And welcome to Inside The Program on the Inside Texas Football YouTube channel, powered by InsideTexas.com. I'm your host Justin Wells. With me, as always, Eric Nalene, managing publisher at InsideTexas.com. Please, before we even get into the good stuff today, like our video, subscribe to the Inside Texas Football YouTube channel. Help us get to that 8,000 mark. We are climbing each day. Also, come see us at InsideTexas.com. If you use the promo code IT1 that will get you two months of InsideTexas.com for only a dollar. That's all through the official visit season. That's team workout, some reports. That's everything. There's so much good stuff there. Come see us at InsideTexas.com. Good to see you as always, Eric. It's always a pleasure to get to holler at you. Hey, we got some team stuff and we got some recruiting stuff because that's what we do best at Inside Texas. So let's dive into the team stuff first. You had a really good think piece this week on overlooked longboards. A lot of times, we talk about the big names. We talk about the guys that have the expectations. But some guys sometimes get a little behind the scenes. They don't know as much about them. Sometimes the expectations don't meet through freshman year. Let's talk a little bit about some of these guys, because I thought this list was really good. I want you to start on the offensive side of the ball. You've got a couple guys there that I think are dynamic playmakers. There's just other guys around them as well that seem to get a little bit more notoriety. Why don't you start with the offensive guys? Yeah, CJ Baxter was the first guy I mentioned. Running back, of course, he came in with a lot of fanfare. Very highly rated. Somehow, he was the number one running back in the nation. Running back is often a position that you can make an immediate impact. It looked like he was headed that way. Sarcane, when the starter, even ahead of Jonathan Brooks to open the season. You got dinged up in the opener against Bryce. I'm not sure you ever quite caught us footing after that. Battle through injuries, ran a little timid at times. I think you're still getting used to the schemes. You ran a lot of gap schemes, which create a lot more certainty for running back as opposed to zone schemes where you have to feel your way through it. I think it was just a transition year for him. However, I'm not down on him in the slightest. I think that he's going to be very good this year. I think he's going to have a great career. I think he's going to live up to all the hype. But because of Jaden Blue's breakout and how electric he is as a ball carrier, I think that CJ Baxter is going a little bit under the radar right now. I think he's going to run with more power this year. I think he's going to run with more confidence, more decisiveness. And he's got a good combination of power and speed that I think is going to become pretty obvious like it was in high school this upcoming season. Hey, the running back room, it's easy to get overlooked there, Eric. I mean, Choice has stocked a cupboard pretty, pretty well. There's a lot of good big names in that room as well. And so it goes without saying that Baxter, you know, sometimes there's competition there. At wide receiver, this is a guy we don't hear as much. The fancy names are Isaiah Bond, Ryan Wingo. Those are the ones people talk about John Tate Cook. But here's another guy that is about as consistent as you get in the program. And he has a very good, you know, he has a great connection with the quarterbacks, especially Arch Manning. Talk about DeAndre Moore. Yeah, you know, he's got some maturity in that room. And you know, there's a lot of new faces. They're young in other spots. You know, they lost a lot of leadership this past year. I think Moore's kind of doing his best to fill that void. He's got very, very good speed. He's going to bring a more vertical element to that position than Jordan Whittington last season. And he's right. He works hard. He blocks. He's a blocker. He's going to kind of help, help, you know, remediate that the absence of Whittington, you know, losing his blocking at that kind of, he full back out in space that Whittington was. I think DeAndre Moore's a willing blocker. And I think it's got a chance to make some big plays. You know, we've seen him flash in the spring game this past year, he flashed the year before he dropped it. But you could see his open field speed is very good at the slot. He might be the fastest slot they have. Outside of Niblet, I just don't think Niblet is quite as ready as Moore. So, you know, I think I do expect, I get asked all the time, are they going to play a deeper bench this year? I do anticipate that. And I think that's going to help Moore get on the field, whether he starts or not. He's going to play a lot. And I think he's going to make some plays down the field where everybody's focused on the outside receivers. And he's going to be putting some safeties to work. He certainly made that first play or second play of the spring game. He