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Texas will practice again this evening and then tomorrow as well before taking a well deserved day off on Sunday. ** I’m told that dehydration has hit a couple of players pretty hard. It’s summer camp and it happens to a few just about every year. ** Ethan Burke was effusive in his praise for Travis Shaw yesterday in the post-practice interview session. I was a bit surprised by that because Shaw did not stand out much during the media viewing session. But I asked Burke specifically which interior defensive lineman that he’s lined up next to has impressed him and he singled out Shaw. Shaw, a former five star out of North Carolina, has str…

It’s encouraging that wide receiver Parker Livingstone appears to be taking another step forward during training camp, but, at the same time, we’ve heard very little about Stanford transfer Emmett Mosley V outside of the first few days. Why? According to CJ Vogel, Mosley has not been fully participating in Texas’ practice for a while. We knew he was held out of the first scrimmage but this injury has gone far beyond that. We believe it’s a re-aggravation of a lower leg injury he sustained this summer that also sidelined him for several summer workouts. We’ll do some more digging. But Mosley has not been full go much at all this training camp. And that …

What is the Texas football team up to today and tomorrow? Texas coaches are taking the team through an entire mock game weekend experience. The team will board a bus and head to a hotel today, they'll have team dinners, and team meetings tonight, just as if the Horns were in Columbus a week from now. The players will even room with the same guys who they will be rooming with next weekend. Then they'll wake up, get breakfast, have more meetings at the hotel and head to DKR to get ready for a mock game situation. With so many new faces this year, the coaches do these sorts of things to give everyone familiarity with what to expect. ** Trevor Goosby …

Yesterday’s media availability was somewhat typical for Steve Sarkisian. He was cordial and thoughtful. But I felt like there was a sense of focus there, too. The Texas coach thinks he’s got his guys prepared. Yet when asked whether he thought this was a championship caliber club, he said he didn’t know. He said that they had to go out there and prove it. And that sums up my feelings, too. We’ve chronicled all off season just how talented this Texas squad is, from top to bottom. From a number one ranked class to the return of difference makers like Colin Simmons and Anthony Hill, to the debut of Arch Manning. Sark and his coaching and personnel staff h…

Gerry Hamilton said “hi” about Marcus Spears Jr. almost a month ago now. Everyone assumed it was a football player. Rightfully so, since that’s the usual protocol. Nobody caught on, because nobody leaked the information. The national folks didn’t even catch on that this was a possibility until Tuesday afternoon. Lips were shut tight until then. The result, however, is the most important aspect. Texas, at least on paper, will now have its most talented basketball roster in school history. Sean Miller is prepared to elevate Texas into the upper echelon of college basketball. That’s what this signing and this commitment means. ** Speaking o…

I pride myself in being more plugged in to what’s going on behind the scenes at Texas than anybody who is not a part of the athletic department. Yet yesterday was a surprise to me. In fact, I had to read the press release twice, then immediately call someone at Texas just to make sure we weren’t being pranked. All of it was true. Texas hired Will Muschamp to return as the defensive coordinator while letting go of Pete Kwiatkowski. ** In the aftermath, I did some digging on questions about the move. - Let’s talk about the “when”. I’m told the deal started coming together about 2-to-2.5 weeks ago. - And now the “why”. Sark, …

After taking a short break for Christmas, most Texas players returned to campus late yesterday afternoon. The team is leaving for Orlando later today on a chartered plane. They’ll have a round of practices over the next four days followed by the game on Wednesday. ** According to ESPN, Michigan is focusing its efforts on Kyle Whittingham, the former Utah coach, to serve as its next head coach. The move wouldn’t affect next week’s Citrus Bowl - unless some players decide to opt out - but it would certainly impact the Longhorns’ game with the Wolverines in Austin in 2027. Whittingham is known as a defense-first head coach. ** Gerry reporte…

Texas and defensive end Zina Umeozulu came to an agreement late yesterday. Zina is expected to remove his name from the portal and return to the Longhorns. However... It should be noted that nothing is final until it is actually final. In other words, until the ink is dry, I'm not trusting anything these days. And that is not a concern specific to Zina either. It's about the nature of the transfer portal as a whole. This is the Wild West, welcome to the show! ** Speaking of the Wild West, I spoke to one source yesterday who said to expect at least another 1,000 players nationwide to enter the portal between now and Jan. 16. "It's not don…

