Jeff Howe

It's not uncommon for coordinators to do limited work on the recruiting trail. The difference is that Muschamp loves the evaluation process and getting out to talk ball with high school coaches. He loves that grind, which isn't the case for a lot of coordinators.

TAMPA, Fla. — Jon Sumrall enters his first season at Florida knowing the caliber of quarterback his defensive staff will have to deal with when the Gators travel to Austin to face Texas and Arch Manning on Oct. 17. Sumrall got to know Archie Manning and the Manning family during his two seasons as Tulane’s coach. Sumrall recalled during his press conference at SEC media days on Wednesday that Archie Manning reached out to him to see if he’d allow Arch Manning to work out at Tulane’s football facilities while the Longhorn quarterback was spending time at home in New Orleans. “Archie would shoot me a text or a phone call and see if it's OK in May, during a little downtime, if Arch comes over and throws,” Sumrall said. “I'm like, ‘Yeah. And ask if he wants to transfer.’ I might go out there and watch him throw and (Arch’s father) Cooper or whoever might be out there. I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’d like to coach that guy.’” In the face of constant pressure the Florida defense applied in a 29-21 loss the Gators handed Texas in Gainesville last season, Manning went 16-for-29 for 263 yards and two touchdowns (two interceptions and 37 net rushing yards on a season-high 15 official carries). Although the third bout between the Longhorns and Florida in as many seasons will be Sumrall’s first time preparing a plan to defend Manning, he knows the caliber of player the Gators will see under center. “He's a good player,” Sumrall said. “I really have a lot of respect for the Manning family as a whole. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree with Arch, with how he carries himself.” Sumrall inherits a Florida program that’s split its two SEC meetings with Texas (the Longhorns blasted the Gators in Austin in 2024, 49-17) and will battle Steve Sarkisian’s club for a third consecutive season. It’s one of the quirks of the league’s effort to equitably schedule a nine-game SEC slate for the league’s 16 programs, which resulted in scheduling anomalies, such as Florida and Tennessee not facing each other for the first time since 1989. Texas won't supplant the Volunteers on the list of schools the Gator faithful would consider a true rival to Florida. Nevertheless, Sumrall is looking forward to Sarkisian and the Longhorns being one of his team’s nine conference opponents during his maiden voyage as an SEC head coach. “It’s a big game because you're playing Texas and they're really good. Every SEC game is a big game is a big game,” Sumarall said. “It doesn't matter who we're playing; we don't change our prep for the game. It stays the same. But it is new and unique to be playing Texas a third year in a row. That's not something that's maybe historically been a part of Florida's past and Texas’ past. Who would’ve thought 10 years ago that Florida was playing Texas for the third year in a row and not playing Tennessee? “A lot of respect for Sark," he added. "He's a brilliant offensive mind and a play-caller. I've always admired how he does things. I think he runs a great program.” View full news story

The first part of your post is something people need to highlight, print out and save. I've said as much this offseason. The reward is worth the risk, but there's risk involved.

I think it was that the front end and the back end of PK's defenses didn't tie together the way Sark wanted. It's not one singular thing, but Sark wanted the pass defense to be tightened up.

I'm going to need two or more to get through today. A big day tomorrow with the Longhorns in Tampa.

