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Posted

Signing Day tomorrow...

Who is returning on Texas O-line for 2026 season...

Keep hearing talk that Texas team is young, but will be better next year??  Feels like o-line, WR, TE, RB all need help??

And our defense is losing several starters too... 

Posted

Need portal studs at RB, OG, OT, C, LB, and CB, plus backfills for any unexpected losses from the projected 2 deep.  If we don’t address the OL we are fucked.  Otherwise we should have a better team next season. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted

OL obviously (3-4). I don't know why we need WR's? They all come back, unless Moore thinks he's a high draft choice, which I doubt. Two 5* WR's haven't even had a chance to prove what they can do. TE has a couple of studs, just young. Would love to get a stud at RB. Clark will probably portal, don't blame him. Even Simon coulda portal. I wish Baxter would portal.  Shipley SR so K. Other positions if we can get a real difference maker.

Posted

Really, the only thing we 100% need is 1 starting-caliber OL (although 2 would be nice).  Not ideal, but you would expect Brooks to be able to slide into a full time spot since he played a little bit this year (yes, I know he sucked, but was a true Freshman).  Neto, Stroh and Cruz are some experienced backup options (yes, I know they all sucked as well).  Surely there is some type of development happening in the OL room right???

Unless we can get a super-stud in the portal, Wisner is plenty good enough to take 70-75% of the carries and maybe Baxter looks a little better the further out he gets from his injuries.  Simon and the stud Freshman can fill in if needed. 

Don’t need any WRs or TEs. 

Defense is good. 

I guess we need a Kicker & Punter again??

 

 

Posted
19 minutes ago, EZ$ said:

Really, the only thing we 100% need is 1 starting-caliber OL (although 2 would be nice).  Not ideal, but you would expect Brooks to be able to slide into a full time spot since he played a little bit this year (yes, I know he sucked, but was a true Freshman).  Neto, Stroh and Cruz are some experienced backup options (yes, I know they all sucked as well).  Surely there is some type of development happening in the OL room right???

In the portal era, there is no excuse for your Plan A to be young players developing into quality starters when you can just go buy proven, experienced players.  Expecting Brooks to start next season after sucking this season is idiotic.  We need 3-4 interior OL guys out of the portal.  Neto, Stroh, and Cruz are not options in any sense.  Stroh is the worst offensive linemen I've seen play at Texas in 20 years.  Neto is so bad he couldn't get snaps over Stroh or true freshman Brooks.  Cruz played like, what, 20 snaps this season?  None of those guys should be relied on as contributors next year.

Quote

Unless we can get a super-stud in the portal, Wisner is plenty good enough to take 70-75% of the carries and maybe Baxter looks a little better the further out he gets from his injuries.  Simon and the stud Freshman can fill in if needed. 

Love Wisner's vision, patience, and decisive cuts.  But he runs like a 4.8 in the open field and he can't run through contact.  He is not good enough to be the primary running back at Texas.  Baxter is a shell of his former self and not worth the NIL we're wasting on him.  We need to open up the wallet for a proven SEC starter like Jadan Baugh or Kewan Lacy, or a G5 monster like Caleb Hawkins at North Texas. 

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Don’t need any WRs or TEs.

Agree.

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Defense is good.

Not at all.

Safety - Michael Taafe is gone and Jelani McDonald may go pro.  Derrick Williams is looking really shaky since coming back from his knee injury.  We need to get at least one guy here, two if McDonald leaves.  No one behind McDonald and Williams have played enough to be relied on as starters next year.

Corner - Guilbeau is gone and Muhammad will probably go pro.  Cade Phillips and Kobe Black have had bright moments in limited snaps.  Warren Roberson seems like he sucks.  Graceson Littleton could move outside and cover one of the corner positions, but that creates a void at Star/Nickel.  So, no matter what, we need at least one portal guy with starting experience to play outside corner and another guy with starting experience to play the opposite corner position or Nickel in place of Littleton.

