July 14, 2026: Wide Receiver Preview

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Foreign.

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Welcome in everyone to the Longhorn Republic, your source for Texas Longhorn news, sports and opinions with a bit of snark built. And we are members of the Dave Campbell's Texas Football Podcast Network and the College Football Huddle and you can find more about both those great organizations in our social media bios. If you like what we do, please leave us a rating or review on Apple Podcast and Spotify helps get the show out there. Share this with your friends on any podcast platform you can find us and we'd love to have them as part of our community. Connect with us on social media at Longhorn Pod on Twitter and Blue Sky, Facebook and Instagram the Longhorn Republic or shoot us an email longhorn pod@gmail.com My name is Gerald Goodridge. You're my host this week like I am every weekend. I'm joined by a man who's an authority on our topic today, Kyle Carpenter. Kyle, are you.

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I imagine you're talking about the city of Louisville. And yes Gerald, I am an authority on that. Also, we're talking wide receivers. I am in authority on that. Played some pretty elite Texas 5A at the time, now 6A football at that position. So yeah, I think I, I think I speak for myself with my credentials here.

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The credentials are long and distinguished. No? So we're here to talk about our wide receiver preview. Normally we would do our opponent preview today, but frankly Ole Miss is ducking us. No, we're, we're working on some scheduling issues with Ole Miss folks and we'll have that for you hopefully later this week. We may have to just double up in a later week because again, scheduling in the summer, coming out of July 4th and all that, it's been wild. So we're going to talk about the Texas wide receiver room today. We'll also talk about the MLB draft and Texas getting some favorable news out of the MLB draft and then we'll obviously close the show out with some bang the drum. So we talked last week about the running back room and its reconfiguration in 2026 and called it the most fresh faced room in the athletic department. But the wide receiver room is probably a close second. So Texas lost three of its top, well, two of its top receivers and then a third guy who was kind of projected to be in the rotation this year. But Deandre Moore and Parker Livingston both out the door as long as two of Texas's top receivers last year, plus Jamie French, who we were really excited about long term but didn't have a ton of contributions this last year, all those three are gone. But as we've mentioned multiple times, this is a chips in the center year for Texas and they went out and spent some coinage on the top wide receiver. I will say in the transfer portal class, Cam Coleman, who comes in to be a difference maker for Texas and really be that wide receiver one. We spent most of the year last year, Kyle, trying to figure out who wide receiver one was. And it was a different guy each and every week. Sometimes it was Livingston early, sometimes it was Moore, sometimes it was Wingo. Heck, it was Emmett Mosley on an occasion. But like, this feels like a room where it's not that we don't have a wide receiver one this year, but that Texas probably has two wide receiver ones, which is different than not having one.

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Yeah, it'll be interesting if we believe that to be true at the end of the year or if someone, namely a big transfer separates himself. Yeah, last year, at the end of the year, I think we did have a clear wide receiver one or at least most reliable target. Honestly, that was Emmett Osley. That might be the reason, one of the reasons DeAndre Moore has, you know, made his way to, to greener pastures and become a part of the Colorado experiment. But yeah, I mean it, there were times when Arch really wanted it to be Parker Livingston and it never really, between injuries and just some drops and, and some things there never really worked out exactly the way we hoped and he was not the, the person who was expected to be there. But I don't know if, you know, that was Arch's roommate. But yeah, I think what ultimately happened is that Ryan Wingo was cast as wide receiver one and Ryan Wingo is a lot of things, but I think a dominant, you know, look to him on every route, safety blanket, wide receiver number one is not one of them. I think if you use him in the correct mix and the correct packages in the correct routes and the correct positions, he could be the, one of the singular most dangerous players in the country. But last year I think our wide receiver mix never quite came together again. Some of that is offensive line issues and maybe not being able to get to run the whole route tree. But if, if one improves, they all improve and Arch, you know, looks to be improved as well. Then I, I think this group with the talent that it has is pretty unreal like this. The young talent they have pushing the veterans. Like there are a lot of players you could talk about in this preview who almost any school in the SEC would love to have any school in the Big 12 would be starting, you know, guys number four, five and six on this list. It just is a ton of depth, a ton of talent, all kinds of different skill sets combined. But I mean I think we have a pretty crystallized big three who they're going to trot out any given play. It would be curious to see what Sark's rotations look like. He doesn't always go incredibly deep on that. But remember last year was about how do you replace the NFL guys when Matthew golden broke out and Isaiah Bond went to the next level. How do you replace that level of production with receivers? And they kind of look to find that mix. I think this year is really how do you optimize arch training and what this offense could be like. I think you finally get to see the horsepower with these receivers and routes built for them and a quarterback who's comfortable with weapons that he has in the pass game.