HOUSTON — If Texas wins the national championship in 2026, Steve Sarkisian will become college football's first head coach in the College Football Playoff era to win the title while calling his team’s offensive plays. Jimbo Fisher was the last play-calling head coach to win it all, doing so at Florida State in 2013. Sarkisian, Fisher, Lincoln Riley and Ryan Day led their respective teams to the CFP semifinals in the four-team format (2014-23). Day guided Ohio State to the championship game in 2020 (the Buckeyes lost to Alabama, with Sarkisian calling the Crimson Tide’s plays en route to Nick Saban’s last national championship), making him the only play-calling head coach in the CFP era to clear the semifinal hurdle. Day turned play-calling over to Chip Kelly during the Buckeyes’ run to the national title in 2024. Sarkisian isn’t ready to relinquish those responsibilities. During his press conference at the Texas High School Coaches Association Convention in Houston on Sunday, Sarkisian pointed out a few advantages he believes he has as a play-calling head coach. “I'm coaching these guys, I'm installing plays, I'm around them, we're talking game plans, so I think from a connection standpoint, that helps,” Sarkisian said. “I think on game day, trying to manage the game and control the game of when you want to speed up, maybe when you want to slow down. When you go for it on fourth down, when you don't; the impact that can have on your team if you make it, if you don't make it. Field position with the defense and things of that nature.” Sarkisian’s response when breaking down the other side of the coin, however, reinforced why he parted ways with Pete Kwiatkowski after the 2025 regular season concluded, which paved the way for Will Muschamp’s return to the Forty Acres for a second tour of duty overseeing the Longhorn defense. “I think one of the areas where it can be difficult is trusting those guys on defense,” Sarkisian said. “If I'm trying to make adjustments on the offensive side of the ball between series, it's having trust in the defensive coaches that they've got a good grasp of what we're doing and, if a timeout is needed, why? What that situation looks like.” Muschamp’s “ability to really lead young men in our locker room is big for me,” Sarkisian said. With Muschamp hired to be the head coach of the defense, as Sarkisian put it when he publicly discussed the move before the Citrus Bowl against Michigan, whether or not the offense returns to being the explosive, productive unit it was throughout Sarkisian’s first four seasons on the job is squarely on his shoulders. That’s exactly how Sarkisian wants it to be. “This is the only way I know it,” Sarkisian said. “You know I've never done it any other way. I grew up in the profession with a guy that did it that way as well in Pete Carroll. He called the defense and, when I went to the Oakland Raiders early in my career, Norv Turner was the head coach — he called the plays. “Obviously, there's a lot of ways to do it and there's a lot of successful ways to do it, but this is just the way that I learned how to do it.” *** One of the reasons Sarkisian specifically targeted Muschamp is the reputation his defenses have for causing havoc. Hunting havoc plays (tackles for loss, forced fumbles, pass breakups and interceptions) was a talking point throughout spring practice because Muschamp emphasizes them. While breaking down defensive back play to a standing-room-only crowd in a ballroom at the George R. Brown Convention Center on Sunday (along with the high school coaches who were present for Muschamp’s lecture, coaches from Texas State, SMU, Texas A&M and other FBS programs were spotted in the room), Muschamp touched on the importance of havoc. It starts with every drill in practice ending with a Longhorn defensive back getting his hands on the ball. “There’s no drill where we just backpedal and let them go,” said Muschamp, whose 2009 Texas defense led the nation with 25 interceptions (the seventh-most in school history and the most in a season on the Forty Acres since 1951). “It's ending with catching the football or knocking the ball down every single time because that determines if you're a good player or not. You create havoc when you get hands on the ball.” While the Longhorns finished fourth in the SEC in passes defended (combined interceptions and pass breakups) per game (4.62), the defense’s 2.33 passes defended per game in their three losses (two interceptions and five pass breakups) was the second-worst mark in the conference. Just two of Texas’ 12 forced fumbles came in its losses, further highlighting Sarkisian’s desire for more consistent havoc on defense. *** Has the physicality of Muschamp’s defense helped the Texas offense get ready to navigate one of the toughest schedules in the country? “Absolutely,” running backs coach Jabbar Juluke said when fielding a question from the audience during his presentation on Monday. Juluke demands his running backs play with a physical edge, something the Longhorns consistently lacked on offense last season. “I only know one way,” Juluke said. “We want it every day.” Juluke then joked that the “no thud equals no play” mantra Muschamp introduced in the spring was born out of the offense’s willingness to trade punches with the defense in practice. “They couldn’t tackle our (expletive) ass,” Juluke said. “They weren’t stopping the run like they needed to. We’re going to finish the drill. “We work hand-in-hand,” he added. “I think we have an amazing staff.” *** During his THSCA press conference on Monday, while rattling off games he felt exemplified Texas A&M’s lack of consistency in 2025, Mike Elko omitted his team’s 27-17 loss to Texas. “I think last year what we showed was, at our peak, we were good enough to play with and beat anybody in the country. That's how you win 11 games,” said Elko, who will be in Tampa on Wednesday with quarterback Marcel Reed, linebacker Daymion Sanford and safety Marcus Ratcliffe. “But we also had too many times where we didn't play at our peak. Whether that was a quarter at LSU — the second quarter — whether that was the (first) half against South Carolina or whether that was for longer stretches in the Playoff game (against Miami), our ability to play the best football that we can play consistently a little bit more often has been the entire emphasis of our offseason.” Elko’s second loss to the Longhorns in as many tries should be grouped with those other performances, especially since Texas overcame a 10-3 halftime deficit, dominating the Aggies in the second half. *** Looming changes to college football’s offseason structure are another sign of the sport’s rapid evolution, which might not be a bad thing. Specifically, the FBS oversight committee has proposed changing the traditional spring practice model (15 practices over 34 days), further clouding the future of spring games across the country. What would replace it is something closer to an NFL offseason model. The proposal is for two sessions (one of which can take place over a maximum of five weeks) totaling 21 practices. If the proposal is approved in August, FBS teams would get up to seven weeks to conduct both sessions. Former Wyoming coach Craig Bohl, the executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, admitted during his Monday press conference in Houston that “the world has changed." That's why one of Bohl's priorities is working with the NCAA on behalf of college football coaches to overhaul an outdated offensive structure. The AFCA has worked extensively with the NFL when designing an offseason schedule that’s more in line with where football is headed, Bohl said. While there are noticeable differences between how the NFL and college football operate, Bohl said the addition of six practices to the offseason calendar and shortening the timeline for preseason practice (the proposal calls for 21 on-field practices over 27 days) are sensible, long-overdue changes that are being embraced. “What we did feel like was important is to look at some of the positive things the NFL is doing and then, quite frankly, too, we looked at some of the things in that chaotic world that we experienced during COVID, where everybody said we couldn't play football,” Bohl said. “What we found was there were things that we were able to adapt that really were meaningful, and one of the things that we found was more access to our players to do some work during the course of the summer. Players enjoyed it. Coaches enjoyed it. It didn't have to be a hit fest where you're in full contact and you're going to go out and do a full scrimmage. You could do some work in (spider pads) and get some good work done. This is where we integrated six extra workouts. It has been really warmly received by players and coaches.” View full news story