Yesterday was a whirlwind. Texas zigged when everyone else was waiting for them to zag. Instead of Colorado offensive lineman Jordan Seaton visiting the Longhorns, it was Wake Forest offensive lineman Melvin Siani who signed with the Longhorns. The former Temple transfer started for two seasons at Wake Forest before entering his name into the transfer portal yesterday with a "do not contact" tag. Siani immediately signed with the Longhorns. He gives Texas its third offensive line recruit in the transfer portal, joining Oregon State guard Dylan Sikorski and A&M's Jonte Newman. Texas is expected to try Newman at both guard and tackle. But the Horns a…

Today, Jan. 23, is the last day for the SEC and Big 10 commissioners to come to an agreement on the future of the college football playoff. The SEC wants an expansion to 16 teams. The Big 10 prefers an expansion to 24. Both parties must agree on any changes to the existing agreement. The SEC is said to be unwilling to go to 24. Without that guarantee, the Big 10 is likely to block a slightly expansionary move to 16 (or even 14). If there is an impasse, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey seems ok with keeping the current 12-teams format intact. ** But who really cares about the playoff format? Any change to it is like putting lipstick on a pig.…

The Texas personnel department deserves a nod this morning. Why? Because they’re doing their job. And doing it thoroughly across multiple avenues, the fruits of which we’re seeing currently. While the headline of the week is the transfer portal addition of interior offensive lineman Lawrence Seymore, the personnel department has been doing work in other ways, too. Consider the following, all of which directly involves the personnel team: 1. Texas earned a commitment from 2027 Mansfield defensive lineman Camron Hall. 2. Texas is currently hosting a veteran wide receiver, Wake Forest’s Sterling Berkhalter, out of the transfer portal. 3. Te…

Many Texas fans believe that the Longhorns should weasel out of its deal to host Ohio State and Michigan over the next two football seasons. The thinking goes, the removal of those two games would give the Horns an easier path to the playoffs. While other teams load up on lightweight non-conference opponents, why should Texas have to play national powers? Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte even had it mentioned to him at the recent town hall. Yet that decision is actually out of Del Conte’s hands, I am told. As part of the initial negotiations to move early to the SEC from the Big 12, Texas had to switch the order of its home-and-away games w…

With Cole Hutson upgraded to probable, Texas should be healthy across the O-line for the Vandy game tomorrow. The only question is, will Hutson’s return push out Connor Robertson who has started the past couple of games at center, or does Texas move Hutson to a spot at left guard and that in turn move out either Connor Stroh or Nick Brooks? While Stroh and Brooks have given it their best shot, it seems like both have had their issues at guard to date. Perhaps it’d be smarter to get three seniors by class (Hutson, Robertson and DJ Campbell) on the interior. It might minimize some of the assignment busts we’ve seen this year. ** Both Arch Manning and Mic…

In the wake of Marshawn Kneeland of the Cowboys and his death yesterday, Rod Babers, Bob Shipley and Marcus Myers talked candidly about it on the livestream last night. The segment starts at about the 53-minute mark. If you have the opportunity and only read or listen to one other thing today, I really think it’s worth your time. It’s as good and honest of a segment as we’ve ever had on On Texas Football IMO. Thanks to Coach, Rod and Marcus for letting us hear their candid conversation. https://www.youtube.com/live/JHfNsRTJNyQ?si=glEY_Q3dqseldjAV ** When it comes to the SEC race, there are four relatively heavy favorites this weekend. …

If you went to bed early on Thursday night, you missed some recruiting fireworks. Coming out of staff recruiting meetings held on Thursday, the Longhorns decided to offer three new high school recruits: TE Charlie Jilek of Portage, Mich. (previously committed to Minnesota) RB Jett Walker of Georgetown (committed to Minnesota) OL Kaden Scherer (committed to Stanford) Jilek committed to Texas last night. He, along with Walker and Scherer, are slated to visit the Longhorns on the weekend of the Arkansas game. While the offers may look sudden, they actually are not. The Texas personnel staff has been evaluating players across the country for mont…

Which Texas team are we going to get tomorrow? While the offense has not exactly bathed itself in glory this season, it at least seems to be moving in the right direction of late. The defense, however, is a different story. In the first five games of the year, Texas was giving up 260 yards a game. In the last five, that figure is up to 375 yards a game. in other words, Texas has an improving offense with a defense headed in the opposite direction. And that’s exactly why people are somewhat confounded by this Texas team. ** I hope we see a consistent offense tomorrow combined with a defense that can get off the field on third and long. …

Approximately 24 seniors will walk later today in DKR, their final home game as Longhorns. While all of them have been party to the resurgence of the Texas football program in their careers, a few of them have played major roles and deserve to be singled out further. OL DJ Campbell - a three-year starter. Picked Texas and Steve Sarkisian over Oklahoma signaling a change in DFW recruiting four years ago. OL Cole Hutson - a two-year starter and key back-up his other two seasons, Hutson has been a reliable mainstay of the OL his entire career. DE Ethan Burke - a multi-year starter with multiple memorable plays, including one a year ago this week. If he ha…

