The Texas Position Battle Nobody's Talking About

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Hey, what's up folks? Welcome back to Owen Texas football. I'm lifetime long horn Rod Bapers. Pleased to be joined by fellow lifetime Longhorn young prodigy CJ Bogle and my good friend and esteemed colleague Jeff How. On this edition of Owen Texas football, we're going to talk about position battles. Uh the position battles, not a ton of them on the 40 acres. We'll talk about who we think are going to win those position battles coming up in training camp. Uh and also could there be a shift? Could we see movement during the season, which we've seen a few times, all right, at some key positions where we see a backup guy actually take on a starter role or force them force themselves, force their way on the field and get more reps and snaps. We'll talk about that. Uh, shout out to our sponsor, Prize Picks. We'll tell you more about them coming up later on. Uh, but gentlemen, let's start with the obvious position battles. I think safety is easily uh the most talked about position battle on the 40 acres during the spring. uh who's going to be the starting uh safety opposite of Galani McDonald. I'll throw it to you first, CJ. Uh what are your thoughts about this position and the different guys? Xavier Phil is going to be a guy competing for this fight. Derrick Williams, of course, had a really, really good spring. Um Jonah Williams is one of the sleepers everybody's hoping makes a move. Who do you think is going to end up winning this fight and how this competition goes?

[00:01:11]>> Yeah, I look at it saying it's right now Derrick Williams is positioned to lose.

[00:01:15]And you know, it was interesting. You hinted at it a little bit. There aren't many position battles at the moment that Texas really has to figure out. And that's even with a couple of injuries that kept starters out of the the starting lineup in the spring, right? No Trevor Guzby. You didn't see Brian Wingo or Emtt Mosley, Arch Manning, obviously not. And then defensively, well, there's only really two safeties that were practicing. And right now, it feels like those are the two that are moving into summer conditioning eventually fall camp with pole position. Now, what can Xavier Philimmy do to earn that spot back? I think is going to be the big question.

[00:01:46]He outnapped Derrick Williams a year ago, right? Coming back from the ACL, you're now a year and a half removed.

[00:01:52]You expect to be back to where you were when Texas was in the college football playoff and Derrick Williams was a key piece of that secondary, but until you see it on the field, it's worth the question. And then of course, the wild cards Jonah Williams, you just you just don't know, right? How active has he been in, you know, in team meetings? Has he been around the facility? How's he come, you know, getting that relationship back with Gideon and Mchamp? that remains an unknown and until then until you see his health obviously in the fall he's there but you can't really point to him and say okay I I can dependably rely on him time and time again so I look at Dererick Williams as the pole position leader to play next to Jalani McDonald >> what are your thoughts Jeff feel the same way about that safety competition >> well yeah I I think it needs to be Derrick Williams quite frankly that wins that job because to me that would I think it would be more likely that if he doesn't win just given the time frame and you know Xavier feels to me how much of spring he missed. I think it would be more about maybe Derrick Williams regressed than anybody necessarily beating him out. So I just don't want Derrick Williams to lose those positive gains that he made in the spring. I mean, when you when we saw him at the end of spring ball, I mean, granted, it's kind of a it's a controlled situation, but you know, he looked much closer to being back to that 2023, early 2024 form than we saw him at any point last season. So, I just don't want him to lose that. But Philimmy to me is one of the biggest wild cards on this roster because, you know, Sarkc has gone out of his way to say, "Yeah, he can play nickel. We can do different things with him." So, they've got big plans for Xavier Filson in the secondary, even if it's not as a starting safety. Um, you know, I'm I'm not even saying he's going to be one of your top four or five guys in terms of snaps played, but you know, we talk about it all the time, guys. If you're playing 15, 16 games, you're going to need quality depth. And they need him to emerge as a quality depth piece at some point.

[00:03:47]>> I'll add this as we wrap up safety. I think your athletic ceiling is met with Xavier Filami on the defense.

[00:03:55]But that has to match the instinctual side of things, right? The between the ears for Xavier Phillips. That that's the half that we saw glimpses of a year ago. Now it's about the consens uh consistency to stay on the field. But the athleticism absolutely he gets the box there.