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And I think you mentioned something about Ryan Wingo not being that like look to every down wide receiver and I think he can be but not in the role that they had him playing a year ago where it is he's not your downfield catch the contested, you know, high point the ball kind of wide receiver. But if you've got him playing I, I think of again I always go back to this with Steve Sarkeesian offenses. If he's playing more of the Devonta Smith underneath drag Cadillac routes, he's a wide receiver one. And DeVonta Smith won a Heisman basically doing that. Get the ball in his hands, let him be a step or two faster than the cornerback coming down and the safety coming down and then he's going to catch a corner and he's gone. And so I think if you're looking at him to do that, he is absolutely a wide receiver one. And I think part of why Cam Coleman fits what they're trying to do is that yeah, Cam Coleman is an expl explosive elite athlete. But Cam Colem can also be the guy that goes downfield that draws those safeties up and gives Ryan Wingo that step to catch a corner. That gives Ryan Wingo the ability to be in open space and be in one on one coverage with the corner or lord forbid for the other team, a linebacker and be able to come across and catch the ball. And then if there's a safety chasing Cam Coleman down the field, you give me Ryan Wingo one on one with basically anybody in the open field. And I'm taking Ryan Wingo with the mortgage payments like that to me Is is really what Cam Coleman adds to this. And oh yeah, we also still have Emmett Mosley out there who is that big X receiver kind of guys six two, 200 big physical, contested catch kind of guy. And so I think this mix of players for Steve Sarkeesian gives him three very different options. And I think that was a big issue with the passing game last year is that all of the guys that they had had pretty similar skill sets where Parker Livingston, but you know, the guys that you could really depend on, you know, Deandre Moore, Ryan Wingo, two very similar skill sets, different body types but ultimately they're not going to be the down the field guy. They neither of them are going to be the big contested catch guy. They're both more underneath skill kind of players. And so having that, not having that mix makes things weird for them. And we saw some of that when Xavier Worthy had to do that when he was here. And Xavier Worthy is an incredible wide receiver but when he is the down the sideline kind of run the route tree kind of guy, that's not his best thing. And so I, you know it's, it is the diversity of skills that I think is probably the biggest feather in the cap of this unit. This, the different skill sets and different things that these three guys do. Yeah are huge for what Texas is trying to do.

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And I, I've heard this season they're cross turning it kind of against all three positions and a really dangerous Sark offense is when you don't know who X, you know and Z and Y and which receiver is where and they're, they're motioning and getting different looks and hunting coverages and, and that is there. This is a big starting 32 right. Like yeah, 62210 is Wingo, like if he were any other team I would just be terrified at his ability to, to get up and go at that size. Cam Coleman, 63200, you know, dominated people with awful, awful, awful Auburn quarterback. Like I'm sure whoever the, the, the fourth or fifth quarterback on the depth chart who's throwing to Coleman, he's like wow, these are good balls. Like Auburn just had some of the worst quarterbacking I've seen. Like Jackson Arnold, you know, looked okay there for a little while compared to the other options they had and he was awful. They just were so, so bad at that position. They basically wasted Cam Coleman. But it let him make some great highlight catches because he had terrible quarterback play. But he's 63 200. Emmett Mosley 62200 they're all big. You heard me say numbers over 200. Those are strong, sturdy wide receivers who hopefully can block for each other as well in spring. And any one of the three, especially Coleman and Wingo, on some explosive yak. But Emmett Mosley's got a little bit in this offseason. Not what I expected necessarily from him, but been getting some praise for his speed that he's shown coming into this year. So as much as he's the chain mover and he's the guy who set Stanford's freshman record as a receiver, came in as a transfer, missed the first four games and then was our most reliable receiver basically after that, including five catches on five targets against Michigan in the Citrus Bowl. I really like this mix, right. Like Mosley is that guy who you know is going to move the chains for you. He's strong hands, crafty, good routes. Like I said, twitchier than advertised. Zero drops in 20, 25. Wingo explosive, at least seven drops. Probably doesn't have elite downfield ball tracking, but there may not be a better player in the country at lateral crossers at doing those things like Gerald described.

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If Arch doesn't dirt a mesh route, Texas might win that game at Ohio State last year.

