Steve Sarkisian Just UNLOCKED Arch Manning — The Film Explains How | Texas Football

0:00Insurance is at one size fits all. That's why drivers have enjoyed progressives. Name your price tool for years now. With the name your price tool, you tell them what you want to pay, and they'll show you options that fit your budget. So whether you're picking out your first policy, or just looking for something that works better for you and your family, they make it easy to see your options. Visit progressive.com, find a rate that works for you with the name your price tool. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, price and coverage matched limited by state law. Welcome back to on Texas football. I'm Jeff Howell. Join by lifetime longhorn Rod Bavours, this edition of on Texas football is brought to you by price picks and it is time for the season premiere of second watch with Rod Bavours. This is where Rod goes through his rewatch of a Texas game. It tells you a little more in depth about what he saw. And this week it is a 59-7 win for Texas over Texas state. So Rod, let's get right into a let's start on the offense. And this is something that Sark talked about a lot going into this game. And I thought it was one more poignant things he said

1:02this week. Getting a better feel in the Friday meeting with the quarterbacks for what Arch wants, what he doesn't want, what he likes, doesn't like what gets him into a rhythm. Now you feel like Sark actually put that into play on Saturday and did a better job of getting Arch in a groove. I do actually guys from watching the film last year and even the couple of stories start sorry I obviously had caught in plays with Arch as a starter in 2024. There are certain concepts and we all kind of know them right now. Certain concepts, certain routes that Arch just has not really been consistent and being able to throw accurately. And honestly, I feel like Jeff that he kind of removed a lot of those concepts from the offense in this match of her Texas state. Okay, how many crossing routes did he have to complete? We all know he's like he's just like 50% completion percentage on any type of crossing route from 2025. How many? I remember the Ryan Wingo kind of, it was a good throw by the way in the red zone. Yeah. You can cross in cross and probably should have came up with that one. But it was a tough catch contested in a tight window,

2:05but a really good throw. But there weren't many crossing routes. How many slant routes? Where he's completing like 53% of slant routes. How many slant routes? Not very many. How many hits routes? Not many. I think he and I don't even know if it was a hit because it was Wingo's running in deep route. He just kind of broke the route off and came back to it. Yeah, I don't know if there was a big deal. They were they were all very non-traditional quick game. It was a treasure. I wouldn't look at it. You had two out routes. Number one on that fourth and like fourth and three or fourth and four. It was a beautiful throwback. Heck of a throw. Heck of a throw. That was like one of his best moves of the other day. Then there was another when he tried to throw out another one even most in it. It was in completion. So they ended up being like 50% of those. But a lot of the concepts that we thought are actually struggling with the crossing routes. That slant route in the quick game. Sark almost manicured the offense to make it tailor-made for us. Arches kind of favorite throws are the high percentage throws for Arch. We know Arch loves that. It's almost a swing element to the screen game. Were you talking about it or a bit motioned by Ryan Wingo?

3:10Are you talking about the swing screen, escort screen by the running back on the outside? We saw that a couple of times. He's good at that. He's good at timing it out. Rubbing it like a catch and running stride. And then keep it and then keep it feel the vision open and get yours out to the catch. He had a couple of those, a few of those. But I feel like the the throws that we can plane about the most. I feel like Sark extracted them from the offense now against higher level opponents. Maybe that's a problem because now you maybe you're more predictable. If I know you ain't going to throw no crossing routes. Well, I know you ain't going to throw no slant routes. You know what makes me as a deviant like all right. It's not easier for me to gain leverage and advantage there. But I think it was just in this game. I think it was just to get him in a groove. I don't know. So I think that's going to be the case all throughout a game. I think it's giving the groove. He knows, you know what? Let me get Arches in a groove by doing non-traditional quick game to hell with the slants and the glans routes. Hell with the drags and the crossing routes. No, no, let's do something. He does well. And here's nothing. And I've said this before. Everybody knows I've talked about Arches. I call them butt necked dropbacks. Just dropback.

