IT Live: Latest Texas spring practice notes, building around man coverage in 2026

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I'm Joe Cook.

It's Justin Wells.

That's Ian Boyd.

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Before we dive into some of the big stuff that you wrote about Ian, just kind of curious

Ian, what are some things that have caught your eye from maybe practice reports or anything

else so far after a couple days of spring football?

I like that Lacey looks good early.

I think that people are sleeping on Lacey as the starting quarterback next year, getting

to ahead of themselves with some of the Diabelle anointing you see here and there.

And excited to see Germain Bishop.

He looks like Xavier worthy 2.0.

Yeah.

Good call.

Man, I don't know if anybody's going to be 4-2 fast and I'm curious.

They look a like Joe.

He's right.

He runs insane in the 100 meter.

I thought I saw he'd run like some low insanely low.

He's got a 4-2 2 kid, but he's like a potential 4-2 9 kid.

Yeah.

He's a 22 mile an hour guy and Chris, but he's also skinnier than Rich's like this guy

is little like that, that's the comparison I see with worthy.

They both look like they're 150 pounds wet wear boots.

They both fly too.

They both just fly down the field.

And one thing I've been interested in is like, and something I noted in what I saw at

practice, like at least from the pure debt chart perspective, there is only one scholarship

slot receiver right now.

And that's Daly McCutchen.

Who's healthy?

You know, Emmett Mosley, that's could be a spot where he goes to, they've got Cohen

Brown and Chris Stewart, Daly McCutchen, and Jermaine Bishop all working on the outside.

Of course, they mix and match when we're not there.

And I've seen some people kind of talk about like, well, why don't you just put Jermaine

Bishop in the slot?

And I feel like that works in a lot of offenses.

It would take some tweaking for Steve Sarkieson though it feels like because they asked the

slot receiver to do so much as a blocker, or at least they have when they've had guys

like Winnington and DeAndre Moore.

Yeah, it's also, it's not really that different anyway.

Like I tried to, I tried to get into an old Alabama playbook of Sarks when I was writing

an article about who will play slot receiver this year.

So I get a feel for like, you know, if you're the slot, you're going to run a little more

of this route in this route.

And if you're the outside guy, you're going to run more of this route in this route instead.

And then what I found is like page after page of Sark concept, he'd have each play twice.

And the outside guy in the slot guy would switch places in each one.

And it's like, I don't even know, it's completely meaningless in his playbook.

Almost as a lot versus the, he moves them around so much that, um, yeah.

Yeah.

And that's even evidence by the fact that just during the open portion, you know, they

throw a lot of routes on air.

And they're, and it was funny when I was, when I joined you yesterday, it was, uh, this

made Homer perk up.

It was like, oh, cam Coleman's running an over route from the slot.

Like, yes, perfect.

Like they do a whole lot of different stuff.

What about, uh, maybe on the defense, um, they're still, there's still a lot of guys who

are kind of coming in and out of, uh, Tyler Robinson.

That's, that's an easy one, just off the, the eye test, uh, Ian, what else do you think,

at least on the defensive side of the ball that's caught your eye?

Uh, where it's Jackson being huge and must-champ having a lot of plans for him stands out at that.

We were kind of anticipating that and, uh, it's good to feel justified.

And also it's exciting just to imagine what his season might hold.

Uh, how thin linebacker is stands out.

We'll get into that in a minute.

Hopefully it's, we believe the tie-ins in the Smith is not, has not actually shrunken down to 16205.

But it's still, it's like, they, how many, how many linebackers do they have that you'd feel confident

starting in a championship game or a semi-final?

And it's like right now that number's like one, right?

Yeah.

Ty Anthony Smith bumps it up to like one and a half, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that is, uh, that, that has really stood out, like we knew that going in and then you see it,

especially with Ty Anthony Smith out and you're like, boy, I mean, it's linebacker.

They could both get injured and then what?

Well, I remember, you know, just when you do a little bit of the inventory on just pure numbers there,

I think even if you added Brad Spence in there and he's going to have a role that does a little bit

everything, like they have seven, I think total seven scholarship linebackers.

That's like just enough for a 2D, which is just kind of jarring to me,

which is why, you know, as Charlie Williams has written about, they've had a couple guys,

excuse me, not a couple guys, they've had a 2020 sits 2026 linebacker on campus.

These past couple of days, a former ULM commit Justin, you and I talked about him over on recruiting

Intel on Tuesday between any of the prospects that have made their way or any of the other details

that we're getting from, from spring practice and aside from Atkinson, what are some,

what's one or two things that have caught your eye on unspring practices so far?

Well, I mean, Des Bryant going on a tear about, about Jermaine Bishop was fun.

I like what RT's talking about Jabbar Jalook yesterday. You know, that room needed some energy.

They needed some boost. Chad Scott was a good coach. I think they needed a charge and I think

Jalook is like the perfect guy for that. And so that's a big thing for me because I think they're

running that positions kind of fell back to the side last year. They didn't have the guys in

the ammunition in that room that they need. I think Hollywood's mothers in Relic Brown kind of

give them that. Derek Cooper's big. Like, we knew he was going to be big, but he came big.

And he's going to be needed. That's going to be an inside attack with the top kid. And so

I like what the running back room looks like and Des Bryant's loving on Jermaine Bishop.

Listen, Tyler Atkinson, dude, that dude looks like a million bucks. Like, I'll be the one that

wears it. Like, I didn't know if he was going to have enough weight to play as a freshman,

as a rotational guy to make an impact. I don't have those worries anymore. I think he'll have the

size. I think he'll be ready just to matter, you know, how quick he gets it before he gets on the field.

