Hookem2147

RB- We will have 6 RBs. Wisner, Gibson, Baxter, Clark, Stewart and Simon. 7 scholarship guys at that spot seems like a lot, but I do understand it is a tricky situation with 2 guys coming off season-ending injuries who won't even be participating in spring practice. OL- It's been brought up several times, but I doubt we will see all 5 starters depart. I think Campbell is playing relatively well but you usually need to be a total badass to justify entering early as a guard. I think the most likely scenario is Campbell and Hutson return to occupy the two guard spots in 2025 with Robertson/Cruz competing at center. Cam Williams is obviously a big wildcard. LB- I agree that a veteran guy is likely needed here. After Hill it is a bunch of young pups who we think will be good but will be mostly unproven. DB- Are we assuming Guilbeau is leaving early? If he returns, I'm not sure I see the need for a portal DB. Maybe a safety could make sense, but with Taaffe, McDonald, and Williams all set to return and Jonah Williams coming in, I wouldn't say it is a dire need. Where Johnson-Rubell and Wardell Mack slot in long-term will be interesting.

Outside of getting two good OT's, I really don't think the OU class is very good. They signed 10 DBs and WRs last cycle, then proceeded to get 10 more this cycle. They seem to have the Herman syndrome of just signing a billion receivers every year and calling it depth.

I would be surprised if Sanders is playing baseball this spring. I guess we also have to factor in Jonah Williams for the numbers because the plan seems to be for him to enroll in January and play baseball while doing spring football. The majority of the roster cuts will surely come on the pitching side. We are carrying 25 right now. That number should be closer to 20 by the time the season rolls around. I'm not sure if it is still the case, but seniors using COVID years previously didn't count towards the 40-man roster limit. If that is still in place, we should be able to carry 42 with Mercer and Duplantier being covid redshirt seniors.

He was in there for at least 3 or 4 drives in the second half. I think he was paired with Jay'Vion Cole for a lot of those plays.

Paying for ESPN+ is a no-brainer, especially if you also watch sports outside of football. Even if you are football only, there will usually be a handful of games each week that are worth checking in on. There is a good chance anything you watched on LHN previously will be on ESPN+ moving forward, so 95% of games for baseball, softball, women's basketball, etc.

I actually came across ULM’s opener on ESPN+ against Jackson State. It was on that opening Thursday so there weren’t a ton of games on. Bottom line is they are awful and fail the eyeball test on pretty much every level. They can pretty much only run the ball (Booty has 30 pass attempts through 2 games). They gained less than 300 yards against UAB and had just a little over 300 yards against FCS Jackson State. The UAB game turned lopsided because of 3 turnovers and Trent Dilfer being a terrible football coach. They are worse than UTSA, I don’t care what the record says. I was trying to think back to another Texas opponent that could compare and the infamous 2013 New Mexico State opener came to mind. Played just about the worst game possible and still won 56-7. Let’s just plan on not having a 14-7 lead at halftime like that game please.

Is it a stretch to say Vernon Broughton is our best DT right now? I think Collins is doing some good stuff too but Broughton has taken his game to another level. The UTSA OL having to commit blatant holding several times is the only thing that seemed to slow him down last night. Savea also finally flashed several times after barely playing the first two games.

Doubtful. Lucky for us Galindo is on the call!

I think Sark and Choice are starting to realize this. We barely ran between the tackles with anyone else last night when the game was still somewhat in question. Wisner and Blue are good backs but asking them to run between the tackles 10+ times a game over the course of what is hopefully a 16 game season is asking for trouble. I think the screen game and involving the RB’s in the passing game will continue to essentially serve as an extension of the run game. We have lots of mouths that need to be fed.

We don’t have the two war daddies up front like last year but I have been so impressed with our situational defense. Two 4th down stops tonight and the overall IQ just seems to be head and shoulders above what it was last year.

Baseball recruiting just doesn’t get the coverage basketball and football for a number of reasons, namely how early recruiting starts (you can take official visits the fall of your junior year) and the fact that some guys who commit will never actually play for your school. And baseball is 3rd in the pecking order for coverage for these 9.95 sites.

This team is so damn impressive 1 through 85. I don’t care about how bad UTSA is. We have third stringers who would have been featured guys on teams in the last decade.

Show me any game in Sweat, Coburn or Murphy’s third season where they were healthy and played 0 or 1 snap.

Team notes from IT

Jaray Bledsoe has played 1 snap through 2 weeks in his third year in the program. Sydir Mitchell's issues have been well documented. I wouldn't be penciling in those two as returners. The portal will need to be used regardless of how great this DT class is.

I think I mentioned it a while back, but I heard we will host Arizona State for at least one-midweek game. This is going to be a very strong schedule overall. Two early weekend tournaments in Arlington and Vegas+ two non-con series + SEC schedule + usual midweek matchups (home and home vs Texas State, etc). Schloss has traditionally scheduled extremely soft in non-con, knowing that is coming down the pipe in SEC play, so I have to imagine the two non-con weekends that are unaccounted for will be total creampuffs. A&M had one of their best teams ever last year and still scheduled Wagner, McNeese State and Rhode Island for 3 of their 4 non-con weekends. Also, I won't say any SEC team got an 'easy' conference schedule, but OU avoided Arkansas, Tennessee, A&M and Florida while getting to host Texas, LSU and Vandy. That is quite the gift. Their road series are South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri and Georgia.

Michigan OL Deep Dig from Dunlap on OB

Strength of schedule won't be an issue this year with that conference slate and the two tournaments we are playing in.

Vegas doesn't do the transitive property. We lost to OSU in 2022, and the next week, OSU lost to Kansas State 48-0; then we were somehow favored against K-State the following week, so surely that line was off, right?? We covered. Vegas usually knows what they are doing. -35 is pretty much right where the Colorado State line closed, and I would guess that UTSA is rated higher than CSU in most places, so the fact the lines are identical shows Vegas, at the very least, has upgraded Texas several notches the first two weeks of the season.

He wouldn't this year for Texas, but their #1 WR Devin McCuin is good. Was a stud in HS coming out of east Texas and caught 42 passes for over 500 yards as a freshman last year. Really, really fast. Maybe he'll portal up after this season.

Might be as simple as Davis and Helm like contact and blocking, and Niblack does not. He seems to be a receiving-only threat that is probably gameplan-dependent.

This is funny because Elko will have to release an injury report this week with the new rules and a SEC game on Saturday. No more keeping secrets or keeping the media on a leash.

Defensive Deep Dig from Dunlap on OB

Eh, I think they are still a bowl team. Traylor will figure some stuff out and they are still better than schools like FAU, Rice, Temple and East Carolina (all on their schedule in the American). Disagree on worst team Texas will play all year. The spread next week against ULM might be around -40. They are horrible.