4:12No, no RPO. No play action pass. No screen game. Just drop it on the back. Last year in 2025. In no situation, if you look at quarterbacks, at least 50 attempts, he was sixth in Pro Football Focus grade. If you eliminate play action passes in RPOs, he was 16th in passing grade. Overall, if you eliminate play action pass in RPOs in 2025, he was actually really good in butt necked dropbacks. You go look at round third and long. When takes out the strip, strip the offensive screen game, play action pass RPO, that was actually when he was at his best. And in this game, go look at the first quarter, Jeff. I think there was, if I'm not mistaken, I believe there was seven passes in that first quarter in one play action pass RPO element. That's it. He got him into straight dropbacks. That's what Arches really good at. I've been saying it on the channel for a long time. He's good at, he eliminated the, the, the, putting their turn is back to defense. And the RPO element of the, you know, the, the slight of hand and the mesh point, all that kind of stuff.

5:14Start them dropback and let them look at the defense. You'd be surprised how damn good he is at analyzing it. And in this game, at least to start off to get him in a groove, to get him in a rhythm. So, I guess he eliminated the cheat codes and the amplifiers and say, you know what, just drop him back and see where he gets you. And he really started out magnificently when you did that. So I think Arches starting to, I think Arches starting to be more service, Arches said in letting him know what he wants, but Sarc is listening to what the young man wants and saying, you know what, let's just do what he does well. Yeah, if you look according to PFF, and again, it's tough to tell what's a play action pass. What's an RPO? Because we don't know what the play calls are, but if you look at profile focus non-play action throws, that was 70% of Arches dropbacks to your point right where there was no play action. There's nothing at the mesh point. It's just straight dropping back and Arches on those 15 for 20, 214 yards for touchdowns did have the one picks. I was a bulk of what he did on Saturday against Texas State. One more thing we want to talk about with the offense before we move on to the defense. I think these two things kind of tie

6:15in together. Maybe more 12 personnel, I think than we expected. And maybe some mixed opinions on the run game, but Rada, I think this is kind of a theme for both sides of the ball in this game, especially with more 12 personnel. I think a little bit in the run game, we can get in the run game. They just didn't show a lot. Sarc didn't show a lot on offense. Well, Mushroom didn't show a ton on defense. Just you're a pretty bland. Let's get some confidence going into Ohio State, but don't put a lot on film that Matt Patricia and Arthur Smith can go pick a part. Yeah, I didn't see and said, I'm going to go back and rewatch it. I've watched it now twice. A concept and maybe you've got some Jeff, a concept or a player or a formation that we had not seen like a tendency breaker of any kind. And by the way, I don't expect to see that first day to say, and I don't want to see it. But my point is I'm with you. I think it was of a Nella game plan. And to back that up, even you, your hot take this off season has been, hey, I think it's starting to decrease 12 personnel and keep the pressure on the opposing

7:18defenses by putting Cam Coleman, Emmett Moes and Ryan Wigley out there as much as possible. Right? And I totally agree with you on that. And I believe you were close to you were close on 38% 12 personnel in this game. You started out the game in 12 personnel. You started out in 12 personnel, which is successfully, but I think that was part of them having a more vanilla approach to pace. I bet, versus Ohio State, you start out in 11 personnel. I could be wrong, but I bet that's what you start out. But I would say this, the 12 personnel, it got them going in the run game. I think that's what Sark wanted to do. I think you want to emphasize the run game and be able to get a push upfront. And you're a lot more likely to get that when you're in 12 personnel. But here's the thing about the run game. Talk about the mixed emotions. And I totally agree with you. Because I think something's like, I didn't like what I saw at the run game. I'm like, man, it got explosive plays in the run game. And some fans are like, oh no, the run game was great. The run game is back. And I think both sides are right. Now, tell you why. I think you had 0-2 was a 36, I think rushes overall for Texas. So three of those were arched carry. So to take that

