Locking Horns: NFL Player Returns, Record Predictions & Breakout Players! | Texas Football

0:00Football is finally back and this is the time of year when I probably have more action going than any other point on the calendar. That's why I like my bookie. Whether I'm sitting around before kickoff, killing some time between games, or I see something I like right before the ball goes in the air, I can pull it up and make my play. You don't have to overthink every game or feel like you need to have some complicated system. Find a matchup that you've been watching all week, see a number you like, put a little action on it and suddenly that game you are already going to watch has a little more juice. If you're new to my bookie, they're also giving you a little protection on that first wager with the bet back bonus. Just sign up using promo code CFB2026, CFB like college football, 2026, opt into that bet back bonus and make your first play. If that wager loses, you get it back. College football is here, the board is loaded and there's finally something to bet on every Saturday again. Get in on the action with my bookie bet on anything anytime, anywhere.

1:00Welcome to On Texas football's first episode of locking horns with Bobby Burton and CJ Vogel. This should be a fun little show, a little bit different of a concept. And of course, I'm super excited to be back for this football season, have been waiting for this just a couple more days until longhorn football kicks off. But I'll just give us a quick premise of this show. We're going to have a couple questions and we're going to have two guys with two takes. Take each of your take. You're going to be on the clock. You're going to have 60 seconds to give me your take. We'll have a little discussion afterwards and then we're going to pick whose take we're locking in. So, all ready to go? Ready. Let's do it and do it. All right. We'll start off quick. So Steve Sarkeesian had a presser that left everybody talking as it has been the stitch throughout the offseason. People love to be talking about these Steve Sarkeesian pressers. He's been given some great quotes. He basically said about the TRO statement. The big quote that's going around, I think it's wrong.

2:00I think it's morally wrong. I think that's what a lot of people have been hung up on is the morally wrong when he has people point to Cole Hudson on the roster. So, I want to hear each of your takes on this. Do you think it's hypocritical for Steve Sarkeesian to be critical of other teams taking advantage of this TRO while he has Cole Hudson on the roster? So, start with you Bobby. I don't think it's hypocritical because Cole Hudson has unique circumstances that aren't necessarily similar to what other teams are attempting to do. Is it morally wrong? I think we could debate that term with Sarke, but I don't think he's wrong about the idea. Nobody wants to see a player that's been drafted or that has signed a contract with a pro football team, be able to come back and play in the NFL. Cole Hudson's a unique circumstance. He never signed a contract. He was undrafted. He never declared for the draft.

3:01And he's been enrolled in school the entire time at the University of Texas going after his MBA degree. So in my estimation, it's just two totally different things that are being conflated into a situation where LSU is essentially doing what about is him. What about this guy? What about that? Cole Hudson is just totally different than those others. All right. CJ, you agree? You got a different opinion? Yeah, I'm going to tell you a little different stance here. I think any player that has walked through the doors of an NFL facility at any point since they left the college campus, I don't like the idea of them coming back. I think that, hey, you can talk about it being a job interview. You didn't get the job. You go back to your old job, right? That's kind of how I'm viewing the Cole Hudson situation, right? He never officially signed, right? Never declared. He was still taking classes and was enrolled throughout the spring. So I understand that. But at the same point, he didn't go to the Browns and the Cowboys with the idea that, hey,

4:04I'm coming back. You wanted to test the waters to see if he was good enough for the NFL. And to me, that's, I mean, it's the equivalent, basically, of going out and playing in a preseason game. I mean, I don't like it. I think that once you say I'm out the door in college, I don't think that there's, there shouldn't be room to come back to my eyes. I think there's, I gotta say this. There's, there's a difference, right? In this current situation because of the class of 2022, not even giving the opportunity for Cole Hudson to have a fifth year before he was, before he went and did all of this. So subsequent to the TRO, now he can look back on it's a little bit different. But to your point, he never signed a contract. It's totally different. Someone signs a contract they don't. All right, I'll leave it at that. This is the first go. So I had to step in and make my, my difference there. Yeah, no, I like the conversation.

