IT Live (08/27): Scouting the Colorado State Rams, Weekly Games of Interest

no countdown Paul we're going we're going right in you ready yep all right we're going all right guys thanks for watching today is going to be me and Paul yesterday was me and Eric we're doing our morning lives at 9:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday we'll also have one tomorrow with old Ian and then on Thursday it'll be Justin Ian and Joe so we're excited for that but on today's show we are actually doing an opponent Scout of the Colorado State off offense Colorado State Defense and then we'll after once we've introduced kind of their personnel some of the stats interesting things me and Paul have picked up throughout the week um we're going to see how they can test Texas um a lot of times I'll hear people say that these early games are kind of meaningless and and I disagree with that I think things that these level of teams can expose um normally are Harbinger for the rest of the season for instance we couldn't get it in at the goal line versus Wyoming last year that was a consistent issue we had um so that's what I think will be interesting is kind of when once we learn this information how can it affect Texas and maybe illuminate some of our path going forward and then after that we are going to talk opponent games of Interest so teams we are going to play and what they're doing week one and Paul's really an incredible amount of information on on that kind of stuff I think he really shines um in that regard but before we go forward we need to promote the big sale at insidetexas.com baby we're offering a flash sale on annual memberships for just two days today is the last day y'all that's 50% off of an annual membership if you use promo code kickoff 24 you'll get all the depth charts team reports opponent analysis the lating latest recruiting news and more all for 50% off it's our best membership value at just $4.99 per month if build annually so sign up today y'all and use promo code kickoff 24 and save instantly on the best Texas Longhorn site out there link to join us is in the description below all right Paul there we go right there we go it only took two minutes I'm gonna get more stream line I'm gonna get more streamlined we're gonna get we're g to get faster with it um but you ready to go with the Colorado State offense yeah the Colorado State Rams have released their depth chart being helpful and proactive yeah St sarkeesian will probably release his Texas depth chart about 27 minutes before kickoff on Saturday uh but if you are an inside Texas reader you already know our depth charts but uh I want to talk a little bit about the Rams a a lot of it is what it I expected uh based even on my preview work that I did back in June and may but there are a couple of of subtle differences so let's talk about the offense first of course the Rams quarterback is a product of Texas High School football that's Braden Fowler Nicolosi uh I think he played his ball at Alo is that right yeah yep so he is the the clearest starter uh he debuted last year as a freshman after the original starter Hugh Millan uh played poorly in the opener they benched him and they rode bra BFN as they call him up in Fort Collins for the rest of the year and he did pretty well considering the situation uh a little turnover heavy but even then that that has some context uh the Rams are a timing throw to a spot passing offense they're air raid and for those who don't know their offensive coordinator if you're a college football Enthusiast the offensive coordinator name may ring a bell it's Matt mummy and yes he is the son of Hal mummy who's effectively don't we a a basically credit him with the invention of the air raid yeah yeah he's royalty and well really everyone gives it to Mike Lee but Mike Leech was was wrong it was mummy yeah and uh so Matt mummy is the offensive coordinator so obviously that means that you're going to be throwing the ball around uh the Rams aren't going to come in and hand it off 45 times in Austin and BFN is the guy that's got to make it go for them he did throw a fair amount of interceptions last year as I referenced a lot of that has to do with the fact that they're throwing to spots on timing so uh four of those G four he had four games actually with two or more interceptions so those interceptions came in clusters meaning if you had a secondary that could challenge those timing routes you're going to pick them off and turn them over if you if you're not confident in your secondary they're going to move up and down the field on you so that's going to be an interesting test for Texas uh we gave up way too many easy uncontested balls last year let's well they're not very creative they're not very creative like so I was watching UNLV last night um and say it's third and eight um and they don't decide to run a draw to try to trick you um they're running to the sticks and so you would see safeties kind of bait those receivers weit three or four yards off and then as soon as bfm would turn to them that's how they can get the picks they can jump those Slants super easily 100% yeah and so the thing that they have tried to introduce and they did at the end of last year was a little bit more run pass balance or at least run effectively and efficiently they could not run the ball at all less than a 100 yards rushing per game last year yeah uh they did finish the season they they finally threw up their hands and put in a true freshman named Justin Marshall and Justin was about 170 pounds soaking wet playing running back last year but the last three games he gave the Rams a semblance of a running game and actually I think rushed for 31 yards over those the last three games which he was the only Rams back to exceed 100 in a game all year uh so he's going to be the starter that's the guy we're going to see in Justin Marshall you'll see he's still red shirt freshman the reason he didn't play more than four games they just threw him in the last three and he actually outperformed all their expectations uh so he's a guy to look for he doesn't break tackles he's just super quick and scoots around in there and and is good at evading tacklers but if you can get your hands on him he's going down uh tight end they had a battle between Vince Brown and a guy named Jackson Warren that's Jackson with two x's if you're counting home that's a very powerful form of Jackson got a lot of Jackson very rare very rare that's right the rare double X Jackson he is out for the season with the shoulder injuries that means Vince Brown wins the job you'll notice from his build he's tall little bit slight and that's kind of how he plays he's a receiving tight end uh not real interested in that blocking life so that's something to look for uh when