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BurntOrange&White

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Posts posted by BurntOrange&White

  1. The 'healthy' Texas quarterback competition carries on

    Joe Cook•41 minutes

    Article written by:Joe Cook

    josephcook89

    (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

    Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was asked point blank on Monday night if either Quinn Ewers or Hudson Card had done enough to earn the starting quarterback role. His response? “Not yet, no.”

    [Get a 50% off an Inside Texas Plus subscription!]

    After only one scrimmage, it may be disappointing but not terribly surprising to the coach who has said multiple times he wants to decide on a starter earlier than he did last season. Plus, that scrimmage included three interceptions, albeit across 100-plus plays. If there’s no starter, is there a leader? Sarkisian wouldn’t go that far.

    “I would say it’s tight,” Sarkisian said. “I would say both guys are working very hard. They’ve both got great attitudes. I’ve actually talked to both of them separately about their mindset, the room, how they’re working with one another yet competing with one another. I think they both are operating and doing it at a high level.”

    That’s a common theme among recent Texas quarterback battles. Card and Casey Thompson publicly spoke about their good rapport during last year’s competition. When Sam Ehlinger and Shane Buechele fought to be QB1 under former head coach Tom Herman, they often spoke about their ability to remain friends even amid stiff competition.

    According to Sarkisian, Card and Ewers are continuing that trend. He perceives each player is trying to primarily better themselves as opposed bettering their cohort in the quarterback room.

    “I think both of them recognize ‘man, there’s room for me to improve,’ and if I’m the other guy, he’s thinking ‘man, there’s room for me to improve,’” Sarkisian said. “That’s what I love. They’re not worried about what the other guy is doing. Their focus is on what they’re doing now and what they can do moving forward. That’s what’s making it really healthy.”

    Though the competition is healthy, Sarkisian is looking for his offense to convert more opportunities. Quarterback wasn’t the only offensive position to draw some small measure of ire from Saturday’s scrimmage, where Sarkisian said there were several missed opportunities. From that, Sarkisian looked at those misses with a glass half-full disposition.

    “I think offensively, they’re probably looking at it like ‘ahh, we missed some ops,’” Sarkisian said about the offense. “That’s good. I want them to feel that way, not walking out of there thinking ‘man, we didn’t do anything.’ They created enough explosive plays but there were more there that I think they’re champing at the bit to get back out there and go attack again.”

    Quarterback plays a significant role in converting some of those missed “ops,” especially in Sarkisian’s offense. With the Texas quarterback competition “tight,” the upper hand could go to whoever begins converting those opportunities on a more consistent basis.

  2. Bobby:

     

    **

    Couple of team notes:

    - I continue to hear positive comments about sophomore cornerback Jamier Johnson to the point that Johnson is pushing Ohio State transfer Ryan Watts more and more.

    Johnson, similar to Watts, is a lanky corner. Neither have ideal speed but both can be very disruptive at the line of scrimmage.

    - Cole Hutson’s type of injury is undisclosed but we have been told that it should not be long before he returns to the field. How long? One week seems like it would be the upper end of any timetable.

    That’s important as line coach Kyle Flood is trying to find his best group of five. That’s easier said than done.

    Hutson’s injury further complicates that search. Not only is Hutson out but the loss of Junior Angilau for the season only compounds it

    - While much has been made about true freshman Savion Red seeing action at punt returner, I hear Brenen Thompson is also working there and faring well. We’re still waiting to hear a decision on whether D’Shawn Jamison will return punts this season after doing so the last three years.

    - I’m told quarterback Quinn Ewers went in for extra work with QB coach AJ Milwee both before and after practice on Monday. And that time goes above and beyond the regularly scheduled QB meetings.

    Ewers appears to understand he has some serious work ahead of him following Saturday’s scrimmage which included lackluster performances by both Ewers and Hudson Card.
     

  3. 2 minutes ago, texifornia said:

    The staff doesn't do any of this. Look at Burnt Ends, Horns with Heart, or Bijan's Lambo or Rhoback deals. It's fans organizing and running collectives or doing standard sponsorship deals from their companies and vetting them through UT Compliance and the Athletic Department.

    For a less publicized example, Sarkisian definitely wasn't putting together Ewers' NIL deal.

    The Texas holistic approach vs the cut throat approach. 

  4. Just now, Tex-19 said:

    My point is that I think a lot of uber-rich UT alums feel like there are much better uses of their money than spending it to win football games. Whether that's the educational side of UT, buying a vacation house, other charities, hookers, investments that actually return money, or whatever.

    Ex: Michael Dell. He probably doesn't have a moral issue with paying players. He just thinks a new computer science building is a lot more important than football. 