made a big play there and really caught Terrence Brooks by surprise a little bit. Let's go talking about defensive players. Let's go on that side of the field. You know, when you say linebacker, I think the first thought is always Anthony Hill Jr. And it should be. He's a beautiful and glorious six, two and a half, six, three, 235 pounds. He should be. But listen, there's another guy back there that I think does a lot of good stuff. He's hyper athletic. He's one of those hybrids where he came in with some safety ability. He did a lot of good things on special teams. Hey, call me Maurice Blackwell. Tell me what Mo Blackwell does and why he's so overlooked. Yeah, you know, he was such a football player on and on high school tape, kind of like, you know, everybody falls in love with Michael Terry right now. Go watch Maurice Blackwell's high school tape just for fun and count how many different positions he played. He sort of brings that versatility to the position. It hasn't always been as good in coverage as he should be. That's more of a mental thing rather than a physical and athletic traits thing. He's getting a lot more comfortable in all of his duties. Even though he's a senior, he hasn't played a ton and he has battled through some injuries at times and he hasn't always been the ideal weight. Well, right now he's up over 220 pounds. He looks the part, he plays the part. He's a lot more confidence, confident. He brings great energy to the room, to the program. You say hyper athletic. He's just hyper in general. He's always ready to work. He's got some leadership in tangibles. Everybody talks about Hill and David Bend as well. I think Maurice Blackwell is going to play a lot and it's interesting that he also plays Sam. So when they're in base defense, you're going to see him out on the field. He's going to play a good amount this year. I think I always get asked about every linebacker except for him. It seems like that's why he's kind of stood out as being overlooked. He's a good player. Yeah, the Arlington Martin grad, he's been doing really well in Austin for the last three or four years. This could be that breakout year. You know, when we talk in the secondary and you mentioned nickel and star, you instantly think it's a day bearing and the fact that he came back. And I think that kind of goes under the radar that Aaron is back. You know, that veteran back there and that back seven is back five. Sometimes it's really good. Jalen Gilbo, I mean, each time we talk to sources this spring, each time you had a practice reporter or team report, Jalen Gilbo's name gets mentioned over and over. We saw him on Saturday. He looks fantastic. Eric, why is he so overlooked in Texas right now? Yeah, you know, he arrived with a little fanfare, but then he flashed immediately for, you know, for good and bad reasons, you know, he was making it early on. And, you know, we were thinking, hey, man, this guy might be a superstar. He's going to have to wait his turn, but he's got some real upside here. And then he kind of just disappeared to the point, you know, Sark even joked about, you know, after spring boy is like, hey, welcome back Jalen Gilbo. You know, he's got he's got he's a dog, man. You got to be a dog at that position. Jade's a dog. You've got to have that mentality that you're going to take on bigger blockers. You got to play the run game with like a linebacker. You got to cover like a corner. He's got those he's got those traits, but he has to he had to put it together. I was concerned that he was going to leave during the winter portal season, especially with the talk of Jade Barron coming back. He stuck around and not only did he stick around, he had his best practice block so far. I think the fact that Barron is going to play more corner. Let's Jalen Gilbo realize, hey, I'm going to I'm going to play a whole lot of snaps this year. Obviously, the staff feels really confident about him. Otherwise, they wouldn't have let Austin Jordan roll out. So yeah, I think he's going to play a lot this year, especially when Barron's at corner. You know, Eric, that's a great point. You know who isn't overlooked? Andre the lawyer. Anytime you're hurt, any time you're you're stuck on the job injuries, 18 Wheeler accidents, wrongful deaths, this longtime inside Texas reader, longtime Longhorn faithful. Andre the lawyer is the guy you need to call. He's located in Dallas, Texas. 