when Colorado state does line up with a tight endend and then they've got three receivers that are ranging from NFL to I'd say about above average and that's Tor Horton is a guy we've talked about a lot he is a future NFL receiver he's had back-to-back thousand yard receiving Seasons he's going for his third and uh he's a big deal he is a guy they target effectively on every play you know if if they if they see single coverage toy Horton is the first read so that's something Texas is gonna have to account for a lot lot of his routes drags Slants stops everything is about getting him the ball as quickly as possible on time Armani Winfield is a name Texas fans may recall and remember he was committed to the University of Texas he ended up going to Baylor didn't seem to work out for him there under Dave Aranda now he's in Fort Collins uh both Connor and I have listened to a Colorado Rams uh Colorado State Rams podcast that's how dedicated we are and shout out uh what dnvr DN check out their Channel they do a good job guys that's right they were uh building up ran Winfield is a guy that impressed uh and he's certainly gonna be a starter Dylan goffney is a transfer from SMU you'll notice he's a big guy stocky he is a possession receiver they like to hit him and then after the catch he's he's a pretty powerful guy with the ball in his hands so was he was he doing punt punt return I think he is but I think he's more of the sure-handed vers iety uh maybe kick return or something maybe uh yeah maybe so I I think they're more interested in like field the ball and uh don't turn it over in their special teams rather than let's create uh value ad yeah the offensive line is uh for our standards if Texas woke up with this depth chart we'd all be terrified and sad uh for the G5 level they're getting they're trending towards average which is a big Improvement the last two years they've been Terri terrible best guy on that offensive line is the center Jacob Gardner he's the kind of guy that will uh probably be in an NFL training camp next year not necessarily as a draft pick but he'll be a guy that they'll they'll go find as a free agent and pay a little signing bonus you'll notice he's got 45 starts that's very helpful obviously in setting protections and everything else yeah yeah that's um that's going to be kind of the key Gardner I was just listening to their coach I think his last name is best he was saying that yeah he's an NFL prospect U and they have some of the maturity here um and they move Drew Moss to Right Guard they said also NFL U Prospect and that he was playing tackle I believe and he has more of a guard body um so him moving to guard is going to be interesting um yeah offensive line nothing too crazy we can look too let's see um we can check out their blocking ability real quick see if they got some dudes well while Connor is doing that uh one thing to You'll note is they gave up very few sacks last year I think they gave up 14 on the season that's not because they're spectacular pass protectors it's because Braden Fowler niichi gets the ball and throws it immediately and and that has to do with the fact that that's partly air raid philosophy but that's also because they understand that they don't want to give up hits on the quarterback and give up sacks they gave up 100 plus pressures last year so it's not always about getting the sack it's about getting in the quarterback's face and forcing an errant throw or an untimely throw and that's something the Colorado State Ram uh offensive line did really struggle with all right let's see what they got here all right so Aaron carus the the new left tackle he's such a small sample size there's not much we can get him from there but they liked him as a run blocker um that's really not much going on there and then let's see small sample size again they like him there um but this team is so they don't got much going on yeah Paul they're in they're going to be in trouble uh in know they were struggling to I mean let's look at their share this let's look at the Run running game okay guys so this is the breakdown I do for my uh videos my breakdowns but this is this is crazy to show you their rushing stats from last year so 128th in the nation rushing attempts per game 116th in yards per Rush 123rd in rushing yards per game 120th and rushing success rate so did they get the yards they needed to get consistently no offensive line yards so um Counting every single run they're giving a certain percentage and accrediting that only to the offensive line and not the back that's horrendous yeah that's horrendous 125th in the nation rushing power success rate third and short fourth and one can they get the yards when they really need it type stuff 103d in the nation rushing explosivity I think they're dead last in the nation big runs is what explosivity means and they are dead last uh that's exactly why Justin Marshall was inserted into the lineup late they just they were they were playing a lot of the season with us a walk on uh as they're starting running back and he since transferred out uh they have revitalized that room a little bit but it's not all about the running back Personnel although it does seem like they got some response when they put Marshall in uh and that that seemed to help so they like they like Marshall and um they like Kobe Johnson yep so it's number two so that uh no North Dakota State transfer um and like you saw 52 games played um a lot of yards when he was at North Dakota State so that's going to give you you have the young guy and Justin Marshall quick guy and then Kobe Johnson you're GNA have that older kind of reliable thing but you'll see both of them don't touch 200 pounds um so that's going to be very interesting but that that run game was atrocious and if you listen to Norvell and all of his pressors um Paul stated earlier that this is air raid team they're incredible at passing we'll look at their passing stats here shortly and see that they're really effective passing team especially short um but all they wanted to do was to be able to run out uh the clock do a four-minute drill in those close games and they never could um and so what it was doing was forcing their Young quarterback BFN to to make all the plays and also you know it's going to Horton on that third and three um and so you can key in so they were super onedimensional it's clearly bothered them uh all through the spring and so their goal now is to be able to be more of a balanced offense uh and run and now this is gonna I don't think they're going to find that success versus Texas but we're talking about their success in the Mountain West type thing well Connor they have a go-to guy who is their main man when it comes to throwing the football and Tory Horton future NFL player