8:19out, at least you like 33 of them. And then I think you had five explosive runs. So explosive run, 10 plus yards or more. All right. So of the plays that were not an arch run, already explosive run. Because those are just what you want, right? Expose runs. Out of those 28 runs or so, those kind of running back traditional runs, 10 of those guys were either runs for zero yards or a negative gain or negative yard. I should say production on that play. So you basically had you, you were stuffed on more than the third of your traditional runs, your traditional runs, head now to running back, you were stuffed on more than the third. Those 10 out of those, you know, kind of, I think it was 32, I guess you want to look at the runs. The basic kind of third of those, you were stuck. You also had a sack in there too. So that's, I think that's where the inefficiency comes in is that the almost a third of your runs were stuffed for zero yards or for negative yards. And that put you behind the chains a lot. It didn't seem like that because you had the explosive plays back. You had five, 10 plus yards run. You had two runs of

9:2420 plus yards, I believe. Somebody you had a lot of explosive runs. But I think what you lacked was the efficiency to stay on schedule ahead of the chains. And that's why your average yards again on third down was 6.7. You basically were close to an average of third and long, which is mind blowing considering how explosive you were. But that's why the explosive, the explosivity and the efficiency are important this season. You got to stay ahead the chains. And instead of 10 runs that got you nothing or negative yards, you need to reduce that to about five to six. You know, I mean, and then you would stay ahead of the chains a little bit more and reduce your yards to gain on third down. Now we're being nitpicking here. This is being very nitpicking. But the explosive, the important thing is the explosive element is back in the run game. So now you're not having arch play so much hero ball on third on second and long and third and long. That's the football is finally back. And this is the time of year when I probably have more action going than any other point on the calendar. That's why I like my bookie whether I'm sitting around before kickoff

10:26killing some time between games or I see something I like right before the ball goes in the air. I can pull it up and make my play. You don't have to overthink every game or feel like you need to have some complicated system. Find a match up that you've been watching all week. See a number you like, put a little action on it and suddenly that game you are already going to watch has a little more juice. If you're new to my bookie, they're also giving you a little protection on that first wager with the bet back bonus. Just sign up using promo code CFB 2026 CFB like college football 2026. Opt into that bet back bonus and make your first play. If that wager loses, you get it back. College football is here. The board is loaded and there's finally something to bet on every Saturday again. Get in on the action with my bookie bet on anything anytime, anywhere. On Texas football is all about matchups and fit. Getting the right players in the right roles. Mood does the same thing, but for cannabis mood that's mood dot com. It's an online destination for federally compliant

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12:32you and your family, they make it easy to see your options. Visit progressive dot com. Find a rate that works for you with the name your price tool. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, price and coverage match limited by state law case. Yeah, I still, you know, your third down to go distance route, I think it was like right at maybe six and a half yards. Yeah, well, it's 6.7. Yeah, so still it's better than it was in some games last year. Then a lot of games last year, quite frankly, still you like to see cut to like, I'd like it'd be under than six, because once you get into average of third and six now, you're okay, the odds are decreasing, but other than the to go distance on third down, and I think tendency breakers, there was one that I noticed that kind of plays in the run game too. It was the delayed handoff draw to Relic Brown where he scored the touchdown on where the whole right side of the field opened up because you actually got a push on the right side and guy stayed on blocks. I think a lot of the stuff in the run game ride where you missed, I think two things, I think one, it's correctable because