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That's right. Arch needs to be working hitting Wingo on those routes and Wingo needs to be working on catching. And when they feel confidence in that. And again, like you said, when Coleman is, is taking a safety downfield with him, it's really nasty what, what he can do because realistically the Wingo has horsepower, yak threat and true like running back traits after the catch. And I mean it, running back in the sense of can make a guy miss and then just take it to the house, like really explosive stuff. I think we have to talk about Cam Coleman though, a little bit. Obviously we've talked about him, but what he can do, he is a elite jump ball winner, ball tracking savant. He's gonna be really good in the red zone too. We've talked about some of the struggles in that area for Sark and for this team and it's. They've kind of lacked that big guy who, you know, you can run the whip route, you can run the fade route, you can run like Adnai Mitchell went out and and made plays and got touchdowns on some of those. Like I think Cam Coleman is going to be a red zone hunter as well and he just wins vertically. There's some concentration lapses and maybe you didn't see him run a full route tree at Auburn. The things he did. He was dominant at. He's going to have good coaching and a stark offense that may, you know, that's why you come here. Open that up for NFL scouts who will be watching as much as we will. But there's a reason he's the number two portal player. 93 catches, 13 touchdowns, with again, that awful quarterback play. Like, if everything works out well, Coleman is going to have a lot of catches for a lot of yards and a lot of red zone touches, and Wingo is going to average 28 yards with, you know, 16 after the catch. And, and like, teams just won't be able to stop those two things because if you do, we'll just move the chains with them at Mosley. Like it is a pick your poison combination of receivers, especially with Mosley's hands, Coleman's hands. And if Wingo can, can bring that level of consistency, then it's hard to imagine how you stop that. And that's before any of the other guys who Sark might run in. They've been running bunch sets. Do they get a fourth wide receiver in there? Because there's some really, really good ones, some young talent. Do they go five wide at times? Like there are things that they could do that really could stretch and break a defense.

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Yeah. And especially with the eligibility changes, like, you don't have to worry about, you know, can we use Jermaine Bishop for more than four games because he can play a full season and he gets five years of eligibility. The new eligibility rules are going to be helpful for Texas, especially as they look to figure out not just do they run these kind of multiple, 4 wide, 5 wide routes, but just on a rotational basis. And a guy like Jermaine Bishop is a guy that you have to get on the field. Right. We talk when you have to, when you play freshman. We talk about it all the time. There are guys that you have to play and then there are guys that you get to play. And Jermaine Bishop is a get to play kind of guy. Like, he is all purpose, all everything kind of guy, likely going to get play in all three phases. I'm curious. I really want to see him in the return game. I, I think he is, he is just an absolutely explosive threat. We saw, I mean, Texas has one of the best returners in the game currently. But ultimately, like having multiple threats. Part of what teams did was kick away from the guy who, you know, returned a couple for, for touchdowns last year, but not being able to kick away from him. Or, hey, we're just going to Take the ball in the 35. That's better than Jermaine Bishop going yard on us. Like, that's huge. But getting him in the mix, getting. I would be very surprised if we don't see Sark scheme something or put something in the playbook to just get Jermaine Bishop into space and let him be slippery. Like, hey, we're going to throw you a just a little quick out or a little quick bubble and then go make a guy miss and go off to the races. Texas, I mean we. Sark has done that numerous times. I'm Xavier Worthy against Oklahoma on the very first play comes to mind. Daley McCutcheon is a guy who, I'm curious to see where he fits in. Great player, 511, 175. He's your pretty classic slot guy. So I'm curious to see what that looks like with. With the archetypes that Texas is rolling out at. The ones obviously we've talked about Kaliq Lockett a ton. He's another guy that I think would be able to get that Texas would love to get in space with the ball in his hands. You just let him do explosive guy things. It's really going to be interesting to see how Sark manages this rotation.

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Yeah, you're just talking about five star guys, right? You're talking about Jermaine Bishop, five star who is getting Xavier worthy comps and not like Xavier Worthy Day 1 Xavier Worthy his last year getting ready to go to the NFL. Like Jermaine Bishop, I heard him describe as an athletic genius. We talked about his high school tape and how majestic it is and how he just has to see the field because it's not just screens. Like he's. He, you give him the ball in space, he's going to make things happen. He actually is a really, really natural and elite route runner. Like, he's very good at the receiver things. Elite ball tracker. His change of direction and like I call it acceleration, deceleration. But like the start stop. His ability to slow down when he needs to in a route and then speed up to get past guys, like just to create space. Great lateral burst. Like he just does everything. That's why he's taking snaps at cornerback too. He's so fluid. He's just, it's hard to say, don't put him on the field. But if it is, it's because you maybe have McCutcheon in a package where you need a couple slot receivers. He has that elite change of direction and good dexterity. Showed ability to get open in spring game. Kali Clockett is, you talked about it, explosive, but he's also big explosive. He's 62190. All three of these guys are smaller than what we talked about with the 200 pounders up top. Bishop is 6 foot and 165 listed. Let's see if he's actually that big. How many, how much barbecue he's, he's putting on. But McCutcheon at 15 11, 175 Kilik Lockett at 62190. But Lockett has a 70, 79 inch wingspan. He's got a big catch radius. He's a fluid route runner. He's good at tracking the ball. Again, all these five stars are that for a reason. They dominated the high school level and they're just waiting for their chance to dominate this level. And Lockett did it in that Citrus bowl again against Michigan. The only other guy to talk about here, unless we want to talk about some of the future guys have been getting some offseason shine. I always love to hear like the sixth, seventh, eighth guys who coaches rave about their work ethic. Those are great players whether they're this year or not. But the only other one kind of in this could play this year. And really if he doesn't play this year, it's, it's it. I think even with five years for the 23 year old from Wake Forest ultimately and North Carolina, T cincy and then Wake Forest. But Sterling Burkhalter, who does sound like one of the white walk ons, is actually a, a talented six three, 195 big veteran wide receiver, uh, who started for a nine and three Wake Forest team last year. Like he's a guy if injuries do happen, he just brings where we talked about all that talent in the reserve, wide receiver, reserve room. Burkhalter is a guy who's done it, who's proven, who knows the game, who can do the little things, who will block for you. Like he's got some size so he could see the field some. Like it'll be interesting to see how much he gets in there. He's just a name to know because I think with all the heralded wide receivers and the, the fives and fives and five stars that we have in there, there's a veteran who might just do some things.