we've got a main guy if you need to go get a home mortgage and that gentleman is named Gabe winow you can reach him at 83255 71095 why do you want to go with Gabe why is he your NFL prospect in the mortgage World well he's a DieHard Texas Longhorn over 20 years the industry both on the mortgage side but also on the title side uh he's also owned his own title company he's got a law degree he's a former National Merit scholar and the guy's freaking genius and he loves to work for Texas Longhorns and their Associates and and Affiliates when they call him to try to solve a complex mortgage problem or even a very straightforward one Gabe is also a broker meaning he's got access to 70 different lenders most people that you call at a big Bank in fact all of them have exactly access to one do you want 70 options in life Connor or one option when you're trying to make a deal I prefer 70 options Paul I prefer 70 as well that's the correct answer and Gabe winow is the correct answer give him a call 83255 S 1095 do you want to talk Rams defense Mr Moffett yes I do sir um let's yeah let's pull it up um they had some also have a couple of comments in the chats we might want to pull up yeah let's see good input from our ever loyal and insightful chat group good old football I like that guy yeah I'm a big fan of football uh Vince Brown is really good ton of off the ball routes and after the catch yeah so the dmvr podcast those guys were really high on him and even before Jackson Warren's injury they were saying still they could see that he would be the starter um so I am excited to watch him um they want to run more and that's generally gonna tie in with wanting 12 Personnel but with Jackson Warren I don't think they can run 12 um like they're not gonna run 12 and so they're going to have to basically spread it out and then they're going to just they're going to play numbers and if you're Light in the Box that's how they're going to get and what Conor means by play numbers that's exactly right is there's literally a box count so the quarterback's going to walk up to the line of scrimmage and if you got a bunch of guys dedicated to pass defense you got two safeties deep and you got other you know your linebackers are are taking a deeper drop and they're off the ball they're going to just count up the box and they're going to hand the ball off uh but if Texas is sufficiently staffed in the box or even showing Blitz quite a bit uh Colorado State's going to drop back and throw the ball so as someone mentioned in the chat football again that our dline needs to get their hands up that's exactly right so guys like Ethan Burke 6 foot6 Alfred Collins 65 with a big wingspan it's incumbent on those guys Vernon Bron has a big wingspan you got to get quick penetration and you got to get your hands up don't just get your hands up at the line of scrimmage and stand there and a little slow dance that's not going to work they they know how to run this air raid they know where to find the windows but if you can penetrate and push that pocket in and then get your hand up and don't jump that's the other part don't jump it doesn't help you if you were gonna block the pass with your hand up it's not going to help that you jumped as well uh the The Arc of the ball isn't that high so what you want to do is Advance as much as possible get your hands up and bat down some of those balls or even better than batting down a ball Connor batting up a ball because uh your defense is facing towards the ball the offense is usually facing away from the ball you usually collect about two3 third of those yeah and it's going to like we said it's going to be a quick passing game so you're got to throw your hands up quick you know you're not you're not waiting for BFN to drop back for four seconds and do it especially on those quick third Downs you better be ready you're almost not even engaging with the offensive lineman at that point and then uh with what seems to be their best offensive line being on the interior it will be interesting to see the Texas North uh no tackles not the Texas north texases and defensive tackles control the line of scrimmage against Colorado State yeah exactly I honestly Dave Keith I don't think it's going to be a challenge uh because it's it's not just your center it's also your guards and they may have some experience and all that that's great these are these this is a G5 offensive line if if they're blocking up Bron and Collins we we've got big problems so that is something to look for but I don't anticipate that being a problem yeah all right and then Gilbo and J Baron are both going to be critical and defending the short quick passes at nickel and Boundary corner I also think the Texas linebackers will need to be effective in coverage they absolutely will because if you guys remember the Colorado game last year they'll spam those drags they'll spam those meshes uh what I liked about Colorado state is like uh whenever Colorado couldn't defend something they just ran it over and over and over again and I know Paul talked about that on the round table watching Tory Horton on those quick little drags and stuff like that um if we don't defend those like like when we struggled against Houston then yeah it can be a long night uh especially for the linebackers there um but yeah that quick stuff you need to play up on them you need to contest and if you're not contesting you need to time it and bait it and try to get that interception hey let's uh baiton just just baiton hey let's talk about those shout out to anyone who knows idiocracy uh let's talk about the Colorado State Defense yeah let's do it all right what we got for our Personnel Paul on the def so the Colorado State defensive line for for our scouting purposes mostly Jags um these are replacement level guys they have a a guy missing who they thought was going to be a solution on the edge his name is newer gatou and that is his name and is he is not the name of a villain from the novel Dune uh he's got turf toe he's their best Edge he ain't playing and his replacement Gabe kerski is sort of a Jag he's just going to be a guy that's gonna try to do his assignment I I think that I think yours is gonna have all day to throw um I don't anticipate Colorado State jailhouse blitzing to try to compensate and they've got if you'll notice the dimensions of their interior defensive lineman kind of squatty guys which is typically what you're going to get at the G5 level you're not going to get a lot of six foot six dudes who are 310 and you know run a 4940 but you're going to get these squater guys that that maybe don't have that uh length but they're active and they're able to hunker down and try to pile up the run and that's what James Mitch and and cam Baro are going to try to do