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Inside Texas Football
IT Roundtable: Texas Longhorns vs. Arkansas Razorbacks, Team News, Game Predictions
Ladies and gentlemen, happy Friday. Welcome to your weekly roundtable. I'm here with Eric, Paul, and Ian. We are going to wrap up all the, all the analysis that we gave you this week, give you our score predictions. And I think for the sake of everybody's time, let's just get into it. Eric, we're going to go to you first with some, just some team news. Where is the team? How are they feeling? I think that the fan base is cautiously optimistic about this game, but obviously it is a Texas fan base. So there's going to be some nerves baked into that. What are you hearing? What are your thoughts? Yeah, I kind of see a lot of confidence in the Texas fan base. You know, like we talked about before the show, we've talked about previously, they're either never going to win again or they're never going to lose again. And right now I think after the Florida win, they're never going to lose again. I've had some concerns about this game, honestly, just because Arkansas presents the most balanced offense, not only are they balanced offense, they also have a dual threat quarterback. And then as Paul Nee and have done a wonderful job pointing out, their defense is going to throw a lot of stuff that makes Steve Sarkeesian and Quinn Ears have the problem solved, you know, from drive to drive. So that's a bit of concern. But when I voice those concerns to a source, he kind of laughed at me and told me to quit being a P word. And that they feel good about it. They had a very good week of practice. There's a lot of confidence. They're not taking them lightly. They have a lot of respect for what Arkansas is going to give them, going to show them. I'm thinking they're going to force Texas to provide a few new looks that we haven't seen quite as much of this year. But overall, sources are confident. Good week. The source said, you know, the offense, offense had a good week of practice because Sarkees happy all week and Sarkees pretty much like Charlie Sean before him, he judges the week of practice based on how his side of the ball performed and nothing else. So Ian and Paul, you guys have done a great job this week of breaking down what we might expect from this. I'd love to talk to both of you and what would be the ideal situation for you coming out of this? Or maybe another way of framing that is on the opposite side of it. Is there anything in particular about Arkansas that might worry you? If Arkansas surprises Texas with their defense early on and Texas gets caught in a bit of a slog and Arkansas is able to maybe slowly establish the run or score a couple times early on. I just don't want this game. I wouldn't want this game to get into like a Vanderbilt type deal where it comes down to making plays at the end of the fourth quarter. The flip side is Texas scores early. Arkansas is forced to throw on the Texas secondary and pass rush and aren't able to establish the run. And then it's just over quickly. Give me a number two. I think for me it's a healthy tailing green feeling himself in a big home environment. Look, this is Arkansas Super Bowl. That's not Texas arrogance. Arkansas will fans will tell you this is our Super Bowl. They had a bi-week to prepare. You know, he's a great offensive coordinator, great play caller. And he's going to have some stuff dialed up. And I think you could argue pretty reasonably. This is the best offense or at least the most explosive offense that we'll face all year. If you just look at their skill personnel. However, that said, Petrino is going to have to find four quarters to overcome an offensive line that's not great. And offensive line is like one of those things where it's the five guys moving the couch and you realize two of them aren't even putting any weight on their hands, right? Arkansas's got two guys that we identified and I wrote about my previews that are not good. And you can absolutely pick on. And so I'm hoping that we do some things to really get out from Collins lined up in that guard and get Collins Simmons or Trey Moore, even Baron Sorrell, lined up on that tackle and bringing it. Because these guys are not just below standard for Arkansas level team. They're below standard for the SEC. And they're really struggling. Those two guys have given up more pressures than our entire offensive line. So I think that's an interesting little cheat code we might be able to exploit. That said, improvisational six foot six 230 pound quarterbacks who have a big arm and they can run around and they can bend and they can evade. They're not fun to play in front of a big crowd and they're fired up and feeling it. So we've got to get tail and green down on the ground. And if we do that, you know, I don't think we should be hugely worried about this contest. I'll see if you can pull up that Richard Walker comment real quick. Yeah, the last comment. Yeah, Arkansas had a week to prepare, but they have only one week of film on Texas's post bi-week offensive adjustments. Great point. So