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Wizlon

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  1. No he literally said he likes Missouri for Wingo on the livestream 10 minutes ago.
  2. I just have 0 faith in the offense after the last showing. Texas 3 Alabama 20 Bama total yards: 374
  3. No way the LSU hand sign is literally holding an L.
  4. "Accidental" instagram story leak (he immediately deleted it)
  5. Nahlin raised his RPM confidence for Colin Simmons.
  6. From Mansell on 247. Looks like Duce won't be making it to Georgia this weekend. Seems like good news especially with Monken potentially leaving.
  7. Ian Boyd article @TheMailBox357 spoilered to avoid making someone read an Ian Boyd article without consent.
  8. I had a chance to dig in on Georgia transfer AD Mitchell beyond just the highlight reels (it turns out that a player’s highlights show only good plays) and it revealed a talented late-bloomer with a lot of developmental meat still left on his skinny bones with a wide range of potential outcomes at Texas. Floor? An injury cursed 2023 where he’s in and out of the lineup as the #3 or #4 receiver. Ceiling? A co-#1 wide receiver who grabs 60-70 balls and is a premier red zone threat and 3rd down weapon. That latter description would fit the bill for 2023 Texas very nicely. Whatever his outcome, the Texas receiver room got better. By virtue of talent and a complementary needed body type and play style. Let’s talk about what he has been and might yet be. Appreciation in both meanings of the word. Mitchell is a natural ball winner with a big catch radius and solid hands. He’s at his best as an intermediate receiver screening defenders and plucking the ball on the move. He should be fine settling into zone gaps and presenting a big target to the QB, but once a tall guy gets moving I like keeping him on the move. An obvious and natural post target – intermediate or deep. Shows ball adjustment. Good body control. He can keep his base and stride steady while he rotates his body and plucks a ball. That’s a great asset and a major irritant to defensive backs in otherwise good coverage. Mitchell is a fully capable of winning contested catches downfield, but the reason they are contested is that he’s not a consistent separator. Yet. The casual comparisons to a variety of a speedy tall receivers who win downfield by sprinting past man coverage are not really accurate. He is in the AJ Green family of big skinnies, not Randy Moss. AJ Green’s family is still a good one to be in. However, when you’re 6-4 with good body control and ball awareness, a well thrown ball down the field doesn’t require ten feet of separation for it to be 6 points. An example of that here: Long receivers who can keep their stride with their head turned watching the ball come in while subtly adjusting their angle are a bear to cover. As Mitchell evolves, he’ll learn to turn his head and raise his hands later and not give the DB a shot at punching the ball out of the basket. I think Quinn Ewers will appreciate a big target with natural adjustment instincts. Mitchell is a late bloomer, not only in terms of his football experience and skill development, but also in his physical composition. He grew another two inches post high school at Georgia to around 6-4 and he’s still filling out his lithe frame. His speed, play strength, ability to maintain contested routes and overall durability will all improve as he crosses the threshold from a too-skinny 190 to 205. That’s a priority for him this offseason and it has to occur in the cafeteria as much as the weight room. Big skinnies don’t eat so much as graze and he needs to eat with the OL three times a week after lifting. Mitchell saw playing time early at Georgia as a true freshman (29 catches, 426 yards, 4 touchdowns) after a rash of injuries in the 2021 offseason and one noticeable improvement from his freshman to very brief sophomore year was in his ability to handle press coverage. Press from a solid cornerback gave him some challenges and may still depending on the quality of cornerback. Two issues there: he was physically weak and could be manhandled and he lacked the technique to work through it. Interestingly, the worst thing any DB can do against him is show press, squat, but not shoot their hands and just try to mirror. He’s too quick and long. You have to put hands on him. He will improve as he learns how to play through a corner’s hands, not present his chest, and to use the advantage of his longer arms to dominate contact rather than let a little guy underneath him and get leverage. He still has room to grow here, but he has pretty good feet and that’s always threatening to a press corner who lunges and gives up a go to a long dude with agility. How he sees and reads zone is more of an unknown, but he has the traits to bust one up. After his promising freshman season, Mitchell’s injury plagued sophomore season was nearly a wash except for the opener and some late season playoff appearances where he was not in ideal football shape. This is what his 2022 looked like in terms of snap count: Week 1: 36 (Oregon opener) Week 2: 2 (injured ankle against Samford) Week 3-5: 0 Week 6: 3 Week 7-13: 0 SEC Championship: 15 (Alabama) Peach Bowl: 49 TCU Title Game: (can’t find exact number…looks like around 30) The culprit was a pesky high ankle sprain followed by an undisclosed thumb injury. So his 2022 season was reduced to a 4-65-1 td performance