If they could find a role for Anthony Hill, granted in a different defense, which again,

we're going to talk about a little bit, they can find a role for Tyler Atkinson.

Yeah, a little bit different prospects. I don't think I don't think Tyler's the edge top kid,

but at the same time, I think he's a sea ball hit ball, go kill ball type guy. And that works

at this level. Yeah, you know what else is they don't even have like a martial lander or someone

like that or a court jakes, you know, like like an upper classman walk walk online back or a jet

bush. Good point, Ian. Really? We even had one of those that would be helpful.

A Breckenhager? No, no. I think how far I could stretch this.

Yeah. And that's just part of right sticker would be nice.

Well, yes, I would take an NFL draft pick linebacker too. And that's kind of the way college football

runs. Yeah, well, there we are. But yeah, that's that is the position that is a little bit

thin at this point. And you're going to talk a little bit about what what Texas may be able to do

as a result. Two things. I think I mentioned this. We had videos yesterday. I popped on live and

then I had a video with Evan, just the fact that and I feel bad because I had it. Everybody

mentioned in my little intel piece, except for the running backs assistant because I know there

is one. And I feel like he's a former like college running back who yeah, that's the body from

that's that. Yeah, we know. Yeah, go ahead. Who is it? If you remember, yeah, I may I may

task you with finding that. But I made this point yesterday at a well-funded place like Texas.

Basically, there are enough position coaches for a lot of individual coaching. Like they've got four

guys working enough. Yeah, they've got four guys working with the O line. And I'm just going to go

on offense. I got two guys working with the running backs. Jalook and person whose name is Gaysme.

They've got Chris Jackson and Billy Gonzalez. They've got with wide receivers. They've got

Steve Kassoula and Lance. For everyone who solves crime from their couch knows more about forensics

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Mill. We have a Mike Bumante helping him and then Sarc like all these different guys have

most all the players have multiple guys who can offer individualized coaching, which I think is

pretty darn valuable. And then on the other side, you got Will Mustchan, who's not only going to

bring in a different style, but he seems to have endeared himself to just doubt everybody just in like

we remember when he was first hired. He talked and we had heard actually not he talked, but we had

heard that Mustchan was already, you know, coming over in the building and talking to players,

reaching out to different players to learn a little bit about what the culture was like at Texas.

And also, you know, some of the guys he needed to get in front of and we know he even got in front

of Anthony Hill. We knew Anthony Hill was going to try to make sure or we knew Anthony Hill was

heading to the NFL, but he talked with so many different defensive players to get a good

understanding of what was in the building there. And it sounds like from everything guys like

Colin Simmons, Grayson, Littleton, Lance Jackson, Hero, Canoe said yesterday that Mustchan's really

done well to endear himself early to remember it said it's program as you would expect Will Mustchan

to do. He's putting his hands on all 11 is what we were told. He is literally getting involved in

all 11 positions on the field. We haven't seen that before. It's been years since we've seen that

kind of interaction, you know, and I think that's that's ginormous because Will Mustchan really,

he takes pride. This is his baby on that side of the ball and he's he wants to be accountable.

He wants to be responsible and that means knowing every single spot. I love what Lance said.

Lance said he's got him playing at like three or four different spots, which is something we actually

reported a few months ago. Like this is something he's looking at. He's trying to find the best

pieces and parts that he can. And the fact that he is literally jumping into every single position

and helping and coaching and going through drills and things of that sort. I mean, it just shows

you it shows you that boom is back. It shows you that he's it feels like he's got his his next life.

Like he understands exactly what he's supposed to do. Not a head coach and waiting. Not not

worrying about that kind of stuff. Just worrying about making sure that his 11 guys are ready in

and will into to kill. And so and that's been the coolest thing. The fact that he's putting his hands

on all the positions on the defensive side. Not just say linebacker or defensive line.

Get to a couple comments before we go over what you wrote about Ian from Steve Sarkasm is Batman.

So that's Jermaine Bishop. See turning into Devonta Smith. Yeah, that'd be great. But that that was

I don't know if we're ever going to see those types of wide receiver rooms again. Not only just

from the amount of talent but from the amount but the the skills and speed that those guys had. But

you know, I think like you said Ian. Well, how?

Okay. Yeah. Good point.

That's easy. Yeah. Why couldn't why couldn't it be that way?

I'm just I'm just thinking of that 2020 room. And because of the portal.

A little bit because of the portal but also because it's not that that room that everybody loves

Sark for at Bama and you have to give first credit to Nick Sabin is I mean in like their

the way they look like Cam Coleman wasn't in that room like they didn't have a 63 vertical guy.

They have a bunch of 511 to 61 guys who were 160 to 180 pounds and I'm not sure

what exactly it's going to look like as a unit but I think team or position group wide

and maybe Jermaine Bishop specifically. Yeah, that could be what they try to make him look like.

And then a freelance society after seeing the team in person is Nick Brook still a big loss.

Yes. Oh, I'd be fine. Yeah, because I think big guard. That kid could have played guard for

the next three, four years man. That is a loss. He now he wasn't going to be ready to play for

another year maybe two years. He was nowhere close to being ready last year. It was negligible

throwing him on the field last year. But yeah, he's still going to be good. He's going to be a

he has the chance to be a really good guard in the league one day. We'll see. And yes,

yes, you can you can shower me with flowers because I told you fools for years he wasn't a tackle.

Now people are starting to listen. Do we know if Kalen DeBoard listened?

That's what I'm curious about. Because he may be Alabama. Yeah. Oh, man. Woo.