they're listed at 61 and 6 feet I am a G5 roster interpreter par excellance six feet on a college depth chart means what Connor uh they're five they're five1 510 they're 510 and a half that's exactly what that means so uh their best run stopper was a guy named Grady Kelly from last year he transferred out to Florida State to be their number three defensive tackle and judging from the Georgia Tech game he didn't do that great at Florida State either uh and then you'll see of course um kki and wac hangi uh another Dune villain uh out there at the other Edge I I I just don't think these guys are are very good and they're Jags so I think ERS is gonna have all day to throw and they should be able to get some push on them in the running game uh the linebackers are a little bit better they moved Chase Wilson from middle linebacker to will uh some of that has to do with his inability to to cover he's not very laterally quick but he's a tough guy and he's got a good nose for the ball so they moved in a guy named bum jock and he's a big strong guy he's one of these classic G5 dudes that came in weighing 205 and looks like he had had a meal and they got him on a training table and lifting weights and what do you know he's 235 18 months later so he's going to be starting at Mike he's apparent ly one of the more gifted athletes on their team and then look at the secondary this is where it gets interesting and someone asked in the chat is the guy that put the dirty hit on Travis Hunter still with Colorado State the answer is yes his name is Henry Blackburn and he's from my book he was one of the best athletes on their defense last year he's the most versatile of their safeties he and how are the strength of this pass defense the strength of this defense overall uh they're actually not great against the pass Blackburn is better than Howell how's more of a tackling machine they love to play him up near the box and he's just a great reliable aggressive tackler uh on the corners they really struggled last year they gave up 71% completion rate to opponent passers uh that's an average so there are plenty of opponents that were completing 80% in games against Colorado State that's not good and uh so they replaced both their Corners Elias Larry actually comes from Navy he's a transfer from the Naval Academy and then uh the other Corner Dom Jones is supposedly the most raw talented guy on that defense he was at North Dakota State so he was part of those really good FCS teams he gives them more length outside you can see that he's played in 51 games he started 15 63 195 that's the kind of body that Colorado state is not used to having out at the corner so it' be very interesting to see how he matches up with Bond uh or you know gosh Balden that that'll be really interesting seeing a six foot three guy trying to cover a 5 foot eight water bug yeah the big trick man is uh seeing if the linebackers and the interior D line can can actually uh stop running backs because last year I mean you see Jack Hal and Henry Blackburn safety tackles numbers were just completely spam and if you watch it's because these backs that they were playing again were going untouched and going head-to-head with their safeties like no one even slowed them down too often and so that's going to be their biggest thing man is can they help out their safeties because everybody mentions how high their tackles were that's a not a good thing you don't want your safeties having that many tackles um because your interior and your linebackers were not helping them out yeah if you'll reflect on some of our worst Texas defenses of of not so past V vintage whether it was under Diaz or Orlando or even year one for sarc you'll notice that our safeties were leading Us in tackles and so you know people always go oh he's a great hitter he's a great tackler and it's like yeah he's getting too many opportunities we'd prefer he not have all those opportunities hey a question or that might come up is if you watch that Colorado Colorado State game as many people did last year you noticed a guy at Edge for Colorado State named Mo Kamar he the NFL he was a fifth round draft pick he was their pass rush last year uh he had something like 12 or 13 sacks um can you scroll up a little bit Connor yes sir he is no longer in that edge room as you will see um Kennedy McDow is a guy you'll notice he's very skinny he's got probably the most natural burst in that room but if you put him out there at 64200 Kelvin B is going to throw him around like a child so he needs to gain about 40 pounds and then uh revisit revisit this in in next year yeah you want to look at some of their last year's performance kind of stats get a feel for actually how they did um let's look at this so of course not a good defense last year just wasn't really a good team last year at Colorado State they really haven't had one in what since like 2017 yep U haven't been to a bowl so they were 99th in the country this is overall defense for opponent points per game they faced a ton of plays 128th in the nation so teams were able to just do whatever they wanted at will nickel and diam up and down the field which is the most brutal thing as a fan I'm just watching uh your team have to be out there at will doing that many plays they did all right uh average on yards per play um really bad letting people rack up total yards they do all right on defensive explosiveness which is interesting um so they were able to cap some stuffff pretty well they were just getting paper cut to death yeah Conor that marries to the opponent points yards per play right 5.6 is right okay right and so that means they weren't giving up big stuff over the top very frequently but again that 71% opponent completion percentage they just had no ability to stop third and six they they were scared to walk up on a receiver and try to stop them and do you guys remember 2021 Texas defense yeah that's what it that's say that's what the pain was of just watching you remember what that felt like yeah and that's what they lived all of last year I'm not sure they want to walk up on Balden golden DeAndre Moore uh if they do I think there's going to be a price to be paid for that uh we we'll see yeah and then a defense people were just running all over them that's also because they were getting beat right so running you're running more at the end of the games anyways um they did all right on yards per Rush um they were just getting nickel and dimed pretty brutally um then also what's kind of interesting is uh the explosivity so people were able to break the long runs well so we'll look out for that right if Jaden blue sees a hole let's see if he can uh if he can go 70 and then the passing game really bad here uh faced a lot of attempts but couldn't stop much uh 7.9 