in the opener against Oregon and a 4-65-2 td performance cumulatively against Ohio State and TCU in the playoffs. If you noticed his affinity for the end zone, that’s not a coincidence. On most of his 7 touchdowns at Georgia (on 38 career catches) he’s not particularly open on 4 of them. He just takes the ball away. Texas could sorely use that. I see a lot of upside still in his route running and he has the right traits to grow here. Long guys with good feet are hard for defensive backs to calibrate properly and while Mitchell is not a speed freak, the aforementioned is how his sort of speed gets described as deceptive. Big guys who can get in and out of breaks get a lot of 10-18 yard opportunities. Mitchell is a touchdown maker, intermediate chain mover and potential pass interference magnet. Particularly useful in important “gotta have it” situations – 3rd and 9, or a red zone touchdown shot on the opponent’s side of the field when he’s iso’d wide. AD Mitchell types turn field goals into touchdowns and punts into a new set of downs. Possession receiver is often used to describe a receiver’s limitations, but good possession receivers win football games. And there’s a scalable difference between the 6 yard nickel and dime type possession guys who are a dime a dozen and the ones who get you a contested 14 yard catch in front of a hapless corner. Besides, a natural contested catch winner has the potential to get you six points pretty much anywhere from the 50 yard line in. Durability is the big question for Mitchell. That’s hard to handicap, but getting stronger and more physically mature always helps.
  9. The latest information on new arrivals to the Texas Longhorns football program, the health of a key figure in Texas’ 2023 fortunes, and more details on player driven competition in offseason team notes. Isaiah Neyor’s Timeline Barring a surprising setback this appears to be the timeline for Isaiah Neyor returning to full duty: Currently: He’s doing light straight-line sprints, some agility/change of direction but nowhere close to full speed, and plyometrics that should help regain strength in his knee. March or April: The hope is he’ll be cleared to suit out and participate in some conditioning while taking mental reps this spring, but he’s not expected to participate during contact periods. Summer: Ramp up to August with more intense route running and participation in 7 on 7 and other passing sessions. August: Fully cleared to return. Obviously this isn’t set in stone. There seems to be no urgency to rush him back to the field with a big positive being he already knows the playbook. There’s also confidence he’ll continue to put in extra work to get healthy. The No. 1 goal is for him to regain any lost confidence in his cutting ability. It’s too early to know if he’ll return to his level of play pre-injury but there’s certainly a lot of optimism he will. New Arrivals Cornerback Malik Muhammad was singled out. This will come as no surprise who people paid attention to what was written about his mental evaluation. It’s clear to those around the program he’s excited to be there, that he’s energetic, fully engaged, and embraces the grind. Wide receiver Johntay Cook was also mentioned for his explosiveness. It should be pointed out they’re doing agility work rather than route running and “football stuff” but he looks good and it’s clear he’s a stud when it comes to short area burst. Transfers Jalen Catalon and Gavin Holmes are also happy to be there. It’s clear they’re experienced. Holmes is fast and light on his feet. Catalon’s moving great and his reputation precedes itself. Everyone assumes Catalon will start at boundary safety. The Holmes/Terrance Brooks battle will be one to watch. Brooks is physical but needs to become more consistent on the field. Holmes’ experience will be an advantage. As of now the coaches seem more concerned with getting the younger players in the swing of things from an S&C standpoint. They’ll start increasing the mental workload in the coming weeks. We’ll check in on the ‘bigs’ later in the week. Similar competition to last year It worked well last year so the staff has brought back the player draft where 10 teams are led by team leaders identified by the S&C staff. Those leaders draft their team, including a co-leader. You may remember there is an athletic component to this, but the main purpose is to motivate and track player accountability. To underline it’s much more about accountability than athleticism, we’ll remind you that Bijan Robinson drafted as many walk-ons as he could last year. Smart.
  10. The Texas Longhorns have offered 2023 defensive lineman Jonathan Davis out of Mississippi. Texas defensive line coach Bo Davis extended the offer to the 6-foot-5, 300-pound senior riser Saturday afternoon. Inside Texas made a couple of calls to sources in the state of Mississippi this evening. We received word that Bo Davis is scheduled to be at Lawrence County High in Monticello, Ms. next week to meet with Davis. Davis is also tentatively scheduled to make an official visit to Texas January 28. The second signing day for the 2023 class is February 1. Inside Texas will have more on Davis as it become available.
  11. Now that a lot of the basketball facilities/arena projects are done it would make a lot of sense to see something about a bubble replacement soon. Honestly shocked it has lasted as long as it has.
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