That I'm good luck. I wonder if they're listening. Yeah, he's got the physical talent but

it's a good connect as he would expect a true freshman offensive line being thrown into the

problem position for that. He didn't practice in practice. But it'll work in Ohio State. It'll

work at Florida. We'll see. We'll get to Ian what you wrote about as far as some things to do with

the defensive backs. This upcoming season, especially a certain type of coverage. But before we do

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back in college. So it was good. Good mindless TV. Ian, let's get to a little bit. You talked a

little when we were kind of going back and forth about how linebacker is pretty thin. Well,

what isn't thin is or maybe what isn't thin as a position group is the corners and that could

lead to something a little bit of a shift schematically and right there, very first sentence.

You lead it off with where Texas could look this year on defense. Bring it boy. Man coverage.

Man coverage. Golday. Man coverage. They have it. It's notable, I think, that they thought to keep

all these defensive backs from transferring out. And I don't think it's just to have competitive

depth. They have all good. You think they're all adept at man. Yeah, I think they all can be.

And or at sliding inside. And I think there are three deep at corner with guys that you could be,

if they went into a game, a big game, you wouldn't be like, oh, no. If they if they had Warren

Roverson or Kobe Black or Kate Phillips, like stop me when I mention a name where you're like,

I don't feel great about that guy playing in a big game. Right? I mean, not if it's man coverage.

Loverson gives me some pause. Not not not as much in man coverage though.

No, no, I mean, he'll glue to you. I mean, he's going to bring you a 15-yard flag. But Warren,

Roverson will be like glue. So they have they have like three safeties that are really trustworthy

at this point. That number might tick up over the course of the offseason. Right now it's like

McDonald Williams mostly. And I think we feel good about Johnson Rubel too, right? Yes.

And then anything beyond that, it's like, you know, maybe we'll see, right?

Then we already mentioned we have, you know, one and a half linebackers that you feel good about.

Well, the obvious, but then you have corner after corner after corner that looks good. So the

obvious answer is you just played as many cornerbacks as you can. You bring it up in the second

sentence. And I'm not trying to go too granular, but much champs always built his defenses around

man coverage, dating way back to his time as a former Nick Saban assistant. And certainly,

including his last tenure at Texas in the late 2010s. And I think if you have if you remember what

much champ's career arc has been, it has been as a Saban assistant at dating back to LSU.

I don't think they overlapped it Alabama, but he was with them on the dolphins. And I think when

will or excuse me when Nick went back to Bama will went to Auburn. And Texas plucked

will much champ from Auburn. And I remember somehow my dad like put a message board in front of me.

It's like, look at this Auburn board. Look how mad they are. We got will much champ. But will

much champ and Kirby smart or he's also been Nick Saban guys and Nick Saban as one of my favorite

quotes in football. And it is the best coverage in ball is cover one. And that comes from the

Bella checking influence as you talk about. And that's, you know, cover one is a form of

basically man everywhere, but with a deep safety. And that seems like the defense that you're

going to walk your I don't want to say advocating. Actually, I will say you think is going to be the

best fit for all the different guys that they have. I think it'll be a big I think it'll be a big

piece of the puzzle. They have the guys for it. It makes life easier for everybody else.

If you just say, Hey, we're playing man coverage everywhere. Well, you get

you can there's it just frees you up to do a lot of different things with super accountability.

Super accountability for sure. Yeah. There's another famous another friend quote from back

in the day in 2009 when Mike Gundy was getting peppered with questions after Texas obliterated

the Cowboys in Stillwater, I think. It was 2009 the Curtis Brown pick six game.

They just obliterated them. And Mike Gundy with the podium after the game. And he's like

they're playing man within a cell corners. I don't know what you know, it's like I don't know

what you want me to do. And he would be vindicated when it's like it was like Earl Thomas, you know,

all these guys that would play in the NFL. His summary was basically like we can't do anything.

There's nothing we can do. Everyone that we would want to throw the ball to is covered in man

by a future pro. Zach Robinson was a good quarterback too. Yeah, they were they were never bad at

offense under Mike Gundy now. I mean one off maybe here there. So they roster to me looks like

like this is a man coverage roster and this is a play as many defensive backs as you can roster

specifically corners. And you reason that it's not only the fact that you've got

Cade Phillips, Grayson, Littleton, you know, Bo Masco, Warren, Roberson, Wardell, Mack,

even some of the freshmen, some Ari Matthews. You have all these guys and we saw

Torrey Davis even on his film, you know, he was pretty adept in coverage as well from a safety spot.

But you also just got a little bit of a problem as we were talking about with linebacker to where

okay, how do we make things, how do we accentuate these guys skill sets and at the same time by

accentuating those defensive back skill sets, you're covering up a little bit some of the

inefficiencies you have at linebacker. Yeah, there's two ways you can do it. You can take them off the

field and just play defensive backs and place of linebackers or you can with man coverage and cover

one in particular, you can man up all the receivers, play maybe Derek Williams back and then you

drop to Lonnie McDonald down into the box. And you the way to make any job in football easier is

you increase the number of people who are responsible for doing it. If you're weak at linebacker,

then you just need to play more of them or you need to play safeties that play next to them. And then

you just divvy up the tasks into more compartmentalized roles. So the linebacker is like, I can't do this

and this and this. It's like, okay, we're going to cut that list in half and we're going to have

another player right next to you that's going to do the other half. So in what you're advocating

with Jolani, it's not spinning him down to the star because we've not seen spinning him around the

linebacker. Yes, spinning him down the linebacker or just a box safety behind the line, just next to

the linebackers. The thing with big nickel like Texas may do that some this year with Jolani or with

Johnson Rubel. But if you play big nickel with this team, you're leaving these corners off the

field, which doesn't really do that you that many favors. Like you'd rather play with as many of

these corners, you want to try to find ways to play with four, I think, when you can. Certainly not

less than three regular basis or just on a regular basis. I want I would want to play three

cornerbacks at all times. You have a lot of faith in these TVs, brother. Well, you just every

receiver that they put on the field or every receiver adjacent tight end, put a cornerback across

the room and then see how easy a time they have finding guys to throw to, which he's freed up

in the middle of the field to do whatever you want him to do. You know who did this pretty well,

the Houston Texans. Yeah, I mean, NFL, this is more common in the NFL.