214-444-8808. That's Andre the lawyer at 214-444-8808. Give him a call if you ever need him. He's Anthony Hill. He's consistent. He's there all the time and he comes downhill. All right, now we're going to dive into recruiting. And before we get into the official visit weekend with six recruits that we're going to talk about and give you some percentages on, let's talk about a Texas commit. Adam Elburn, Florida, Brandon Brown, defensive tackle, D line recruiting seems to be the hot topic right now in the industry. And Brandon Brown is a guy that, you know, I don't know how community is Eric. I got to tell you, I caught up with his family yesterday. You know, they're still pledged to Texas, but they're treating it like he's not committed. They're definitely doing the song and dance with all these teams, with all these programs. He just got off the LSU OV. I felt very strongly about LSU flipping him. I still kind of think they have the upper hands. He'll be at Tennessee this weekend. He's still going to see Texas. He's still going to flirt with those Florida schools. But with Brandon Brown, you know, just hold on loosely. This is a guy that he's out of state. And so you're always a little hesitant on how kids are kept in there. But Eric, it really just goes to the urgency of D line recruiting, because I think that's the one position that's got fans kind of stumped the most. They want to see some action right now. And I think the long play, which you say the long run and the long play at D line might be the safest route right now. Yeah, I think it's all going to work out. It's going to be some bumps along the road and maybe a little bit of turbulence. It's important that the staff recruits him like he's uncommitted and they recruit the position like they have zero guys committed. Maybe they can get some Florida guys in there and keep them company. Maybe they can get a Florida commit or two in the coming weeks or months that'll help them out. And you can kind of build a consensus in that area with guys. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised to be decommitted. Hopefully he's still committed. By the time he comes to visit at Texas and just see it. But if they lose them, they got to replace them. If they hold on to them, great. But they've got to be aggressive, aggressive, aggressive, aggressive. They got to land four good players. They got to land some guys that can play next year. They got to land some guys that have high upside. They got to have land some guys that have high floors. They've got to kill it. But I feel pretty good about where they sit on defensive tackle recruiting despite there being a little bit of headwinds here and there. They just got to keep fighting through it. Two of those big D linemen on the big board are going to be on campus this weekend. There's a six pack of recruits headed to Austin for official visit weekend. You dropped an article this morning about percentages. We're going to go through each one of those real quick and we're going to start with a defensive lineman because that's what we were talking about. And we know that the importance there and to me, the best one on the board is Josiah Sharma out of Folsom High School rather in Sacramento. This is a cat. Big, big nasty guy. This is the guy that you usually see on draft day walking across the stage. Was formerly committed to Washington and head coach Kaitlyn DeBore. Kaitlyn takes the job at Alabama. Now Alabama becomes the de facto leader in that recruitment. But they're getting him on campus. Texas has some advantages here that may not be as known. And I think that's the biggest key with Sharma. Talk a little bit about how important he is and your percentage and then I'll shoot mine at you. Well, they need two big guys and then they need two athletic mobile guys. And you know, Brandon Brown obviously is your athletic mobile guy. Sharma would be one of your big guys because Iron Williams would account for one of those big guys as well. So the bigger they are, the harder they are to find. So, you know, Sharma, that puts the priority on Sharma. I can't believe he was rated as a 90 or something. He should be a 94, 95 probably. Very talented guy. Very athletic for his size. You know, it's Oregon, Alabama or Texas. I think Alabama has a slight lead right now. Texas did well in the spring visit, caught their attention. You know, I think there's a little nugget there that you shared a week or two ago that I think is probably flying under the radar a little bit. I'm not we're not 100% sure it's going to come through, but it's definitely being talked about. There's a there's a chance his mother might move to Texas. She has family and friends in the DFW area. And she's actually looking at potentially moving back to Texas. That would be huge in this recruitment because Sharma definitely has that tie with his mother like most and he wants to be around her. And I think that's a big factor. Listen, if they can get through this official visit weekend and really solidify their standing, they'll get him back on campus this fall. That's when we talked about earlier the long game because with some of these guys, that's what it's going to take. Well, you know, he's going to he's going to announce in July. They better. They better not. They better be on this one. And, you know, what it was told to us is if she does move to DFW, that does help Alabama too. That's you. She's cutting her flight from Sacramento in half. And so that, you know, it could be a benefit to Alabama as well. But yeah, I like where Texas is. I put him at 40%. Yeah, I'll I'm with you. I'm probably at 30 35%. I want to I want some clarity after this OV. You know, obviously he's