Jeff Howe

Bobby is onto something, especially when remembering that when DJ Campbell missed practice time early in camp (before Cojoe was injured), they moved Robertson up to the first team and slid Cole Hutson to right guard. It's safe to assume Robertson is in the group of eight guys every O-line coach wants to count on going into a season. Cojoe was trending to be one of those eight before his injury. Does tinkering with Neto at tackle have more to do with how the staff feels about Goosby's injury or something they didn't like from Chatman after reviewing the film? That's my question. It's also possible that Nick Brooks is physically ready to be the No. 3 tackle, but maybe they're trying to find the best veteran option so they don't have to put a true freshman out there if needed against Ohio State.

Malik Muhammad has a chance to make some money on Aug. 30.

AUSTIN, Texas — There was a method to Steve Sarkisian’s madness when the Texas coach embarked on a mission to challenge Malik Muhammad ahead of the team’s second camp scrimmage. “I purposely went after him with a couple of different things,” Sarkisian said after the scrimmage. “For him to play the way that he played gave me more confidence than I've had, and I have a lot in him. Today was very, very encouraging on that front.” Muhammad, a veteran cornerback with 18 starts in 30 career games, will begin the 2025 season with arguably the toughest assignment he’ll face as a junior whenever he has to cover Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith. Smith was limited to one reception for three yards on Jan. 10, when the Buckeyes’ 28-14 triumph in the Cotton Bowl ended the Longhorns’ season one game shy of the College Football Playoff National Championship. “It was a team effort,” Muhammad said earlier in camp about what it took for Texas to hold Smith to his lowest statistical output and his lowest single-game grade from Pro Football Focus during his remarkable true freshman season. The Longhorns had Smith’s number in Arlington. Still, Sarkisian, who didn’t mention Smith or any other Ohio State wide receivers by name while detailing what Muhammad went through last week, knows coach Ryan Day and offensive coordinator Brian Hartline will be looking to get the 6-foot-3-inch, 223-pound Smith (76 receptions 1,315 yards and 15 touchdowns, which established new freshman records for a Buckeye) involved early and often. The occasions when Muhammad finds himself one-on-one with Smith should be few and far between. That’s not a knock on the 6-foot, 188-pound Muhammad, who Pro Football Focus touts as the sixth-best returning cornerback in the country. Texas should do whatever it takes to limit the times Smith faces man coverage because he destroyed opponents in those situations last season. According to PFF, Smith’s 90.6 grade against man coverage was second among FBS wide receivers (minimum of 13 targets), recording 25 receptions for 384 yards and four touchdowns on 32 targets with a near-perfect NFL passer rating when targeted (156.3). Smith also averaged 4.09 yards per route run (sixth in FBS) with an average depth of target of 11.1 yards, indicating that if Will Howard could correctly identify that Smith was facing man coverage, the nation’s No. 1-ranked recruit in 2024 would be turned loose, and Ohio State could hunt chunk-yardage plays (Smith caught 12 passes last season that traveled 20 yards or more down the field, racking up 467 yards and scoring four touchdowns, recording a near-perfect PFF grade of 99.9 when targeted on deep throws). Julian Sayin, who was named Ohio State’s starting quarterback on Monday, shouldn’t be expected to decipher what Pete Kwiatkowski is throwing at him in his first career start. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how much Kwiatkowski and Duane Akina alternate between playing man and zone in the opener. That has more to do with trusting the communication that the secondary has worked to rebuild in the wake of losing Jahdae Barron and Andrew Mukuba than anything else. At the same time, an effective pass rush could make life on the back end much more manageable if the Longhorns can routinely pressure Sayin. Although Smith was good last season against zone, catching 43 passes for 783 yards and nine touchdowns, shading coverage to his side of the field and devoting more resources to him, in general, is the path of least resistance. Elevated to the No. 2 wide receiver, with Emeka Egbuka out of eligibility, Carnell Tate was much better against zone last season (a season-long PFF grade of 73.7) than when working against man coverage (59.1). While it’s risky for Texas to let its defensive backs handle Tate, Brandon Inniss and the other Buckeye receiving threats more often in one-on-one situations, Muhammad and the other Longhorn defensive backs should be ready for what they’ll see inside the Horseshoe in 12 days. View full news story

Nope

CJ and I will be going live on YouTube at noon.