Right, but this this now that I think of it, like this was kind of the Texans approach this year,

they they would always have, let me see if I can get everybody right, they had Stingley,

they had Petrie and then Lasseter, you know, you trust those guys playing man coverage,

Petrie's just to do everything. And then I think they had, I forget the other safety's name,

but he was always, you know, doing a little bit of man coverage, but always playing that back in.

And the linebackers were pretty good for the Texans, but they weren't anything special.

And then you also kind of like Texas had terrors on the edge and good defensive linemen

who were able to hold their own pretty much everywhere else to where playing all those defensive backs.

And they did not, you know, disguise a whole lot and you can disguise some in man,

but you got to be in the right spot. Like that's kind of what the Texans did and look how far it took

them until their quarterback lost his mind. Yeah, they tell you lost his mind, it's

exposed. It's a fraud. Maybe to everybody else. Yeah, I would even consider like any of the guys

that have played at Nickel, like Grayson, Littleton, Wardell, Mac, who else has wrapped there?

Has made the mask mask go. So the other day, the other day, Will Mushamp, if you notice,

I talked about all the different position groups that have multiple assistant coaches.

There's nobody like last year who had the the Nichols coach title, like Kenoto Hudson did.

Well, we saw during the practice window and then Grayson, Littleton talked about it yesterday.

Mushamp, excuse me, is the one working with the stars and I posted a clip of it.

He is working one-on-one and the other day, it was Masco, Littleton, and Mac.

That is going to be a position that he treats as his own or very much treats kind of like his own.

It seems like this upcoming season. I mean, imagine, let's say that

what if they played Phillips and Masco outside a corner and then Wardell, Mac, and Littleton

at Nickel and Safety? And then you still had McDonald out there behind them.

Well, why not? You got a good coverage.

Yeah, you can just put the clamps on people doing that. I mean, that's what the 2014 was really good at,

was because Jaylen Gilbo and

have already forgotten our group. MacCuba were corner type players.

And they weren't even as good a corner as these guys.

That's right. That's what you can, you can just really make that part.

So, the one thing, and maybe we can get to this in a second, that I'm thinking about are actually

there are a couple things. One fits right now. I talked about this, I think, on the radio

the other day. Think about what Texas is facing offense-wise, and this kind of comes in

from Ryan Nelson. This strategy to man up looks great against lesser teams on our schedule.

And it may look more dominant than PK's defense against bad teams, but I worry against better teams.

Also, think of all the different variety Texas is going to see. You're going to have

veer and shoot Ohio State pro offense, Texas spread, and then you're going to get air raid, veer and

shoot, you know, the old like the Buster Faulkner offense. You're getting a wide variety

for all these, for on your schedule, of the types of offenses you're going to face.

Even with some of that variety, is this something that can apply across the board?

Yeah, so scroll down a little bit to the Bill Belichick section.

Yes, it. So the way that Bill Belichick would do this is he would have his many man coverage

defenders as needed, and he would play as many as you had receivers until it got to the point

where his big box safety, which would be like a Rodney Harrison or Patrick Chung would be lined up

on like the tight end. And then his big, you know, big versatile linebackers, like their current

head coach, Mike, Mike for Abel, Mike for Abel was 64270. He ran a 49340. He had a 29 and a half inch

vertical leap. Not like it's not touchdown passes too. He got a bunch of, yeah, not a spin

that like a space player, right? No, just big, strong, big, strong, tough and smart. And when he

was gone, they had a million more just like him. And the trick was they could move, they would get

big, smart, versatile, tough guys in the box. And then they would use man coverage to be like,

we're going to change up what you do in the box week to week to stuff whatever it is. The other

team wants to do. But we're going to protect you every week from having to play coverage.

So you can do that with like Colin Simmons, Rashim Biles, Lance Jackson, right? And you

and Jolani Mcdonald, and it's like, hey guys, you're just not going to have to worry about coverage

this week. The corners are going to race all of that. Derek Williams will stay back over the top.

And we're just going to put you guys week to week wherever we need to to stuff whatever this

particular team is trying to do. And you know, Justin, what this Texas team has from a physical

present standpoint that those Patriots teams also had. I'll give you a hint. He was right in front

of the football every play. I have a nose. Oh, yeah, they've got they've got to go ahead. These

guys aren't going to be Vince Wilfork, but they're going to play that type of role to help, you

know, the front part of all this operation work as successfully as the back. I like to see Wilfork

standing beside Ian Gerard and Gerard and and I know Williams. Like because you know, Vince

was like two people. Vince was not one. He was two people. They found the perfect guy for what they

wanted to do. That's a good. I like that, Joe. I like that comp because yeah, I didn't think about

that in that regard. I was going off Teddy Brusky thinking about Jamie Collins and Jamie Sharper

and stuff like that. Willie McGinnis. And then it hit me. Man, they they've got NFL size three

texts waiting, just waiting that knows. And you know, why why are we talking about Patriots and,

you know, some of the best defenses ever? Or is he in as a gigantic New England Patriots guy?