5:05I think there's a lot of questions about it. I do think my kind of response to this is Cole Hudson watching that interview, Sark, say that of just, he thinks it's morally wrong for people who were, I mean, in an NFL facility in some capacity, obviously, Sark's going by the exact rules. And Cole Hudson does not fall under one of those players that would be ineligible to play. How do you think Cole Hudson feels about this of just like being up in the middle of this and one of those players that's back on the roster taking up space for somebody, which I'm not sure if that's even a valid point that a lot of people are trying to make. Hmm. I hear what you're saying. And I hadn't thought about it from Cole's viewpoint, frankly. But I do believe, look, LSU's trying to get guys not only that we're in the NFL and made sign contracts, but also they're trying to get guys that we're at another school and transfer in from another SEC school to bypass that rule from the SEC.

6:11What's going on with LSU and the outcry there is more than just in an NFL facility at some level. I mean, look, basketball allows you to go work out and do all that stuff for the draft and then come back. But well, you don't get to necessarily do that because not everybody gets good at the combo. So it's just a little bit different. Yeah, I haven't thought about it from Cole's perspective either in the sense that, hey, if you were going to come back, you knew that Texas was going to be active in the portal. You knew that this spot wasn't going to be one that Texas thought about you being in the picture for going in the 2026, right? Because you were out of that. Let's go. It wasn't until the T.R.R. That granted you the opportunity to come back. So the competition, the depth, whatever you want to call it, a head for Texas, I think one, it's beneficial to obviously have a guy that's had 48 career games under his belt back in the room. But in terms of how he might feel, I haven't put that to any thought, you know, it's, you know, this is life, right?

7:11Competition drives how successful you are in life and right now he's going to be fighting to get on the field once more with Lawrence Seymour, Jayden Chapman and the rest of those guys. Of course, he at that left guard, right guard spot. Now I think just my final question on this is, do you think Stark should have said that, the morally wrong clause of that? Because there's been a lot of, there's been a lot of statements he's made in the offseason that in my personal opinion had a good intent, but maybe probably shouldn't have phrased it that way. Yeah. I mean, basket weaving and Ole Miss, right? Yes. So I mean, that would put point behind it, but did we have to exaggerate it to that extent? Yeah. I hear you. I mean, I think that, you know, at the same time, do you want just coach speak all the time? Is that what we want? Is just dumb it down and make everything a cliche? I'd rather know what the guy thinks, personally. As a media member, a long time media member, I appreciate that a lot more than, oh, well,

8:14he was really good and we appreciate him and everything he's done for us. And I have no certain feelings on this aspect of anything at all. That's not what we want to hear. Tell us what you think. And I think Stark, over the last year in CJ, and I've actually talked about this before, has opened up to that a little bit. He's opened up to himself and discussing his feelings, not that he's ever not been duplicitous or anything like that. It's just, I think he's being more real with folks now in his sixth year at the University of Texas. Yeah. I like the honesty. I like what Stark thinks. You know, it's too often we just get the bland, you know, kind of run of a mill answers. I will say I don't like being the right by technicality guy. And in this instance, it does kind of feel like that's where Texas is getting off the hook. I'm saying, well, it's not actually the same as going to the NFL and coming back. And that's where my kind of hang up is. So time out, it's not Texas is getting off. I mean, these are SEC rules that were founded on 16 to nothing or 15 to nothing after LSU

9:20left the room. Excuse me. We're not talking about Sankey saying morally incorrect, however. Yeah. Okay. I think I think might take probably aligns more with Bobby's in the fact that I think if it was more of a situation with LSU where you're going off in your coaching teams that were on other roster's last season that were not LSU, as long as you are following the rules at the SEC that you are saying you are voting for in all technicalities, even if it is one of those just well technically type situations, I'm okay with it. I still don't love the moral, just the moral part of his statement, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that. So I'm given a point to Bobby there. Sorry. CJ. All right. Moving on to the next one. But the one other thing that I saw y'all misaligned and CJ gets a lot of flack for saving like he's down on Texas, but record predictions for the coming season, which I was pleasantly surprised that you did not pick more losses in this CJ.