Blake and I are both going to hit the road home. It's been another productive trip to coaching school. Next stop for me is Tampa.

That's it for Jabbar Juluke. Very good stuff from the Texas running backs coach."

Juluke: "Everybody's going to be violent. Whether you're the biggest or the smallest, it doesn't matter. If not, you'll be sitting next to me. I'll get you a ball cap and clipboard."

What does Juluke tell his running backs to do when all else fails? "Sometimes," he said, "your technique goes out the window and you've got to go bust his chin."

On Muschamp's No Thud = No Play shirt, Juluke joked that Muschamp wore it and made it a thing because the defense "couldn't tackle our ass."

Juluke was asked by a coach in the audience if the physicality of Will Muschamp's defense has helped the offense. "Absolutely," he said. "I only know one way."

Juluke: "We're not going to let a guy tackle us with one arm. If a guy tackles you with one arm, you're not going to play for the University of Texas."

Juluke on runs when a running back has to play through contact: "Sometimes, you've got to go be tougher than him."

Juluke just showed a live practice clip of Derrek Cooper taking an inside zone run about 60 yards for a touchdown. He wants his guys to finish live plays by scoring, if possible, so that they get used to scoring in a game.

Just about every analogy Juluke is making compares footwork, reads and ball security to a fistfight.

Juluke on the importance of eye discipline: "You cannot be a runner with bad eyes."

Juluke on the mindset of his running backs: "We're going to be the most violent and physical runners you've ever seen."

Juluke: "Ball security is job security."

The mantra in the Texas running back room under Juluke: "The team is the ball. The ball is the team."