We're not we're not saying that you're going to see. You're going to see a similar style because

Bella check, saving smart must champ. It all flows down and it's even though it has evolved,

it is going to look a lot like what powered some of these best defenses.

Must champ in particular is more in the man coverage side of this tree with Bell Check.

Then it's like some of the Georgia guys or some of the other guys you'll find

around and coach football. Must champ is always believed in more man coverage.

Especially compared to I'm trying to think of other Georgia tree guys. I mean, you know,

the big ones Dan landing. And I'm not going to be in the real world anymore.

You've been human and will must champ how much their things are similar and

and I don't like. Yeah, I think that even some of the three down stuff that we've talked a lot about

may end up having I don't I'm less convinced the further we get into spring practice that Texas

is going to be as heavy into the three down meant stuff as Georgia was.

Georgia seemed to have to they did that as a result of just not having an edge terror this past

year. It felt like I think that's just what they I think that's just what they believe in.

More so I think I think I think must champ we'll see that he may be a little more of

four down believer in a man coverage believer. So my question is it was four down.

This this kind of this paragraph touches on it, but I think one of the concerns and I think

a lot of our readers who read what you write about coverage first, which is what defense or you go

back to front these days and building your defense and you align your front with your coverage not

your coverage with your front. I think I said that right. And you have a suggestion here of like,

okay, you know, if you want to play Tianth and he Smith at 220 go ahead, but if you're trying to

play coverage, why not put Jordan Johnson or Bell there? The easy counter and the question

I bet a lot of people have is like, all right, well, what if it's second and seven and it's time

to run the ball? Like what happens then? Do you just flood numbers because you have a single high

look or is like, how are you accounting for running the ball on kind of standard down the distance?

You could. The question is just how much how much more are you getting from your linebackers than

you get from your safeties and dime? Like are they really? How much better are they really? And if it's

not that much better or not better at all, then it's like, what's the point? Just play a safety and be

more versatile and fast around the box. But I think they'll, I mean, I think they'll probably play

two linebackers most of the time and we'll see what, you know, Boswell or Cummings or Atkinson or

something that you can do. But on third down, any kind of passing down, there's really no reason

why they shouldn't just be in dime. Well, I think prior Joe, I mean, Joe, Ian, I think

Criers going to be a kid that they rely on. I think he's going to go that's going to give him some

juice. I think he's going to be someone who, I mean, he gets you to a bunch of freshmen and I

actually think Criers further along than most of them. Yeah, Criers, perfect example of why you

were going to play as many coverage people on the field as he possibly can. Yeah, I don't think

we're going to watch Justin Crier become a superstar, but I think we're going to see him be a

he'll surely help nominally rule. Yeah, no, I agree, but I don't think he's going to be like the

superstar of this defense. We are named some guys and I'm like, right, we get a couple of these

trains for guys, portal guys, Crier was a guy I was forgetting until a couple days ago,

when I've gotten some feedback about how he had looked in practice. And so I think Crier was

somebody that we need to mention, not to mention he's got great gene family genes that kids

and athletes. Yeah, before we keep going, kind of show what it looks like on the chalkboard,

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So you talk about some of the options Texas has in playing a lot of man coverage.

This is cover one on the screen. And this also illustrates the other concern I was bringing

not only to stylistic one, but a lot of the concerns that you have written about over the past

five weeks or so. And that's running quarterbacks. And I think any running quarterback, any offensive

coordinator will tell you that as soon as you see the name plates on the jerseys, you tuck and run.

How do you, I mean, are you relying on your front four to be sound in order to maybe pin that in

or maybe what are some other things that you can look at or want to possibly, you know,

assuage those concerns? That's pretty much it. That's enough to give and take a defense though.

Who's this file linebacker in this bunch? Well, if the you're going to need one.

Here, you can't you can't spy if everyone goes out in the coverage.

Oh, this is the oh, that just just gave me heartburn. You just tell

I mean, the quarterbacks you're going to face in college this year. Yeah, I know. I've written on it.

There's three answers for that. One is you tell your edges and your tackles don't run past the

quarterback. That's so hard for them to do though. They can they can. It's a technical kind of thing,

but yeah, they can. It makes it harder to beat your guy. It's almost impossible to beat your guy,

but what it does is it keeps the quarterback a little sturdy for maybe another second.

Yep. Yep. You can do that. But you may have everybody in coverage. So maybe you can hold up for

another second. Yeah, another thing you can do is rush three and spy with one of the edges.

And then there's option three. Don't overlook option three, which is

DGF. Let's see if they can run faster than Colin Simmons can chase them.

Yeah, I don't want Colin Simmons running 40s the whole game. I don't want him chasing the guy

from behind the whole game. I want him initiating that pressure. I want him forcing the

corner back into mistakes. And that won't all. But I it's really hard to get away from Colin Simmons.

And I'm not too worried about him running a bunch of 40s because they can always roll in

Umayah Zulu and Vasek and

Arugbo and Wesley, you know. So also on third down, must champ is going to play like Lance Jackson

and then all edges. Right. So we're going to see the normal third down packages. And so these

will be the cover that make it up. Yeah, I think they're going to make quarterbacks prove that they

can actually run away from this pass rush. This one, how much double mugging are they going to do?

I feel like it's going to be something they bring up from time to time. But again, you can

have all these pre snap looks. And they can all still feed into the same post snap scheme

regardless of what you got. I remember there was a telling quote and this was a lot

a long time ago. So things may be a little different because they didn't have as many like

simulated blitzes back then. But when Manu Diaz took over Kenan Robinson and Manu Acha were asking

him, they had this quote where they were asking him like about their pre snap alignment.