LB - We lose Anthony Hill (almost assuredly) and Trey Moore.  Liona Lefau and Ty'Anthony Smith are both quality starters, but we have no experienced depth behind them.  We could move Brad Spence from Edge back to off-ball LB, but he's pretty valuable in the Edge rotation.  I think this is lower priority than the secondary considering we have proven guys who can step up to cover our losses, but we could use 1-2 guys here as depth and rotational pieces.

Edge - We good here.

Interior DL - We lose Travis Shaw and Cole Brevard, two guys who were giving us a quality 30-40 snaps a game.  That sucks but assuming Hero Kanu comes back we should be good here.  Kanu, Alex January, Maraad Watson, and Lavon Johnson give us a solid, experienced 4 deep rotation.

Posted
1 minute ago, Fumbles said:

In the portal era, there is no excuse for your Plan A to be young players developing into quality starters when you can just go buy proven, experienced players.  Expecting Brooks to start next season after sucking this season is idiotic.  We need 3-4 interior OL guys out of the portal.  Neto, Stroh, and Cruz are not options in any sense.  Stroh is the worst offensive linemen I've seen play at Texas in 20 years.  Neto is so bad he couldn't get snaps over Stroh or true freshman Brooks.  Cruz played like, what, 20 snaps this season?  None of those guys should be relied on as contributors next year.

 

Still trying to figure out a good plan at O-line for 2026.  Both guards and possibly center need help.  Is Goosby returning???

Gone:  Hutson, DJ Campbell

IMG_20251203_110408.thumb.jpg.d81928768079fc9a477250e14be150c9.jpg

  • Not sure if Robertson gone?
  • What the hell is story on Neto?
  • Stroh please stop taking a roster spot!!!

 

Posted
1 hour ago, EZ$ said:

Really, the only thing we 100% need is 1 starting-caliber OL (although 2 would be nice).  Not ideal, but you would expect Brooks to be able to slide into a full time spot since he played a little bit this year (yes, I know he sucked, but was a true Freshman).  Neto, Stroh and Cruz are some experienced backup options (yes, I know they all sucked as well).  Surely there is some type of development happening in the OL room right???

I have not been among the knuckle draggers calling for Sark's head during this season, but if Connor Stroh starts at Texas next year, I will personally fly down to Austin and kick Steve in the nuts repeatedly until he agrees to quit coaching altogether. I'm sure Cooper Manning would be lined up right behind me to get in the final kick.

  • Haha 1
Posted

I doubt Connor Robertson goes pro.  He wasn't awful when inserted into the lineup, but he wasn't great either.  He's definitely not getting drafted and I can't imagine any team looking at his tape and saying, "Yeah, get this kid on the practice squad."  Unless he has a desperate need to sell insurance next year, I think he comes back.

I have no idea what's going on with Neto but it seems like something more than he doesn't look good in practice.  We were practically pulling people out of the stands to try them at left guard when it became obvious Stroh wasn't cutting it, but Neto still barely got snaps.  He's in someone's doghouse.

Yeah, Stroh needs to get processed like a McDonald's nugget.

I think the plan is to go into the portal and get the best 3-4 interior linemen available.  Hold open competitions in the spring and find your starting guards there.  And hey, let's give everyone some looks at center as well because it's not like Robertson was lighting it up.

I think Goosby is the most important piece to bring back for next season.  If Goosby stays, that means all of our glaring portal needs are relatively cheap and generally available (interior OL, RB, secondary).  But finding a quality starter at LT in the portal is not cheap or easy.  

Posted
3 hours ago, Fumbles said:

 

I think the plan is to go into the portal and get the best 3-4 interior linemen available.  Hold open competitions in the spring and find your starting guards there.  And hey, let's give everyone some looks at center as well because it's not like Robertson was lighting it up.