yards per pass on opposing offenses what they did interestingly is they actually did a good job stopping uh passing explosivity um which is interesting but I would have to just see if I'm able to to pass on you at will at 7.9 yards and I'm able to run on you at will I don't really need to throw the fade so it's like I might just go seven yards but that's kind of yeah just this is just a bad team in situationally really bad 111th on third down 108th on Fourth 119th in red zone defense um so tricky they did all right sack for game like you said Kamar um and really low interceptions last season so yeah the thing that really betrays them Connor is Ben B Del break is a viable defensive approach uh fans hate it but it works if you buckle down in the red zone no if you if you don't buckle down in the Red Zone if you don't buckle down on 20 Downs that's third and fourth down yeah it's just a slow bleed and you're basically keeping your best asset your offense off the field yeah and this is strength of schedule so they had one of the worst strengths of schedule um still couldn't do much and really highly penalized team right s and a half penalties so poor coaching poor uh restraint from the players but this whole thing if you listen to Norville it's like look the first two years were really tough we had young guys we had injuries but this is kind of the Year this is my team and that's kind of the pitch right now so that's going to be what's really interesting to see is if did this team grow up you know offensively um you know is this what they were kind of planning for and maybe they can actually do something in the Mountain West what do you think Paul yeah I they they they I think they could be a bowl team uh they they were three and nine in norvell's first year five and seven last year and then I think it's not unreasonable to think they can be six and six or seven and five one thing to know about Colorado State for those of you were just sort of interested in general football awareness and knowledge uh it's actually they have great facilities they really do for a G5 team they have a a brand new stadium that's less than a decade old it's a beautiful Stadium I mean great state-of-the-art design you know it doesn't doesn't see 100,000 plus it's like 40,000 or whatever but it's it's great little Stadium they've got great facilities I mean if if you look at their just all their resources that got money they norell is the highest paid coach in the Mountain West Believe It or Not uh they they want to win uh they don't have a natural recruiting base and they've got to find a way to get down into Texas that got to find a way to get over to California and sell a really cool little college town in Fort Collins and for Collins is Awesome Town man yeah and they've got to sell a program that wins and if they can man there's a lot of low three stars in the state of Texas that if you could stock your roster with at the G5 level you're going to kick some people's ass and you're going to turn out two or three NFL guys every year which at that level is really good yeah and getting to play of Texas I don't think fans always realize it's like why would I want to go to Colorado State and get beat you know by 40 points at Texas these are advertising opportunities Colorado State loves to come down here and get beat by Texas um that's good for them and I think they have 19 players from the state and a lot of the 19 are starters um so and Norvell is of course history down here right in the Big 12 and all that so he says Texas the state has been absolutely crucial to their success um next we'll kind of talk um you know what what could their strengths do to kind of expose potential Texas issues but first let us hear a word from our sponsor hi I want to tell you about Laura Baker if you're looking for a new home in the 512 or even at this point let's face it 737 area code there there's only one number to call that's Laura Baker at 512 78455 as a member of the elite Andy Allen team with Keller Williams Laura has helped Longhorns find the home of their dreams in Central Texas just ask our resident sex symbol Ian Boyd who moved all the way from Michigan to Texas with Laura's help Laura can help you find what you're looking for in the 512 the 737 or even parts of the 254 and the 210 just you know what give her a call at 512 78 4505 her email is in the description as well as the rest of her contact details she's a friend give her a call good stuff all right let's see if there were there any defensive questions we need to hit I don't think so oh we're good all right so let's talk about some things that Colorado State actually might be able to do well and if we don't handle it well could be a problem going forward and I think the obvious one like you said and you've talked about is is Horton on those drag and that kind of stuff yeah that's it and then armar Winfield in compliment to him right doing some similar stuff Texas had a lot of trouble with those routes they had a lot of trouble particularly guarding uh against passes between the hashes and those are the easiest throws on the football field in fact most sound defensive strategies begin with how can we get the quarterback to throw the ball outside of the hashes on intermediate or longer routes with higher difficulty let's not give him a throw six yards directly in front of his face to an open Man On The Run and that's what Texas conceded far too many times last year it's bad defense and it's you can blame the linebackers you can blame individual players or football IQ there's some blame that probably needs to go to the coaches too and there are no excuses anymore for Texas we've got new blood in the secondary we've got more experience at linebacker uh if we have trouble with that kind of stuff again I'm not looking at the players on the field to to have a tough conversation I'm I'm looking at position coaches and coordinators so that's something we want to see some improvement on that's what Colorado State really specializes in and taking away those things is is not the hardest thing in the world Connor yeah and then what do you think is there anything they do defensively do you think it actually give us trouble or do you think it's all going to be you know the cop out of like can we execute it's hard execution yeah I hate to be that guy uh but it's our offense's execution do we penal to get penalties do we have drops do we have a dumb turnover uh you know do we run the route we're supposed to when it's third and three uh do we run the route we're supposed to when it's second and one and we decide to go for a kill shot over the top as they load up the box to you know to stop the run or play it honestly uh that's the real determinant what kind of energy kind of urgency do you come out with