Steamboat Willie

Why Scarcity, Not Panic, Is Driving the Strategy The transfer portal right now is chaotic, loud, and unforgiving. Even programs with money and brand power are scrambling. Texas has taken a few hits this window, but nothing that suggests panic or loss of direction. What looks like instability from the outside is really controlled risk management. This is not a staff reacting emotionally. It is a staff allocating resources with a clear timeline and a clear objective. Losing young offensive linemen always feels bad in the short term. Depth matters in the trenches, and nobody likes seeing bodies walk out the door. But the real question Texas is answering is simple. Can you afford to carry a lineman who is not ready to play and cannot be paid like a backup. That question does not disappear when a player transfers. Wherever he lands will face the same math. Can he sit without costing too much. Can he play without hurting the unit. Those are not value judgments. They are roster economics. Texas is clearly prioritizing the next season as the focal point. Once that decision is made, everything else follows. You do not allocate major resources to developmental players when the immediate goal is protecting an elite quarterback and stabilizing the offense. Where the Offensive Line Actually Stands Post departures, the offensive line room looks like this. One veteran interior player who provides stability and flexibility Two legitimate starting tackles A few players with upside but uncertainty due to readiness or health One or two usable depth options right now The rest are developmental pieces or longer-term projects If Texas had to line up tomorrow, it would work… as long as nobody sneezes, twists an ankle, or gets called for holding. Add one legit tackle or guard and you can reshuffle the deck chairs into something that actually floats. Even then, the margin for error is still thin enough to read a playbook through. This isn’t being ignored by the staff; it’s exactly why they’re shopping carefully instead of panic-buying the first lineman with a pulse.

Texas lost one developmental piece and one player who simply didn’t work out. Umeozulu is a legitimate SEC level athlete with long term upside, but in the short term he was unlikely to play much because Texas already has elite edge talent ahead of him. In 2026 he probably would have been a 15 to 20 snap player with the chance to become more down the road. Ffrench, on the other hand, showed almost nothing in his freshman season at a position with an extremely high bust rate. There was no real indication he was going to become a meaningful contributor, so keeping him would have meant holding onto a bad investment. Ultimately this came down to money and opportunity. Texas chose not to keep paying players who were unlikely to provide immediate value, and those players believed they could find more playing time and better financial situations elsewhere. Losing them costs some depth, but it also saves money and clears roster space so younger players are not blocked and coaches are not trying to justify past decisions. Both players are expected to land at Power 4 schools, but Umeozulu is the one with the best chance to become a contributor.

You’re mixing two different truths and treating them like they cancel each other out — they don’t. Yes, you have to pay HS “dead money.” That’s the ante to sit at the table. No argument there. You don’t get Colin Simmons or Arch without taking swings (and some misses) on high-end prep talent. Development still matters, and depth still matters. Where the conclusion goes sideways is assuming Texas abandoned that model wholesale or that losing a Barnes-type equals strategic failure. What Texas backed away from isn’t HS recruiting — it’s double-paying: overpaying unproven kids and then matching portal-level money to keep them when they aren’t cracking the rotation. That’s not development; that’s sunk-cost panic.

You’re not wrong on the mechanics, but the conclusion is off. Rev share is capped; NIL isn’t — Texas knows that. What’s changed isn’t confusion or “playing nice,” it’s risk tolerance and ROI. Texas got burned paying big money to unproven HS kids, then paying again to retain them when they didn’t play. The portal exposed that model as inefficient. They’re choosing predictability over vibes: spend on proven production, don’t overpay RB5/WR8 just to keep depth, and let desperate programs bid stupid money for backups. Parity isn’t coming because Texas is shrinking — it’s coming because everyone is now rich enough to make bad decisions. The edge going forward isn’t raw spend, it’s evaluation, development, and knowing when not to pay.

