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Inside Texas Football
Monday nITe LIVE (11/18): Kentucky Wildcats Week, Team News, Sark Presser
It is Monday. Oh, coach. Are you there with us? There he is. Oh, there's there's our coach. You all right, man? It's right. I'm good. I'm good. Okay. Oh, welcome everybody. This is Inside Texas is Monday Night Live. Please join us whenever you can over at InsideTexas.com. We would love to have you over there and make sure to like and subscribe to this channel. I have now fulfilled all of the requirements that I meant to do at the top of this video. All right, gents, we had Arkansas. Two of our last three games are away. We were in Fayetteville. I would love to get your thoughts on this. We'll start with you, Drew. What were just some of your initial takeaways from the game? I think if anyone has denied this prior to this game or just hadn't been really paying attention this season, we are a defensive team. We lead with our defense. We expect our defense to put us in position to make plays, great field position, get stops, even when we're stalled multiple times on offense. So I'm proud of that personally. I love that there's no game left on our schedule that I am stressed out about regardless of the opponent because I feel strongly about the way our defense will show up every week. So as far as, you know, while our offense has not been what we want it to be, our defense continues to just die. So excited about that part and really that was my primary takeaway. Coach, one of the things that Sark said in his presser today and obviously I'm paraphrasing, but, you know, our defense genuinely believes that nobody can move the ball on them. There's a lot of confidence going on right now and that's I'm obviously seeing the small smile coming from Drew as a defensive defensive man that's got to make him happy. What are your thoughts on that? What were your thoughts on the game and how everything played out, Coach? Yeah, I'm a little bit like Drew and look, defense travels, it doesn't matter at home or when the defense shows up and they show out. The thing I love about the defense is you never know who's going to make the play, like it can be somebody to have their front foot line back into the secondary like somebody shows up each and every game. They just play on one accord, man. That's pretty special. Despite creating our own adversity, we still find a way to win. I think that's key to me. We're not in one. Like when it last time, you can really just say that. So regardless of everything, how the game went, you still came out with a victory. So to me, that says a lot, right? Because you're going to have some tough times. The rest of the season playoffs, you know, you got to find a way to dig in and find a way and kind of people get you in the corner. You got to fight your way out. Even if you put yourself in the corner, you got to find your way out of it. And so this team's able to do that. I think one of the things that I've noticed, especially in this new era that we have going into the playoffs, we've said this all along. I know Coach has been pounding this drum. The goal is that first buy, right? You want to get that buy. But to do that, obviously, you've got to have a great season and you've got to win the league. So I'm interested to hear from you, Ian, based on what you saw in Arkansas, knowing what we have ahead of us. How are you feeling? You know, I would feel a little better if I could think of a team that had won with a defensive formula where the offense wasn't built around running the football. Like I get, I get major 2009 Texas vibes from this team, where they kind of didn't have like a dominant feature on offense other than cult make something happen and cheaply. And it was usually enough paired with great defense to win should have been enough actually to win the national championship. But it was kind of dicey and there was a lot of near things. And I don't know if this offense has a feature like Colt McCoy improv and Colt McCoy to Shipley. It's like quite as hang your hat on as that team did. They might like the swings and screens that they throw every week are obviously very difficult to defend. Sarks play scripts are obviously very difficult to defend. But I just get nervous that with like a lot of run up time and a lot of stakes. A really good defense is going to clamp down on a lot of that. And then I wonder if this offense can score. I think the Georgia game was not not not from the standpoint of the offense, not playing well but when you get that many turnovers on your side of the field and give that team short fields. I think what showed me how great the defense is Georgia kick through field goals and that first half. And that was in spite of the turnovers that was in spite of the field position that was in spite of those things and so I get exactly what what you're saying. About what we have or what we made what we may need to execute on offense. But I'm to the point now where. Now I agree that worst case scenario no we can't have turnovers and win win games that map. I mean we all know that. I do feel we are built to fight if we need to fight. Meaning if it's going to be a low scoring game where our offense is not doing what it used to do. I feel our defense can keep us in those games. That's one thing you know I'm not I'm not as concerned or not. Leaving it to hoping that we can outscore anyone which I think is what you know that's what we thought we would see you know be able to put up points put up points quickly. But I still think our defense puts us in positions to where if we can get up 10 0 get up 14 0 17 0 because we're getting stops earlier in the game. It gives our offense multiple