13:33a lot of it was just guys staying on blocks not long, not long enough, just just need to hold that for just a half more second to let the to let the back get through the hole. I think another part of that wasn't I think this is where the draw came into play. Man, there were times especially when you got closer to the red area, like Texas State, there's linebackers weren't even thinking about the past. They're reading run all the way and shooting maps trying to create negative plays, and they were successful at it. What's a great way when you're getting a lot of penetration and guys screaming downhill, what's a great way to stop that? Run a draw, run a hand off, run a screen, so they get that and I love the circuit there. We don't see a ton of that from start. So I think a lot of that, a lot of those issues I think in the run game are fixable, whether it's maybe some tendency breakers there or just guys hanging on to blocks just a little bit longer. And I think the other thing too, right? I think we've got a little bit of sample of it. I think if you're going to run a zone run game, I think Hollywood's smothers is a better fit for it. I don't think that's a surprise. And if you're going to run your pimples and your folds and your counters, which he scored

14:34on one of those, I think really browns better than that. So I think a lot of that too is sarned. Figuring out as he goes forward, which concepts do we need to run with a particular back on the field? Tolly agree, and that's why I think Hollywood's smothers is kind of the lead back based on what we saw in the Texas State game is because he's a little bit more compatible with the zone runs that they want to be their bread butter. But the big part of this is the Kim Kardashian Nicki Minaj's original, so really, so it's quite a big size making the same size. JLo size, but is you want to make sure that when a team in the playoffs or maybe in the SEC schedule, it's able to stop your outside zone run scheme that you still can have something that you're competent in. And that was issue in 2024 when teams stopped the outside zone, Texas had nothing else to take a rely on in the run game. They didn't even have a quarterback run game to rely on. That'll be different with this group. You have now the quarterback run game. Take what the outside zone quarterback run game. Like you said, maybe really browns is the guy that and your opinion

15:34pulls your book sweeps, the counters, so that's the maybe that's when he shines. And then you can you can kind of rebuild or at least kind of build a new identity in the run game for team takes where you're bringing. Like you bring up the book sweep that the one that he's on that little fold block. You weren't showing them the building backfield action like a bug sweep, but you're blocking that like the old school, Bucks sweep. So I like it. Love that what we saw on that touchdown run for the ground. Okay, we'll get to the Texas defense here in just a second, but before we do that, need to let everybody know that this edition of on Texas football is brought to you by prize picks. We're always looking for ways to make watching the games a little more fun. That's why we love prize picks. It's America's number one sports picks. But it's about as simple as it gets because for player picks, all you got to do is choose more or less on a few player stats blocking your lineup and you're good to go. If you like picking teams instead of players, prize picks that you cover there too, because now you can pick the winner, the spread or the total on games or fights. Prize picks is available in most states, including Texas along with California and Florida. So chances are wherever you are, you can jump in today and a little college football

16:37action today. How about a couple of plays to watch in the Notre Dame-Wiss Concent game? CJ Carr, more or less one and a half touchdown passes and Jayden Greathouse, more or less 49 and a half receiving yard, just a couple of Notre Dame plays to watch in that Wisconsin game. Here's the best part about prize picks. If you've never tried prize picks before, just play your first $5 lineup. And if you win, you'll get $150 in bonus line. It's just make sure you use the code HMA when you sign up. They just updated this offer. So there's never been a better time to get started. Download the prize picks app. Use the code HMA, play that first $5 lineup. And if you win, you'll get $150 in bonus line. Just remember the code HMA when you download the prize picks app. And as always, play smart, play responsibly, play prize picks. Right, we talked about kind of bland, blasey game plans. I don't mean that as an insult to the staff. I mean, you don't want to show your hand if you don't have to. That pretty much describes what Will Mushamp did. Right, we didn't see a ton of exotics, a ton of disguised coverages.