    You’re probably right. Hopefully that changes once we join the sec. Recruiting isn’t going to get easier once we get to the sec and the top competition gets game results vs us. 

  5. 2 minutes ago, Droopy said:

    You just asked what would make them care, so it would have to be ROI. That's what I want, but I'm not sure what their version of ROI is. I would assume that some want better access to the program, while others want to see championships. Hell, I knew a guy that just wanted to be able to say he was donor and got to meet Mack. 🤷‍♂️

    Everyone's ROI is different and individually specific. Here's to us finding theirs and flooding their lawns with it.

    Admin needs to indirectly direct the BMDs that the ROI is winning championships and get that aligned. A whatever it takes to win approach through the legal methods. 

  6. ·

    Edited by BurntOrange&White

    2 minutes ago, Droopy said:

    Easy. ROI

    Why do you care?

    So they want financial ROI that doesn’t involve winning titles as ROI? 
     

    2 minutes ago, Tex-19 said:

    Probably living in a place like College Station where they have nothing else to care about..

    Why does it matter where you live? It’s about commitment to winning imo. 
     

    I assume a lot of these guys are the same ones CTJ mentioned that thought Texas didn’t need upgraded facilities and the UT degree is more than enough?

  7. Scoop:

     

    RECRUITING 

    Jordan Matthews, CB, Baton Rouge (La.) Woodlawn

    The On3 four-star is announcing his decision today at 2pm (CT). Matthews is down to Texas, Michigan, and Tennessee. Inside Texas has been bullish on UT’s chances with Matthews since the spring, and after six unofficial visits over the course of 18 months, the Longhorns put themselves in a terrific position to land the Pelican State product.

    With his father being an LSU alum, you always have to watch the in-state Tigers, but right now, nobody has been better in this pursuit than Steve Sarkisian, Terry Joseph, and the Texas staff. Add the fact Louisiana natives Arch Manning, Will Randle, and Derek Williams are a part of Texas’ 2023 class, and you’d be hard pressed to find a better recruiting cycle for the Horns in Da Boot. 

    Sunshine State prospects

    Texas continues to have communication with On3 5-star EDGE Damon Wilson (Venice, Fla.) and On3 4-star DL Jordan Hall (Jacksonville/Westside), both having conversations with the UT staff since Inside Texas made stops at the schools last week. Neither has locked in the September 10 OV to Austin yet, but it’s still being talked about. Wilson seems more likely to make an OV that weekend, as of today. Texas has also talked to prospects about coming later in the fall as well. 

  8. Scoop:

     

    By: Eric, Gerry, and Justin 

    TEAM

    Per sources, some post-scrimmage themes are emerging. Here are some that were named with a little bit of color attached. 

    Injuries

    Football is a sport where ‘reversion to the mean’ eventually takes its course. That can be a good thing. As an example, it’s unlikely UT’s defense won’t force more turnovers next season. But it can be a bad thing. On the heels of a relatively injury free 2021 season, the Gods came calling on Saturday. Truth be told, they actually came calling a little earlier as we learned Alfred Collins would be out for 4-6 weeks.

    In relatively close proximity on Saturday, Roschon Johnson, Junior Angilau, and Isaiah Neyor were helped off the field. Johnson’s ankle should keep him out until around the Alabama game or a week or two after. If he can’t go for Alabama, they may want to save him for conference play rather than bring him back for UTSA.

    Angilau and Neyor were lost for the season with knee injuries. Those are big losses as both were an integral part in the overall vision for the program. Angilau was going to give Kyle Flood the opportunity to get bigger at center while also making way for a talented freshman guard. Neyor would serve as a nitro boost for Steve Sarkisian’s preferred 12 personnel.

    Where do they go from here? Jake Majors will likely remain the starter at center, while Cole Hutson will continue playing right guard. Logan Parr appears to be the second team center for now. 

    Wide receiver is more unclear. Sources indicate Casey Cain will get the first look at boundary receiver. He had a 40-yard gain in the scrimmage, and somewhat encouragingly, it was against starter Ryan Watts, not a third-stringer. Troy Omeire was quiet in the scrimmage but he’s running well enough to be out there. He‘ll see increased reps and we’ll learn more about his overall recovery. 

    The real question at receiver will be if they decide to move Jordan Whittington to boundary receiver or if Sark chooses to become more scheme diverse. Or, do they give Tarique Milton a look there.

    Unrelated to Neyor, but Agiye Hall’s indefinite suspension means Brenen Thompson is working more behind Xavier Worthy at field receiver.

    We should start getting answers at wide receiver later today when the team hits the field for practice followed by Sark’s media availability. 