chances to kind of figure it out and get through it. I mean hopefully find some offense kind of late in the second quarter third quarter and beyond but. This won't be this is this is not a team we've seen we haven't seen anything like this particular team at Texas in a while. But we still have a ton of offense to prepare for. They mean regardless of what's working or not you still have to show that you prepare for it. And so Sark is going to attack the low hanging fruit first if your degrees are off he'll just focus there. If your D line is also focused there if your elbows are off he'll focus there. So you just it's going to have to be a team that does not leave low hanging fruit for us to know we can attack from the start and just hopefully our defense can keep us in it until we figure the rest out. I'm curious what you think about this in one of the one of the things that Sark highlighted in his press conference today with this he was very proud of the fourth quarter offense. And specifically what he was talking about there was you know when they needed a drive they gave him a drive you know after that turnover there was about six minutes left in the game. They needed to play position football and they were able to do that. There's there's something and this is maybe just me reading into body language the way that he's carrying himself but Sark seems to have a patience about him. There's not a sense of urgency with him he's very contented in what he's got going on and I'm just curious what your thoughts are on that. It seemed like when he really needed it Sark knew how to scheme up the pig defense in the run game. The I think the seconds of the drive before the fourth quarter was like a three and out with like a missed block, a dropped pass. And then that play where Quinn like stepped up in the pocket and flung the ball to Bolden over the middle. And I don't know if it was the best decision, but it was an amazing throw. And Bolden almost brought it down for first down. And after that it felt like Sark was like okay whatever we're just going to run the ball out. I know I know what to do I know what to dial up we got this. And they ran out the the ran in for a score and then they ran out the clock right. So I definitely think he was pretty confident there at the end and he knew what to do. I, you know, it was Arkansas though. So, let's see, but it's the same thing I feel has happened though like after the game goes on. I guess oh you against even Georgia. Once you get through our offense goes through goes through the script, but their defense in Arkansas's defense did it too. So they're showing so much on defense they're showing disguises they're bringing guys up to the line they're dropping guys in the coverage. If you can weather that storm where the defense is just trying to distract you. Usually we do just fine. Moving forward, but so I think when we get to the fourth quarter and there's no more surprises and Sark knows what they're going to be lined up in. The defense is kind of confident or wants players to be playing what they're confident in playing. It's it's high risk to just throw in a new blitz fourth quarter or throw in a new coverage or throw in the things that they aren't as familiar with. You just want to be able to play straight up if you can. And Arkansas at least didn't have the confidence or at least start knew exactly where to go with the offense once everything was generally declared throughout the game of kind of what they do well what they don't do well. But if it gets better teams that may not be the case late in the games but so I do agree with Arkansas part but I do think in general, Sark as the game goes on gets a good sense of what's going on. It really just it's a matter of if we get a fast start or not. Yeah, coach. I'm kind of with you on this one and well guess both yeah but everybody has something drawn up right and sometimes you say things for the fourth quarter to right. You want to give a similar look and run a different play. Everybody kind of holds back a little bit to the gets a fourth quarter especially close you can always draw something out of your bag as a coach but I think Arkansas like I said, they were just trying to stay in the game right. They didn't want to give up anything deep whatsoever and they were trying to stay in the game so fourth quarter I think they exhausted their all their looks they didn't expect to be probably didn't expect to be that close honestly. I mean they would like to but they didn't expect to be and so I think that defense coordinator really ran out of like okay what do I show them right. Most of the time you just start back over because you're a card all your plays and so started like okay I know what you got that's it. And you kind of saw Quinn just kind of go down the field office go down and feel quick because they knew exactly what they were going to get given the same windows were open he had a flat to curl concept. He stuck it in the gun and got in hell and was like okay. I know exactly what you got going so able to run the ball at the end too so I think the Arkansas ran out of bullets or start still had some more I think that's what you run into especially when you trust your players versus not trusting your players at Arkansas because they've been up and beat up so much that you just try to survive honestly. You know coach you mentioned that played a gun or hell and I think about you know they drop eight on that play and rush three. The funny thing to me is the way Quinn has been in the pocket dropping eight on that play and just rushing three was ideal I mean that was actually ideal coverage Quinn Quinn did a good job of getting rid of the ball as gun or sat down in that. And