on offense Are you standing around listen to the helmet communication you know right up until the 15sec cut off or you running some plays and getting some Tempo and imposing your will on the defense yeah I I also feel like the teams that run real Tempo you could get your quarterback I mean you could still be hearing Communications while you're lined up if you get there quick enough they could be like hey you got the slot leverage you know so it's like there's part of that too we won't do it at Texas but I thought for like those real quick kind of R teams I mean you could potentially just tell the quarterback where to go with it well one thing that was very clear in the Florida state Georgia Tech game is that dju was getting a lot of chatter and a lot of instruction and I think that is counterproductive it is I think you have to develop I made this uh this analogy before and I'll make it again I think it has to be like the flight control officer on an aircraft carrier when a guy's coming into land you don't sit there and fill his ear with a bunch of nonsense you have a couple of words that you say and you convey what you're trying to communicate with tone and also key words you want to be you want brevity and so I think when you is walking up to the line of scrimmage on on a call you go hey remember nickel Blitz is on you right exactly yeah yeah hey hot route it's gonna be open yeah hey Quinn remember to look them off that's it that's all your communication it doesn't need to be hey Quinn remember to you know whatever so Landing safety officer thank you BOS Revenge that's his name the lso he is like four or five words that he's allowed to say and those words have to be brief short and you communicate the urgency of that word based on sort of your tone and intonation right easy perfect that's it that's all you say uh or you go up up up up up there you go that's it you're not saying oh you know what you might to slightly pull back on the sck a oh actually you know you don't the minute you do that you're in trouble so I think offensive coordinators and head coaches who communicate to the quarterback need to adopt a a similar approach so anything you see I was gonna say is there real quick anything you want to see from Quinn so have command what I want to see is I want to see Quinn operate the passing offense in condensed space um so that's what I want to see um he he may not get that that's true so it's like I want to see condensed space so hopefully some goal line stuff right can you hit the quick quick game within 10 yards that that kind of stuff's important and then hey man like complete one go and I'll feel good you know complete one fade ball I want to see something deep um because those are the two things that have limited uh Quinn maximizing his ability you know what I want to see replicable mechanics I agree yeah throw the ball the same way correctly on the routes that are open and there and there will be multiple routes that are just open and there let's not do this hop twice and throw it off your back foot even when you're not being pressured I understand that you can release a ball accurately with your hand i'm way out here uh you don't have to just throw the ball correctly just do it on time in the drop uh if you see a guy flash open at the beginning of their route uh and it's a seven yard gain just throw the ball just take the seven yard game take a profit like let's not force this let's not try to make this about a display of all the pat Mahomes throws we can do let's just have a tight window tight mechanics throw it to the open man and be efficient because if Quinn can hit his layups well I should say his free throws right in addition to some of the incredible intermediate throws that he can make which are really extraordinary if he can just hit those gimmies consistently uh this is a very very dangerous offense yeah absolutely you're ready to do uh games of Interest yeah like look Texas isn't the only interesting game for our perspective on Saturday we've got a bunch of future opponents that are playing and uh there's four Marquee games from a scouting perspective but also a like a testing perspective not only the quality of opponent but maybe also what can we learn that's really important and so I I kind of have them in rank as Georgia versus Clemson I think we're going to learn a lot about Georgia uh Texas A&M not Dame I think we're going to learn some stuff about the aies Michigan Fresno State Fresno State obviously not quite the level of opponent that Notre Dame or Clemson poses but what that game's going to show us is who's the Michigan starting quarterback how cohesive are they on the offensive line are the two starting receivers for Michigan any good uh we don't know I mean they're starting from scratch on offense Connor and I think that's going to be interesting to see and then finally Florida Miami uh talk about an opening game where I I can't think of an opening game where there's more pressure on each head coach uh than Miami at Florida they're going into Gainesville uh and then we have Oklahoma temple you added that obviously what the Sooners do is of Interest there's a reason they're favored at 41 and a half Temple is arguably the worst team in FBS so uh unfortunately Stan Drayton took over a bad situation and appears to have made it worse there Temple well that's what I thought your your piece when you said um you know OU winning 76-7 um is not of interest um even though it'll freak fans out but if for instance if they don't win 76 to7 then then it's more interesting there yeah look if Jackson Arnold throws three picks against Temple that is of interest but I don't think that's gonna happen yeah I doubt that as well and that's a Friday night game right I I don't know I don't have this I don't have the standings in front of me I think it I think it's a Friday night game um so that'll be exciting but let's kind of go through it and I want to pick your brain Paul because you of course uh do the thinking Texas football perspectives and so you break down SEC teams so you have a lot of knowledge on these guys more than I do I kind of take my breakdowns by the week uh learn the teams then you do crazy amount of offseason work so we'll kind of just go through each one of these games um and then I'll pick your brain how about that absolutely bring it cool so Georgia and Clemson is Georgia are you're number one yeah okay they they seem to have the most balance of quality across the board um you can argue that they're top 10 nationally in every position group okay um and then where are you at on Clemson I think they still got a bunch of dudes on their defense I think they need to figure out what they want to do on offense and obviously the the refusal to use the portal leaves them with