going to love it. You know, the attention, the facilities, they all they all say about the same thing when they leave. But we're going to have to dig in a little bit on the details for Sharma because that's a guy that you can't miss on a few of these guys. You know, you're going to have to hit on some of these big. Another one is Myron Charles. That's a big, big cat out of out of Florida. You've got him at 40% on your percentages. Tell us why you're you're feeling a little optimistic there about Myron Charles. Yeah, you know, I think Texas knows a lot of the right people involved in that recruitment. I think that he's open to leaving the state. I like I kind of like when Florida state is the competition. Well, as we'll talk about it with another player in a minute, I'm not sure that they compete in some ways. And so yeah, I think Texas has a chance. They got to have a good good visit though, of course. That's a big thing. And this is his second time. He's already been to Austin once in the spring. And so getting him back to me is the key. Anytime we're talking about out of state guys, multiple trips on campus to me always pretend to have a better recruitment edge. There's a freak in Florida. I believe it's Coco Florida. JB on Hillsin. This dude is a is a dude. He's been committed to a couple schools. Alabama first. But then when Saban retired, he decided to change his mind. Flip to Florida state. Now he's looking around for potentially a new partner. Texas has been kind of quiet in this recruitment. But you know, they're putting a lot of emphasis on edge. They have Lance Jackson in this class. They love where they are with Marco Jones. Why 35% for JB on Hillsin for you? Yeah, in Florida state, you know, I don't find them the most formidable competition right now. I know they had a great season last year. You know, he's looking for stability. He was just out of Florida recently. And you know, I think another place that underlines the importance of stability through its absence is probably Florida. We'll have them as the number two school. I just don't see he would flip from Florida state Florida. I don't see that happening. So I think Texas is already setting up to be in second place right now. And yeah, he's open to leaving the state in my buddy that talked to him recently says he actually thinks Texas is going to win out in the end if they stay on it throughout. I'm going to match that 35% even though that entails from you just because they're they're putting emphasis on that edge spot. And I think they're in the mix for some pretty, it's pretty raw dogs, man. Uh, staying on the defensive side, Caleb Chester, this might be the easiest of the recruitments for the most part that are coming in. We know how great Texas looks in this recruitment. You're the closest to Caleb Chester. You've got him at 70%. I'm probably leaning higher. I think 75% would probably be the best dose there. 62, 180 pounds. Why they high percentage on Caleb Chester. Yeah, you know, you might you might be more in line. It's funny. I know better. And your percentage is probably more accurate. I don't I don't I don't think he's going to end up at A&M. I know I'm not worried about Arkansas. It's it's Texas. I think it's probably always been Texas since they prioritize them. We've covered on inside Texas, you know, throw the rating out the room. He, uh, you know, the the staff views him right up there with Dorian Brew in state. And so, you know, I think that was that was probably the moment that this recruitment went in you cheese favor. It's not hasn't gone that way yet, but they still have to have a good compelling weekend. Um, you know, my only concern has always been, hey, do they do they start playing the long game? Do they want to look around? Do they start surveying the whole land again? Or do they keep the the foot down on the gas and stay on this recruitment? That's been my only hesitation. I'm not saying they'll do that. I don't know. Um, but for now, and for a while, he's been a priority. So I think they are going to push to close this down 70% and I opine that I think he'll probably be the first DB commit, but you know, we'll see boys to go. Hey, and let's not forget they have he has a fantastic teammate 2026 Safety Isaiah Williams who talks to Texas on a regular basis. And I think the horns are in a good spot there too. That always helps as well. And that's a thumper back there with the junior to be. Um, we're going to go, we're going to go to athlete designation, even though he would play defense at Texas. If he were to choose Texas, he wants to play offense and we can't be grudge him that the guys like to score touchdowns. Michael Terry, he's the number one rated athlete in the country, Eric, out of Alamo Heights in San Antonio. He's taken a visit this weekend. We have long reported as long as his mindset is on offense, there's, we don't feel strongly that Texas is going to be a school that's in this mix. They like him, but they also like him as a linebacker as a potential safety. That's why our percentages