[00:04:10]>> Yeah. Uh good stuff. Yeah, I'm with you guys. I think Derrick Williams has a uh definitely the lead right now considering what he did this spring. But Xavier feels to me maybe a little bit more compatible what they want to defens what they want to do defensively. They want to move Jelani McDown, Jalan McDonald around a lot. They want to move him around, have him be a movable chess piece. It means you need somebody that can be consistent as that middle field safety. Derrick Williams has to improve in that area and make himself a uh base a very dependable piece uh in that back field there. All right, let's move on.

[00:04:39]Let's go to the uh the offensive line here, gentlemen. Left guard uh Texas did a lot of work on the offensive line this off season. I throw it to you, Jeff, first here at left guard. Is it just as simple as Lauren Seymour walks in as the starter or is there going to be a true competition here?

[00:04:54]>> Well, there needs to be, again, there needs to be a true competition. Uh, and I've said it all along. I think he's going to win the job, but it needs to be he won the job and fend it off whether it's Dylan Sakorski or Jaden Chapman or, you know, a number of other guys that we talked maybe maybe Jackson Christian makes a move. I don't know. But whatever combination of guys it is, it needs to be that Lawrence Seymour won that job and they just don't throw him in there by default. You know, again, I go back to when you're we saw it in 2024 when this team played 16 games. You needed multiple offensive linemen to get you through the season. Now, the saving grace was your number three tackle was Trevor Guzby. So, the drop off from Cam Williams to Trevor Guzby wasn't that much. And even the drop off from Kelvin Banks to Trevor Guzby, it's not what you would expect the drop off to be from the Outland Trophy winner to his backup. I don't know that you have that right now.

[00:05:46]And you don't have that in terms of proven commodities. So, chances are you're going to need one of these linemen to step up. That is my bigger concern with the offensive line. You can't have what happened last year where when you get to the Florida game and you, you know, it's performance issues with Connor Shro, you got to go to somebody else and your only option, you felt like your best option, Rod, you're about the Argo principle at that point.

[00:06:08]Your best bad idea was to just throw Nick Brooks in there to see if he sank or swam. And in the portal era, it's just that's the part to me with the offensive line that that's what could have been avoided had you gone to the transfer portal. You could have at least last year wanted to get you a backup piece. But we're not going back to 2025 and what could have been done. When you look at this 26 roster, like I said, between Dylan Sakorski and Christian and Jaden Chapman, throw Jonte Newman in there if you want. Throw Jordan Coleman in there if you want. You've got enough guys in that offensive line room that if you have to put a backup in, it shouldn't just cause your whole offensive line to crater.

[00:06:45]>> Uh CJ, do you feel the same way? I mean, Lawrence Seymour obviously probably has the most skins on the wall of the guys competing at that spot, but do you think you could see something surprising there at the competition?

[00:06:56]>> You know, I I look at this kind of like when Kelvin Banks arrived in the summer of 2022 and you said, "Okay, he's got to have to earn it, right? You start with the threes, the next week, you work with the twos, and you know, by kickoff of game one, you're like, "Oh, yeah, it was a no-brainer that this was going to be the guy that was starting at left tackle for you, even as a true freshman." I feel like that's going to be the case with Hawrence Seymour. So, a slow burn into that first team. Again, 800 snaps a year ago was more than all of these other options combined, right? This is kind of the hope is that he walks in and becomes your starting left guard. But to Jeff's point, you hope that he earns that left guard spot off of merit, not just what you've done previously. You walked in and earned it in camp, in training room, uh, in in the film room, etc. So right now I I think all systems are go towards Seymour being your left guard.

[00:07:47]>> Yep. Uh yeah, I kind of agree with that too. There's no doubt when you look at the resume kind of speaks for itself compared to his peers, but we'll see how that competition works out. Uh another position, guys, and I I know, you know, tight end is one of those positions where, you know, with the Starks offense, you're going to play two tight ends, you know, 30% of the time potentially or more. Um so I kind of see you need two tight ends. And that consider both of those guys to be starters in a SARC offense. Um, how do we think tight end's going to play out with Michael Munis now being a part of that tight end room? Nick Townsen took huge steps toward the end of last season. Obviously, Jack injuries going to the NFL. Spencer Shannon got a lot of love during the spring. Uh, Sar says the second most important position in his offense behind quarterback. What do we think is going to happen at tight end?

