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Chip Brown's Mailbag: Offseason workouts, game day atmosphere, more

Q: Jimbo Fisher has a gun to your head and is asking you who wins the national championship this year. What’s your answer? In reality who do you think has a better shot at winning a championship first? Herman and UT, Lincoln at blow U, orWillie Taggart at FSU? I would have added Jimbo in but ATM has been irrelevant since WWII and he already has his fake trophy anyway.

- A2Horn92

No. 1 … It’s hard not to pick Alabama or Georgia when you consider Bama’s marquee non-conference game is against Louisville and their SEC road games are at Ole Miss, Arkansas, Tennessee and LSU. The Tide also avoids Georgia and Florida from the SEC East. Georgia’s non-con schedule is worse: Austin Peay, Middle Tennessee, UMass and Georgia Tech. The Bulldogs play Auburn in Athens and at LSU from the SEC West.

No. 2 … Might be Taggart at FSU with QB Deondre Francois only a junior.

No. 3 … I can see A&M going 9-3 this year with losses to Clemson, at Alabama and at Auburn.

Q: How is CDC's continuing efforts to raise funding for facilities? Any big donators ready to jump on board in a substantial way?

- textex

Donors are stepping up left and right for Del Conte’s vision. He’s raised more than $80 million in just more than six months.

Q: Hey Chip, have you gotten any info specifically on the 7v7 practices? Who’s leading them, who’s showing up (both literally and performance wise), and any surprises thus far - thx!

- JacketHorn

The leaders I’m hearing on offense are Sam Ehlinger, Collin Johnson, Andrew Beck and Patrick Vahe. On defense, it’s Hager, Charles Omenihu, Malcolm Roach, Kris Boyd and P.J. Locke. Some guys I’ve heard stand out among the young guys are Jalen Green and D’Shawn Jamison as well as Moro Ojomo and Joseph Ossai as well as Junior Angilau (work ethic, weight room, intensity) on the O-line.

Q: Hey Chip! Long time lurker, first time question. My wife has been a religious attendee at the Women’s Clinics going back to Mack’s days as coach. She hasn’t heard anything about a clinic this year. Has it been canceled? Thanks for all that you do. Hook ‘em!

- texasex91

Hate to say it texasex91 but there will be no women’s clinic this year. I’m told that decision was made because the new recruiting calendar, with recruits visiting all through the spring, cut into the time for such an event.

Q: What were Malik's contract terms?

- njs281

Malik signed a four-year, $3.38 million deal with a signing bonus of $692,796.

Q: If David Beaty is out at Kansas at the end of the season, does Herman make a place for him on the staff?

- okhornfan

Beaty is a heck of a recruiter, especially in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Unfortunately for Beaty, he hasn’t been able to get the QB position right at KU, which is often the demise of young head coaches. It will be Doug Meacham’s second year running the offense at KU, and it needs to come together in a hurry with Peyton Bender at QB. If the KU offense doesn’t come together this season, it might be hard for Herman to make the argument to hire him to run the offense.

Q: Is Cummins going back to D-line?

- Dlfergman

No sir Dlfergman. Max Cummins is staying at tight end.

Q: Hey Chip — Love your radio show, I always want to call in and add to the discussion, but I listen to the recorded podcast version on the iHeart Radio app, so y’all are probably already at home relaxing on the couch by the time I get around to listening. One question, it seems weird to me that we haven’t seen more guys leave the program after spring camp. Do you expect more attrition from the current roster? If so, who would be candidates? Also, more John Brown please. My Thursdays are not complete without a few glorious minutes of John Brown on your show. Thanks!

- cosmohorn

Thanks for listening cosmohorn. And feel free to listen to the show live and call in to 512-390-5483!! We will be getting John Brown on more and more as the season — and the Texas-USC game (with Brown’s son, WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, playing for the Trojans) approaches. Any additional attrition would probably be minimal considering it appears the Longhorns have held on to DT Chris Nelson and LB Edwin Freeman, two guys who were rumored to be considering graduate transfer options.

Q: At the end of the season several of the coach’s contracts will be up. Currently, I think Todd Orlando, Craig Naivar, Jason Washington, Herb Handand Stan Drayton have secured their spots on the staff. Oscar Giles seems to be a great developer of talent, but has struggled on the recruiting trail. Do you see a staff shakeup after this season? Perhaps getting rid of one of the WR coaches and hiring a DT coach, and having Giles only coach the DEs?

- ArmyTUBA1

Too early to say anything about a staff shakeup at this point. I think Tom Herman was prepared to handle the possibility of losing OL coach Derek Warehime and WR coach Drew Mehringer to Houston if Major Applewhite chose to go in that direction when Major was hiring a new offensive coordinator and offensive line coach this offseason. But Major went with Kendal Briles and Randy Clements for those positions.