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So with this group, we do have to talk about the tight ends because they obviously factor in to the passing game. But I say that because I don't know how much this group is going to factor in. To the passing game. This is a very more traditional tight end group that I think we've seen under Sark where it's not going to be the Jotavian Sanders or the Gunner Helms. You know, Michael Basunis who's looking like he's tight end one is probably more apt at the blocking than he is at the receiving. I'm not saying he's a bad receiver, but I'm saying he's not going to be again your Gunner Helm open field hurdling guys. He's not going to be your Jatavian Sanders running that flag route and being able to catch the ball. That's not really his game. Like again, if you sneak him out in a flat, you know he's going to be very much like nowhere close to this level of production. But I think of like a David Thomas level of athleticism where he's going to be a consistent target on a third and four and get you five yards. Where you know, Nick Townsend is, is starting to develop, starting to get where he can be second year guy. Curious to see how much he's developed. I think more as a blocker than as a passer because I think he was probably relatively solid as a passer and his limiting factor last year, Sark's not going to put a tight end on the field that can't block regardless of their, their, their catching ability. So you know, those are the top two guys. Spencer Shannon. I, I don't, I think the story might be close to written on Spencer Shannon and that and then Amari Winston again, I'm not sure he's again has more of an upside as a blocker especially in pass pro. But again I, I just, I don't know what to think of this group.

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Yeah, it'll be interesting. I, I think of my students is, is really like a Big Ten tight end, right? He came from Michigan State, but yeah, old school Big Ten like you know, get him on some seven yard routes and he's gonna, he's gonna move the chains for you, slip him out to the flats. He's, he's not going to break down the field but you know, he's, he's going to be reliable. A guy that Iowa State would just, you know, roll out and, and terrorize us with. When he has nine catches for you know, 86 yards and a touchdown like he, he probably like again. Oh you. Oklahoma State. We've had teams that have really worked and I say Oklahoma State specifically because remember they're cowboy back tight end coaches is on Texas roster now. But so I'm curious what you know, between Banks and and him, what they're. They're looking at with Massunas, what they're going to try to get him to do. Like yes, this is our best blocking, our best tight end room at blocking since Sark has been here. Like that is a thing they're going to be plus at it is probably we didn't talk about it enough in a running back preview and maybe we talk about a little bit in our offensive line preview but they are really going to complement the offensive line. They're not going to be out there because we can't pass block this year and you need a sixth pass blocker I hope but they might be out there just to spring some explosive runs like the, you know Massunus is a very, very good like in fact in the portal he was probably the best blocking tight end. So I was curious if that's what they chose to prioritize and it also to me it begs the question if it means Nick Townsend is developing the way they think he can. Like people have spoken last offseason and even this season about his upside and the things he can do and him as a potential X factor on this team which again if off season is always the best. Just, just hopium and and optimism. It's beautiful, it's lovely. But like you know there's nothing, nothing bad to be said about him. He can, he has some athleticism out of this group and so he might by default be the breakout player. So yeah, I'll say it that way. Winston TBD on him like you said Gerald Shannon, you know a lot of these guys will get in there and blocking sets. Right. We go big in the red zone. We got a lot more beef if we want to use our tight ends and use them as H back fullbacks, whatever. I feel better about it than I have in years past where Texas had really elite playmakers of this group and really lacked good blocking even from enduries who's supposed to be both. We saw not a ton in the passing production like we pass game production but we saw some things when he got in line blocking where he wasn't strong enough and honestly was surprising there. So maybe this is the overcorrection for that and this will be a part of the balance run game that, that you know we're talking receivers but this is a balanced offense at the end of the day.

