or that it's show comfort because sometimes guys are moved much better on one side of the ball than the other, and he's played right tackle pretty much the entire time. So maybe that would increase value. I'm not sure. I think he really just needs to come back and play more fundamentally sound. Really, he's a three year talent, but a four year player. He'll have some tests in these next few weeks. They say that's the thing that I think is going to be different on the back half of this season because there's just a different level player. He has the athleticism and size to match up with those guys on one play, and then the next he has a fundamental or technical breakdown. Really, I don't think he's got the tape in the run game that you expect to see out of somebody with his size. He's got the athleticism and movement skills, but the tape is not following it. This is a question again to do with depth more than anything, but Eric, depending on how many O-line would leave for us, if the right guy was there, do you think Sark and Flood would portal an offensive lineman? I know so. I've written about that a few times on IT that this would be the first time you actually see them looking at the portal in this season. They, again, they prioritize experience. They were excited to have four starters back and then can be in a three-year player, isn't necessarily an inexperienced player, even though it hasn't maybe doesn't have a ton of snaps. I do expect them to look at the portal, if anything, they need more competition, but I think they're going to look, I feel confident about that. Now, they are still circling on Michael Fassusi, and if they get Michael Fassusi, that's not going to be cheap. That's going to have to come from somewhere. It'll probably come from portal coffers, but I think they'll take at least one offensive lineman and maybe two. Which positions do you think? We're assuming all five are gone, right? If you assume, well Campbell's coming back. I'm assuming back at this point. I think Col Hudson will be your starting center. I think Netto will be your starting left guard, and I think Goosby will be your starting left tackle, and if they don't get anybody, Brandon Baker will be your right tackle if Cam leaves. But they're going to bring in, they're going to bring in at least one portal guy. Again, I would not be surprised by two. I don't think Spencer Hogan here says center. No, I think Col Hudson would be a really good center, and I think that would improve Cole's draft chances to show the ability to both play guard and center. I think he's got the intelligence from it. He's moonlighted there and practiced quite a bit in his time at Texas. I think he'd be your starter unless Daniel Cruz makes a big jump this offseason. Cruz looks the part. I don't think he's quite comfortable yet, but again, he could have a big spring. Right now, I think Col Hudson would be the starting center. But of course, if he's not starting center, he's going to play somewhere otherwise he's going to, otherwise he's going to portal, right? If Campbell comes back, maybe he's your left guard, but then Netto is probably going to portal. So they'll be looking for a tackle in the portal. Always looking for tackles. You're going to take it if you can get it. Yeah, but if they want to keep, if they feel like one of the guards is underperforming and they want Cole at center, like maybe Netto is not playing as well as they'd like, I think they'd take a guard as well. But they feel what I've heard, they feel comfortable with Goosby next year. What about Connor Robertson? Yeah, yeah, I don't, you know, he's not going to, I don't think he would start at center ahead of Cole Hudson. Not much else to say. Well, we appreciate everybody being here. This is our, we're trying this new time zone. We really, we really do appreciate you guys taking the time and certainly the questions. As we go out today, go ahead and check out InsideTexas.com. It's IT1 that's two months for $1. That's going to get you through most of the rest of the season. As, as Sark has said, we are at the halfway point. Hopefully we are playing until late January, but we've got a new bumper to take you out. It's a little bit sexier than normal.
It's Game week again! What have we learned coming out of the bye week?