[00:08:34]CJ, I'll throw it to you.

[00:08:36]>> I think it needs to be Nick Townson. And I say that because we've seen the physicality side of things and he's willing to put his nose against someone that's bigger than him to really disrupt contact at the line of scrimmage, right?

[00:08:47]You need that physicality there. I think at times there were good moments from Spencer Shannon. I just don't know if you saw that enough consistently throughout the season. Not to mention the passing aspect. I think if there is a critique of Nick Towns and it's you got to be more consistent with the hands, right? When the ball's thrown your way, you got to bring down those those contested catches or even just passes in the flats. So, if it's a push in the passing cons category at the moment, I'll take the athletic upside with Nick Towns and as well as, okay, I know for a fact he's going to come across the line of scrimmage ready to hit someone. And I do think Sark has a deeper bag of what he can do. We saw that with >> the Texas A&M Jet sweep, you know, on the goal line with Nick Townsen. I think there's more intricacies that he could get into with his offense with a Nick Townsen as his number two >> like that.

[00:09:35]>> And I I'll back that up, Rod. You and I have had this conversation for years.

[00:09:38]Anytime it doesn't matter whether you know it's been Charlie Strong's the head coach or even going back to the end of Max tenure or Tom Herman or even Al Sarkc you can talk about personnel groupings all you want and you may prefer 12 personnel. We know Stark does but if you're going to run two tight ends to CJ's point you have to maintain there's got to be a level of unpredictability. There's got to be a level of explosiveness and you've got to be able to kind of open up and run as much of your playbook as possible. You can't be predictable and easy to defend when you've got a certain personnel grouping on the field because and I and I think Nick I I'll agree with CJ because you know Michael Msunis I'm not expecting him to be Jeff Swain or Andrew Beck but I think he's going to be an upgrade in and in terms of what you need to be an inline blocker but Nick Townsen can change the ceiling of your offense because if you do have an explosive tight end that's a tough matchup see it all the time in football that's hard to account for and that's why you know Sart calls that the most important position in his offense because you can with a guy like Nick Towns and yeah, you can play him in line, you can flex him, you can split him out wide, you can put him in the back field, you do so many different things with that move tight end, but you know, Rod, going back to what we talked about for years, if you want to run 12 personnel, that's fine.

[00:10:49]But who you taking off the field?

[00:10:51]>> That's that's Emit Mosley or Germaine Bishop or one of Relique Brown or Hollywood Smothers or Derek Cooper?

[00:10:57]You're leaving potentially a lot of explosive plays on the sideline if you're going to use two tight ends. So I that's why I think Nick Townsen needs to make Sarkc feel like, okay, if I move if we're in 12 personnel, we're not going to lack for explosiveness. It'll be a different kind of explosive, but you can still get the explosive plays that you want.

[00:11:16]>> It might sound a little crazy, but I think some of those explosives from the tight end spot come from Amari Winston.

[00:11:22]Now, how much will we see of him? That's kind of the question, right? So, when it comes to tight end two, that's why he was kind of excluded from that conversation, but he will be on the field because he has in the conversation for the smoothest hands on that Texas roster at the moment. That's including Ryan Wingo, that's including Cam Coleman, Germaine, anybody on that roster, he's in that conversation for.

[00:11:42]It's about how much more can you do to be the full tight end package as we've talked about with these other guys. And if Winston's a factor, that's something, Rod, we really haven't seen from the start because typically he runs a lot of 12 personnel, but he typically has found two tight ends that he likes, whether it's been, you know, in the in year one it was Kate Brewer and Jared Wy, and then it was Sanders and Gunner Helm, and then it was Gunner Helm and Juan Davis, he typically finds two that he likes, and those are the two guys. We really don't see a third. So, if a third emerges, I don't know what we're going to see from Stark because he really hasn't had that before. and he usually likes one as a primarily a blocking tight end and one as primarily receiving tight end. Very lopsided in target share there. He never really had two passing threats or receiving threats, I should say, at tight end. You know, maybe that could change this season, too, but I'm with you. I think >> personnel.

[00:12:30]>> Yeah, who know? Hey, Shawn McVey has taken over the NFL with 13. We'll see.

