CJ Vogel

The month of July has arrived, which means we are just one more flip of the calendar away from Texas Football returning for the 2025 season. As we sit today, the countdown to kickoff remains at 60 days to the meeting in Columbus with the defending national champions. On a side note, at times these past few months this offseason has felt like both the longest and shortest in recent memory. But anyways, the light as the end of the tunnel is getting brighter by the day. As we enter July, a quick look at the calendar for what is ahead for the team. *** For the current week of the 4th of July, the team is home and away from Austin. Most will return home, and some others may take a small trip during the off time. Of course, the team itself has been participating in summer conditioning for a month and when they return from the 4th of July, there will be about four weeks remaining of conditioning until fall camp begins. Speaking about fall camp, the Longhorns started true football activities on July 31, 2024 a year ago. A full one month before the meeting with Colorado State kicked off at DKR on August 31, 2024. I have Wednesday, July 30 circled as the day to watch for the beginning of fall camp this year. *** In case you missed my conversation with QB Arch Manning in Thibodaux, Louisiana, there was some solid feedback in regards to standouts on the offensive side of the ball and it matches what we have reported over the offseason as well. TE Jack Endries has clearly caught the attention of Manning since arriving in June. The former Cal tight end has collected more than 1,000 yards through the air over the last two seasons of football on the west coast. He now joins the Longhorns with hopes of continuing the big time numbers put up by Ja'Tavion Sanders and Gunnar Helm over the last three years. On the offensive line, Manning said the vocal leader of the group comes from the center spot, Cole Hutson. Having covered Hutson a good bit in high school, this does not come as much surprise. Hutson possesses the necessary type of passion and feistiness that is coveted on the interior. One name I can say I was not expecting when speaking with Manning about offseason standouts was freshman WR Kaliq Lockett. Don't get me wrong, I think that is a huge sign of approval from the Texas quarterback and perhaps a nod that he should be checked in on more, it just was not a name I was expecting to hear. Still, a great sign for the young Sachse native. *** Some Team Notes A couple of nuggets from the month of June – – RB CJ Baxter continues to inch closer towards the field. His participation in offseason workouts has increased and the intensity of workouts has increased. Still, there remains some ground that needs to be covered before he is deemed 100%, and even then I think there remains some necessary mental work to trust the knee again. Will Baxter be suited up for day one of fall camp? I don't know for certain. If he is, he will certainly be wearing a green, non-contact jersey. – Sticking at running back, redshirt freshman Christian Clark has had a great summer. Clark was able to get live reps in the spring after returning from a torn Achilles tendon and has parlayed that into a successful month of conditioning. Clark has been receiving plenty of run with the second unit in offseason sessions and if I had to handicap the RB room today, Clark would be the first in line right behind Wisner. – Defensively, the name Brad Spence continues to positively pop up in conversations. – In a fun nugget, I have heard there has been a bit of an ongoing competition for offseason drills between Colin Simmons and Anthony Hill Jr. The two are often seen paired with one another in conditioning drills, with jawing going back and forth on who places better in drills or workouts. Both DFW products have been locked in this summer as one would imagine. – The term glue guy gets thrown around a lot in basketball for a guy who doesn't do a whole lot of scoring but will fill up the box score in many other departments, in football it is much tougher to find that and for this guy I don't even think it's fair considering the production a year ago. But I don't know if there is a player on the roster that is admired and respected in the locker room as much as RB Tre Wisner. The ultimate teammate is how he gets described at times.

As if we all need any more reason to be excited, lol. Going to be a fun year!

Felix Ojo will announce his decision on July 4th, per Hayes Fawcett.

Hard to say no to a lot of money. I don't know. We see it in recruitments everywhere basically.

For these big recruitments, Sark has mentioned a few times about wanting the early games for big recruiting weekends so they have more time postgame to spend with the prospects. We will see what they end up doing if Cooper decides to visit.

Haha, yeah coaches aren't allowed to tweet at recruits here. So makes sense why it was instantly deleted.

Ojo and the Texas staff were in communication last night.

