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For the first time this year, we witnessed a successful identity on offense, one that is clearly starting to build. Furthermore, it’s an identity that can be replicated and even improved upon. Now, one game does not a season make. But… If Texas can lean into that identity again and again this season, there’s a path to being a good offensive football team. And what’s even wilder is this: There’s still a ton of meat left on the bone for where this Texas offense could wind up if they keep improving. Think about it. - Arch Manning keeps improving. I don’t know how he plays a cleaner game than he did against OU. But I think there will ev…

A week ago, I was genuinely surprised by the Longhorns’ offensive performance against Oklahoma, as were many of you probably. I thought Texas would win that game, but I didn’t foresee such an encouraging outing from the offense. Fast forward one week, and I didn’t see this unbelievably poor performance coming. Chances are, many of you didn’t either. The only thing the offense did right on Saturday night was not turn the ball over. Other than that, they were downright horrible. They couldn’t run, they couldn’t block, they couldn’t hit wide open receivers, they couldn’t even stay in bounds when they needed to. Hell, in overtime, with the game on the…

Even though this isn’t how any of us pictured it, the Longhorns are now sitting at 6-2 and preparing to host top ten Vanderbilt. Everything Texas wanted to accomplish in the pre-season remains a possibility. ** Football is a very cut and dry sport, especially when it comes to chasing championships. Either you win or you don’t. How the Longhorns prevailed in that 17-point fourth-quarter comeback is not nearly as important as the fact that they prevailed, period. There’s something special about doing that. Learning to win on the road, against all odds, never giving in, those are traits every single Texas player can carry forward from this game.…

We’ve mentioned multiple times over the last couple of weeks how Texas, its coaches and personnel staff, are meeting with players (and sometimes their agents as well) prior to next semester. The topics of discussion hinge around plans for next year for the player and then can proceed to NIL. The important point I am trying to make here is that it is not as simple as a single conversation. It is a longer process than many might assume and one that encompasses multiple aspects of a player’s (and the team’s) future. That’s why we are still hearing about and awaiting the decisions of several players who might return, who might go pro or who might opt to enter t…

Texas is back on the practice field today at 2pm. The Horns have practiced every day since making the trek to Orlando. Texas is down eight starter-level players (one on offense, seven on defense) for this game against Michigan. ** The two biggest questions for this game for me are: 1. Can the Texas defense slow the Michigan run game? With so many defensive starters out, particularly at linebacker, it’s a task I’m unsure if Texas is up for. 2. The last time these two teams played, Steve Sarkisian put Michigan defensive coordinator Wink Martindale in a blender. Martindale is a talented, NFL-tested defensive coordinator, so you know he relishes the o…

Cam Coleman. Hollywood Smothers. Trevor Goosby. Connor Robertson. That is a pretty damn good Sunday! Add Rasheem Biles on Saturday, and it was a wicked weekend for the Horns. In a two-day period, Texas fans went from wondering what was happening in the transfer portal to dancing in the streets. Yet the Texas brass knows its work is far from complete. The Horns must finish the job they started. ”We’ve still got work to do,” one source told me. “This is a big week.” Texas remains on the lookout for offensive linemen, a linebacker, and an edge. And perhaps more. They will be particularly focused on big-game hunting. Hook…

Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the transfer portal. And that’s understandable. Texas has added 16 players to its roster in less than three weeks. The Longhorns have lost 22 in about the same period of time. The portal is akin to an entire recruiting cycle jammed into a single month. It has been a whirlwind. Texas is still looking to add a couple of players, especially on the offensive line. ** The latest commitment, Markus Boswell, is a the son of former Olympic high jumper (and UT grad) Mark Boswell. Markus played at Lake Travis and was a first-team all district performer in 2023. He then played ball at a prep school for a year bef…

Texas AD Chris Del Conte will host his annual town hall next Wednesday, Feb. 4. Del Conte will answer an array of questions on just about every sport and any topic. Plus, he’ll give a state of the program look at the entire athletic department. Among the issues to be discussed will surely be the finalization timeline of the new indoor practice facility and the overall financial health of the athletic department. But there will be other questions, ones much more focused on his future plans for the department. For instance, here’s a simple question he will tackle. What will the scheduling strategy be for football now that the SEC has gone to a nine-…

