HQ spotlight here on a Monday for you. So, we’ve seen glimpses. He had playing time last season, but now the true Arch Manning era begins in Texas. And what is it going to look like? Also, is it going to last past a season with quarterback Quinn’s off to the NFL?
The legacy quarterback takes over a talented Longhorn roster that is looking to make it back to the playoff and potentially the national championship. Let’s welcome in our good friend Shahan here.
So, what are your biggest thoughts when it comes to Arch Manning officially taking over this Texas team? Well, this is the moment that everybody has been waiting for essentially since he put out that tweet committing to the University of Texas. You know, what he had the opportunity to do by committing to Texas was potentially lead this team into a new golden era.
You look at some of the other teams that he was considering during his process like Alabama, he knew he’d be more of a continuation. he has the opportunity to really put his stamp on this program and he takes over a Texas team right now that is rolling on all cylinders as at this point. They are the only program to make the final four of the college football playoff each of the past two years and this is a team that’s hungry to win a national championship.
They haven’t done it in 20 years, but they have a roster that should be up there with anybody in the sport in 2025. You see there uh that they have four new starters on the O line.
Does that concern you uh when it comes to keeping him upright? No, it’s a big deal and especially when you look at the guys that they lost. I mean, Kelvin Banks was a mainstay at that left tackle position. I’d argue over the last three years there may not have been a better tackle in the sport and especially losing a player like Jake Majors as center as well. He has been such a stabilizing force on that team.
Now, the credit that you have to give Texas is that they have retained and developed offensive linemen better than just about anybody in college football over the past couple of years. And when you look at that run that I mentioned, I think that their offensive line play has been a big part of it. But four new starters coming in, all guys who are on campus the past couple of years, but none who you can expect to be ready right away.
So, I I think that if Texas does get tripped up, it’s going to be this line potentially just going through some growing pains. Taking a look and by the way opens as the favorite to win the Heisman.
No surprise there at plus 700 for Arch Manning. Texas Longhorns. It is a gauntlet to begin with though at Ohio State on August 30th. I mean that is just a massive game. We have our other partner here uh Chip Brown joining us as well talking about Arch Manning and the Texas Longhorns.
What are the biggest points for you right now as we head into this new era for the Longhorns when it comes to Arch Manning? Yeah, I mean it’s it’s the cohesion of the entire offense and and with Arch Manning is now the conductor of that offense. The good news is Arch Manning has been in practice with a a number of these players who are ascending into starting roles on that offensive line.
Guys like Neto Yumulu, Trevor Guzby, they’ve been the second team offensive line the last year with Arch Manning. So he has comfortability with them.
But there are uh transfers coming in who are going to be relied upon heavily. Jack Andre, the Cal tight end, EMTT Mosley the fifth, the Stanford wide receiver who were summer enrollies and and so Arch has got to get everybody on the same page and and there needs to be chemistry and cohesion, you know, among the offensive linemen. That was a problem on the right side of the line last year. Uh, the good news is Steve Sarkeesian said they’re getting the best version of DJ Campbell, who’s now the veteran on that offensive line, the only lone returning starter and and DJ Campbell and Cam Williams were the ones who were struggling to communicate at times last year. So, um, a lot still needs to come together.
We mentioned the O line there, one returning starter, a lot of turnover there, but it’s not just on the offensive side of the ball.
The defensive line also getting a lot of turnover when it comes to the players coming and going. I mean, Shahan, what is this Dline going to look like? Well, it’s interesting, right? I think you look at the past two years, Texas had a great defense.
It’s been different units that have stepped up each of these past two years. Two years ago, it really was that interior defensive line with Byron Murphy and with TARDE.
That was one of the best that we’ve seen the past couple of years. Last year, it was the secondary. I think this year when you look at the turnover they have on the defensive line, it’s going to have to be those linebackers more than anybody else led by Anthony Hill.
They’ve brought in numerous players in the transfer portal on that defensive line, which isn’t something that you’ve seen consistently over the past couple of years, but they could potentially be starting one or two transfers on the defensive line.
And on top of that, I mean, you have a player like Justice Terry coming in, a late flip, uh, who ends up committing to Texas on National Signing Day, top 15 national player. They’re going to need some of these new players to pop right away for them to be able to be an elite run stuffing unit like they’ve been the past two years. Something that is exciting though for the Longhorns, they have a bunch of guys coming back from injury. Uh, one of them notably, running back CJ Baxter.
I know there’s a couple other names you guys are going to talk about. I mean, when he went down, we we did breaking news on that.
How much is this going to impact this Texas Longhorns offense? Chip, what other guys, including CJ Baxter, are coming back from injury? Yeah, CJ Baxter is is a big one for sure.
You’ve got Derek Williams, the safety, who um made big plays in the first half of the season, went down with a with a torn ACL against Oklahoma. Um you’ve got Ryan Wingo coming back from a hamstring. He missed most of the spring. You’ve got wide receiver DeAndre Moore who missed uh the spring with a foot injury. So, these are, you know, these are players who are going to be counted on.
And um you know, CJ Baxter is an interesting study because he played in a gap scheme in high school and he it took a while. it. I don’t think he really got comfortable with the zone running scheme that Steve Sarkeesian runs, which is the Longhorn’s bread and butter, that outside zone. Um, he misses all of last year. How much has he progressed?
How comfortable is he now um running those zone plays? They certainly could use them when Look, go ahead.
Go ahead, Sean. Yeah, when I think that you can make the case, and I had conversations with people last year, like in some ways, Texas lost the national championship opportunity over the off seasonason when CJ Baxter and Christian Clark went down at running back. And I think bringing Baxter back is a really, really big deal.
You know, Quinton Weisner did a tremendous job of stepping up in his absence, but this was not a position and this was not a run game that really managed to find a whole lot of consistency because of the injuries and because of the lack of depth. I think that if they’re able to come back, I mean, people don’t understand this offense is built to play off of pay play action. And I think that if you’re able to have a plus run game for the first time really, I mean, you can make the case since Jonathan Brooks got hurt. It changes the way that this entire offense is able to function. Joining the SEC uh as a Sooner, it was it was not great for us.
It was good for the Texas Longhorns though last year made it to the playoff. Sean, what’s your schedule prediction for the Longhorns this season? Yeah, well, I do think that there are going to be some growing pains. Obviously, we see that win against Oklahoma. So, I’m not m I’m not happy with you right now.
Well, I I think you see, of course, the transition on the offensive line, four new starters. You’ve got a a quarterback in Archman who I think is going to be really good, but is also a firstear starting quarterback going against a really, really good schedule with a lot of potential national contenders on it. And then we also mentioned, of course, the defensive line play. And I’d even point to the secondary where there’s a lot of new places, especially with the loss of Jade Baron. This is going to be a team that’s right in the national conversation, right in the national mix.
I expect that to start, by the way, like it did in 2005 with a win against the Ohio State Buckeyes. But I I don’t necessarily know that there’s going to be the same level of consistency.
And and so I do think that we’re looking at a team that is 10-2 that has a really really good chance to go to Atlanta and potentially be a national contender, but the record might not just be quite as good as it was in 2024. Yeah, those road games, some of them are very tough at Ohio State, at Georgia. Uh Chip Shahan, we appreciate it.
We’ll talk to you very soon as we get closer to college football season. Taking a look at the odds to win the college football playoff.
There sit the Texas Longhorns at the top tied with Ohio State at plus 600. Those two teams facing one another in week one..
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