[00:12:35]You know, that's one of Stark's kind of uh his inspirations offensively. We'll see if he's inspired by Shawn McVey. I will say um I think Townsen is your move tight end that F tight end they talk about and I think your inline guys massunasis. I think that's that way Sark's going to do it based on his recent history. All right, let's talk us open it up a little bit before we end things and talk about if there is a transition at a position this season during the season if a backup makes a move or some guy that's in the rotation makes a move. We saw it last year with Kate Phillips uh during the year, made a move to become the starter late and played well as a young guy. What positions do we think you could uh see um a shift like that potentially during the season? CJ, I'll throw it to you first.

[00:13:19]>> Yeah, running back makes sense, right?

[00:13:21]And I think that's just because you have a ton of talent in that room. Does a Derk Cooper really start to take the ball and literally run with it, right?

[00:13:28]In a way that is undeniable that you have to keep them on off the field. So, um, obviously Hollywood Smothers was the first team all ACC guy coming out of the spring. It was Raleigh Brown who was the piece that you looked at saying, "Okay, he's probably leading the way at the moment." But we saw this in 2023 when it was CJ Baxter coming out of camp as the number one option. And it was very quickly Jonathan Brooks's position to lose and eventually he was the forerunner for the Doke Walker. So, that's going to be a fluent or a fluid position. I also think that look, I don't know if you need a true number one starter. given you have three very unique talented backs in that room uh to to basically fit any scheme or system that you face defensively.

[00:14:10]>> Yeah, I'm fascinated, Rod, by the time we get to the end of this to see the snap distribution at edge because what you've got at edge right now reminds me a little bit. He might not have six NFL guys, but it reminds me of the 2022 defensive tackle room, that interior D line room where I remember talking to Keandre Coburn in that spring and he said, "Yeah, every there he's like there's a sense of urgency because hey, if you have a bad snap, you may come off the field, you may not get back on." You can you could tell one of the most positive things that we saw, well, two really two of the most positive things we saw were at Edge. One was keeping Zen Moslo out of the portal and getting him back. The other one was, hey, just remember when Colton Vosix's healthy, he can actually play and he can rush the passer and he can be a factor. Oh, and by the way, given what we saw from Richard Wesley and Jamaran Carlton, I don't know how you're going to keep those guys off the field like they're going to demand snaps. So, you know, Colin Simmons is going to get his, but I think especially early in the year in those two non-conference games against Texas State and UTSA where you could have a chance to maybe rest Colin Simmons a little bit, take a little bit off his plate, who gets those snaps and by the end by the time you get to the end of those two games what the snaps look like. I wouldn't be surprised if it's spread out pretty evenly. And if it's not, then that tells you this staff really thinks they've got a player. I'll give you another one. I'll go to linebacker and one of the freshman, but maybe not the freshman that everybody's thinking of. I think Kosala's ability to rush the passer is going to get him on the field situationally. And he to me, I was so impressed with him, CJ, with what we saw from him coverage-wise, what we heard from him coverage-wise. You know, not to take anything away from Tyler Atinson or Rocky Cummings, but I just think when young guys get on the field, it's typically because, as Rock, you called that X-Man ability, you usually got one thing that, hey, he does this so well, we got to find a role for him. I think it's going to be Kosala's ability to rush the passer that gets him some snaps.

[00:16:00]>> Yeah, we probably should do a whole separate video on this because I agree with you. Watching the rotation and the number of snaps, the snap counts at certain positions is really going to be fun this year because I think DTackle could end up being one of those two. You could get back to playing five. You had six DTackles in your rotation in 2022.

[00:16:17]All in NFL DTackles. You could have you're gonna have four. could have five depending on if a Justice Terry makes a move or Sharma makes a move there. So, that's interesting to watch. You could be as deep as you have been at DTackle since 2022. Also, a secondary, the configuration of secondary is fascinating. We talked about safety already, but guys, Kobe Black made a move during the spring and you basically believe you got four corners. We still are not sure who's playing nickel or that slot corner and maybe that's a place where a guy starts out at nickel at the beginning of the season and then maybe there's a different nickel uh by the end of the season and the cornerback position at least the complexion of it looks a little different and depending on the rotation how they rotate because I think they believe and I do too that they have four starting corners. I would rank them as Masco, probably Littleton, Phillips, and then black, but I think they got black higher up on their list than than I do. So, that's an interesting one to watch too there. And of course, the circle of trust is always something to watch. Uh, you know, young Germaine Bishop, they like Burke Halter really much. So, we know they got a top three where they get to four or five.