that's what but there are also other plays earlier in the game where they were dropping eight and guys were crossing running cross routes and they weren't sitting down and Quinn his eyes just got caught and that's why he got set. Or just got pressure. If it just appears in that we're not going to continue to see drop eight coverage against our offense so that's just not at least for the teams that I think that are left that's not what they do or what they do well. But I was happy to see on plays like that where Quinn shows if you are going to drop eight or dare me to be the guy who's running the ball or doing something in the passing game when we have a third and long. He can get the ball out and get it to a receiver where he needs. Right over that zone or right in between the zone in certain spots. This is a this is a great transition into the chats favorite subject and the favorite subject of virtually anybody that talks about University of Texas and that's Quinn yours so I want to talk about Quinn a little bit. But before I let's hear a word from our sponsor this video is brought to you by Luxe kitchen and bath. Luxe has been offering high end kitchen and bathroom remodels for three generations throughout the greater Austin area with five star review after five star review on Google and Facebook and an A plus rating from the Better Business Bureau. You can put your faith in Luxe kitchen and baths award winning designers and skilled craft people to bring to life that dream vision of your special home. But that's not all. Luxe's All-Star team provides full remodels, large additions and even commercial build outs as well. So call Luxe kitchen and bath at 833-358 Luxe today. Or visit Luxe kitchen bath.com to discover where quality meets luxury and begin the process of transforming your home. Get a free quote today by calling 833-358 Luxe. That's L-U-X-E. Or by visiting Luxe kitchen bath.com. Link in the description. Sandman's got the question of the evening. Serious question. Are fans being unfairly harsh on Quinn for his performance this year? Now, I would love to go with you here Ian. You've coined a phrase that I really enjoy. And that's robber buddies. Can you explain to the fine people what robber buddies are? That was the term I used when trying to describe the plot summary of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. To my fellow millennials and zoomers. I was thinking like, it's kind of like a buddy cop kind of deal those two, but they're not cops. That's like the movie is built on their relationship, right? Yeah. And they're like their buds. So you normally would call it the buddy cop genre. Yeah, but they're robbers and they're not cops. And so Robert buddies. Okay, so just so we're playing at home, the robber buddies in this particular analogy are Sark and Quinn. So how, how are Sark and Quinn, much like Sundance and Butch Cassidy, Ian? Well, when you put it like that. You put it. It's a little strange. There's a part in the movie where Sundance is challenged to shoot like a rock or something. Uh huh. Prove that he's a effective pistol ear who could be a good guard on security guard. And he starts to draw on the guys like, no, no, no, just just show me you can shoot. And so Sundance kid shoots and he misses and he says, can I move? And the guy was like, what? And then he quick draws and does like this duck and hits the target twice, you know, he's like a dead shot, right? So the analogy, the analogy is that Quinn is when he's on the move and he doesn't have to set his feet or like do traditional quarterback mechanics. He does unbelievable things with the ball. He can make unbelievable throws. But when you ask him to like go through reads and sync up his feet and his eyes with the throw to throw on time. He's coach below average. Is that fair? Below average for a four year senior player? You don't want to say. He's he's not good at it. He's not good at like these post routes that he's missing. They're not that hard for a veteran quarterback people. They're really not. But when he's moving around, he's, you know, Patrick Mahomes. It's the weirdest thing. So, so to go back to Sandman's question. The criterion collection description of butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid by Ian Boyd was not only reductive. It was delightful. I really appreciate it. I got another one too if you want. I don't. Let's. So are we being too harsh on Quinn is the question that Sandman has. What are your thoughts on that drew. Who are we like who's being too harsh. I mean, the fans. I think he was talking fans writ large here. We at the end of the day, we expect the standard is the standard, right? I think we know what good looks like. We know what good Quinn looks like. So if we're not getting good Quinn, if you're the quarterback at Texas or anywhere and you're not paying to a certain standard of potential. I mean, that that's what's going to happen. It is what it is. As a player, I really don't care how harsh anybody is. You had your title to be as pissed off at him. You pay. We all invest time into this team. We invest time and energy into it. So yeah, I think we all want to see Quinn do well. So just harsh harshness comes with it. I don't really care about harsh. I care about. Quinn, how are you preparing this week? What are you going to do to continue to work this offensive game plan this week? How are you going to execute? Really more importantly, how is everybody else going to make life easier for Quinn around him? Quinn needs help. Quinn is not. At least has not shown so far that he can exclusively carry us throughout four quarters without necessarily the run game or do something with his feet because the offensive line is out of