17:38It was just kind of, hey, line up and go play ball. And that is one thing that I think was a profit times was because the tempo, if you look at some of the explosives you gave up, it was because sometimes you just had simple alignment assignment issues. Other than that, you got the takeaways. But Rod, what's the big thing coming out of this game for you defensively that you noticed on the rewatch? For me, I did notice, I was saying bland, but I thought it was a pretty vanilla game plan. I do thought their blitz rates were reasonably high, but most of those came with third down. If you go back and look at it, I think it was what 10 dropbacks. Maybe they had Brad Jackson, they blitzed them on half of those or at least half of those were on third down. So that's when he really dived up things on third down, but they weren't exotic. I mean, they really were kind of just machine vows coming from the edge or bringing a adjusting crier off the edge. So they really didn't get exotic. So I didn't see a lot of twists and stunts on a games up front. I think that'll change dramatically when you see Ohio State with all the athleticism they have

18:38in defense of front. You'll see a ton of twists and stunts in games are front to confuse blocking schemes. You didn't see a lot of run blitzes. That's blitzing on early downs to try to create chaos. And you didn't see a ton of that. The machine vows is really good at that, by the way. I think that's something else you'll see a lot more in the Ohio State game. You didn't see a lot of sim pressure, something that looks smells tastes feels like a blitz, but it ain't a blitz. A lot of disguise and complexity. Pre-snap. You didn't see a ton of that. I mean, honestly, I think kind of one hand. How many times I saw that in the first half of the game games up front and simulated pressure. Just didn't get a lot of that stuff. You didn't play a lot of man to man. I thought and also kind of felt like I can split field at times when you'd end up with isolated receivers on one side. They would definitely man up and play press man on those guys and maybe play a different coverage on the other side of it or at least a little coverage on the other side of it. So I thought that is actually something that did translate from the spring showcase the blitz rate to from the spring

19:40showcase. I mean, I think PFF had them at a 40% blitz rate. So that's pretty hot. I mean, not a low blitz rate at all. But like I said, most of those came on third down. Those were not early down blitz. It's also just a mostly passed down blitz. I think you'll get some early down blitzes to try to create chaos with a guy like machine vows in the run game. But yeah, for the most part, you know, for much champ, I didn't see the total, I would say I didn't see the whole picture of him getting deep into his bag. But we did see the some of the staple personality traits if you will of a much champ defense, the hard hits. Kobe Black land down the hammer legally, by the way, which is hard to do these days. But then, you know, takeaways, right? It's a big part of it. I mean, by all means, there's most of those. But ball oriented defenders, guys who can take the football away and stopping the run game. You know, you gave us some big plays for the most part. They they relied on kind of outliers to get plays in a running game. They had nothing consistent. Much that's going to take away the run game. Try to force you into third loans and then get takeaways.

20:45And they got takeaways. You got three of them. And that people think it's going to they're going to be upset with this, but I'm going to tell you the truth. I love the much champ defense, but studying the much champ defense. Yes, he's aggressive. This is why I start to make that comment that he thinks he's aggressive without being reckless. Guys, his aggression, if you just want to reinterpret it, it's just gambling. Just gambling. Now they calculated risks, but he's gambling by bringing extra defenders, playing man to man in the back end. And sometimes when you gamble, if you're going to yell gambling, love you, no, you go loose. No matter how good your calculations are, you're just going loose. God, bust the coverage, brain fart, mental error, whatever it is. God just makes a play. And you saw that a couple of times in Texas State. So long offense, I'm not I'm not like freaked out by a Texas State moving the football and getting some explosive plays. I think they had like 10, 10 plus short plays like five 20 plus short plays. Somebody I'm not shocked by that, but also I understand what real much of defense is. I'm going to give up five 20 plus short plays. We're going to get three takeaways. And the greatest cheat code in football is takeaways in don't defense. It's

21:48better than stopping the run. It's better than having a really good past defense. The best cheat code in football and don't defense is takeaways in much champ defense. Based on what we've heard from training camp, spring football takes a football away consistently. So I'm kind of fine with this river boat mentality because Texas State made plays against you. Don't get a twisted guys. Oh, how stable too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, cool guys. So just know, just just understand, you're going to be able to take the football away and make and force negative plays, but along with that comes giving up something which you will. Yeah, there's two things I think to think about right before we wrap up in that regard. One, even in the scrimmages when the offense was turn over prone, if you listen to what Sarger said, I know a lot of people just stopped it. Well, you know, arched turn of all over and rightfully so that's a big headline. But he also said, hey, there were times where the offense would come back. They moved the ball like we got big plays down the field. So again, it's all about you're going to give up plays. It's can you make more than you give up? Yeah, and they did on Saturday when it counted. Also, another staple of a little