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Yeah. And you know I think, I think Sark would tell you like whether it's wide receivers or Tight ends like they're not going to see the field if they're not willing to block it. So I'm curious to see again how that position plays itself out. So we'll be back next week talking about the final offensive position group, the offensive line, my favorite to talk about. If you haven't heard any of our previews, we had a quarterback preview two weeks ago and then last week we talked about the rebuilt running back room. So we'd love to have you check those out if you haven't. And we will be back next week again talking about the line. But that brings us to the part of the show where we whip around the rest of campus and we down the 40 and there's a lot of baseball news to talk about. We previewed last week the baseball MLB draft and it seemingly went really well for Texas. First of all, Texas, 61 straight years of having a player drafted, big ups to them. But Texas had just three players and four high school prospects taken on day one. So it's pretty fair to say that these guys likely not going to be coming to campus, coming to campus or coming back to campus. Carson Tinney, Aiden Robbins and Ruger Riojas, Both were. All three were selected in the top 100 picks. You also have Grady Emerson, Brody Bermia Cooper Harris and Bo Peterson all selected in the top 140 picks. So those guys likely also going to be gone for next year. But Texas had 5 of its elite high school players withdraw from the draft. You got Trey Rangel, Cooper Webb, James Jorgensen, Easton Autry and Jax Robinson all chose to remove their names, which means they're coming to Austin.

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Yeah, it was, it was big, right? Like there was some interesting buzz in day one. You know, we saw the, the high schooler go number two. Grady Emerson, like great for him. No one thought he was coming. Carson Tinney, no one knew exactly where he was going to go. We went 43rd, beginning of the year, like middle of the year. That seemed like a low number. He was going to be higher than that. Yeah, some struggles at the end of the year. I don't know if that pushed him. And the big surprise, Aiden Robinson all the way to 92. Like I could have seen that being, you know, pick number 31 and, and 46, like that, you know, for those two guys. So, you know, a little, little tough. Rugero is getting 100. Honestly surprised me it was that high. But Brody Bamillo was an interesting one because there was, it came out right before the draft that he may need a second elbow surgery. So he had a top 30 grade heading into the draft and he fell all the way to 89. And so people got a little bit hopeful of okay, will he do the Tommy John and then, you know, come to Texas, try to build back up the the draft and get into that first round. But the Texas Rangers took care of that when they paid him first round money. Basically, even though they draft him at 89, they gave him first round money because he has that kind of talent. And you know, so there was some optimism at the end of day one that probably. Okay, go back to our original preview if you listen two weeks ago and we talked about the kind of sections and they all hit basically the players. We said we got to get these guys, we got those guys. If we can get one out of two, we got one out of two. Like we kind of got what we needed. Day two came Luke Harrison went eighth round to the Cardinals. Thomas Burns, same round to the twins. Cody Howard 13th round to the Nats. Day two came and went and we saw undrafted players. Hayden Leflou, who probably, he comes back, probably moves to our closer, which is huge. We were hoping that we would get one of Burns or Hayden back if we got Hayden. Ethan Mendoza went undrafted. There was some talk that he might. He didn't enter the transporter. There's some talk that he might either go pro or leave Texas. He did not get drafted and hasn't signed a udfa. So he's coming back to Texas.

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Officially announced via Instagram today.

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There you go. All right, so it is is officially official. And then UCLA transfer Peyton Brennan, who we didn't talk about, but he was a threat to get drafted. And last year, remember we talked about it all year, a big gap in this team was at least one pitcher in two outfielders who they were got in the transfer portal big gets and were hoping would be big contributors for this team, got drafted, signed, and we basically just had a hole in our roster. So getting that UCLA transfer who is the number eight player in the portal, not drafting, getting him on campus was big. So ultimately like, yeah, it would have been great if somehow you got Brody Bromila after his fall to come, if you know Cooper Harris or Bo Peterson, you could have gotten one of those guys in the 100 to 130 range to actually sign. But getting Trey Rangel, who, remember we went Volantis to Kozart, like he could be our next. I don't know if he's going to be a closer, but elite elite, elite freshman arm out of the bullpen his fastball slider combo is probably going to be the best for any freshman in the country. Cooper Webb, James Jorgensen, all good. Easton Autry, a guy who had, you know, if you remember the, the numbers he hit a 544foot home run and so his name kind of went real buzzy. So losing Bo Peterson who's a great, great, you know, MLB prospect, third baseman hurt a little bit less when we got Easton Austria and we talked about that in our pre draft preview. He was not listed in the top 500 even though he was our number four ranked rec recruit. I think the writing was on the wall that he was going to come to campus. So getting both catchers though. Jax Robinson and Bromila big. Yeah. So I like where this roster sits. I think this went about as well as it could have.

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Yeah. You mentioned Brendan in the the draft. We missed it last week. He was the number eight player in the portal and comes to Texas both filling that we talked about and alluded to it multiple times that Texas was probably trying to add some players to the outfield and while here you go. So it looks like he's not only going to be a really solid or really exceptional I think at times bat for Texas, but fills up that that rotation in the outfield and gives Texas another really great tool out there on the in the dugout. Though Texas added two coaches, Jack Mater and Caleb Longley last week as well missed this. Both are seen kind of as like rising high trajectory kind of guys or in in the nation in Texas again continues to add these young up and comers and it's almost turning into a finishing school.