some holes uh that other teams that are have been Elite I mean Clemson is one of the elite teams of college football the last decade uh but they went four and four in the ACC last year so that's that's a concern but what I'm interested in is we're not playing Clemsons I I kind of don't care other than what can Clemson challenge well we know got the got some guys on defense so what does Georgia look like offensively uh particularly I want to see if Trevor eten the running back for Georgia the transfer from Florida is going to offer some big playability in the running game because that could really unlock Georgia to the next level I know they can throw the ball so that's going to be of interest to me on the other side of the ball Georgia was utterly dominant on defense in night in 2021 and 2022 in 2023 they were just very good so if you had a good game plan you could move the ball on Georgia last year and you had the right athletes if Clemson can throw the ball around on Georgia if they can run the ball on Georgia a little bit B I'm pretty sure Texas can so that's what I'm going to be looking for in that matchup uh probably less whether Georgia covers but more about what the quality of play looks like against you know frankly a better opponent than most teams play in their opener and what I thought was interesting too with Florida here is uh Miami is only a two and a half Point favorites um and I so it looks like Florida's going to be an all right team it's just their schedule is going to be an absolute nightmare yeah from a power ranking perspective I think Florida's considered to be you know top 40 team but the other issue there Connor is Miami um there's no doubt they're a more talented roster overall uh they're they're pretty dumb football team and I don't just mean the players on the field making mistakes which I which happens but you know their head coach costs them games yeah based on how he manages a game and he's done it directly famously uh last year against Georgia Tech running the ball when they could have gone in Victory formation uh and then also just game management he gets he gets scared as the game progresses he doesn't really understand clock management uh he's not alone there amongst college football coaches but Chris Ball is particularly egregious but here's the real key of what we can learn we're not playing Miami so I don't really care about Mario Christal's game management they have a loaded roster in terms of talent Florida's defense last year was putrid they they couldn't they couldn't stop anybody so is that improved and a lot of it was there blowing coverages a lot of it was they couldn't tackle like real basic football so does that improve and then offensively Florida got competent on offense Graham Merz actually played very well from a risk averse standpoint only threw three picks all last year they really struggled to get big plays so Florida created this sort of plotting yards consuming offense but between the 20s they weren't getting the money ball you know they weren't getting in there they were kicking field goals or they were getting sacked and pushing them out of field goal range just that was typical Florida Gator football last year and they're kind of dumb in their own right uh Billy Napier had some some issues so I think the reason this is two and a half if as Vegas feels like these are two coaches Under Pressure who are both in very not handle pressure well yeah they're gonna try to hand the game to each other so I think Vegas is scared to set a line at a key number like three and a half yeah um and then H our dear friends at Texas A&M I love that team that's what my favorite team actually um and then they're facing Notre Dame and then uh here let me give you my pedestrian take um I hope that Riley Leonard is is real good for Notre Dame that's about my knowledge of Notre Dame right there yeah well so that and that line is move no longer one and a half it's three uh and that has to do with Notre Dame lost to their starting offensive tackle they're going to be starting a true freshman uh opposite Nick scouton who is arguably the the best Edge in in the country so that will be interesting however A&M's got their own issues on offense and Notre Dame has a good defense and they're good on the interior they're good in the secondary so that's going to pose a problem uh I think the under is going to be the big winner in this game obviously A&M their season is defined by their opener and their closer so hosting Notre Dame hosting Texas if they can win both of those games man look out this this team has a real ceiling uh I think they're looking realistically to split those two games and and keep sort of their goals in front of them uh what I'm going to be watching is we don't think the Texas S&M offense is going to be explosive this year question is can they be competent good ball control unit that's complimentary to what should be a pretty good defense that's what I'm going to be looking for uh can they protect Connor Wegman can Connor Wegman exploit a receiver Group which seems mostly comprised of number two and number three receivers they don't have a number one they don't have a a real field stretcher and from what I understand from practice reports they are not consistent catchers of the ball which as a receiver I like receivers who receive the ball so that's uh going to be something to watch the A&M defense I expect that front and particularly the front six or front seven however you want to determine it to be really good is their secondary good or are they going to be more Elish sort of concede short stuff and then hope that you make a mistake or the the front makes a play to to keep you from from getting points so that's what I'm going to be watching with the yaggies uh we know that they're going to be fired up for this game and we know certainly Notre Dame is going to be fired up for this game but I expect a pretty close defensive contest what do you think Conor um yeah I don't I don't hear a lot of people talking about that it's a they've got a new coordinator and they've got a new coach you know their talents there I think we're kind of in a new area with like TCU proved it they came in year one and performed pretty well but um I really don't know how to read A&M um a lot of people are kind of talking like they're in year three versus Notre Dame you know and it's like well yeah but there's also been a lot of change they got dudes absolutely but I mean it's Colin Klein's new offense I like Colin Klein's offense but it's new you know so there's a lot of Kinks to work out to be playing Notre Dame week one and I feel like people kind of talk about like that they're already in their stride yeah you know you know what Colin Klein solve for a lot of defensive looks that