sync. So we need everyone around Quinn to be sound so that Quinn can be sound at a minimum. So that's really what I care about. As long as we're winning games, I don't care. I just need everyone around Quinn to be able to a standard so that they're playing well, but also for Quinn to then be able to play to his standard. So we just we just want to see good Quinn. There's a lot of state and yeah, a lot to be excited about him. We just know what we can be when he is at his best. We just not have not seen as much of the best from him. So it's just that's all I want to do is get to work and everybody around him do the same. Let's transition over a little bit to some excellent ball we saw this weekend. The standard being executed very, very highly and there are three players in particular three three defensive players of the week. And let's just let's just start with. Let's just start with jude I mean kid absolutely balled out. What were your thoughts on his performance this weekend coach. He wants to walk with a talk award. He lined up everywhere right if he's not playing corn he's playing there but he played a lot of a little on back and blitz and brought pressure I mean he was all over the place. This is like the goal was like I said to win the door this past weekend but he showed everything he's been capable of the last four years he's been here. Right we try to throw a little little little RPO screen or dump off to the flats. He's like man he's been killing that since he's playing the slot like don't do that to his side right. I was surprised that Taylor green kept throwing at him I was like me you don't want a hard lesson today buddy but Jay balled out man like he's done over the past four years he's been at Texas and so I didn't expect anything less but yeah he showed his versatility this weekend and all over the place and I feel scouts got to be drooling at this point. So Drew you were you were someone that switched positions several times when you were at a UT what what makes what makes jude a special why what what separates him from the another elite defensive back. There are several things first of all is just his knowledge of the game. You can't trick him with the underneath stuff you can't bait him into attacking something that's not as threatening as maybe a default so even this is interception. He knew he had the green light to drop off and go play that. I mean that that's how you play that zone you have a guy underneath why you're playing on top. Now the quarterbacks going to tell you where he sent the ball and if he was starting to the flats today would have been ready to come down and make the play in the flats. But you got to know where your most threat your where your where your threats are going to be and be in position to make a play when that ball goes that way so that's one thing he's always in position to make a play. But he also understands leverage. When you see him get physical in the run game or at least being positioned. It's not even his a physical player. As much as it is hey he has good leverage he knows how to get off blocks. And when he gets there he's usually sounding any guys down so there there's instincts. But the understanding the game and understanding where he's supposed to be within the game. And then there's just that there's ball skills and gamesmanship. The guy knows how to make plays. We've had instances where guys over the years just the ball gets in the hands. You know I want that one back. You know that you don't get those back as a player you if you drop a pick you may not see another one you may not see another opportunity to get one. Every time he gets a shot. He takes advantage of it. Michael Taft. When he gets a shot he takes advantage of it. Andrew McCuba. Like the dude when he gets shot to get his hands on the ball I mean tip balls are not like they're playing really well from a play making perspective. We're given the offense many chances. But I do think there's just a cohesiveness and a mentality of, hey we have to make these plays and those guys they make them when they're right in front of them. John A just leads the these the pack back there on on that front so. If you reading inside Texas.com there's no way that you're surprised by the intellect of this secondary. This is something that Eric has been on in the preseason. This was a high football IQ secondary that we anticipated coming in this year. And Mark Stoops is even saying that you know this this is arguably one of the best secondaries in the country. So to be able to have that drew I think is is pretty impressive. I want to move over to the other two players that were the defensive players of the week and that was Alfred Collins and Baron Sorrell. Start with you Ian. What were some of the things that you're really were some of the things that separate Alfred from from the others this not only this week but I mean he's he's been having a really great season. Did they make Sorrell a player the week. They did. That makes sense. He was I noticed he made a lot of plays when I was rewatching the other day. Collins I mean he's learned how to hold his ground when teams throw double teams and down blocks at him which was something he was inconsistent it for a long time. So he holds up on those now, but then he has this elite length 65 long arms and lateral agility. And so now that he's not getting just washed down and he's using his hands better. He gets off blocks and he makes plays on a routine basis. And he's just it's just another it's just another success story of an older Texas defensive tackle, figuring it out in his later years and making good on elite talent. They're going to need some of the next wave to figure it out a little faster but I mean