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Yeah, I mean Nolan Kane, I thought when he left Texas it would be to be a head coach somewhere is weird that he went back to A and M. But again he's a guy who's rising himself and you know, will likely be a head coach in short order. Jack Martyr is that guy. I hope we keep him as long as we can. But D1 baseball listed him as the most likely assistant to become a head coach in America and he's been a big part of Oregon's rise from kind of obscurity on the men's side to and again their head coach gets some credit there for sure. But landed the number three recruiting class with an Oregon team that hadn't done that type of recruiting, you know, in a long time and then you know, landed back to back top 25 classes after that. So a really, really talented guy with significantly less resources in the baseball department to work with out there. I think, you know it's gonna, it's gonna work very well for him coming in recruiting coordinator. We'll see you know again how long we have him. Longley returns to Texas. If you recall, he was here a few years ago, then made a stop at A M again we've been swapping and then went to the mlb. He's a hitting coach as much hitting coach, recruiting coordinator and a trainer of athletes. Basically his, his other side gig is a fast growing kind of player development tool that he's trained, you know number one picks in baseball. He's trained Jalen Hurts when he got ready for, for the the draft. Like he's, he's really worked with some incredible athletes outside of just baseball. He recruited Anthony Pat, Casey Borba, Brett Crossland, Brody Walls in his last stint here. So no, no schlub on the recruiting trail himself. But again if he's going to be looking at the hitting as well working with Chulowitzki, it'll be a hybrid role. Remember 2021-2024, three of the best home run hitting seasons in history including 2022 with our record 128 including the Hispanic Titanic's school record. So I mean not saying that's immediately coming back the era where we're hitting 120 home runs, but it'd be pretty bad about it. Yeah, wouldn't be mad.

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Wouldn't be mad about it at all. So let's switch gears and talk about the hardwood because that was a kind of surprise and a big recruiting win. We made a joke last week when talking about the fifth year of eligibility and when Kendall Weaver being a part of the suit to get to get a fifth year of eligibility and that Texas had a roster spot open. Well they don't anymore because former 2027 number one player Marcus Spears Jr. Lil Swagu I think we'll call him reclassified to 2026 and now is committed and will be part of the squad here coming up this winter. So a 69210 power forward from Plano, son of Marcus Spears, but really takes more after his mom I think athletically on this one but definitely built more like mom than dad just far as game goes. But despite what haters may say on the Internet in Marcus Spears seniors comments. Kid is an elite AD and I think Texas like Sean Miller is doing the dang thing.

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Yeah, it's funny you call him Lil Swagger the guy six nine, but yeah, it's not in height but in width. He's a little sweaty that Is fair. That is fair. Just stretched him out. Same same mass. No, I mean, he's gonna come like, look, look at the fact that last year our power forward lineup was Nick Cody Cam, who we love the things that he did well and. And the moments that he had, but not your everyday power forward. Declan Duru, who. What a player that could have been. Lucina Traore, who, again, what a player. If he were allowed to. Or I guess healthy. We're going with injury is the reported reason he didn't play. Right. Injury is the stated reason. Okay. Yep. You know, that was our power forward rotation next to Big Matas, who had to carry basically the entire front court for Texas. They wouldn't transform that. We talked about how big a player Punch from TCU was, but getting Spears, I don't know if Spears as good as he is of a number one player, number one recruitment is going to immediately start. He's going to play a lot and they may go small with him and punch when they take modest off. And that's your front court. And I really like how good that defense is because I think as much as he's the number one player and people expect, oh, he's just going to go get buckets. And he's a bucket getter. He's a rim runner. Elite athleticism, you know, can. Can take you off the dribble as much as get a rebound and go right back up with it. Like, we'll dominate the paint. He's also an elite defender. And I think as a freshman, when you go get a guy in high school who puts in the work, has the great footwork, has the work ethic and naturally just is a defender that's so huge and that doesn't get talked about in their profile. He's a great, great defender. And Punch, you know, might be the greatest defender in the portal. We talked about that when we got him. Like, putting those two together really makes this Texas team interesting. The different iterations they can run, whether they go small, whether they go big. Like, you could also see maybe three picks. I don't know. We'll see with Mattis with them. But yeah, it's going to be. It gives such adept and interesting mix to this team. And the thing that's been reported and I think now been confirmed because of his age, he will play two seasons. I say minimum because I guess technically he could come back for a third, but he'll be in the NBA after that. But he can play. He will play that second season because he will not be of age after his first which is a pretty cool thing about reclassifying I guess as a as a coach because you're always trying like one and done is so tough. But hey, two and done wins championships so this is easy to be excited about. I I stepped off an airplane and got the alert and so I immediately tweeted it at our guy Swagu who thankfully responded to us. If they had any more of these number yeah, he's very good. If they had any more of them number one ranked kids to send to Austin and he said just watch out they have a another daughter who plays volleyball. So complete the Spears trio. Jared Elliott I know you're listening to this as you always do. Go out and get the other Spears. I believe Marcus Spears himself Jr. Said he knew he was coming to Texas two years ago. He just couldn't say it out loud yet. So I like it. I like it a lot. I am curious Gerald Our bonus podcast for subscribers. We don't have anything subscribed to, but we might that could happen. We'll be describing the the Spears the Spears family versus the Goosby family and some kind of Olympic competition. We will create that for you on our sub stack. Once we create the sub stack. Yes, that's the content. That's what we're going to be talking about all off season.