10:21But Bobby seems pretty bullish on Texas. 12 and 0 was a bold prediction and yours I believe was 11 to 1 with a loss to LSU. So I want you to defend both of those. And Bobby, why do you think they can get it done? CJ, why do you think that they can not get it done and have an undefeated season? On Texas football is all about matchups and fit, getting the right players in the right roles. Mood does the same thing, but for cannabis mood, that's mood dot com. It's an online destination for federally compliant, hip drive cannabis, grown on small family run farms across the US. Getting us pissed aside free lab tested and ships discreetly right to your door. What I really like is how they make it easy to pick by vibe. At mood dot com, you can literally shop by mood. You'll find options for winding down and sleeping, getting focused, feeling happy, and you're for it, or even spicing things up. If you're more of a classic flower person, they got you covered there as well, but they've

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12:21You play eight nine 10 and 11. You play eight consecutive SEC games, not just eight straight games, but eight straight weeks you have an SEC opponent. Three of your final four are on the road. I know that we talk about death. I know that we talk about the grueling SEC schedule. Every other team will have to deal with that. Yes, but at some point we heard it from Sarkia last year. The days of an undefeated team probably not going to be, you know, what we see in the game. I have to agree with them in this case, especially in the SEC when we talk about how grueling it is, how physical it is. Now Texas believes that they have seven or eight offensive linemen that can play and play well this year. Again, I'm going to have to see that before I believe it. I'm also going to have to see Archman and go out and perform the way that we saw in the second half of the year before I say, hey, he's ready to lead this team to a 10 and no record. I think the depth at linebacker is one injury away from being catastrophic and I think that you're basically working with one and a half proven safety is given.

13:23We only saw about 200 snaps from Derek Williams a year ago. There's a lot of thin depth that you're working on a razor thin margin for. And you're asking your quarterback to be basically perfect with the pieces around him at the end of the day. That's a tough schedule to win every single game of. I think one game is at least falling. See, here's what I don't like. So you're right, Amanda. He did pick LSU as a loss. He specifically picked LSU. By far, I will say this right now, my odds of being right are much lower than CJ's odds of being right. I completely agree. They're more likely to be 11 and one than 12 and up. But I went through and tried to pick every single game individually. And that's how I came up 12 and up. That's where I came up 10 and 2 and I missed on the Georgia game. I thought Texas was going to write the ship after OU. I felt like they did and they kind of ran the table from there on out, especially late

14:26in the year. But I was wrong about Georgia. I was right about Florida. I kind of did the same thing this year myself. I'm really thinking that the game that will be the breaking point actually comes really early this year. And that's Ohio State. Now obviously that's a nonconference game. We don't know what's going to end up happening. But my feeling on it is, is if they get over that hump, everything else is going to look pretty, pretty different in their view. And I just feel like Texas, if they can beat Ohio State, has a real chance to be 12 and up. It's a hump. They've yet to accomplish in the Sarcara. You know, they have the win against Nick Sabin and Alabama. But you haven't been able to beat Ohio State. You haven't been able to beat Georgia. Those are the teams that you have to be to become the team that you want to be going undefeated. And I mean, if I'm siding with the, hey, I got to see it to believe it. And then I so be it. I'll absolutely do that.

15:26You have to beat Ohio State. What's that? Yeah. I do. I think Texas needs to be the hungrier team. But Texas has been in this position before where they needed to be the hungrier team. And you know, against equal or higher caliber teams, like what we've seen against Georgia each year. It's fallen flat. I just want to say this, Amanda. I mean, look, Vegas says 9 1 1 1 1 1 for Texas. So 11 and 1, 12 and 0. Again, I completely agree that the odds that I am correct are lower than the odds that CJ is correct. At the same time, I, it's just how I feel. And so I picked them one by one. Why LSU CJ? Again, it's deep in the, what is it? Final month of November, you play three games on the road, three of your final four games on the road. You're going to death Valley. I'm assuming that games going to be at night. But then you won't have any hangups assuming everybody stays healthy in terms of what the