are so low. You've got him at 15%. I would say it's probably 15% as well. You know, is there anything there fans need to know besides that about Michael Terry and Texas? Well, if Texas missed on Nick Townsend or, you know, if they have a spot at safety, I could see, or not safety at tight end, I could, I could potentially see him being on offense there. Uh, you know, everybody has Nebraska out front just because they're going to highlight them, give them the ball. You know, we were just in Nashville last week and all the rage was Nebraska. Um, I think it's probably going to stay that way. Now if he says, Hey, you know what, I changed my mind. I want to be Jalana McDonald's just put me on defense somewhere. We'll figure it out. Uh, then it would get a lot more interesting because I think, uh, you know, I think if in a different world, um, you know, if Tom Herman was recruiting or, or Mac Brown, that kid would have been a Longhorn already because that's, that's how it was lined up. Uh, but this staff is just looking at their evaluations and their options and wide receiver, their options are amazing. The best options Texas has had at wide receiver and forever. Um, running back, they're already, they already got two guys committed. And so it's just, you know, it's not lining up for Terry and Texas, at least on offense. Now it's up to him. You want to play defense. You probably got a spot. Um, if not, then, uh, you know, you probably got to have to find that the school that highlights you at the position you want to play. The last position to me is one of the most important on the offense in the 2025 cycle. That's tight end. And there's already a commitment. Calhoun, George's, uh, Emery Winston is already in the boat, but we don't feel like Emery Winston is completely in the boat. Like, I think he still has a leg in the water because he's hanging out in Auburn and he's looking at other schools. He's been at Central Florida a couple of times. And so Texas definitely wants to in this cycle and they're bringing in the kid from California, Caleb Edwards. Everyone talks about Keyati Armstrong and Nick Townsend. Caleb Edwards isn't mentioned as much. Tell us, you know, a little bit about Edwards and, and, but he still has kind of a low percentages as I'm with you as well. And I want to see what he says coming out of this official visit, but how important is Caleb Edwards in getting two tight ends in this cycle? Well, they've mainly got the way I see right now. They've got three options for two because Emery, you know, if Texas was recruiting him hard, would he really go to Auburn? You know, I'm not sure. Would he be going to UCF? I'm not quite sure about that. Edwards is a stud. He reminds me of the guys that OU was getting there. Calcatera Andrews was Andrews, the kid from, uh, Arizona. Outside really, really good wide receiver, long wide receiver. I'm gonna have to do some work as a blocker, but super high upside as a receiver. Love the player. Alabama, Auburn got to watch those schools. Auburn and Alabama are in the mix for all these guys. Nick Townsend's at Alabama right now or headed Alabama today. Keyati Armstrong is going to Auburn next week. Edwards is going to see both of those. So there's some interesting storylines between these three schools right now. Right now it's all about positioning. You know, if Texas misses on Armstrong, they got to get Edwards or if they miss on Nick Townsend, they got to get Edwards. So it's going to be interesting to see. I've only got them at 15% just because, you know, out of state kid, he has been to Texas earlier in the spring, said some good things about it. I'm just not, you know, how hard is Texas going to push? I think if they had their druthers, it would probably be Armstrong's in towns and in, uh, in closed shop. Of course, Armstrong, you got to worry about A&M as well. So, um, you know, I wish they probably had a few more, uh, good options, uh, because the tight end is as important as you said, but you know, you know, we'll see that Jeff Banks knows what he's doing. Jeff Banks definitely knows what he's doing. So do the guys at Inside Texas. Come see us at InsideTexas.com. We'll run a promo code right now, IT1. You get to hang out with Eric, myself, Joe Cook, Ian Boyd, Paul Waddlington, uh, just the whole cat, Charlie Williams, the whole cast of characters, Drew Kelson, and then our YouTube buddies. You get to see all of us. Come see us at InsideTexas.com. Two months gets you $1 and that's the summer special. It's hot outside, but it's even hotter on the Inside Texas board. You got to come check us out. Eric, thank you so much for, for, for this, this addition of Inside the program. And thank you to the fans for making us a part of your day and come see us at InsideTexas.com. Powered by the Inside Texas Football YouTube channel.
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Chapters:
00:00 Most Overlooked Longhorns
08:32 Brandon Brown Update
10:46 Official Visitor Likely to Commit Percentages
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