Because they were used to must champ telling them, you be exactly three yards by four yards off

of this receiver or whatever. And everything was extremely precise and dialed in. And if you didn't

do it, you would get coach boom in your ear, right. And then they would, you're still me to Justin

because you're a dog. See, that's what you get.

Doing a job too, Rubble, we both need to do our job. When it was Diaz, they would ask Diaz,

like, well, what's my, do I need to be here here, here, alignment? And Diaz would tell them,

like, I don't, you can come out of a helicopter if you just make the play. I don't care.

Yeah. But so we're getting back to, so we don't have a spy, per se, ideally, for the 2026 season,

when on the schedule of what 13 games, 14 games, you're going to see 10 dual threats.

Oh, that makes me feel some warm and fuzzy. Hey, that's the give and take a defense.

Ian's over here. He's Ian's over here, like, it's going to work.

You just have to know what you do have a father over here. It's kind of work.

You do have another option here for some of the main coverage. And it's a lot of double coverage

assigning safety to players. I feel like this could be maybe a little bit more of the Ohio State

tactic. It's hard. Yeah. You know, it'd be good if they had, you could, I would want to play a

blend against Ohio State. Right. So wherever Jeremiah Smith is, that safety brackets him. And then

the other safety put him where he can get to the box, because I guarantee Ohio State is going to

come in and try to bully Texas and run the ball. And I guess a little bit of a positive here is

while Julian Sain can move, he's not a runner. You know,

Julian Sain is not going to get away. He's not getting away from Colin Simmons.

He's not getting away from machine vials. Julian Sain isn't running away from his younger sister.

I'm not worried about him out of the pocket. There was actually if you go rewatch the

O8 game against Sam Bradford. Bradford scrambled for first downs two different times early in the game

because Texas turned their backs to him. And that buschamp was like, that's great. Do that all day.

We'll take our chances. And we all saw how it worked out. Brutal. Not only 35 points. But again,

that was one of the best offences of all time. Just football games we've seen in 30 years.

They just got outmatched by a lot of the two best teams in college football that year.

They just got outplayed by one of the other best offences of all time.

Getting back to the article if I can. There we go. That's the bracket. You mentioned,

as you'd already mentioned, the Mike Bravel aspect of it. When you get to the box part of it though,

and I think this also fills in on the question from Ryan Nelson.

Well, I'm guessing Justice Terry and Lance Jackson look like they do look like what Georgia's had.

Are they going to be unleashed? These are two first round types. Just in the fact that he asked

Lance Jackson to get up to 270, I think shows that they have big plans for him. And I think

I think Pete Quikowski, if you were still here, was going to have big plans for Lance Jackson as

well playing that Jack position. But they're going to ask Lance to show his strength a lot during

this upcoming season. Maybe more so than showing his athleticism. I think it's going to be equal parts

both. I was going to go in that direction because I think that you don't want him too big because

you still want that twitch. He actually has that some athleticism and some twitch that guys his

size just don't have. He has some change of direction. And I think that's one thing he's going

to get better at. I thought he got caught in the wash quite a bit last year, obviously first year.

But Lance is just, he is just that moldable piece of clay that you know, you're going to be able

to do a lot of different things with him. And honestly 270, that's kind of what we thought he was

going to be. Like I think he's it maximized at 280, 285. And that might be another year away. But

keeping in keeping in 270, you're still going to see how good his feet are. You're going to see

how good his balance is, his body control. This is a year, you know, we saw what Lance could be last

year. This year, we're going to see more of that. I just I'm so eager because I think most

champ his his he knows he's got seven or eight certified dudes on this roster on the defensive side

of the ball that if he does his job right, those guys are going early in the draft.

You know how I normally do that thing where I zero consequences pluck a player off another team

just to add them to Texas every at some point in the off season. I'm kind of thinking that I'm

going to have to add some good linebackers. If I when I go through that exercise, I could have told

you that three months to go. True. And that's what we thought they might and they they did have

quite a few linebackers in the transfer portal. But, you know, you I'm one of the things I always

like to look at is what is it the the franchise tag numbers linebacker franchise tag numbers

trend way behind defensive ends and quarterbacks in the NFL. And that's for a reason.

Because, you know, what is it the average of the top five salaries or something? Yeah, linebacker

and running back aren't going to be anywhere close to that. What linebacker do you want to take?

Is it the Sammy Brown kid from Clemson? Who are you wanting to pluck and just put him in Austin

right now? The only one I know at the top of my head that would work would probably be with weeks.

Man, I don't know if that would work. But I'm yeah. Oh, one of the Auburn guys, one of the guys

at one of the Auburn guys. Actually, that's that's a good that's a good guess. One of the one of

the guys at Auburn retained. I forget his name. But they were so good on defense last year. Yeah,

well, yeah. Well, they were. They were for SEC title defensive side of the ball.

And then Jackson Arnold at quarterback. Exactly. Yes, I was going to Justin Lambs at Chris

Cole at Georgia. Both good. You know, Justin Williams came from Texas. And you know,

that was my crush. That would have been great. If he had jumped in the portal, then maybe if

my champ could have convinced him to come. And that wasn't going to happen because Justin Williams'

biggest connection to Georgia was Glyn Schuman. Schuman was literally making one of the trips I

went to go see him at Conor Oak Ridge. Schuman showed up to that one as well. And so they weren't

going to let him. Plus they got him in on the field last year. He got some impactful snaps and

and kind of got to where, you know, Georgia, you know, that depth that they had year after year

on the defense side of the ball. Justin Williams, my gosh, I would have paid good money to see that

kid getting the portal. Schuman and Kirby are not stupid. They weren't going to let that happen.