he's playing his way into an awesome draft grade and a good rookie contract. So one of the things that again going back to this press conference today that Sark was really pleased with and I think obviously some of this has to do with the fact that we are going into our last regular season home game it is senior night. So he's he is you know lamenting on the progress that he's seen in these players but I'd love to hear from your you coach and Baron is one of those players Baron Sorrell, one of those players that may not necessarily flash in the broadcast but on the rewatch is is all over the joint. What are your thoughts work. I love players like van Sorrell he's gone great high every week especially with the coach because he does a job he does a job and does it very well like he's a complete defensive in plays a run well rush the passer squeezes and closes face when the ball goes away from him you know kind of sags off make sure there's no cut back like he does things most people just wouldn't notice every Saturday just watching the game like he does his job to the team and that's what you expect. You know pretty well at the next level right because you're sticking around because your fundamentals are just so sound and he's a fundamentally sound guy. So it's Ethan Burke on the other side like I think both of those guys are really underrated and most people don't really appreciate him for the dirty work and things that they do but they're so key to a defense. They're playing well because they said everybody else up right taking on double teams. If a guard pools on the counter or power like you're wrong shoulder man so that you're like I can scrape free and make a tackle. You don't get credit for it in the stat sheet but you're going to great high you know Sunday morning when you go in from the coaches hand out their sheets. Coach did you see I saw this one play where they they tried to pin Sorrell and pulled alignment outside of him. And the Titan, Titan starts to pin him and Sorrell worked off of it and then cut the back off on the perimeter. He just doesn't stay blocked. Hi motor player. Yeah I didn't see the play but it doesn't surprise him like he just does that consistently well like he doesn't like you said he fights off blocks and gets right in the gap he's supposed to be in the state and so it's like man okay this is just a solid player all around. I want to take a quick second in here from our second sponsor of the evening. I'm just 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. I wanted to do it just a quick shout out to Brett Nelson the Patriots Saint of the broadcast so thank you Brett. The question Brett is asking is how do we match up against the Aggies. Now I'm going to take a little turn on this Brett please don't be too mad at me but we do have a game right before that and that's Kentucky. And Stupes gave his press conference today. He's someone that openly admits that they play a little bit ugly. I don't think that their record necessarily reflects how good they can be. They played Ole Miss very close, played Tennessee very close and only lost by a point to Georgia. This is in no way a gimme. So I'm just curious again this week when we talk to you live on Monday night this is the first bit of the week we're going to have a lot of analysis coming up. But Ian I would just love to get your initial thoughts and then obviously the thoughts of the rest of the lads. On Kentucky then? Yeah on Kentucky, not A&M yet. I can, I cannot believe how bad Kentucky has been this year. They have like NFL defensive tackles NFL wide receivers, which I think are the two most high impact positions in the game. And they are what like four and six. Yes. They find ways to lose games. They don't make the most of their receivers. I think I would be a little nervous if Texas faced a really physical power run game after watching some of Chiquinden Jackson's plays the other week. I don't know if Texas is like, I think they can defend any style, but I think a really good physical power run game would be a little bit of a challenge for them. Drew doesn't think so. Maybe Drew's right. No, I'm shaking my head because I don't want to see it. I hope they don't run power. I, I, I get tears every time I've seen like the last week when they ran power. Yeah, so I'm concerned just to let you know. Okay, so you actually on board with that. But Kentucky is not a particularly good power team in my opinion this year. A lot of times their best power is to do it with Brock Van de Graaff, which, I mean, I can do that and that can be trouble, but they're not going to. It's not to Quinden Jackson, like Brock Van de Graaff. He's, he's like a. I hate to make this comparison because it's unfair to Sam Langer, but he's, he's a, he's a bit of a Sam Langer type runner. In that game, he can, they could give him 20 carries, he could go for like two or three a pop and keep the chains moving. But he's not going to like kill you, you know, and then he doesn't throw like Sam. So I think Kentucky is not very good. If Texas overlooks them, they're going to get caught. They're good enough to catch you. I don't think they're a very good team. Drew, I know you got some thoughts. I know you have some thoughts here. What are you thinking about Kentucky? We just need to handle business. I mean, at the end of the day, I felt like even games have come close. I mean, even Vanderbilt. We were in control. So I'm at the point of the season. Well, I don't care how it looks. I just want us to win. And that's that. So this is a game we should win. Our defense should show up. We should know at this point what they do well. But you're writing in the power run game concerns me because I think that's two weeks. Is