Sark reiterating that he’s not too consumed with who starts and who doesn’t. He thinks they could play upwards of 30 guys on defense in the Ohio State game.

Sark said he’s watching a lot of NFL film and Ohio State film from last season to prepare for Matt Patricia. Ohio State returns their entire defensive staff, minus Jim Knowles, so he has to prepare for balance between what the Buckeyes did last season and what new wrinkles Patricia might bring to the table.

I took it as a positive.

“They’ve got Coach Akina yelling at them all day long,” so they’ll get there,” Sark said on the development of the young safeties.

Sark said he’s “super pumped” about how far Xavier Filsame and Jordon Johnson-Rubell have come.

Sark asked how he feels about the running game: “I feel pretty good!” That was the extent of his response.

Really good stuff from Sark on where the depth is right now in the program. He talked about his season at Alabama as an analyst in 2016 when he saw guys like Quinnen Williams and Trevon Diggs on the scout team. He feels like Texas is taking the right steps to be that kind of program.

Also, this makes sense why the Browns made a push for Bond once his legal situation cleared up:

It's a fully guaranteed contract.

Here are a few nuggets left on the cutting room floor: — The last Texas tackle who played more than 38 snaps per game was Ta’Quon Graham in 2020, who averaged 50.4 snaps per game in a nine-game pandemic-impacted regular season. —The sixth-most snaps at defensive tackle in each of the last two seasons were logged by Jaray Bledsoe (85 snaps in eight games in 2023) and Tia Savea (38 snaps in four games in 2024), respectively. — Travis Shaw’s season-long PFF grade improved from a 52 in 2023 (119 total snaps and 11.1 per game) to a 61.3 in 2024 (a PFF grade of 60 is considered average). The same was true for Johnson, whose 54.8 grade while playing 17.1 snaps per game jumped to a 64.8 last season with an increase in playing time.

