Jeff Howe

Sark: "We aren't policing our own rules. Why do we need federal intervention? For that very reason."

"I probably shouldn't have used basket weaving as my example for the class," Sark said regarding his Ole Miss comments. The class is irrelevant, he said. His point was that someone getting a degree from Texas has to complete 50 percent of their degree at Texas, which isn't the case for other programs, Ole Miss being one of them.

Sark said Bishop is a great player who has the right mental approach to football to potentially handle being a two-way player.

Jermaine Bishop "is a fantastic football player," Sark said. Sark praised Bishop's football IQ before saying that Bishop will get some work with the secondary this summer.

On future non-conference scheduling, Sark said it'll take getting clarity on where college football is going in the 18-24 months before the Longhorns make their next move. "There's nothing I can do the next two years," he said. "Beyond that, what the NCAA decides to do and what the SEC decides to do, we'll go from there."

I was hoping we'd get more team-centric questions, but everybody seems to want to ask Sark about the CFP and NIL/revenue sharing.

Sark: "If you're in the SEC, you're doing everything in your power to build a great roster."

Sark: "Everybody's getting creative with ways to pay their players — some more legitimate than others, and that's OK."

Sark on the $30 million mark: "I would venture that the Big Ten schools aren't far off."

Sark saw a roster valuation of what Texas is supposedly (or presumably) paying players. He said it's "about $10 million off."

Sark believes there isn't an SEC team paying under $30 million for their roster.

"We're going to have to live with some of those growing pains early in the season," Sark said regarding playing younger guys earlier in the season to make sure they're more prepared in November and December.

On the non-conference schedule, Sark mentioned Indiana isn't playing a Power Four opponent, whereas Texas is playing two quality G5 opponents and Ohio State. Sark wasn't knocking Indiana, but this is what he's talking about when he mentions how, from one conference to another, scheduling isn't equitable.

The group of guys who missed time in spring practice or were limited will be ready to go when summer conditioning, Sark said.

Jonah Williams should be ready to go by training camp, Sark said. He's a work in progress, but he'll be able to do some things this summer.

Sark said they guys who had offseason surgery haven't had any setbacks. Everybody is on the projected timeline to return.

Sark is breaking down why the NFL playoffs work and the CFP doesn't. It's more equitable and balanced in the NFL, but that's not the case in college football. Yes, that includes admissions and academic requirements.

Sark's first question was about the CFP. As he's said before, he'd rather be at four teams than 24 teams in the CFP.

The Longhorns have their work cut out of them, but Sark, "there's nowhere I'd rather be with these expectations."

Sark is going through why the Longhorns aren't a finished product, but... "We're not shy in saying that we think we've got a really good football team," he said.