Feels very Josiah Sharma-like. Loved Texas following the OV weekend. NIL packages get pretty heavy around the decision timeline. Whether or not he ends up committing elsewhere on July 2, I still have a solid feeling about the Longhorns earning the signature.

Would be even better given he has multiple years to develop.

The talented Mansfield Lake Ridge offensive tackle will be making decisions soon. Ojo has gone on record saying Texas and Ohio State are his top two standing out currently, though he did take a visit to Utah on June 20.

I would bet so.

Yeah, unfortunate. He was back in College Station for the State 7v7 Tournament.

Got just enough of a taste just to never see it again

Volantis should be your Friday night guy next year. What a luxury to have him for two more years

😂😂

Hopefully we get more than just one media session to watch practice this fall.

Here is a good view of the zip on Arch's passes.

I know there have been some folks wondering which quarterbacks stood out the most during the weekend in Thibodaux for the Manning Passing Academy. Here are some takeaways from the weekend. *** Washington QB Demond Williams Jr. was named the Air It Out Challenge winner at the Friday Nite Lights portion of the camp. The Air It Out Challenge included four targeted throws – one to the flats, one of the middle, one to the corner while rolling out and a deep shot to a net in the end zone about 35 yards downfield. Georgia Tech QB Haynes King actually had a really good showing in this challenge as well. He went 4-4 on his first run of hitting targets. Quarterbacks that threw on Thursday that impressed: Baylor QB Sawyer Robertson UNC QB Gio Lopez Clemson QB Cade Klubnik Texas Tech QB Behren Morton – One of the big takeaways for me was just wide LaNorris Sellers' frame is. He certainly looks like a full back at times in pads, and seeing him in person only confirmed that his frame is unique for a quarterback. Special player. – LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier looked good in the camp setting. Of course, accuracy and putting the ball where it needs to go has never been his issue. Nuss' concerns stem from pressure, where he folded several times a year ago. – I still think there is some Sam Ehlinger to Sam Leavitt's game. He is a fine throwing of the football, nothing extraordinary, but his real value comes from being a gamer. Someone that will lower his head and will his team to victory. Going to be a really interesting year for Leavitt without Cam Skattebo by his side in the backfield. – Duke QB Darian Mensah is going to be a very fun watch in the ACC this year. Big fan of his. It was fun talking with Oklahoma QB John Mateer at the camp. I had not seen him since he was at Little Elm and committed to Central Arkansas at the time. He told me he never envisioned leaving Washington State, though when the Sooners hired Ben Arbuckle from Wazzu, he knew it was a move that made a lot of sense. Throwing wise, there are some concerns about the height in which Mateer releases his passes from. But ultimately, I don't envision it being an issue. Folks like to point out the competition level at Wazzu last year as a knock on Mateer as well, I don't buy it. He's a very talented football player. – My questions on Georgia QB Gunnar Stockton remained unanswered. I actually did not know he was in attendance for the camp until Friday night. The few passes I watched of his were overthrown or errant. – I am a believer in Alabama QB Ty Simpson in the Kalen DeBoer offense. Simpson looked really sharp this weekend when getting to the top of his dropback. *** On Arch Manning Again, Arch didn't throw on Thursday when the camp counselors first arrived for an hour session with Eli and Peyton Manning. But he did throw on Friday under the lights. How much can you really take from ~8 throws or so? Not much. The quarterbacks were split alphabetically into two groups, which slotted Manning and Mateer in consecutive order. It was very interesting to compare the zip and velocity of passes off of the hand from both. There was more loft to Mateer's passes and more zip to Manning's. Again, take that for whatever you want. Technically speaking, the throwing form for Manning is exactly what you would expect. Pristine and without wasted movements. Arch went 2-4 in the Air It Out Challenge that was mentioned above. *** Quarterbacks not in attendance: Florida QB DJ Lagway – was at Texas HS State 7v7 tournament Oregon QB Dante Moore Ohio State QB Julian Sayin Marcel Reed was in attendance, but he did not throw on the weekend.

Bit of a rough stretch, eh?

I’ll have some thoughts on Arch tonight from the Manning Passing Academy. Overall a cool weekend and solid showing when throwing the rock. Arch does a great job of living the celebrity life and being a good sport of everything that comes with the last name.