    Prolonged QB battle

    This one has been litigated forwards and backwards — and more often backwards. It’s our educated opinion Sark entered camp wanting to name a starter after the first scrimmage and our hunch was Quinn Ewers was more likely than Hudson Card. After 9 practices, including a scrimmage, this battle appears it has a ways to go.

    Could Sark go with a gut feeling and name a starter soon? That’s a possibility and certainly his choice to do so, but it wouldn’t be based on what’s transpired on the field. 

    Card continues to have better command of the offense and probably moves the chains better, but Ewers has the flair for the big play.

    If we were going solely by camp performance, Card would have the slight edge per a couple of sources.

    More press coverage

    Last January we mentioned we’d see more press coverage and did so during the spring. That’s continuing in August as a staple coverage. The first-teamers are holding up for the most part but and some of the younger guys are coming along. Jamier Johnson has been mentioned as one of the most improved players on the team, and Jaylon Guilbeau had a strong scrimmage at Star.

    D’Shawn Jamison has about 5-6 interceptions this month and it sounds like he’s playing his most consistent football. We’re not hearing about him getting beat much.

    D-line and linebackers playing the run better

    This goes more for the first-team, and we understand the skepticism based on last August and how the season went. All we can report is what’s happening on the field and certainly zero-sum plays a part. We know the O-line is not a strength, though we do believe it’s improved over last season. The running backs are a strength, however, so that lends to hope of an improved run defense.

    Up the middle, Byron Murphy, T’Vondre Sweat, and Vernon Broughton are having good camps. Losing Collins for a stretch is not ideal, but they do have depth at D-tackle. 

    We repeatedly hear good things about transfer linebacker Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey. Though it wasn’t specific to run defense, we heard DeMarvion Overshown was one of the 2-3 best players on the field on Saturday. Jaylan Ford has been a bit quiet but that can also be a not-so bad thing from your Mike linebacker. We feel confident he’ll have a solid season, if not more.

    Running backs remain a strength

    This will seemingly conflict with having solid run defense, but these guys are consistently getting tough yardage and are of course elevated by having one of the best players in all of college football. 

    This grouping was named on Sunday, so after Roschon Johnson’s injury. It’s deep with four guys who will contribute in the opener. Robinson is a known. After flashing last year, there’s optimism on Jonathon Brooks. He had a good scrimmage running inside and outside. Keilan Robinson is bigger and just as fast as ever. Freshman Jaydon Blue has been pushing Brooks for carries in practice. 

    All of these guys are good in space and three of them have good hands. 12 personnel lost some luster with Neyor’s injury, but this grouping still offers Sark a lot of versatility.
     

  9. Long article about freshmen linemen for us by Joe Cook

     

    Quote

    Texas Football: Are the freshmen O-linemen 'tough, smart, and dependable' enough to start?

    Joe Cook•44 minutes

    Article written by:Joe Cook

     

    DJ Campbell and Cole Hutson (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

    When DJ Campbell became the seventh offensive lineman in Texas’ 2022 class, one of the main questions for the Longhorns entering Steve Sarkisian’s second year shifted from “will any freshman O-lineman play” to “how many freshman O-linemen will play?”

    [Get a 50% off an Inside Texas Plus subscription!]

    Campbell, the No. 12 overall prospect in the 2022 On3 Consensus, ranked seven spots ahead of classmate Kelvin Banks. That duo represented the top players at their respective positions of interior offensive lineman and offensive tackle. Two more top 300 O-linemen in the On3 Consensus, Cam Williams and Neto Umeozulu, were part of the group Sarkisian and Flood signed. So were Connor Robertson, Malik Agbo, and early-enrollee Cole Hutson.

    From last year’s O-line, Derek Kerstetter, Denzel Okafor, and Tope Imade exhausted their eligibility. That trio accounted for nearly 40 percent of the starts on the line in 2021. Two starters, Christian Jones and Jake Majors are back for 2022 and trying to keep their spot. Junior Angilau, the third returning starter, could be out for the year.

    All of that math creates the new, complex equation Sarkisian and Flood will need to answer in determining who the first five on the field will be, and how many of those five will be from the freshman ranks.

    “Ultimately, the head coach has the final say on all of that,” Flood said August 2. “But do I think we have a talented freshman class? I do. Do I think some of those guys are going to be able to contribute this year? I do. To what level? They’re going to determine that.”

    In the current era of college football, coaches aspire to have a group of 7-8 linemen they believe can play when the lights come on. Five are the starters, plus the handful of backups who offer versatility or were just beat out by a better player. Though there might be a strong focus on paper depth charts, there is a lot that goes into putting the best group on the field.

    “I think the best way we try to talk to the guys about it is we want to play the best five players up front, and the last thing I would want to do is have five guys starting but my third best lineman isn’t on the field because he’s a backup tackle,” Sarkisian said August 11. “He would be our starting guard if he played guard. We try to explain it really well.”