AUSTIN, Texas — Steve Sarkisian won’t know how the Texas interior defensive line measures up to the program’s last few groups until the No. 1 Longhorns meet No. 3 Ohio State in the Horseshoe on Aug. 30. Still, through six practices, Sarkisian knew enough to make a definitive statement about Kenny Baker’s unit. “We're deep,” Sarkisian said after the team's Aug. 5 practice. “That's probably the biggest thing I can say about that group right now. We're playing a lot of guys, which has been good.” Vernon Broughton and Alfred Collins were two of the first 71 picks in the 2025 NFL Draft. Along with losing two of the most prominent members of a Texas defense that was No. 3 in FBS in total defense (283.4 yards per game and 4.4 yards per play allowed), scoring defense (15.3 points per game allowed) in the red zone (62.9 percent conversion rate allowed), the expired eligibility of Jermayne Lole and Bill Norton put the Longhorns in a position in which the 94 snaps Alex January logged as a true freshman made him the team's most experienced returning tackle. Cole Brevard (Purdue), Hero Kanu (Ohio State) and Travis Shaw (North Carolina) joined the program out of the transfer portal during the winter window. Even with January and Melvin Hills III back with a year under their belts, and Myron Charles, Justus Terry and Josiah Sharma making up a strong signing class that was on campus for spring practice, Texas went back into the portal and snagged Lavon Johnson (Maryland) and Maraad Watson (Syracuse) heading into the summer. Ten defensive tackles occupying scholarships on the 2025 roster might seem like overkill. Regardless, Sarkisian wanted to ensure the Longhorns had enough depth to fortify the rotation through what will be a long season if Texas makes another deep run in the College Football Playoff. “When you look at our team, I think about January,” Sarkisian said. “As much as I'm thinking about Aug. 30, I'm thinking about this journey we're trying to go on.” While it might take a few games for Sarkisian, Baker and Pete Kwiatkowski to figure out an optimal rotation, a deep mix of tackles is something the Longhorns didn’t have in 2024. Collins (593 snaps) and Broughton (588) both logged more than 500 snaps last season, according to Pro Football Focus. Lole (469) and Norton (260) were the only other Texas tackles to play more than 100 snaps, with January’s snap total finishing a distant fifth among Longhorn interior defensive linemen. “Where we're at now, a lot of these guys probably would've been able to spell those guys more than we were able to last year,” Sarkisian said. “I think that's probably the difference. Some of those guys, if they were on our team last season, Vernon and Alfred might not have had to have played as many snaps as they did a year ago.” What that might look like when the dust settles on the 2025 season is a distribution of snaps similar to how the Texas defensive tackles operated in 2022. A group that eventually produced six NFL draft picks, including a first-rounder (Byron Murphy II in 2024) and two second-rounders (Collins in 2025 and T’Vondre Sweat in 2024), the defense’s top six tackles in Sarkisian's second season got enough snaps to be impactful during a 13-game campaign. Sweat’s 35.7 snaps played per game led the unit, followed by Keondre Coburn (31.9), Moro Ojomo (31.3), Murphy (30.2), Collins (21.6) and Broughton (20.3). When looking back at the snap totals within the tackle group in 2021, the Longhorns got more from Sweat (26.3 snaps per game in 2021) and Murphy (24.8), which helped Ojomo (35.9) and Coburn (32.4) maximize their time on the field. A deeper, more effective tip of the spear helped Texas finish 22nd nationally in yards per rushing attempt allowed (3.48) and 32nd in rushing yards per game allowed (125.7), a drastic turnaround from Kwiatkowski's forgettable debut (201.6 yards per game and 5.15 yards per attempt allowed). According to PFF’s snap totals from the 2024 season, Watson (37.9 snaps per game) logged the most playing time at his previous stop, followed by Brevard (34.7), Shaw (25.9), Johnson (20.5) and Kanu (7.8). Based on their season-long PFF grades, a rotation could help Texas get more consistent production from Watson and Brevard. No defensive tackle in the Sarkisian era has logged as much playing time in one season as Watson did as a true freshman in the ACC. A few fewer snaps per game could do for Watson what it did for Brevard, whose PFF grade improved from a 60.6 in 2023, when he played in 11 games for the Boilermakers and averaged 35.6 snaps per game, to a 75 last season (a PFF grade of 70 is considered above average). The competition for snaps will bleed into the regular season, which is fine with Sarkisian. If the master plan Sarkisian put into motion works, and the 2025 defensive tackle outlook rivals what happened in 2022, Baker's group should have a lot left in the tank when it matters most in December and January. “That's what my goal was coming into the season: Could we develop that room into where we can play a lot of players, a lot of people, so that over time, that wear and tear wouldn't take its toll on us?” Sarkisian said. “I think we've done that.” View full news story

Justice Finkley, who transferred from Texas to Kansas, is doing well with the Jayhawks. I talked to someone yesterday in the know in Lawrence who said Finkley has been everything the Kansas staff thought he'd be on the field, and that his leadership is so strong that he's in the mix to be a captain as a one-and-done transfer.

That’s it for today’s player availability.

“No comment,” Wingo said when asked about the difference catching a ball from Quinn Ewers and one from Arch Manning.

“We’re all fast,” Wingo said when asked who’s the fastest wide receiver on the roster.

Wingo said Malik Muhammad is the toughest defensive back he goes against every day.

“I can see it super well now.” — Wingo on how he sees the ball after LASIK surgery.