The NFL salary cap exists for one reason and one reason only — the players agreed to it. The league has a union, collective bargaining, and a negotiated trade-off: limits on pay in exchange for revenue sharing, benefits, minimum salaries, free agency rules, and long-term protections. That’s not a loophole. That is the legal foundation. College football has none of that. No union. No CBA. No negotiated cap. No revenue-sharing agreement. So when the NCAA or conferences try to impose NIL “guardrails,” soft caps, or clearinghouses, courts view it as exactly what it is: price-fixing by a cartel without labor consent. You can’t violate a salary cap that doesn’t legally exist. You can’t enforce a “market value” standard that no one agreed to. And you can’t copy-paste pro sports rules into an amateur system that refuses to acknowledge its players as employees. Until players collectively bargain, every NIL restriction is just compliance theater — and the courts have been very clear about that.

One angle I haven’t seen discussed much: is it possible the OL’s issues weren’t just about development or talent, but about what they were practicing against every day? PK’s defenses were built around movement, disguise, slants, simulated pressure, and chaos up front. That’s great for stressing protections and blowing up timing—but it’s not necessarily what you see snap-to-snap in the SEC, where a lot of damage still comes from straight-ahead power, size, and guys who just line up and try to dent you. If your OL spends all camp and season prepping for stunts, movement, and quick penetration, are they actually getting enough reps against the kind of downhill, phone-booth football they face on Saturdays? There were too many moments where Texas struggled with basic displacement, short-yardage push, and anchoring against power—things you’d expect to be second nature if that’s what practice emphasized. That doesn’t absolve the OL staff, but it does suggest a possible internal mismatch: a defense designed to win with speed and disruption may not have been the best weekly sparring partner to harden an OL for SEC trench warfare. If Muschamp’s return shifts the defensive identity toward more physical, edge-setting, block-destruction football, it might help the OL as much as it helps the defense—by forcing the offense to train for the fights it actually has to win on Saturdays.

Texas is pressing the gas early — hosting blue-chip portal names and addressing obvious holes — but the portal isn’t a one-click checkout. Interest doesn’t equal commitment, and plenty of “Texas buzz” is really just a bargaining chip to jack up someone else’s offer. We know the script by now: smoke, momentum, optimism… then a surprise “return” once the NIL math improves. The upside is Texas is operating like a program with title equity: targeted, assertive, and not spraying cash out of panic. The downside is portal physics still apply. You can do the process right and still end up second in a few races — and those misses will get replayed every time the depth chart gets tight.

Sergeant pepper taught the band to play !!! That was an incredible night and one of if not the best game I have ever witnessed.

WR and TE Blocking

Surprisingly there are not many more than just these.

A blend of Aggie and Sooner tears vintage 2025 is delightful.

But, I love Sooner tears!!!!

There’s a difference between dating flags and marriage flags, just like there’s a difference between a portal rental and a four-year program guy. Butterfly elbow tat? Maybe fun for a weekend. Probably not someone you’re giving a locker room key to for five years. Lower-back tattoo = transfer risk. Three commitments = early portal entry. “Proving the haters wrong” posts = NIL renegotiation coming by October. CJ’s just trying to save Texas from recruiting the human equivalent of a bullseye tramp stamp. Can’t blame him for playing the long game.

If you’re stunned, congratulations — you’re having the correct emotional response. This is Sark making a very deliberate, very loud statement that “good” isn’t good enough anymore. Last year’s defense flirted with elite. This year’s defense settled into solid-but-frustrating, especially once the back end started leaking oil midseason. And in Sark’s world, that’s unacceptable with championship-level talent on the roster. Enter Coach Boom. Again. Muschamp isn’t here to experiment, grow into the role, or vibe. He’s here to bring violence, accountability, and clarity — three things that quietly slipped this season. This is the defensive equivalent of saying: “Enough. We’re fixing this now.” Is it harsh to move on from PK after coordinating one of the best defenses in the country just a year ago? Yep. Is Muschamp a safer, higher-floor hire with instant credibility in the SEC arms race? Also yep. This feels less like a downgrade/upgrade debate and more like a reset of tone: Less confusion Fewer coverage busts More third-down stops More “you WILL do your job” energy And the timing matters. Muschamp coaching the bowl game means he’s already evaluating personnel, identifying portal priorities, and setting expectations before January hits. That’s not an accident. Bottom line: Sark just told everyone — players, staff, recruits, the SEC — that Texas is done being patient on defense. You don’t make this move unless you’re chasing something big.