16:30offense of Sam Levit and Lion Kiffin will look like. I think that defensive line is very talented with Prince Will, Umain Mielin, Jordan Ross coming in that defensive line is spectacular. If Texas cannot run the football on the road, something they did not do very well a year ago, look, that's a tough game, not to mention Kiffin offenses against a muskamp defense. And look, I can understand the argument that, hey, he didn't have a Colin Simmons and a Rahim ball point being schematically. Lin Kiffin's had success against that style of defense. Yeah, and he might have a full NFL team playing for him. So. Also could be the case. You know, I mean, and then also I like you picking that loss because what, what if LSU has to completely toss out their season? So might not even matter if that. Yeah, there you go. All right, I got to say, I'm a believe it till I see it person as well as far as an undefeated season goes. Haven't seen that in quite some time.

17:30I'm torn up between one of the rivals, A and MROU, leaning more towards OU simply because those kinds of games, their toss ups, you've seen the lesser team win many times in those games just because of the emotion and the momentum that can, how momentum shifts can change those games. So I'm leaning between one of those or LSU just because that back half of the season is brutal. So point CJ for this one. We're all tied up. There we go. All right, I'm going to move on to our last one. Breakout offensive and defensive players. One for each of you. Hmm. So do we get to include transfers in this like, can I pick anyone? I'm not. Anyone. So I'll do one transfer and one freshman. How about that? Let's do first game. We're talking specifically about Texas state who's going to show out in Texas state this weekend. All right. On defense, I'm going to go defense first.

18:31I'm going to go Raheem Biles. It's going to be the first time he's in a Texas uniform. One man had a hundred tackles last year at Pitt, all conference performer, what 14 and a half tackles for loss. Compare that to Anthony Hill. I think Anthony Hill had seven tackles for loss last year. I mean, just to give you an idea and Anthony Hills doing really well with the Tennessee Titans. I think Raheem Biles changes what will must champ typically does on defense, by the way. Will must champ is not a guy that blitzes his linebackers unless it's a double A gap blitz. Like Georgia didn't do that a lot. They now they moved him around. I just think that Raheem Biles, he's going to be introduced to the Texas crowd on Saturday. I think he's going to people are going to have some fun with him. As Steve Sarkijan said, he's a problem. I obviously like that pick. Anytime the guys had three career defensive touchdowns in a single season, sign me up for that.

19:31This is maybe not a breakout, but it's a bounce back pick for me. And it's someone that I think absolutely has to have a good season opener for me to feel good about what this team will look like defensively. It's Derek Williams. Absolutely is Derek Williams. You know what you got with Jolani McDonald? You don't yet know if that play opposite of him is going to play to that level, right? Is it Jonah Williams? Is it Kobe Black? Could Drey Davis kind of make an impact in that safety room as well? We'll have to wait and see, but right now it's expected that Derek Williams gets the nod. I got this in 451 career passing snaps. One P.D.U. He's had two career turnovers forced. Now again, that's coming off of an ACL. That's two years fully removed from that. If Texas can get more than that from that second safety spot, boy, I would feel really, really good because this is guy that runs the alley. He tackles well. He plays the run game very well. Texas has had very strong safety tanned and with McCuba and Taft and Taft and McDonald.

20:33They have that again this year. I would feel really good about what this team will face, especially playing all of these really talented quarterbacks. I got to say this, even though Brad Jackson is really talented, Amanda and CJ, my thought process is, wouldn't it be potentially fool's gold if he bounces back against the Texas state as opposed to bouncing back against an LSU or an OU or a Tennessee? I hear you, CJ. I can understand that he is the bounce back candidate. I would agree with that, but I don't think he's going to be the breakout guy. Okay. He certainly could. 2000 yard writers, see, both of them play about a quarter or a third of their snaps out of the slot. He's going to be matched up on some pretty talented guys. All right. Give me your offensive players, then I'll make a decision. I'm going Nick Townsend on the offensive side. Look, the tight end spot in its entirety has been, these guys have been treated like kings