Q: Texas’ game day atmosphere seems really, really bad. Nowhere near a legendary football program should be. In and out of the stadium. I think a very vibrant, loud, and overall “chaotic” DKR could resort in better recruiting, fan experience and most importantly WINS!! DKR should be and NEEDS to be one of the hardest places to play in the country. but sadly it never has been a “hard” place to play. Do you see Del Conte changing that and how could he change it?? Thanks!

- PudderTots

Are you sitting down PudderTots? Del Conte has made it a goal to make game day more about the fan than the corporate dollar. Whoa!!! What a concept?!?! And I believe Del Conte’s push will be successful, and it will REALLY be successful with a couple wins in September against USC and TCU! Just sayin.

Q: Texas had some priority targets for the basketball team in this week any feed back on how those unofficial visits went? Shaka stated Dylan Osetkowski has lost 20 pounds (3-5 had to be from the hair cut). Any word on how much muscle/weight Sims has put on?

- Bootcamp4

Yes, 2019 4-star power forward Drew Timme of Richardson Pearce and 2020 5-star shooting guard Cade Cunningham of Arlington Bowie are making unofficial visits to Texas this week. We’ll have an update in The Eyes of Texas. I’m told Sims has put on nearly 10 pounds of muscle and is hungry to be a breakout player next season.

Q: Does Bob Bowlsby (age 66) stay on as Big 12 commissioner through the next phase of re-alignment? What is the feedback of the schools on Bowlsby? Is he good for Texas? Any insights on the next chancellor?

- gwtexas214

Yes, barring something unforeseen, Bowlsby will be the Big 12 commissioner during the next round of TV contracts in five to six years. That will be make-or-break time for Bowlsby, obviously. Bowlsby’s life probably got easier when OU president David Boren announced his retirement (after Boren looked at every possible escape route for OU to leave the Big 12 and didn’t find one that could work). Texas and OU athletic directors/administrations are back to having a healthy relationship after some real turbulence while Steve Patterson was Texas’ AD, and Boren was on the prowl. We won’t really know how good Bowlsby is until that next round of TV contracts. The Big 12 is a difficult league to preside over because of each school’s ability to negotiate its own third-tier TV rights, creating unequal revenue sharing. When realignment happened in 2010 and 2011, Dan Beebe was the Big 12 commissioner.

Q: Chip...Your opinion, during pre-game, does the band (school fight song) really hype the players up as they come on the field through the smoke and all? Do you think Metallica’s Seek & Destroy works to hype up DKR or should they try something else from a different genre or different decade?

- bighec01

You’ve got to have “Texas Fight” in the pre-game but maybe not right as the players come out of the tunnel. It wouldn’t shock me if that changed in pre-game this season. Metallica’s “Seek And Destroy” is a tune Herman and his staff picked for kickoffs at Houston and brought it to Texas. There are so many great pump-up songs, it’s hard to pick one. I’m a huge fan of Metallica’s Enter Sandman (which we use for the lead-in to the radio show) … What pump-up song would you and everyone else choose? That’s a great debate right there

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8 minutes ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

Here's a photo that has never been seen by anyone.  One of my readers was going through some slides taken by his father when he came across this photo of DKR on October 4, 1952, when # 5 Texas played # 19 Notre Dame. Score is 14-3, Notre Dame. Ended up being the final score.  

 

36370334_10212748326927173_2756079934022

Pretty keen.

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46 minutes ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

Here's a photo that has never been seen by anyone.  One of my readers was going through some slides taken by his father when he came across this photo of DKR on October 4, 1952, when # 5 Texas played # 19 Notre Dame. Score is 14-3, Notre Dame. Ended up being the final score.  

 

36370334_10212748326927173_2756079934022

Very cool (besides the final score). You should post this in the Austin nostalgia pics thread, too.

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1 hour ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

Here's a photo that has never been seen by anyone.  One of my readers was going through some slides taken by his father when he came across this photo of DKR on October 4, 1952, when # 5 Texas played # 19 Notre Dame. Score is 14-3, Notre Dame. Ended up being the final score.  

 

36370334_10212748326927173_2756079934022

Someone needs to get out their Pantone swatches...I don't see burnt orange on those uniforms. 

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19 hours ago, Valmy77 said:

I always thought that women's clinic was a little antiquated and sexist, I mean I was not offended or anything I just found it a little old-timey, so I am not too sad to see it go. 

Understand what your saying ( name is kinda not pc)

but till females play football (tackle) in the pros

( not the undie league)

there will Allways be a need to help one not just go to a game,

but watch and understand the game.

( ie what’s a pulling guard)

im not a fan of explaining the game dureing the game.

hopefully they can do the women’s clinic (does sound like a abortion clinic)  next year.

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9 hours ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

Here's a photo that has never been seen by anyone.  One of my readers was going through some slides taken by his father when he came across this photo of DKR on October 4, 1952, when # 5 Texas played # 19 Notre Dame. Score is 14-3, Notre Dame. Ended up being the final score.  

 

36370334_10212748326927173_2756079934022

Pretty amazing that they called it DKR that long ago.