B

For SEO purposes, let's call it the Hooker Games is a reference to Destiny and Marshavet I like not anything salacious.

A

I'm just saying that that's right because the trotty doesn't move the search engine needle quite as much as the Hooker Games.

B

I get that Hooker Games is going to get us some clicks, maybe some risky clicks, but clicks none.

A

Braswell to produce. We have options. We'll get there. We do.

B

We do. Foremans, quickly, let's run through some football recruiting stuff on three. Rivals had some interesting information this week. They're owned by the Same company on 3 does the college stuff. Rivals does the recruiting stuff. But so first on three, half of the Yahoo stuff listed their 10 most impactful SEC transfers. Texas and LSU both had three with no other team having more than one. Obviously Cam Coleman was ranked number one. Rasheem Biles, though, comes in at a sneaky number four. Hollywood Smothers comes in at seven. No Relique Brown because I think, well, most people are seeing Hollywood Smothers probably as the RB one, whereas Relique is probably the one A in that that duo.

A

And they said as much. They said it was an either or. They couldn't put them both on there but basically they're expecting some others to touch the ball a little bit more. So it was him. If an injury happens they would instantly slot in the other at number seven. Like basically Texas's running back room gets that number seven spot.

B

So the other thing on the other half of the business rivals dropped its new 300 or its updated 300 Texas commits did okay in that Easton Royal at number three. John Meredith at number eighth. Munch and sales is a guy who Texas is targeting has a commitment date later this week who's also kind of quite high in that Kamara dropped to number 33 which is ridiculous. You know what just because he's only played two years of competitive football that's fine. So Kamara dropped to number 33. LWC a guy who Texas is is hot for is now number 42 Kyron Brown who was a massive early eval win for Texas started June started the month so 1314 days ago right above 800796 is now up to number two 205.

A

It's burnt orange media conspiracy obviously there Gerald. We know that's true but I mean

B

like that's why they dropped Kamara was to to to balance the expectations.

A

I think they actually moved Meredith down a couple spots too so maybe that they went at the very top to hope people wouldn't keep scrolling down and notice but yeah, I mean this is always interesting Texas it's the this era. It's a good eval. You know you might get bumped in the ratings, you might get higher nil from other people who now notice you. It's always dangerous to have a. A good finding a gem in the rough too early because other folks might come for it. But Kyron Brown certainly looks to be one of those. He. He looked great in camp in June. That 44340 showed he had the athleticism. If he develops into the type of route runner and overall receiver they think that he could be a weapon in the future. But yeah I it was interesting just to look at. I mean there were a lot of guys who stayed pretty much in the same. We didn't obviously list everyone but just looked at some of the movers, some of the shakers and yeah, we can't talk all this recruiting and not include something about football recruiting. So there you go.

B

Mack Brown used to talk about how guys would pick up offers after Texas offered them. So I think we may see Kyron Brown. You know the number might go up and I think Texas will probably take care of that but that Brings us to the part of the show where we honor one of the best traditions in all of college athletics. Big Bertha. And we bang the drum. Brought to you by Joe Rui. So Kyle, what are you making the drum on this week?