21:36with Quinnipish, right? A year ago, obviously, you didn't see that with Jack Indries and Archmanning, but you need to have some sort of threat in that tight end room. We've obviously seen the willingness from Townsend as a very young tight end to go hit somebody. That's probably got 70 pounds on them. That's not easy to do. Either have that ability early or you do not. But I looked at 45 targets from Jack Indries a year ago. That's fewer than all of the receptions that Jotayevian Sanders had, that Gunnar Helm had over the last three seasons prior to injuries. Do we see a tight end get back to those numbers? Probably not. But boy, I would think that the ceiling of this offense would be certainly increased if Nick Townsend is the guy that you see barreling over defensive lineman and becoming a threat in the passing game as well. He's your most complete tight end potentially, given the athletic frame. If he can perform that way week one, then I think Texas is in for a world of hurt putting

22:37on opposing defense that's moving forward. Okay. I mean, I think that I love Nick Townsend. So I'm not, I just don't know that he's going to break out against Texas State. I'll tell you all go with since I went with Raheem Biles and that's a transfer on defense. I'm going to go with a true freshman on offense and it may not even be the true freshman. Most people might think I'll go with. I'm going to go with Derek Cooper. A lot of focus this fall training camp has been on Hollywood smothers as well as Relic Brown being the one, two punch in the backfield for Texas. I'm told the last couple of weeks Derek Cooper has had tremendous practices and is going to be a guy that they lean on. He could be the guy that is the, what's the best way to put it, the short, not just short yardage, but third and three, second and two.

23:41He's the guy that can be 220 pounds in time and really push a pile. Relic Brown is not that guy. Hollywood smothers not that guy. So I think we may see some, some, some Derek Cooper and a different take in short yardage than what we've seen historically when Texas had treawhisers and it just didn't work for him unless they ran the full back dive. You know, it was, it was one of those things. So I actually think Texas to kind of unveil an offense more like what they had with Jonathan Brooks, Tre Weiser and Jaden Blue. So they have three different types of running backs almost in the backfield. Okay. I don't dislike your takes, CJ, but I think I'm going to align more on Bobbillett this one just because I'm more keen on seeing improved running back room than I think I am anything else on offense going into this season as much as you want to see tight ends like Gunner

24:47Hell again playing like Gunner Hell again. I just feel like with a depth in that wide receiver room, those are going to be more of primary targets for this offense. And I just think if there is not an improvement in this run game, there's not a chance for an 11 and 1 or 12 in no season at all. And as far as how regime biles goes, I just feel like that's more likely of a breakout candidate. Not that we don't need to see a breakout from Derek Williams, but I think that's a more likely breakout candidate. So Bobby, you're going to take it first week, two to one. Congratulations. Figure out some kind of track or reward for this, but it's a lot of fun. I made a thank you for doing this. I thought it was fun. We're going to have some fun this year. Yeah, I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun. I'm sure we'll have a we'll have plenty of more stuff that I'm sure you guys disagree on a little bit, a little bit more passionally, which insurance is at one size fits all. That's why drivers have enjoyed progressives. Name your price tool for years now. With the name your price tool, you tell them what you want to pay and they'll show you

25:50options that fit your budget. So whether you're picking out your first policy or just looking for something that works better for you and your family, they make it easy to see your options. Visit progressive.com, find a rate that works for you with the name your price tool, progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, price and coverage match limited by state law. Football is finally back and this is the time of year when I probably have more action going than any other point on the calendar. That's why I like my bookie. Whether I'm sitting around before kick off, killing some time between games or I see something I like right before the ball goes in the air, I can pull it up and make my play. You don't have to overthink every game or feel like you need to have some complicated system. Find a match up that you've been watching all week. See a number you like, put a little action on it and suddenly that game you are already going to watch has a little more juice. If you're new to my bookie, they're also giving you a little protection on that first wager with the bet back bonus. Just sign up using promo code CFB2026 CFB like college football, 2026, opt into that

26:54bet back bonus and make your first play. If that wager loses, you get it back. College football is here, the board is loaded and there's finally something to bet on every Saturday again. Get in on the action with my bookie bet on anything anytime, anywhere.