it two weeks in a row? We've seen. I know ball did it with Florida. I mean, there's there. There's some, there's some issues reading that run fit or fitting that in a way that I'm confident in it. But I mean, we'll coach it and we'll play to it. And I think teams know they can't win with it. But I think for the most part, we should be in position to do what it is we have to do. But this is a big game for Kentucky. I mean, they had a bi week and then they had a nice tee up warm up game last week before playing us. So we've just got to take care of business. Coach, what are your thoughts? All the reason you have some been worried back in mind is because they beat Ole Miss. I know it's early in the season, but they're capable. They play their game and they're allowed to play their game for four quarters. They got defensive players, you know, that we got it. We're going pretty high and start the season. I don't know what's happened, you know, during the season. But if you let them stick around, like think of and invite you and hurt you. So we got to play our game. We got to play our standard. Stoops to send all the right things in the media, come from in our players, how nice they are. But I'm sorry. We're going to go ahead and upset Texas. We can beat them until you get out. You can play with them in. So we need to play our game just like it's. I don't know anybody else want to scale. It's Texas versus Texas at the end of the day. So just handle your business. That's what you have to do and not worry about it. One of the, one of the questions here, and I just want to go to this, George, because the question is, do we think Sidir will be ready by next year? I'm without maybe even talking about Sidir specifically Drew. I'm just curious because one of the things that we've noted over and over again, specifically talking about Alfred Collins, maybe even a little bit of Baron Sorrell here, is the idea that players at that particular position really, really benefit from years in the program. And really benefit from getting the coaching that they need. And Sidir is, you know, he's, he's a player that has been certainly in the spotlight, not necessarily for the best reasons always, but a large human being that has a definitive skill set. And I'm just curious, what is the progression for someone like that coming, coming into, coming into the college world, developing, getting used to their body, frankly, I mean, what should we expect out of a Sidir in a third year? I mean, it really comes down to off season. It comes down to how, I mean, does he want to play more than two plays consistently at a time? Is he going to be good at doing something other than just kind of stuffing up and holding up double teams? Is he going to be able to get off? Can he play outside zone? You know, there's little things here and there you want to see him do. Can he move his feet? Can he play with his feet in his hands? I mean, those are things that will come with time, and everyone has a different clock. I'm as long as he's willing to develop. And as long as we maintain the standard defensive line, meaning if he can't meet that standard, we'll go get someone in a portal, we'll go develop other players who are ready to go. But so for me and him, it really, when it comes to him, I'm not as concerned about, is he going to be ready next year as much as I am? Is he still bought in to development? Is he still fully bought in to Tory Beckton in the off season? Is he still hungry enough to work on those things that he does not do well enough yet? The program doesn't appear to have given up on him. He is still like, even later in the season right now, he's starting to log, log snaps here and there in situations where, I mean, we have a ton of depth at the position. So we're continuing to make progress and next year may not be the year, but the off season is going to tell everything and it may come down to how hungry is and how much he wants to improve or how much is even capable of physically improving certain things. It's schematically, but sides is there. We just got to see if he's ready to deploy. Can he get strong enough fast enough agile enough to log more than just a few snaps at a time and so it's really up to him. Literally, literally how hungry he is. Like he needs to go to bed hungry. A lot of nights this off season, right? And trim down a little bit and that's going to help on a lot of these things. What is this is a question for you as we're going into the port or the portal going into the chat room here. So this is from Daniel and he's asking, has Kentucky ran the 335 Ian, what are they running right now in defense. I think he means he's asking specifically about this three deep safety defense right. Yes. Kentucky actually is a base. 335 team, but it's not the three deep safety type. It's a, they play with three big defensive lineman and then a hybrid edge. Sometimes he's on the line. Sometimes he's dropping into coverage. This is a great time to say this. It's not the flyover that's giving Texas trouble. If, if Quinn hits, even one of those open post routes. It's a very different game. If, if Gunnar Helm doesn't drop a couple of wealth run balls by Quinn, it's a different game. Quinn through who's a couple, Quinn and Gunnar, which is could not connect. There's a lot of examples there. It wasn't a problem of scheme. And the, the thing I would be worried about going forward is not teams playing back. It would be team saying, wait, is Quinn going to hit this post route. Do we actually need to respect it as much as we suspected it. If teams start playing tighter and playing quarters and letting their safeties get a little more involved in the middle of the field and trusting their corners