I’m starting to do my overall breakdown of the 2026 recruiting class. I’ll be releasing three each morning and each afternoon until I’m finished. Here are the first three players. QB Dia Bell Known: athletic, accurate, intelligent, manuevers well in in the pocket, good size and requisite arm strength. Seems to have an unhurried feel for the rush. Extends a lot of plays while keeping eyes downfield. Looks to pass before run. Competitive. Strong performance bloodlines at an elite level. Unknown: He has all the physical skills except maybe plus size. The only real question is, does he have the “it” factor of an elite QB at the college level? It’s the…

The 2026 Texas football schedule was released yesterday evening. Here it is: 2026 Texas Football Schedule Sept. 5: vs. Texas State Sept. 12: vs. Ohio State Sept. 19 vs. UTSA Sept. 26: @ Tennessee Oct. 3: IDLE Oct. 10: vs. Oklahoma (in Dallas) Oct. 17: vs. Florida Oct. 24: vs. Ole Miss Oct. 31: vs. Miss State (Halloween) Nov. 7: at Missouri Nov. 14: at LSU Nov. 21: vs. Arkansas Nov. 27: at Texas A&M ** Some thoughts: - Texas plays only one true road game all the way into November. But then the Horns finish with three of four on the road. - Tennessee is that early road game…

Hopefully some of you got a chance to read some of my notes from yesterday’s practice. I have a few more to add below. - I mentioned a likely starter was sidelined on Thursday. I didn’t mention his name because I was awaiting word on exactly what the issue is/was. Since another site went ahead and ran with the name, I can confirm that that player is tight end Michael Masunas. However, I do not know exactly what the injury is. I can confirm it’s an injury of some sort, though I’m not led to believe it’s long term in nature. Masunas has had a bit of a history with soft-tissue injuries in his career. So we’ll see where this leads us. ** Trevor Goosby…

Texas holds its second scrimmage of spring ball tomorrow. The Horns are through 11 practices now and still have not endured what I would term a “long term” injury to a starter or even an immediate backup. Kaliq Lockett is the only such player and he’s expected back by June. We need that to continue. If Texas wants to win it all, the facts are they have to stay healthy. ** Will Muschamp’s t-shirt yesterday at the press availability drew some attention. NT=NP. Muschamp explain “no thud” in practice means “no play” on Saturdays. If there has been an issue adapting to Muschamp’s coaching style by a few Texas players, it’s been those expecta…

Yesterday, Florida State and Georgia announced they were canceling a home and home series and instead looking into a single game at a neutral field. Why would they do that? Well, there’s the fact that neither team wants to subject themselves to difficult non-conference match-ups in multiple years as opposed to just one. Score one for the current 12-team format I guess. Perhaps if the number were already at 24 teams, the two programs would be less inclined to be worried about an extra early season loss. But I think the real reason is much, much different. And much more sad. I think it’s because a neutral site game potentially allows for the players to b…

Yesterday, the NCAA Rules Oversight Committee voted to endorse a new transfer portal timeline, one that starts Jan. 2 of 2026 and lasts 10 days. The new timeline would restrict transfers to a single window of time instead of having two different ones as is the case currently (one window after the regular season in December and then another after spring ball in April/May). That endorsement of the Oversight Committee carries a lot of weight, but it is not final. The Rules Administration Committee must act before Oct. 1 of this year for it to become the transfer portal rule in January of 2026. While some may be concerned with the players of the four teams rema…

Steve Sarkisian said he didn’t think any of the players that will miss tomorrow’s game will have long stays on the injured list. But it’s still quite the list, especially at the skill positions on offense. Tre Wisner and DeAndre Moore are expected out. Portal transfer Emmett Mosley V, who we’ve yet to see, remains sidelined, too. That’s your no. 1 running back and two of your top four receivers. No wonder Sark spent a lot of yesterday talking up true freshman Daylan McCutcheon. Here at OTF, we’ve talked about one of the categories of improvement we want to see in this Texas offense is its explosiveness. Well, it’s hard to be explosive when all of your …

Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer was upgraded to “probable” last night. That decreases the chances of a Longhorn victory IMO. But it simultaneously increases the odds that the Longhorns are going to be pushed to fight as hard as they can on every play. That they’ll play with an unbridled passion and focus. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen a level of consistent focus and passion this year. Maybe this game, maybe Mateer, shakes the cobwebs loose. ** I hope folks realize the indictment of what I wrote above really is. Right now, this team is not playing well on a number of levels. The offensive line looks lost against pressure. The interior defens…