This was the name I was looking for. Xavier Adkins. Like that's who I would pluck from Auburn.

And I had quintessential Auburn linebacker. Right. And I think they were. They were

like, I'm good. Who would have? Ketu Luave. I can't believe he's at BYU. They are they are loaded

at linebacker. They were a really good one and they still have more. That BYU not to get too far

off a tangent. Like that's going to be another quality BYU team that probably competes with tech.

So I again, like it's kind of indicative whenever I do that exercise every year of like,

okay, where are the holes on this team? Like I remember, I think it was either last year or the

year before I picked Deontay Lawson from BAMMA. And it was like, yeah, that's, you know,

that's who you need to grab. You need that bumper linebacker. And I think that'd be a good pick.

I may be something I work on for this weekend because that's always a fun little exercise,

who I would take from either the schedule or from an SEC team. You put, you put Sammy Brown in this

team. Yeah, that's a really national championship. Whether you're solving murders during breakfast,

cracking cold cases on your commute, or playing amateur detective at bedtime,

Amazon Music's got millions of podcast episodes waiting. Just download the Amazon Music app and

start listening to your favorite true crime podcasts, AdFree, included with Prime. Sammy Brown would

help a lot. I would take my chances with Bear Bachmeier converting the linebacker over the opposite.

Remember that thing I was telling you about franchise tag numbers between middle linebacker

and then quarterback. I don't know. He's not a quarterback. He's a, he's a running back who throws.

You know what? He's a linebacker that throws. I wrote about him on that a little bit on my

substack America's Wargame.substack.com. I was talking about you. Those are awesome reads.

You got some of the while you're the other day and his interception and sacrates were both

remarkably low, especially for a guy that is like so reckless with his body. He is not reckless

with the football. I got the job. I think that was because he got, well, he got thrown into a

situation because yeah, because some kid wanted, wanted to not abide by the Mormon religion.

Yeah, he did New Orleans partying in Provo, Utah. And then he went to New Orleans as a result.

Jake Reds left. Yeah, that's going to be fun. Well, anything else to add on this one Ian or

are we just going to get around about. We hit everything and around about way.

Maybe just that Ohio State, I don't think this has been like just an amazing model for how to play

super high level defense. But for about a decade now, Ohio State's strategy almost every year

has been some variation of playmate coverage with the lead athletes and then blitz the crap out

of the other team with big athletes in the box. And they just overwhelm like 90% of their schedule

doing that. Texas has the guys to do the exact same thing this year. And with Must Champs

Brain, maybe they can be good against the other 5 to 10% of teams as well.

The one thing that starts kind of trying to close in not 10% into that point, like there's a lot

of members of the national media who, and I think we do it a fair amount, but we also have to,

I want to say filter it because that's not the case, but you know,

excuse me, do it in the correct doses. Everybody liked Pete Kowalski. He's put together

pretty good defenses, but like a lot of the national voices I tend to track. They're like,

oh, you're replacing with Will Must Champ? Yeah, good call. That's going to work.

Like it'll it'll make sense. So I think that speaks just to what you're talking about. Like

this is a move made in the effort to go from good to great. So anything else?

Anything y'all want to touch on? I said, I do want to get maybe one kicker mentioned.

I was about to say, who is the kicker? Only Joe Cook knows. No, it's Gianni Spedic.

The I'm pretty sure he has the Croatian seal. Four or five suit on his forearm. Really?

Yeah. Well, that many consonants in an A and you know, he's from the Balkans.

So I don't know. I didn't see Matt Chumento and Mikey Bukowski's punt.

And it looked okay. And that's about all you can ask for for punting. So that's going well.

But we'll see Mikey Bukowski take that spot.

We'll see. He'll get it next year. But other than that, specialist wise, if you hear nothing,

that's good news. That's great news if you hear nothing. Oh, this is probably a good idea.

It's a curation name. I just looked it up. Yeah, but he's from like Ohio. So

I got the Veevox or Steve Ameosich. Long time ago, the Illinois basketball team this year.

They're like all Eastern Europeans. Ian, let's, I think this is a good one to get out on.

How would this strategy work against Texas offense coming here?

Yeah, it would. I think it's great until you're throwing, you're taking your chances on jump balls.

But then the bracket comes in the play. Yeah, you can mix and

yep, that's like the question for this offense is when they play a team that can play like

too deep man. Uh, can Texas run the ball consistently? I don't know.

Sounds like a storyline to track throughout the spring. You know, where we'll be doing that.

We'll be doing that over on Inside Texas. So use that first link in our description.

Use that QR code at the top left of the screen. Sign up for just 50% off the annual

subscription price. You'll get not only the best team insight, but Justin, you'll get some

recruiting inside as well as Texas, even though it is not a practice day. They're still got some

guys on campus, not some guys on campus tomorrow as well. Any big ones to note? Peyton Miller,

your center take for the class of 2027 out of Anna high school in Anna, Texas. He's on campus right

now. He was there bright and early. This kid loves the horns. Watch Oklahoma a little bit. Watch

Texas Tech. I think the red raiders are going to be their main competition there.

But no, I really like Texas and that one. I think they can wrap this up in the next few months.