on the post route. I think that's, I think that's what you want to look out for. What moving on. This is another question. This is a little bit more of a fun projection here. MJF is asking, what is Ant Hill's position in the NFL? Is he an inside outside linebacker or an edge? I'll throw this one to you coach. What are you just shoot from the hip? What are your thoughts? I think he's a versatile guy, man. He can do it all. I think we're starting to see he can rush off the edge. He can play Mike. Maybe next year, he's down in space covering guys one on one. Like, you never know. He's a chess pitch. You can kind of move them all around in your defense. You can have to be in the NFL because there's no more traditional. Hey, I'm in the middle. They move guys around. Drew, what are your thoughts on that, Drew? I think based on size, I think he'll be a linebacker, but he's situationally one of the best pass rushers on the team. I don't know how you don't put him in that position. He's a sideline, a sideline guy who can cover out in space can, I mean, you want him tracking just all across the field. So I don't see how you don't play him in linebacker, but he's one of your best pass rushers. You'll put him in position to do that as well. NFL does a really good job of not wasting certain players of his skill set if he has that skill set. So, you know, I'm sure he'll, he'll be able to max out everything he brings to the table. Isn't he basically, he's basically Texas's version of Kenneth Murray. I think he's a little, hopefully a little faster on the development curve in terms of like reading and reacting and inside linebacker. We'll see. I want to talk about that development a little bit, Ian, because this is one of the, this is one of the conversation pieces we had in the preseason and going in was how well was Ian, Ian, how well was Ant going to develop the between the years game of middle linebacker I'm curious what your, how has this progression been. Do you feel like he's succeeded at that I see you nodding coach what are your thoughts on his mental development. I would say it's been terrific. Yeah. Now Paul has been noticing, and I think this is what you're is alluding to as well. Paul Paul will stay until the cows come home. If you double team the play side. He's going to tackle and make Anthony Hill find the ball. He's going to wait, and you can, and there's positive runs to be picked up on because he's not recognizing and attacking plays, the way that maybe he will as a junior or senior. Probably not going to stick around to be a senior. I think that's true. But that's also pretty normal for Texas's linebackers over the years and under Peekwick Cowsky. They usually teach him to kind of wait and see. And, and they're just they just don't teach him to play that downhill until they like really know that they recognize it. What's in front of them. Does this make sense. Are you following the cell seat. Yeah, I gotcha. So he's, he's playing it. He's, he's on an awesome trajectory. There are much higher levels of inside linebacker play for him to be like a, like a James Laurenitis or, you know, upperclass man Derek Johnson, where you're seeing something and then you're just running to the ball, like Danny Stutzman does at Oklahoma this year. That is a level that is a level that is well beyond Anthony Hills right now. But him kind of hanging back to wait and see and being in positionally sound and not letting the ball get past him is working really well. And he makes a ton of plays because of when he turns into pursuit mode. He makes plays. He's been solid and coverage. And then obviously they can just turn him loose on a blitz to. That was different. That was different than what we were taught. I mean, once you read the power, for example, once you read zone, like, we're taught to hit that gap. So you're pulling when we were playing, we were taught to hit that gap. So you can pull that offensive lineman off the DT. And so you're, you're perfectly fit as long as the DT doesn't get reached and as long as you have proper leverage you're fine. I think this is so uncomfortable for me because on plays where the D line is not anchoring as well on some of those double teams, they're getting push, being able to pull it coming around and like, there's no more time to read this like you got to hit something. But you've got to, you've got to come pull somebody off of something, but some of that is right because y'all didn't have to worry about, you know, no, we're back pulling the ball and throwing it over your head to the tight end or some nonsense. That was just before Baylor got roller. So it is a different game, but it's just, that's why you need defensive lineman who are great at the point of attack. In those situations, you cannot, you cannot play in this defense or you cannot play the RPO you cannot play the power you can't do any of the things that we're asking this defense to do without defensive lineman who are going to make you pay for it, whether you just you have to pick your poison. So, there's no surprise on games where we do see where Anthony here where the linebackers aren't as sharp. Usually our D line is doing really well. It's, but it's just yeah, it doesn't make me comfortable when it, and it seemed like last week, for example, Arkansas could have kept running if they wanted to. But obviously if they would have chosen to do that, it wouldn't have been possible either it's just, I don't like to see it. That's what we fit. Sure, of course. Coach, what are your thoughts on ants development? I knew he was a fast learner and just dating back. He plays a freshman didn't ride. It takes a lot. You can't just jump out there and play the freshman at that level. So