If someone is objectively looking for something to separate Arch Manning, John Mateer and Marcel Reed in the pecking order for SEC quarterbacks ahead of pivotal seasons in the careers of the signal-callers for Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M, respectively, it’s how they performed against the best competition they faced in 2025. Manning faced more ranked opponents last season than Mateer or Reed, with the Longhorns battling six opponents (Ohio State, the Sooners, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Texas A&M and Michigan) that ended the season inside the Associated Press Top 25. Mateer faced five such foes (the Wolverines, the Longhorns, Ole Miss and Alabama twice) while Reed squared off against three (Notre Dame, Texas and Miami). Manning, who led the Longhorns to a 4-2 record in those games, has the edge over Mateer (2-3) and Reed (1-2) in his performance against ranked opponents. And it’s not as close as the Sooner or Aggie faithful might think. Manning: 125-for-196 (63.8 percent completion rate), 1,315 yards (219.2 yards per game), 9 touchdowns, 2 interceptions and a passer rating of 133.25 Mateer: 99-for-167 (59.3 percent completion rate, 1,140 yards (228 yards per game), 4 touchdowns, 5 interceptions and a passer rating of 118.53 Reed: 62-for-108 (57.4 percent completion rate), 777 yards (259 yards per game), 2 touchdowns, 5 interceptions and a 114.69 passer rating According to CFBStats.com, of the 13 qualifying SEC quarterbacks who played against at least three ranked opponents last season, Mateer and Reed ranked 12th and 13th in passer rating, respectively. They tied Tennessee’s Joey Aguilar and South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers for the most interceptions against ranked opponents. Only the 13 touchdown passes by Georgia’s Gunnar Stockton topped Manning’s number of scoring tosses (tied with Aguilar for the second-most touchdown passes against ranked opponents among SEC quarterbacks). Manning, Mateer and Reed are capable runners with differing styles. Their numbers on the ground against ranked opponents were, however, in the same neighborhood; Manning (44.5 yards per game and three rushing touchdowns) had the edge in yards per carry (7.42), Mateer (26.8 yards per game and 1.79 yards per attempt) had the most rushing touchdowns (four) among the three and Reed (3.97 yards per attempt and no touchdowns) led the way in rushing yards per game (45). Still, what’s going to make the difference in where the ceiling resides for Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M in 2026 is the success their respective quarterbacks have when they're asked to make critical plays from the pocket, along with protecting the football. Without question, based on last season’s results, the highest level of trust in one of the three getting the job done when it matters should be in Manning. *** When identifying members of the 2026 recruiting class best positioned to contribute early as true freshmen, linebacker is a fascinating position to examine. Will Muschamp cited depth, or lack thereof, at the position as one of the biggest questions his defense faced in spring practice. While the Longhorns might not need Tyler Atkinson, Rocky Cummings or Kosi Okpala to log significant snaps, the perceived gap between the duo of Cummings and Okpala and Atkinson is much tighter than anticipated. That's a good sign for the position’s future. Atkinson was the blue-chip signee among the group. Although he had a quiet spring, relative to expectations, the 6-foot-1, 216-pound Atkinson has plenty of time to get his feet underneath him and figure things out as he develops behind Rasheem Biles, Justin Cryer, Ty’Anthony Smith and Brad Spence. Cummings looked more and more like a tremendous evaluation by the Texas staff as spring practice progressed. It says a lot that he was committed to Cal when Justin Wilcox, long recognized as one of the top defensive minds in college football, with a track record for producing quality linebackers, was the head coach of the Golden Bears and signed off on the 6-foot-4-inch, 226-pound Carlsbad (Calif.) product's offer. The same can be said of Okpala, who had Penn State among his final choices, along with Miami. Hall of Fame defensive end Jason Taylor was Okpala’s lead recruiter for the Hurricanes, further validating the 6-foot-3-inch, 239-pound Katy Mayde Creek product’s potential as a disruptor off the edge. While Muschamp didn’t recruit any of the three to Texas, the trio has a chance to be special in their specific roles under his tutelage. *** The news that D’Onta Foreman is reportedly going into coaching will keep the Longhorns’ 2016 Doak Walker Award winner close to the game after putting together one of the more remarkable NFL careers a product of the Forty Acres has enjoyed. It would’ve been fair to write Foreman off after tearing his Achilles tendon toward the end of his rookie season with the Houston Texans in 2017. It made even more sense to think Foreman had a short NFL shelf life when, in the span of less than three weeks, he was waived by the Texans (poor work habits were cited as the primary reason, including reportedly showing up late for meetings), picked up by the Indianapolis Colts, suffered a torn bicep in training camp and was waived by general manager Chris Ballard, who, like Foreman, played high school football at Texas City. After spending time with the Tennessee Titans in 2020 and the Atlanta Falcons in 2021, it was Foreman’s second stint with the Titans when he started to show the form he had when he rushed for 2,028 yards and 15 touchdowns for the Longhorns, breaking Ricky Williams’ single-season school record for rushing yards by a junior (1,893 in 1997) and joining Williams as the only Texas running backs to record a 2,000-yard season (Williams ran for 2,124 yards en route to winning the Heisman Trophy in 1998). Foreman ran for 132 yards and a touchdown in a Week 17 win over the Miami Dolphins on Jan. 2, 2022, helping the Titans clinch the AFC South title with one of his three 100-yard games on the season. Forman’s best NFL season came in 2022 with the Carolina Panthers, when he rushed for 914 yards and five touchdowns. Over seven NFL seasons, Foreman played in 63 games (24 starts) and rushed for 2,558 yards and 14 touchdowns. Incredibly, 53 of those games (23 starts) and all but 326 of his career rushing yards and one of his rushing touchdowns came after two significant injuries, both of which threatened to derail Foreman’s career. As someone who was in the room in Galveston with Foreman and his family on the night the Texans took him in the third round (No. 89 overall) of the 2018 draft, it was satisfying to see Foreman extend his playing career and prove himself as a capable NFL running back, when it would’ve been easy to throw in the towel. All told, the lowest-rated recruit in the Longhorns’ 2014 recruiting class, who had to climb a hill academically to get to campus, turned out to be a much better player than anyone could’ve expected. View full news story

If you look at the supporting cast, it's either Burrow, Baker or Tebow. VY had good players around him, but nothing close to what those three had. I think Cam was the only draft pick on that 2010 Auburn offense. There's no way I'm eliminating Joe Burrow. His 2019 season was too good. In this case, I'll happily flip a coin between Baker and Tebow.

This was expected. The good thing about Nolan Cain is that he's in a position where he doesn't have to take the first job that he's offered. His role as the No. 2 man at Texas is a coveted gig. As for the Houston job, I'd like to see it go to Sean Allen. He's a UH alum, knows the state very well and was a good coach while on David Pierce's staff at Texas.

Texas associate head coach/recruiting coordinator Nolan Cain interviewed for the vacant head coaching job at the University of Houston, On Texas Football has learned. Both parties decided to go in different directions; Cain was one of 10-plus targets on the Cougars’ radar to replace long-time head coach Todd Whitting, who parted ways with the school after 16 seasons. OTF has also learned that other schools are interested in Cain as a head coaching candidate. Houston isn’t expected to be the last program to try and poach Cain from Jim Schlossnagle’s staff, a group of coaches currently preparing for Friday’s SEC Tournament quarterfinal against a to-be-determined opponent. Cain, who also serves as the team’s third base coach on game day and works with the program’s catchers, followed Schlossnagle to the Forty Acres after three seasons at Texas A&M (2022-24). Cain helped assemble a 2025 recruiting class that brought 2026 SEC Freshman of the Year Anthony Pack Jr. and first-team All-SEC relief pitcher Sam Cozart to Austin. Pack and Cozart were instrumental in helping Texas (40-12, 19-10) finish the regular season in second place in the conference standings. The Longhorns also concluded a 52-game campaign with a No. 5 national ranking in the D1Baseball.com Top 25. Thanks to Cain’s efforts on the recruiting trail, Texas became the first SEC program since Florida in 2009 and 2010 to produce the SEC Freshman of the Year in consecutive seasons, with Dylan Volantis claiming the honor in 2025. View full news story