[00:17:24]Daley McCutchen, sorry to disrespect, Dy McCuten, had the best spring game. And last year, to CJ's point, he thought, hey, this might be the young receiver that makes a move and he made a move.

[00:17:33]Uh, so that's one to watch, too. And since you said it, Jeff, I'll throw out uh and CJ said it before the uh this live, sorry, this video. Brad Spence.

[00:17:44]And we're not sure where Brad Spence is going to make a move.

[00:17:46]>> Yeah.

[00:17:47]>> Could be situational pass rusher to your point about Okala. Could be linebacker, could be, you know, on the edge. I have no idea. But I feel like Bras is too good of a player to not force his way on the field somehow.

[00:18:00]>> Yep.

[00:18:01]>> Yeah. I I completely agree and it's a great problem to have for Texas to have these versatile pieces waiting in the wings, but those ongoing competitions will drive this starting group as well to make sure that okay, I have to take game prep seriously and I have to perform well. It's to your point, if Germaine Bishop gets on the field and he performs the way that I think a lot of us are expecting him to perform, it just might just be as simple as he's too good to take off the field.

[00:18:28]>> I agree with that. Um, all right. Let's thank our sponsor over at Prize Picks.

[00:18:32]We appreciate them sponsoring this edition of On Texas Football. If you're not picking with Prize Picks, folks, you're doing yourself a disservice. Now, every possession matters, every at bat matters. You're locked in from start to finish. You're not just watching anymore. You've got a little juice in the game. And the best part is it's easy. You're picking more or less on player stats, build your lineup, submit it, and you're done. It's really fun because you can mix and match across different sports. Pick your favorite player on your favorite team and match that with basketball, baseball, hockey, golf, whatever is on. Uh, that's what I love about it, too. It's available in all 50 states, including right here in the great state of Texas. So, if you haven't jumped in yet, now is a great time to do it. Like I said, if you're not picking with prospects, you're doing yourself a disservice. It makes your sports viewing, sports watching experience just that much better. So, download the app right now. Use the code HMA and you can play five bucks and they'll give you $50 in lineup instantly. The code is HMA. Five gets you 50. It's just that simple. And as always, play smart, play responsibly, play prize picks. All right. Uh before we get out of here, any any specialist we should talk about in competition? I feel we disrespecting like Tom Herman on this joint.

[00:19:36]>> Maybe just a little. Right. And I only say that look, I know that I've been a big proponent of no freshman specialists, but I couldn't help but ignore just how much Jeff Banks really liked to talk about Mikey Picowskis, the freshman punter out of Prosper. And again, I we saw freshman punter two years ago not go the way that Texas wanted. Obviously, they'd then go out and get Jack Boomster out of the portal from Utah, but there's just something that we've consistently heard about Mike Picowskis that makes me think, okay, it's not a foregone conclusion that he's completely absent this year. So, we'll see.

[00:20:11]>> Uh, with all due respect to our resident Westlake homer, Hank South, uh, I need Spencer Barnett to stay the kickoff guy because I need Gio Speed to not just win that kicking job. I need him to have a strangle hold on it to where there's never a doubt. If you get to a certain point on the field, you got to feel like, okay, we at least got three points right here. So, I just want Spencer Barnett to stay on kickoffs because that means Gio Spec's doing his job.

[00:20:34]>> All right, J. Good stuff. I'm glad we didn't disrespect the specialist on that one. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, CJ.

[00:20:39]Thank you to Matthew behind the scenes.

[00:20:40]And thanks to each and every one of you out there for watching and for listening. Thanks to our sponsors, prize picks as well for CJ and Jeff. I'm Lifetime Longhorn Rod. Until next time, hook them homes. Hey guys, Blake Monroe here from Coffee and Football. YouTube thinks that you're going to like this video right here. And if the algorithm knows ball, it's a good one. So, go check it out. And then don't forget hit that like and subscribe button.