it's just kind of knowing the kid like he's all about football and he watches a ton of film. He's always studied the game. So, I felt like when he got to college, he'd pick up everything kind of quickly. Plus he had athletic ability to kind of carry him over. But it's different when you got the green dot and you got to make calls and the checks and all of that. But I think he's done a good job, you know, sophomore and college being kind of in control of the defense. And so, I think he'll get even better next year of reading where he won't hesitate. He'll be like, I've seen this a million times on film. I'm attacking, right? Even if it is a RPO, he's like, you know, I've seen this. I know what's coming. You kind of see him start to kind of jump and make plays that that way else can make. You know, we go here the analysis and he's like, it's like he really knew what was coming, right? He's going to get those kind of plays going into nature. I feel, but he's done a great job. Drew, this may be a low hanging fruit question, but without overlooking Kentucky, what do you want to see in that Kentucky game that would give you more confidence? Going into the final game of the season against the Aggies. Offensive continuity. Everyone cleaned up things around Quinn. And I'd like to see some something on special teams that inspires me. I'd really like to see special teams clean up. We used to win with special teams. So we won games with special teams. And just under start. I don't know if it's too late in the season for that. I'm just going to assume it is. But yeah, I want to see us play well around Quinn and then see what Quinn does when we play well around him. I mean, that's really it. I expect our defense to do what we need them to do. But that's what I want to see clean offensive play around Quinn. Let's see how we look. That's another thing that scares me about my own cop to 2009. Okay, 2019 was awesome on special teams. And they had, I don't remember who the punter I can't remember who any of the specialists were actually, but I know they were all nails and they made plays they'd like. And they could put in George Shipley at punt return. And this year, it seems like it all got derailed when they had to pull Trey Weisner to be like the feature running back when he was going to maybe be the feature special teams guy. And then the Michael current the punter has been okay. But since he got hurt it's been a little dicey on punts. So they got such a bird, at least. What are your thoughts here, coach? What do you want to see in this in this Kentucky game that's going to give you more confidence going into college station. I honestly just want to see a clean game. I'm not asking for Quinn and offense go put a 500 yards of offense, but I would just love to see some consistency, maybe run game past game like just policing this all together. Defense, I'm not really worried about because like I said, they bring it every game, but I think everybody's heart flow special teams. I want to see a complete special team game no penalties. I'm voting, don't give me a heart attack field in the ball nation. You know, the gunners actually working together to pin the ball within the outside to go line. I think they both went inside the end zone and just missed the ball completely. I'm like, man, like work together talk communicate. I want to see special teams put together because I feel like that's the third phase as missing of this team that could cost us going into the playoffs. I think everybody said it all season like special teams special teams did matters. And so I want to see that cleaned up right because I want everything fine to get ready for the playoffs. I know you mentioned the special teams and your comp there Ian is there is there anything in particular I mean what what I'm hearing from from coach and drew here is they want continuity and cleanliness right we need to play a clean game. What are your thoughts what what can Texas do in this Kentucky game that is going to give you confidence going into college station. Well special teams wise I just doesn't feel like they flip field position very often. Like Silas Bolden every once in a while but every man, like find somebody who believes in you like Silas Bolden believes in his own hands, right. It almost always works out. Okay. But when you watch the decision making live you're just like, Oh, he's surely. Oh, man. You know, and then he does exactly what you're afraid he's going to do. And the the punting they don't. I mean, they're pretty far from Michael Dixon, right. Sure. Other than that just for Kentucky I don't really I'm with Drew I don't really care. Like if if Queen Ewers comes alive and does all the things that we've been waiting to see, or they like run the ball like wild on Kentucky sprint somehow. I don't really care just survive in advance. And then let's see it when it matters against A&M and then the SEC Championship. But whatever it takes, I don't care. Right. There is a lot to be discussed this week and we hope that you will join us at inside Texas.com but please be sure to like and subscribe to the channel. There's going to be an absolute ton of information coming at you. Not only on the site at inside.com but certainly here we're going to have lives. We had one this morning we'll have one tomorrow morning Wednesday all the way up in the Thursday in the morning and then we'll have a Wednesday live and don't don't sleep on the deep dive with Ian and Paul. We really appreciate you being here. Thanks so much. And here's our really weird in bumper. [Music]
The Kentucky Wildcats come to town for the final regular season game at DKR. The boys review the Arkansas match up, take your questions, and talk team news.