There's one other one. KJ Green. Big, big edge out of Stone Mountain, Georgia. Does anyone know who

else is from Stone Mountain, Georgia? No. Kenneth Parcell from 30 Rock. It's from Stone Mountain,

Georgia. Now where I was going to go. I was like, I was like two dozen blue chip athletes over

the last 10 years. You know who actually created his character was a writer named Donald Glover.

He was also a musician, childish Gambino. He actually created Kenneth's part. It's like let's lean

into the Stone Mountain part because that's where he's actually from. And so those are both

nowhere. The KJ Green is a dude. Texas offers like 20 kids in the state of Georgia every year now

with most champion. I think that number is going to increase by a little bit. So there's

there's some good ones. And listen, we posted a visitor list. We've got four or five new names popping

into Maro Joe and a couple of them are significant. So I think those are things you got to check out

at InsideTexas.com. I want to leave on one other note. I found out why archmaning is wearing a

visor. Either one of you guys want to chime in on wine. Did Warby Parker make it?

Prescription? No. Why is archmaning wearing a visor?

Long backers cannot see his eyes. You'll be able to hide what he's looking at.

Okay. If you've ever played safety in high school and you go across a quarterback with a visor,

you can't see their eyes. The glare, the glean, it doesn't matter if it's a dark shade, a color shade

or a clear. From the glare and everything that's going on, you can't read their eyes. Archmaning's

playing chess guys. He's playing chess. This kid, you're not going to know where he's looking or where

that ball is going. This was a strategic move. If I'm a defender, I'm like spitting or smearing mud

in the space. Any chance I get trying to get that helmet dirty. You gotta attack me first, boy.

You know, I'm not going to tackle archmaning, obviously. I know you can, but Liam Boy can take him

down, so just for future reference. It sounds like an all-in team to me. Can I give you more work

real quick? You got enough on your plate or can I give you another assignment?

Is this for Joe or Justin? For you, for Justin. Oh, give it to me. Come on, we got it.

I need, I watched the Texas basketball team last night, and I need an upgrade on which

guards we're going to get in the transfer portal. So I don't have to watch this crap for another

10 years. I'm so sick of not having good guards. So I always want to give basketball a chance

than every time I do. I know. They had a really good guard last year in Tray Johnson who's filling

up for the Washington Wizards. I think that's like a lead guard. I know. Listen, Austin Goosby.

Point guard. He's a six-foot-six point guard. Two guard combo, but he runs point.

They're going to get more of those kind of guard. Those top and all transfers too. I need some

it's college basketball. So there's only 4,000 of those, so I can't give you any names right now.

But I'll work on that. That's a whole need to be reassured. But I'm going to tell you what,

Sean Miller is going to bring in some more guards in this offseason. I have zero doubt about that.

I'll give you the basketball minute real fast because I was texting with Keenan about this earlier.

And I've long held that Texas and Sean Miller goes, okay, do I want to get 12 new guys?

Or do I want to keep four and then go get eight new guys? He kept

Tramon Mark, Kendall Weaver, Jordan Pope, and Nick Cody. Mark Weaver, Pope, who did a lot of

ball handling for this team, they're out of eligibility. So those guards are going.

Dalyne Swain, probably going to the NBA. So there's four. You bring in Goosby, who's number 26

over all in the country, Bo Agnan, Shooter, Joe Sterling, Shooter, bringing in some shooters, Joe.

They're bringing in shooters. So those are four guys right there. They don't really have any

developmental point guards on the roster in the pipeline. I think that is a good sign.

So yeah, and so you're probably going to see guards, lead guards, lead guard be the primary focus

of this basketball portal cycle. And you know, the thing with basketball is like there's some

guys where I'm thinking like, oh, they'll bring them back and the deadlines come in and then he

says, you know what, I'm entering the portal. So it's going to be fluctuating, but like lead guards

in addition to a playmaker like Goosby and then some shooters like, you know, Sterling and Agnan.

And then, you know, you fill out the rest of the team as well. So I think the flaws on this roster

that Sean Miller accepted by limiting his offseason workload have come to fruition. The schedule

also got tougher. So I think water found its level. They just also, I would be more concerned about

the defense because they can score pretty well, but they can't stop anybody from scoring. And

that's what's going to stop them. As soon as they play a team that can defend with ball pressure,

it's going to look like last night. It'll be a play-in game. Yeah, they might lose it.

Hey, sugar, sugar poppy. We always love having you here, but don't bring in this stuff right here.

I don't think you understand how good Italy is. I didn't understand how good Italy was.

Collapse. What do you mean a collapse? You got, you got taken to the woodshed and absolutely

throttled by people that can't even make enchiladas and chimichungas and quesadillas. Come on,

man. It ain't, it would, I'd be embarrassed. Sugar poppy, I really would. Honestly, Italy has

got some dudes. They're going to make a run at this thing, guys. I can be Italian Americans.

They have got a bunch of guys that are young good players in baseball. And so,

I like, I like USA's chances. I like Japan's chances, but don't say that Mexico messed up or

collapse. What are you talking about? Houston, they were the home game. Ian, real quick,

what's coming on the deep dive that noon? A little more of the same, some spring impressions,

roster in balance on defense, what that means, and some notes on offense. A little quick,

short hit, short, quick hitter. It's a good one. It's fun. Should be a lot of fun. Again, make sure

you get it. We're talking all this over and inside Texas. It's going to be a lot of fun over

the next couple of weeks. Team has one more practice on Friday, and then they go off for spring break,

and then they'll be back at it. Some more practices, more visitors, March madness,

baseball games starting should be a lot of fun. So, Ian, thank you, Justin. Thank you. Thank

you for watching. We'll see you next time on IT Live, presented by Academy Sports and Outdoors.