Some early feedback I’ve heard on some of the freshmen: - Dia Bell. Working out, but the ball isn’t in the air yet. TBD. - Derrek Cooper. More explosive than perhaps initially thought. Good size. - Samari Matthews. Gotta see how well he really runs. Everything else is there, including mental makeup. - Tyler Atkinson. As advertised athletically. Need to see him with the pads on. - Jamarion Carlton. Extremely impressive physically. - Richard Wesley. Big and athletic. Still growing in their opinion. - Jermaine Bishop. Starts and stops very fluidly. View full news story

Despite photos that show Arch Manning was practicing on Saturday, it’s important to remember that he has not been a complete practice participant to date. He is still working his way entirely back. Perhaps that changes tomorrow. (The Horns practice Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday again this week.) And if it does change, perhaps that means we get a chance to see him play April 18, the date of the spring game. ** Sark has a history of being cautious with injuries, particularly those of his proven players. It’s a smart play in this new era of college football where a team might play as many as 17 games in a season. ** The internal reviews of…

I'm curious... If you were at the spring scrimmage, what did you think? What were your major takeaways? ** Here are a few of mine: 1. Defensive depth on the interior and at edge. When Maraad Watson and Josiah Sharma are back-ups, you're extremely talented up front. Lance Jackson, just a sophomore, is a possible first-round pick to pair with Colin Simmons and Zina Umeozulu. 2. As expected, Muschamp likes to play a smothering style of defense compared to Pete Kwiatkowski who liked to keep everything in front of him. 3. Derrek Cooper and Jermaine Bishop are ready to play right away as true freshmen. 4. Every portal transfer i…

Some team notes that I’ve picked up the last few days… - Freshmen Kade Phillips and Graceson Littleton may be good enough in the secondary to give some upperclassmen a run for their money. Phillips as a corner and Littleton as a nickel. Both have been even better than expected all the way though spring and now summer workouts. - Also in the secondary, Kobe Black was mentioned as someone who seemingly had a breakthrough this spring and off-season. - Hopes are that Nick Brooks’ run-in with the law are behind him. Some older teammates are trying to take him under their wing a little bit. - Freshman tight end Emaree Winston was one of the surprises of the …

A lot of national pundits are surprised - shocked even - when Texas secures a major commitment from an out-of-state recruit. Think of Derrek Cooper last night, the reactions toward Tyler Atkinson a week ago or even to Arch Manning three years ago. The reactions are those of surprise, of disbelief. They act almost flabbergasted. To me, it’s worth a good-humored chuckle. Doubt the power of the Longhorns at your own expense. But I also feel there are legitimate reasons behind the surprise. I think there are two parts that cause these reactions: First, and this is completely understandable, we all know Texas historically has placed its focus primarily…

While we get ready for training camp, which begins on Wednesday, summer recruiting is close to being finished up prior to the start of the season. As we’ve reported, two players might make their decisions in the next week - defensive back Davon Benjamin and defensive end Jake Kreul. Benjamin’s date is set for Aug. 2 while Kreul has not set anything in stone. Given that, how and who is Texas is going to recruit beyond just the next week becomes the next question. And even more so, what is it going to take to reel in more elite prospects? NIL will be a big piece of that. Of course, Chris Del Conte and his group is working to make the Longhorns the strongest N…

I was reminded by someone yesterday that most of the first week is always “install” for the coming season. That means getting players - all players, not just the first-line units - to understand key aspects of the offense and defense, and doing the things in live action that the coaches have talked about and shown to the players on the proverbial chalkboard for months. Install is mostly a learning phase of training camp. But it’s also an opportunity for coaches to see which players can ingest (or have already ingested) the material and put it into practice. That ingestion allows for some freshmen or younger players to a get a head start. Graceson Littl…

Young players - ones who have yet to play meaningful snaps in a game for Texas or are freshmen - with developmental “arrows up” following Saturday’s scrimmage and the early portion of camp: WR Parker Livingstone DB Graceson Littleton RB Christian Clark QB KJ Lacey DE Zina Umeozulu TE Jordan Washington DB Xavier Filsaime OL Nate Kibble TE Nick Townsend LB Bo Barnes DB Kade Phillips WR Daylan McCutcheon ** There is another group worth watching, older players who are either new to the roster or have made significant strides to become more regular pieces to the Texas puzzle. - DE Brad Spence - DT …

Following this past Saturday’s second and final scrimmage of training camp, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said he liked what he saw from his team. There were a couple of explosive plays on offense he said he liked, from Ryan Wingo and others, while he also made sure to mention his defensive front as a source of excitement for 2025. At 11am today, Sark steps to the podium once more. But this time will be slightly different. This means it’s now officially football season because Sark typically meets with the media every Monday during football season. Sark is making the transition from training camp to regular season and the players will be doing the s…