    Seven of the 16 scholarship offensive linemen being freshman does help the chances of at least one seeing the field, but there’s a better formula Flood has for figuring out who needs to be in the first five.

    “I like ‘em tough, smart, and dependable,” Flood said. “There’s a physical toughness aspect to the position that you can’t deny and you can’t hide from. You have to know what to do, how to do it, and why it’s important to do it that way. You’ve got to be dependable. There’s nothing more valuable in life than consistency.”

    “I put those three words up on the board every training camp in the O-line room because I want all the players in the room to really know what the expectations are. The faster the freshmen, the younger players – not necessarily just the first-year guys – can get to those three spaces, then I think the faster they can contribute.”

    Flood and Sarkisian entered training camp with more data about not just the freshman O-linemen, but the entire Longhorn roster. Coaches were able to spend up to two hours per week with players for skill training with a football. Both Sarkisian and Flood noted improvement from the entire group after they utilized the available time to work on fundamentals, techniques, calls, and other aspects of offensive line play.

    Practice time for the players wasn’t limited to those two hours a week, that’s just all they could do with the coaches present. Players held their own “optional” periods outside of the mandatory two hour periods and any other off-season conditioning sessions.

    In both those training sessions and in the early stages of camp, those freshmen O-linemen made impressions on several current players. Big impressions.

    “They’re big,” DeMarvion Overshown said on August 4. He eventually commented, “they’re going to be the real deal.”

    Said Bijan Robinson: “I see the freshman trying to learn and do the best that they can, so it makes the big guys want to be coached up some more and learn some more so they can understand the game as well and become that much better.”

    Cole Hutson (No. 54) has worked with the first-string at various points in training camp (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

    After the first week of camp, Sarkisian mentioned Williams, Banks, Campbell, and Hutson by name, saying that though they weren’t perfect, they looked “comfortable.”

    Two freshmen earned special callouts from coaches and peers alike. During his answer about playing the five best offensive linemen, Sarkisian said Campbell could fit at tackle down the road but was making progress at one of the interior spots.

    “He’s playing guard for us, and he’s going to be a heck of a player,” Sarkisian said August 11. “That’s not saying that before his career is done at Texas, that he’s not going to end up being a tackle. But an opportunity for him early, to potentially get himself on the field, guard may be a better spot.”

    One of the current team leaders had positive things to say about another highly-touted prospect.

    “Kelvin Banks, he’s a really good player,” Jordan Whittington said on August 9. “He’s a leader. Really vocal, really high football IQ.”

    Do players like Banks, Campbell, or Hutson break into the starting five for Louisiana-Monroe? Are they tough, smart, and dependable enough to play in year one? Hutson is already garnering some first-string reps at guard and could be on his way to being the first from the 2022 class to solidify a spot in the starting lineup, especially after Angilau’s injury.

    Campbell, though rated as an interior lineman, has the capability to play tackle. Could that happen later in his career, a la Evan Neal at Alabama? Sarkisian hinted as much.

    However, necessity almost always wins out. Texas needs a strong left tackle, and with Jones manning the right tackle spot these days, the competition for left tackle includes Andrej Karic and Jaylen Garth, plus five-star freshman Banks. Though Banks could function on the inside, his immense talent could have him protecting the blindside in game one.

    Is it tough to do that for a freshman? Of course, but it’s doable. There are countless examples, including a few at Texas like Kerstetter, Connor Williams, and Zach Shackelford. There are examples in Flood’s and Sarkisian’s past, with Neal the most notable. Sarkisian even played some first-year linemen in his short stint at USC. There are pitfalls to the approach as well, innumerable in college football.

    Texas has talented O-linemen in its freshman class. Are they tough, smart, and dependable enough for Flood and Sarkisian to march them out in game one? That was a possibility from the moment seven joined the program, and as camp has progressed, it appears more and more likely.

     

  10. Bobby:


    The Horns are hoping for commit No. 23 today. Defensive back Jordan Matthews of Baton Rouge Woodlawn is choosing between Texas, Michigan and Tennessee at 2pm.

    Sam Spiegelman of On3 will be at the event and we will have extensive coverage.

    Matthews has been a priority recruit for Terry Joseph since the winter, well before most other schools became enamored with him.

    When did the heat really rise on Matthews nationally?

    After he placed second in the state 200m and ran a 10.66 100-meter twice this spring. Most colleges weren’t expecting Matthews to have that kind of speed.

    But Joseph was all-in on Matthews before track season even began and had built a strong relationship with Matthews and his family.

    We’ll see if his early prioritization of Matthews pays dividends later today.

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