A

Gerald, I'll just say this. You could have never said in our entire history that Texas was a basketball school. But in the past few months, like let's say the past four months, Texas is building some basketball momentum. Like Sean Miller is proving to be that dude at program building at least the Sweet 16 run. I feel like was overachieving with the roster that they had this year. But good if you can do it. Coaching up underdogs and then building great rosters and coaching them. Yeah, that will work. I will take it. This is a, a true top 10 without a doubt. It's very hard to argue. Not a top five roster in college basketball that they have just assembled. Like think back, Cheryl, think, think back a little bit to January where we were when Texas had lost both of their first two SEC games heading into conference and, and it looked like year one was going to be just a big disappointment for Sean Miller. Like we're six months past that. Yeah. And we're talking about, you know, how good this team is. Like they went in March and played a play in game with a bunch of players graduating and thin at multiple positions and did something, stretched all that talent to its limit. And now this looks like a team that if they do that kind of overachieving in any way, there's going to be playing for national championship. Like it is pretty crazy. In the past three months, he's, you know, first did the big win of convincing the star to stay home. Mattis came back despite very generous reported nil offers from big, big, big schools. Very big numbers. Added the number one point guard in Isaiah Johnson. Okay, that's a good thing to do. Added the best power forward and I think the best defensive player in the portal. Top 10 player, David Punch. Added a top 100 player, Amari Evans from Tennessee, who again could be a defense and an interesting piece now that we see this roster construction. He makes a lot more sense because the way you deploy him can be crucial and lethal, but it doesn't have to be all the time. Elijah Freeman from Auburn, who again now is more interesting with all of the talent they have where he slots in because his upside is enormous. Mikey Lewis, just a score, a dude just, you know, right at like number 100 from Saint Mary's but gives us that three point shooting, getting an international teammate of Matas, who has professional experience, like, that's pretty exciting. And then obviously adding in the most coveted player in the 2027 class and finding a way to get him for two years, like, that's just a win on all parts, right? Like the point guard, the number one point guard in the portal, likely gonna play multiple seasons. You get your combo guard is. Is, you know, as a true sophomore, shot nearly 40%. You get two more combo, you know, shooting guards who are our top 50 prospects in their class. Like, this is just everything. When you look at that, it raises the expectations. But that's what happens. That's what you want, right? That is what Crystal Conti wants, is to have expectations of this program. There's no reason, because football is king and is the first sport that this can't be a basketball school as well. And Sean Miller isn't scared of that challenge very clearly because he's going out and making the moves and doing the things and spending the money and building the roster that says, I want all the expectations, I want all the smoke. We're a basketball school now, so come beat us.

B

I mean, it seems very clearly, and we say it tongue in cheek in a lot of ways, but Texas is an everything school. And I think Texas very clearly is resourced in such a way where they can continue to compete in the. We'll say in the current landscape of recruiting to get these things done. Because frankly, it's not cheap to do what they're doing on the football field. It's not cheap to do what Sean Miller is doing on the hardwood. So. And again, Texas continues to add talent on the baseball diamond. We talked about that. And Texas continues to, you know, Texas seems well resourced to be in everything school. And there's. We've sung Crystal Conte's praises enough, so I'll just stop that there. I'm picking the drum this week on my current situation. So I am on a work trip. I am in Louisville and Kentucky, and Louisville was not a place that I ever imagined visiting for any reason. It just wasn't something that was on my. It wasn't anything. It just wasn't something that was on my radar. But I got the opportunity today, as part of our trip here at work, to go to the Louisville Slugger Museum, which also happens to conjoin to a bourbon distillery. And I got to do one of the coolest things I've ever gotten to do. I went and got to tour the Louisville Slugger factory where they're making actively as we're going through, like, bats for professional players and their mass quantity bats while drinking two fingers of Woodford Reserve. I guess it was one of the greatest moments of my life. But I also, as part of that, got to hold a part of history. I got to hold a game used Hank Aaron Louisville Slugger. I got to actually get in a batting cage with a replica of one of Jackie Robinson's old bats. And that, that mug was heavy, by the way, a very hefty bat. Jackie was a strong boy, but ultimately, like, it was just cool to be a part of that and like, literally whole history in my hands with that Hank Aaron bat. And you know, I. I just keep coming back to how cool it, like, sports just really has this cultural cachet. And it's so much more than just like us being fanatics and us being weirdos. But like, you know, Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron are civil rights icons and like, like the, the integral part that sports play in, in our society. We're coming off of the World cup reminding people that we're probably more similar than we are different. And so just like I always continue to come back to, like, as messed up as things are in the world and people have legitimate feelings about, like, sports is a constant reminder that the world is probably smaller than we want it to be and we are probably less divided than we think we are. And like, just being able to have those things and have that experience was really awesome.

A

I love that. Gerald, I can't compete with what you said. I'll just say, go to Louisville. It's a really cool and unique town. I spent a lot of time there traveling for work over a few months, few years ago. And so some of my wrecks may be out of date, but I'm happy to supply them to you or anyone else who wants to go. Like, you're gonna drink bourbon. That's true. But there's a lot more than just bourbon. There's great fruit food, like old school places like Jack Fries, New School, like, really unbelievable chef places like Magnolia 610. It's like you got to get a hot brown. Churchill Downs is so cool. Even if you miss the derby and the Oaks. Like, it's just a cool place to go and, and experience. Like you said, the slugger, the Muhammad Ali stuff. Like, there's just so much cool in that city. It's kind of slept on, you know? Yeah, I have no. I got no problems with Louisville. It is, it is a city and it's. It's worth checking out at least once.

B

And that's all we've got for you this week, Kyle. Where can the good folks find you on the Internet?

A

Oh, you can follow me on Twitter and Blue Sky, Kyle Carp. You can also follow the Texas Pregamer at Texas Pregamer.

B

Follow me in both those spots at GH Goodrich while a show there at Longhorn Pod, Facebook and Instagram, the Longhorn Republic. Or shoot us an email longhorn republic podgmail.com. thank you so much for tuning in. And until next time, hook them.

A

Hook them. Gotta catch the balls. Sat.