When you got out of bed this morning, hopefully you rolled left… Because we’re five James Brown days away from kickoff. 😉 ** I know that joke may not hit for the younger crowd, but that play in the inaugural Big 12 title game remains one of my fondest memories of Texas football. Me and three friends from UT were watching the game together in a shared condo. I think all of us simultaneously levitated while the ball was in the air and then celebrated while Derek Lewis was running down the field. I vividly remember Lewis putting both hands over the ball so he wouldn’t fumble. For any Longhorn fan who watched that game and recalls that play, it probab…

Practice no. 5 for the Horns starts today at Denius in about 30 minutes. ** Justus Terry and Rasheem Biles. Based on what I've been told, those two are making the most disruptive plays so far on defense. What do they have in common? Elite quickness and speed for the position they play. But they also give up a little size for their positions. As the pads come on this week, let's see if the disruption trend carries on. While I tend to think it will, sometimes when OLs are able to start leaning a little more on DLs and LBs, it can negate their level of disruptiveness, especially later in practices and over the course of training camp. Neither ar…

We’ve talked about how Texas coaches have been on the road recruiting for the last couple of weeks and the importance of that. Well, the Horns offered Caleb Siler, a 6-foot-8 offensive tackle from Gunter, as a result of those school visits. Siler told our CJ Vogel last night that he anticipates making an official visit in June. ** Siler’s addition to the official visit list is notable because it speaks to one thing I’m told Texas wants to do in this recruiting class and in successive years. Texas is hoping to truly develop the OL over the long haul. While the same could be said of every position on a football field, the OL is considered sligh…

The addition of Smithson Valley QB Ty Knutson settles a big question for the 2027 recruiting class, perhaps in ways you might not think. Sure, he’s the QB of the class, a state champion and talented player with high upside. But it’s also how he slots into NIL considerations. After all, he’s not the highest ranked QB in the state or the country, so Knutson is unlikely to command egregious NIL figures. That should free up more capacity for Texas at other potentially pressing positions and overall team depth. Just one more thing to consider in this age of college football. ** I love Knutson’s athleticism. I’m guessing it was that aspect tha…

In college sports, there are few things sweeter than going on the road and defeating your arch-rival. There are even fewer things better than capsizing another team’s chances at post-season opportunities and demoralizing a fan base. So that was the case on Saturday afternoon when the Texas basketball team went to College Station and put Texas A&M and Bucky Ball back in its place, defeating the Aggies 76-70. Texas weathered early foul trouble before taking command of the contest in the second half. It was a complete win for the Horns. It was a reality check defeat for the Aggies, who had prematurely high hopes for the season after a strong start to …

Predictions for spring ball (by the end of spring ball): Best newcomer: Cam Coleman Surprising upperclassman: Warren Roberson Physical transformation: ??? (I‘ll tell you after this morning but my current guess is Smith Orogbo.) Most improved redshirt: Jordan Coleman/Josiah Sharma Someone no one is mentioning but should be: Emaree Winston Best freshman: Derrek Cooper Most physically impressive: Justus Terry/Zina Umeozulu/Lance Jackson Best athlete: Colin Simmons/Coleman Quickest: Jermaine Bishop/Raleek Brown Fastest: Kade Phillips/Ryan Wingo Who will win a spot (at least temporarily) no one is thinking about: Jaydon Ch…

I’m really happy Texas made the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. But my brain is trying to square the fact that the hoops team was 9-9 in conference yet made it to a post-season tournament while the football team was 6-2 in conference and didn’t. As Jack Endries said during his interview at the NFL combine, few teams were playing better than the Longhorns at the end of last season. ** I said at the beginning of spring ball that there should be high expectations for this Texas football team in 2026. One week into spring ball, I’m not pulling back one iota from that. Everything I saw this week does nothing more than convince me that I was on t…

Both basketball teams advanced to the Sweet 16 this weekend. It’s the first time in three seasons that both the men and women advanced to the round simultaneously. For the men, it’s the 15th time in program history the Horns have made it this far in the NCAA tourney. The men are clearly peaking at the right time. They’re turning the ball over considerably less than they did in the regular season and defensive metrics are significantly better as well. Plus, they’re routinely hitting clutch shots, be they from Tramon Mark, Jordan Pope, or as was the case Saturday, Camden Heide. In all three games the Horns have won, none of them have been “lucky”. The Ho…