I agree. If Sark has more in the bag from the bi-week from the last couple of weeks that he didn't show against Vanderbilt or Florida, then Arkansas, there's only so much they can do. They have to anticipate. That would be the, that would be like the, this is the scenario where Texas just blows them out quickly is that they just drop a couple of things on Arkansas that they weren't ready for and then it's just over. And we've talked about this a lot during the week, but I think it bears, bears repeating is one of one of the best defensive assets that we have is exactly what you just talked about. Ian is basically running up the score quick and making them, making them a one-dimensional team is with it, with a quarterback like green that obviously great with the legs inconsistent with the throwing, but when he's on, he's dangerous. How would you approach that from a defensive point of view? Do you, do you focus on the run? Do you focus on the pass or how do you mitigate that? Let's start with you, Paul. What? Sorry? That's okay. So I'm guessing, I guess I want to, Ian, because that's who you were giving that one to go in. So Ian, I've got a question for you. I got it. I got it. Okay, great. How do you handle Taelin Green's legs? Do you load up on the run? If they're, it depends on their personnel grouping. If they're trying to get out in like personnel groupings or they want to run the option and get them involved that way, then Texas just plays their normal containment strategies. If they're looking to spread you out, but it's obvious they just want Taelin Green to have a room to run around, then you need to be thinking speed on the field, get as much speed on the field as possible, and potentially dedicating a linebacker to spying him. And then you're going to have to play carefully on the edges and contain in either event. But if this will be something interesting, if they don't think Arkansas can just run the ball legitimately, then the right answer maybe to just get a lot more speed on the field than they normally do and handle them that way. With this, I think I want to jump over to our sponsor, Laura Baker. And then when we come back, I want to hear a little bit from you, Eric, about just as we're nearing, we're just a few short weeks away from signing period and what the recruiting class is looking like. I know it's it's coming coming really clear interview, but let's hear from Laura real quick. Hi, I want to tell you about Laura Baker. If you're looking for a new home in the 512 or even at this point, let's face it 737 area code. There's only one number to call. That's Laura Baker at 512-784-0505. As a member of the elite Andy Allen team with Keller Williams, Laura has helped Longhorns find the home of their dreams in central Texas. Just ask our resident sex symbol, Ian Boyd, who moved all the way from Michigan to Texas with Laura's help. Laura can help you find what you're looking for in the 512, the 737, or even parts of the 254 and the 210. Just, you know, give her a call at 512-784-0505. Her email is in the description as well as the rest of her contact details. She's a friend, give her a call. So how's it and you and you and Justin both, Eric, have been on the road this week. Can you talk a little bit about where we are with the classes? It's kind of rounding out. Obviously, we've got a few names that have been pretty consistent through this, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Yeah, I was at Elkins or I was at Shadow Creek on Tuesday and brought them some bad luck. They had an improbable loss to Elkins last night, which is a pretty shocking loss. So my bad for bringing that bad luck. I'm not going to Arkansas. I'm not going to Fayetteville, so we don't have to worry about that fans. You know, they got Grayson Littleton, a very talented cornerback yesterday from Florida. That was a late development. They'd been working it behind the scenes. They went and visited him on November 1st. He decommitted from Clemson about a half hour later, and they were able to get him on an official visit and wrap that one up. And I asked the source. I said, you know, on a scale of one to 10, and let's call him a leak, Muhammad and nine, where's Littleton? And he said he's an eight and a half. And I was like, I was blown away by that. I said, really? So yeah, you know, might not have the same exact, nobody has mentality that Manny has to come in and play immediately. Manny's been acting like he's a pro since he was, you know, intense grade and exceptional technique beyond what most true freshmen have. But this kid has the same mental mindset, very similar, and has a little bit more speed. So I was happy to hear that about Littleton. If you go watch his tape, he's got like seven or eight returns for touchdowns. It's ridiculous. Very athletic kid. They need a couple more defensive backs. They need another linebacker or two. They need another two defensive tackles. How that's going to shake out? I don't know because they have so many different lines in the water. They've got a couple more guys visiting for Kentucky, you know, a couple that