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8 minutes ago, Spawn of Cthulhu said:

Pretty amazing that they called it DKR that long ago.

Even though he was just an assistant on the Mississippi State staff at the time, the folks at Texas knew what a badass he would become so they just went ahead and named the stadium after him.

  • Haha 1
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10 hours ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

Here's a photo that has never been seen by anyone.  One of my readers was going through some slides taken by his father when he came across this photo of DKR on October 4, 1952, when # 5 Texas played # 19 Notre Dame. Score is 14-3, Notre Dame. Ended up being the final score.  

 

36370334_10212748326927173_2756079934022

Would he be interested in getting prints made?  This a really fucking cool shot and I’d like one for my office.

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Horns247 Staff: Does Texas have what it takes for a nine-win regular season?

With roughly two months remaining until the return of College Football, the Las Vegas experts are predicting where teams will finish the 2018 regular season. Texas enters Year 2 of the Tom Herman era with added offseason hype surrounding the Longhorns, and Vegas appears to believe there’s substance behind it. Early odds have Texas at 8.5 regular-season wins, which is a decent jump from the 6-6 record Texas posted in the 2017 regular season. The Horns247 staff gives its thoughts on where they stand with the Longhorns’ odds entering Herman’s second year as head coach.

Question of the Week: Hypothetically speaking, would you take the over or under of Vegas’ predicted 8.5 regular-season win total for Texas?

Bobby Burton, Publisher

Well, it looks like Vegas is on the shy side of how I expect things to turn out this fall for the Horns. A large portion of my increased expectation level comes from the Big 12 overall since a lot of teams have big turnover at QB. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and TCU all have new guys at the helm, as does USC in out of conference play. And I don’t think the Texas D will sleepwalk in week one against Maryland this year, either. Then there’s also the fact that I expect Texas to be significantly better on offense overall. The OL should be better. The QBs should be better. The running game should be better. And Tom Herman is no longer going to let Tim Beck call plays in a virtual vacuum like he did the first eight games last year. I think the bottom of expectations should be 9 wins with the ceiling perhaps two more.

Chip Brown, Columnist

Because Texas lost four games where the Longhorns led in the fourth quarter last season, I came up just a touch short of my 12-1 prediction for the Horns in 2017. (Wink, wink.) The culture installation last year impacted the offense greatly — from a coaching and player perspective — and that side of the ball pressed, played uptight and underperformed, to put it mildly. This season, the culture is in, according to Tom Herman, and it needs to be all about ball. That's why I think Herman ends up calling the plays and making sure the offense is exactly the way he wants it. This year is too important to the growth of the offense (and to the program overall with Jimbo Fisher now in the neighborhood) to treat the play calling on offense any other way. The winning culture is already in on defense. That group expects to go out and play winning football under Todd Orlando. This season, it's all about the growth of the offense and special teams to have the same winning mindset of the D. The Horns improved by two wins last year — from 5-7 to 7-6 — and I think there's enough talent on this roster to improve by two wins again this season, pushing Texas to nine regular-season wins (maybe more) and over Vegas' win total of 8.5.

Jeff Howe, Senior Writer

As of right now as we sit here 66 days away from kickoff, I’m going to take the under. My reluctance to predict more than eight regular-season victories for the Longhorns has nothing to with the ability of Tom Herman and his coaching staff or the talent within the program, per se. Regarding personnel, replacing Poona Ford is likely going to be easier said than done. Chris Nelson stepping up and providing a formidable presence would be the best-case scenario, but I’m expecting to see a defensive line that relies more on movement and athleticism with Ford no longer plugging the middle of the line. I’m also curious to see if the offense can improve enough to make up for the advantage the Longhorns no longer have in the kicking game to rely on Michael Dickson to flip the field. Even if Texas resolves those two issues, the schedule is going to be brutal to navigate without a misstep or two along the way. A four-game stretch from the middle of September where the Longhorns will face USC, TCU, Kansas State and Oklahoma are four opponents Texas went 1-3 against last season, which will need to be change if the Longhorns plan on claiming more than the six regular-season victories they tallied last season.

Taylor Estes, Managing Editor

Even though the Texas hype train seems to be rolling this offseason, I am a little hesitant to jump on board because of some glaring question marks at key positions. I do think there will be improvement on the offensive side of the ball, but I’m still reluctant to expect a significant jump in production because of the offensive line. And on defense, I do think it will continue to perform at an elite level, but I still think people are overlooking the magnitude of Poona Ford’s presence on the D-line. Plus, let’s not forget about replacing the most consistent player and weapon Texas had at its disposal last year in Michael Dickson. The defense was salty after the Week 1 mishap last season, and deserves the credit and recognition that it received. But it also had major help from Dickson, who consistently pinned opponents inside the 20, and forced the opposing offenses to drive the ball the length of the field. While I don’t think it’s out of the question that Texas could win nine or more regular season games, I’m not convinced it will happen at this point, so I would take the under.

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