What She Said GIF by The Free Mama
 

Go find starters for the interior OL in the portal. That makes all the positions on offense better.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
3 hours ago, Fumbles said:

Love Wisner's vision, patience, and decisive cuts.  But he runs like a 4.8 in the open field and he can't run through contact.  He is not good enough to be the primary running back at Texas.  Baxter is a shell of his former self and not worth the NIL we're wasting on him.  We need to open up the wallet for a proven SEC starter like Jadan Baugh or Kewan Lacy, or a G5 monster like Caleb Hawkins at North Texas. 

Yeah, Wisner is a gamer and is one trait short of being a great back.  He needs to be either bigger or faster.  Either of those 2 things combined with his elite vision and agility and he would be one hell of a back.  But he doesn't have either of those things and we should upgrade at running back as a result.

Posted
3 hours ago, Fumbles said:

I doubt Connor Robertson goes pro.  He wasn't awful when inserted into the lineup, but he wasn't great either.  He's definitely not getting drafted and I can't imagine any team looking at his tape and saying, "Yeah, get this kid on the practice squad."  Unless he has a desperate need to sell insurance next year, I think he comes back.

I have no idea what's going on with Neto but it seems like something more than he doesn't look good in practice.  We were practically pulling people out of the stands to try them at left guard when it became obvious Stroh wasn't cutting it, but Neto still barely got snaps.  He's in someone's doghouse.

Yeah, Stroh needs to get processed like a McDonald's nugget.

I think the plan is to go into the portal and get the best 3-4 interior linemen available.  Hold open competitions in the spring and find your starting guards there.  And hey, let's give everyone some looks at center as well because it's not like Robertson was lighting it up.

I think Goosby is the most important piece to bring back for next season.  If Goosby stays, that means all of our glaring portal needs are relatively cheap and generally available (interior OL, RB, secondary).  But finding a quality starter at LT in the portal is not cheap or easy.  

On some other thread there was speculation that Robertson might grad transfer to a school with a strong program in whatever his academic field is…

Posted

In the NIL era, you have to manage your roster and make hard decisions. You pay NIL money for performance and there's just so much NIL money available at a given time. Loyalty to the maxed-out 3-star "good kid from a good family who bleeds orange and gives us 100% every time" is a luxury you can no longer afford. NIL has made it a two-way street now: If you perform, here's a check; if you don't/can't perform, hit the door, kid, we'll bring in somebody who can. Cold and harsh? You bet. Necessary? You bet. 

Posted

I think the defense can be better in 2026.

Phillips, Littleton, and Jackson all exceeded expectations. I have little doubt that those three will be sophomores in the mold of Hill and Simmons. 

Smith doesn't have the pass rushing skills of Hill, but I think it's possible he could be an improvement in coverage.

As long as we retain several DTs and they develop along a similar trajectory as Collins and Broughton, I think we'll be salty.

Posted
I'm curious about this. We have always assumed this to be the case, but then he didn't participate in senior day.
Interesting, could this be our first case of NIL making jumping the NFL at the first opportunity no longer a priority?

Not getting my hopes up, but I think he would have participated in senior day if he already decided to make the leap.
Posted

I added a 2026 tab https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TzoBTIvCXfZIk7Sz3C9txMg0yPvrXyVM/edit?gid=1327300395#gid=1327300395

Players that are widely known not to be returning (NFL or transfer) are in italics. There will be many more leaving, but I'll let that play out. The starters and rotational guys will change quite a bit after portal season. I couldn't bring myself to color code an entire 2-deep since we have so many shitty options. We need need a lot of portal help.

There's a legend at the bottom that explains the abbreviations after a player's name:

RS - Used a redshirt
WO - Walk-on
EE - Early enrollee
TR - Transfer
BS - Blue shirt

I haven't seen a reliable list of early enrollees for 2026 yet, so that will need to be updated. I also updated the Texas by Class and Texas Grid tabs.

Still need to add the 2026 class to the Aggie Grid tab, but the players with no more eligibility have been removed and redshirt status has been updated. Concepcion will be declaring for the NFL. Bisontis, Ricks, and York have been mentioned as possibly declaring for NFL as well.

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