we're not going to write about yet. But a couple that we have been writing about Nathaniel Wusu Boating from IMG. His brother is J. Okay, the Cleveland Brown former Notre Dame star, he'll he'll visit. They need two more linebackers, Riley Petajon trying to flip him, of course, Man Feremo's not going to happen. Kellen Wiley officially visited. That's Texas in Miami. That's, you know, Florida kid going to be tough to pull him, but they're right in the thick of it. How it all shakes out? I'm not sure. They've got a lot of lines in the water, which is what you want to see when you have a number of needs to still fill in the, you know, they're still working on Michael Fusucy and they're working on Michael Terry as well. So this class is number five right now. It's got a chance to finish number three. I think it's going to finish number three, but you know, they've got to get some of these guys in the boat. How much of an impact do you feel the schedule affects the coaches and how this is going? Because obviously, now the signing period is right in the middle of, you know, the championship weekend and the playoff hunt. Does that, does that affect any of these, these last minute closings, as it were, or do they have it all on lockdown? Well, the staff would prefer the day to be moved up. It was too much to juggle before with the portal and high school at the same exact time. So they're happy about that development. But yeah, there's still a lot on their plate. You know, they're going to have to recruit, you know, hopefully they're trying to get close signing day going while they're while they're preparing for the SEC championship. There's just three days apart. So yeah, every year I write about it. There's a lot on the coaches plate that time of year. I don't know how they do it, but you know, that's why they have built out staffs and that's why they get paid a lot of money. I'm not worried about them handling it just because, you know, you want them to have that SEC championship game as a selling point, especially if you're trying to flip a few Aggies, you know, they're playing A&M November 30th, sunny days of fourth, SEC championship game is the seventh. You know, that's, there's a chance to, to strike, you know, to hit lightning right there with, with that, that confluence. So, you know, hopefully that, you know, they, they went out. And then I think if, if they went out, that's the model behind the seam, just keep winning. Recruiting will take care of itself. And that's, that's what has to happen. Texas has to win their next three games. Two out of three of those games are on the rose and I'm, we're moving into getting your picks. But before we do, I just want to look at some statistics that don't get talked about a lot. And unfortunately, these really favor the University of Arkansas. So let's just get into it. So the number of buildings on campus that are named after chicken companies. Now, this is something that I think a lot of people really aren't discussing and specifically in relation to how chicken nuggets can affect an offense. And I'm just curious from your perspective, Paul, what kind of, what kind of positive influence can chicken nuggets have on an offense and an educational system? Pretty positive. Look, I've long been on record as lobbying that Parlin Hall should be changed to Popeyes Hall. Sure. Yeah. I floated it on the board. People have called me an idiot. But I guess who's laughing now as soon as you unveil this graphic. Because I think you're going to see that we're woefully behind. We are woefully behind. They do have two buildings on campus. One. Yeah, it is. It's unfortunate. One has a very prestigious name. The center for the center of excellence for poultry science. And then of course, the, the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Business. So again, the advantage here is clearly Arkansas. And this was so, so impactful that frankly, I couldn't come up with any more deep stats outside of our, our common admissions acceptance rate. And again, unfortunately, Texas falls woefully short here, only admitting 31% of their applicants, whereas Arkansas is admitting 72. Therefore, again, they're serving their community better. Let's get into our seat. Sorry. I need to, I need you to dwell on this for just a minute longer. Yes. Arkansas is funded by big chicken. Is that what you're. Now, as, as you well know, the big chicken lobby is very impactful, and especially in the educational field. I had a dream has finally got their claws into Arkansas. And I think, I think that to me is thousands. Yeah, talents. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for the bullying that I might. Well, I didn't mean to be that guy, but it's a town. No, no, no, that's you're not being pedantic. You're being accurate. I appreciate that. I had a friend that worked in, like, the dominoes corporate world for a little bit. And I learned from her that Tyson chicken is everything. Like half the chicken you get in the world from like fast food or whatever is ultimately just Tyson. Correct. Yeah. And you need to recall your source with this information. Well, I mean, I didn't include the fact that the Walton family has donated over 300 million dollars to the University of Arkansas. So again, I didn't get into budget, budget wholesale. So I think, I think we can strictly stick with the chicken conglomerates. You can easily see that they have a distinct advantage there. How do they not have more NIL? Well, I was about to say, Sam Pittman in his press conference on Monday, you know, when they talked about the rebuild and the differences between the Texas roster in 2021 to now he was one of the first things he mentioned was, you know, not Sark being a great recruiter or the school or all that was, you know, NIL blah, blah, blah. And, you know, that's, that's my first thought hearing about all this, this chicken loop that they have, not going to where it really should go to the players. You know, obviously, if you went on the football field, the buildings will follow, you know, well, in, when I was in the depths of my research, I did read that there was a rumor floating around that the Tyson chicken conglomerate also helped signing Cali Perry. So bringing, giving some money to the university to bring in a coach. So again, they are involved with athletics. And I think we may see the results of that on the field on Saturday. But I don't want to dwell on this too much because frankly, it's, it's just frankly over the heads of a lot of our fan base. It's a little bit too nuanced. So let's move on to our picks. We'll start with you, Ian. What are you hoping to see in this game? How do you see this game finishing up? I think I anticipated that Texas would ultimately solve Arkansas's defense. But maybe they have not the fastest start. And they are afforded time to figure it out by their own defense. And so my score was 31 to 10 Texas. That is, that is not true. You texted me a higher number earlier. But we're just going to skip through that because you said 41. And now we're, was that in jest? What were you doing? That was, that was a joke after Eric relayed that his source was extraordinary. Look, there's no nuance. There's no subtext. There's no inflection in Texas. And how is I to know you didn't use it as I'm I almost, I almost asked for clarification. But I wanted to see how it would play on it. Play it out exactly how I thought it. I thought it was good. All right, Eric, you. I'm just such a literalist. What, what do you, how do you see this going Eric? I've got 24 16 Texas. I'm just kidding. I got 34 17 Texas. It's a balance between talking to the sources and gaining confidence in my own, you know, sort of soft mindset here. I think Texas, I do think that they're going to move the ball a little bit. They can also get to 17 a couple ways. Texas can blow them out in, in, you know, they score a late touchdown or whatever we saw. We actually saw Florida move the ball better than anybody all season on Texas because of the amount of blowout time. So I think there's two paths for Arkansas to get to 17. But yeah, I got 34 17, you know, earlier in the week, I didn't think I'd have them covering. I was thinking more about a 10 point win. But I do think the offense is going to have to do some problem solving. And that gives me a little bit of, you know, I don't, you know, I want to see how Quinn is going to react to the different licks he's going to get. He's going to definitely see some things that they weren't expecting. All right. What do we, how do you see this plan out there, Paul? 38 to 24. Okay. And I think that's a late score for Arkansas. All right. I think there's a good chance if what even I are thinking happens for Arkansas on defense, what they run. This could be a big game for Jaden Blue and Jerick Gibson. So Jerick Gibson, he can keep the ball in his hands and not put it on the carpet. There's a real opportunity to run a lot of gap schemes with him. And then there's an opportunity to in a complimentary fashion, throw it out to Jaden Blue out wide, but also runs Mountside zone and see if we can take down an honest or even underman front. If I think and we think Arkansas is going to run the D, we think they're going to run. So there's some real opportunity here for our running backs. They need to bring some value add. If it's a big hole, it's blocked for six. Let's make it 16. Let's not settle for the six. I had this a lot closer at 2720, but that's just frankly just my own neurosis. I'm having a hard time getting over the last time we were in there. And it is a hostile environment, but I do appreciate everybody checking in with us today for our round table. We will have a pre game show starting an hour before kickoff. The second the clock hits those zeros, we will have our post game show. So please join us and join us at inside texas.com. These guys have put out some really good work this week in terms of scouting everything and getting you really prepared for the week ahead. We appreciate everybody being here. Thank you so much. We will see you again one hour before kickoff. Take care everybody.
The IT staff breaks down their Game Predictions for The University of Texas vs The Arkansas Razorbacks