22:51much champ defense and we saw this when he was at Texas, when you get into critical situations. And one thing I didn't like, I did not like the Texas State. I mentioned to go distance on third down. They were less than four and a half yards to go on third down. So that's something that definitely needs to get fixed before you get to a high state. And to your point, if you're doing more run blitzing and just sending guys with line of scrimmage on early downs, trying to create negative plays, you'll probably get them behind the chains a little bit more hopefully. But you're going to give up plays. You're going to give up some yards. But again, a staple of this much champ defense, Rod, we saw the first time he was at Texas. You got Texas State at one point. They had first and goal at the five. And you held them to no points. They missed the field goal. Yeah. So in critical situation, we see a well-mushed champ defense. It's almost like the sense of urgency gets heightened like, all right, stop messing around. It's goal to go. Let's go ahead and get a stop right here. So I did like the fact and granted you needed help because you had to have a Texas State's kicker, missed the field goal there on that first goal to go situation.

23:53But I like the fact, Rod, that when push came to shove, they bowed their neck in the race on and got that stopper. Yeah. Now I told you, Grinley, that's I think honestly, like I said, PK's a bent but don't break out, but don't get it twisted. That's where a much champ is going to shine too. And those critical moments when the field shrinks and third down when you're trying to play to the chains, that's when that man coverage and at aggressive nature are going to pay off most. But if you think that you're going to have the 85 Bears defense for much of defense, then you're surely mistaken. It'll give up plays. But I said, like you said, Jeff, you're going to make more plays than you give up. That is the whole. But it rides 46 games. Some yards to go watch that game. Against the golfers on Monday night football. I would all of the fans just because you're on the table, but made a lot of plays. That they did. All right. That is going to do it for the inaugural edition in 2026 of second watch with Rod. Maybe it's Rod. Thank you for the time of the knowledge. The Intel, the expertise as always, big thank you to Matthew behind the scenes for producing it. Thank you to prize picks for sponsoring this edition of on Texas football. If you're not a member over on Texas football.com now is the time to get over to the site and get

24:55signed up. We have a limited time offer for new members, $3 for your first three months of access at on Texas football.com. But time is running out to take advantage of this offer. Yes, we have plenty of post game coverage on the win over Texas table. We are already getting you ready for the long horns and the buck eyes Saturday night under the lights at DKR. Get it over on Texas football.com, check it all out and new members, $3 for your first three months of access at on Texas football.com. Do not hesitate and take advantage of this limited time offer. Make sure that you like this video. Make sure you're subscribed to the on Texas football YouTube channel and make sure you've got your notification set that way anytime we go live or drop a new video, you're not going to miss any of our long horn coverage or breaking news. For Rod from Matthew for the entire on Texas football staff, I'm Jeff Howell. Thank you so much for watching and listening and until next football is finally back and this is the time of year when I probably have more action going than any other point on the calendar. That's why I like my bookie. Whether I'm sitting around before kick off, killing some time between games, or I see something I like right before the ball goes in the air, I can pull it up and make my play.

25:57You don't have to overthink every game or feel like you need to have some complicated system. Find a matchup that you've been watching all week. See a number you like? Put a little action on it and suddenly that game you are already going to watch has a little more juice. If you're new to my bookie, they're also giving you a little protection on that first wager with the bit back bonus. Just sign up using promo code CFB2026. CFB like college football, 2026, opt into that bit back bonus and make your first play. If that wager loses, you get it back. College football is here. The board is loaded and there's finally something to bet on every Saturday again. Get in on the action with my bookie. Bet on anything anytime, anywhere.