they throw at you running the quarterback right and and I don't I mean Connor Wegman actually is mobile he's a good athlete but I don't know if you want to run Connor Wegman a lot um you want to save that for special games Notre Dame might be that game but you know that's a good way to get Marcel Reed his backup out there on the field if you run him too much uh I I don't think you want to make that your allpurpose solution yeah yeah you don't want Wagman out there getting hurt uh the only predition group Texas A&M has a certain advantage over Notre Dame is their defense line I don't think Texas A&M is a better team than Notre Dame and definitely not a better team than Texas thanks for throwing in that last last part David Keith Williams uh definitely not better than Texas so we'll have yeah so look A&M's gonna have a distinct Advantage defensive line over the Notre Dame offensive line but that the same can be said on the other side of the ball as well Notre Dame got probably the second best combo of defensive tackles and we're going to talk about the best combo defensive tackles in the country in a second uh and they have really good secondary particularly Xavier Watts at safety and then Benjamin Harrison out at corner I don't know if he's healthy or not I I know he had some uh issues so we'll see but uh Notre Dame's got a pretty good defense in their own right so we'll we'll I think they're GNA give the aies some problems on o cool and then next week uh you know if you're a Texas Fan you need to watch this game uh because we're about to head up to the old big house to see Michigan versus Fresno State um did they officially name their quarterback yet no and I don't know if they're going to uh so we shall see uh and even if they do name a quarterback it may not be the quarterback we see in week two uh okay Chiron Moore is Jim Harbaugh trained and Jim Harbaugh is not shy about a little bit of slight of hand so uh I think that'll be interesting look the the real concern as Connor said or the real interest for us is who's starting a quarterback are they going Alex orgy and they're going to do a lot of spread run option stuff with opportunity passing down the field or are they going to go more conventional with Davis Warren uh Jack Tuttle was the guy who was thought to be battling with orgy for the job but Jack Tuttle can't stay healthy so the battle is Davis Warren versus Alex orgy orgy as you guys some of you may know Texas product Texas High School product from saxi he's about 235 and he is a tremendous athlete he's one of the best athletes in the Michigan program uh just really strong really physical very explosive greater than 40inch vertical leap I mean this is a load at quarterback but uh the rumor is he's not a great passer so can Texas load up against the Run do we play to our advantage and say hey we don't think you can complete a pass over the top we're gonna gang up on the run or do we play it kind of honestly and I'm kind of hoping that we don't play it very honestly but we're gonna find out who their quarterback is it's also possible Connor that they play both and allow a little subterfuge there but also maybe they genuinely want to see who plays better in real game time uh Fresno State is a Mountain West team just like Colorado State uh they're considered maybe a step up from from Colorado State but it is worth knowing and mentioning that Jeff Tedford is out he's retired so they will have an interim coach this year uh they got an experienced quarterback so one underrated part of this I know everyone's focused on the Michigan offense and who's going to be quarterback Mikey Keane is the Fresno State quarterback and he's could probably considered the class of the Mountain West in terms of as a passer if he can throw the ball a little bit against Michigan against some of the new faces in that secondary that's something you need to look for the question is can they keep him upright because Michigan is gonna have the best front in college football including the best pair of defensive tackles in college football and Texas fans know what the advantage is of having two Elite defensive tackles playing next to each other uh Michigan is going to experience that on top of that they have good edges they've got one or two linebackers who are pretty good blitzers and very physically imposing yeah how much talent did they lose to the League 13 guys okay yeah so they're going to be reshaped but how much of a drop off do you think they do you think they're like an eight- win team that level of drop off or like what do you think they're depending on if quarterback hits I mean you know hey look what if Alex orgies jayen milroe shaky early but then he finds his SE legs and if that's the case Michigan will win 10 games if that's not the case they're they're an eight or nine win team they really only play four games of of of like challenge they play Ohio State they play Texas they play USC and I believe they play Penn State okay uh not sure about Penn State I'd have to check maybe you can look that up but uh three of those four challenge games are at home so uh and I'm pretty sure they don't play Oregon yeah they don't have Pinn State they have Texas SC Oregon oh they play Oregon okay Ohio State okay so they play Oregon not Ohio state so they really need to split those four games if they're goingon to win 10 right because Indiana's not going to upset him I don't think uh but you know are they going to go three and one against slate no I I I doubt that um I think they're looking to try to just bully USC and then they may try to look to bully Texas so we'll see we'll see who the starting quarterback is it's going to tell us a lot and uh you know I I think we have a real Advantage there and I I really hope our defensive staff presses that advantage and doesn't just run our stuff I think we need to attack them and let's be the team that shows them a different way look and has their coaches saying well Texas never showed that before let's be that team for once that would be nice all right and that is the Slate if you are a Texas Fan these are upcoming opponents so make sure you watch these games um it's important you want to know these teams uh to be a smart fan even though A&M's at the end of the season if you watch every A&M game you're GNA pretty much know the outcome there Paul you good with everything I'm good with everything and what you guys really want to watch is this channel so if you're not subscribed yet make sure you subscribe and if you liked what you got today or in the future hit that like button cost you nothing and those thumbs up they affect the algorithm and they let us attract more viewers and future inside Texas subscribers so thanks for watching and thanks for being a part of our community [Music]