Anwar Richardson, who covers Texas for OrangeBloods, tells McElroy & Cubelic what questions face the Longhorns as fall camp gets underway
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The question is, as you said, it's got to go from four to eight. I think they can do that. It would be hard not to get better considering how bad they were on the offensive line last year. Now, their schedule actually feels harder this year than it was last year. Search for the Rich Eisen Show on YouTube or wherever you listen. This Chalks 94.5 podcast is brought to you by Millennium Satellite and Video. Log on to msbnow.com. TV excellence everywhere. That's Millennium.

McElroy and Kublik in the morning starts now. Hour number two, McElroy and Kublik in the morning, Wednesday, July 31st, right here on JOX 94.5. Some quick baseball scores from last night. Yankees take down the Phillies in extra innings, 7-6. That's two in a row now.

Judge three for four last night. Sixty eighth game of the season that he's been on base fastest Yankee to do that. Jazz Chisholm, two home runs again. First player in Major League Baseball history to have. Stay with me now. Multiple, multiple home run games in their first three games with an individual franchise.

Three for six, two home runs, drove in five last night. Braves take down Milwaukee 5-1. They get to 57-49. Dodgers go down to the Padres 6-5. They're now 63-45 on the season. Jack Flaherty picked up from Detroit, though, Greg. Does that excite you? Yeah. Bolsters the bullpen. I looked at his numbers yesterday. Pretty good. I mean, win-loss not great, but sub-3 ERA.

We'll take it. Okay. We will take a little conversation about the Texas Longhorns with Anwar Richardson, who joins us now on the Buyer's Right Hotline. Practice opening up today. What's your biggest question that you feel like you can get answered in fall camp, Anwar, that you might not be so sure about with this Longhorn team right now?

Well, good morning to you guys. Thanks for having me on. I would say the biggest question, the thing that I'll be looking at probably the most as we kind of get started is centers around the interior of that defensive line.

Texas did a very great job against the run last year. It is mainly because of Byron Murphy and Tavondre Sweat, their two defensive tackles. Well, Byron Murphy was a first-round pick in his last NFL draft, and Tavondre Sweat was a second-round pick.

replacing that kind of productivity. And you guys know, I know you guys watched a lot of games, especially the Alabama game as disruptive of a force as those two guys were saying that, Hey, I don't know. We're at a plug and play as far as saying next man up, as far as that is position is concerned. I know Texas is going to put in Alfred Collins. I know they're going to put in Vernon Broughton. I know they brought in some guys through the transfer portal itself, but

That being said, that's probably my biggest question mark going into the season is like, what does that look like? And it kind of flows into maybe what the second thing, which I won't be able to see as much in training camp is concerning really well.

know what it looks like until the season gets started. Pass defense though, this is a pass defense that was ranked about $1.16 last year. There were six games, Greg and Cole, last year where Texas gave up 300 or more passing yards in a game. And then of course there was the Washington game

where all of a sudden the Pennics hit the God mode button in that game and went for over 400, right? So the thing is, I understand, like, if you go to the NTSCC, this is one of those leagues that you may be able to get away with a couple of things in the Big 12, but this is a league that, hey, you can get exposed real quickly, really good coaches, really good players. So those are probably the two things. And, of course, you know, if you have the front end –

getting the quarterback pressure that helps the back end. So the two kind of intertwine, and I think that's going to be the biggest question mark for me. What about the weapons? Because I know last year we know what the roles were. I'm still bullish on all the guys that they brought in, but there are new faces, and sometimes it maybe takes time to develop that rapport and trust that Quinn Ewers had with the previous three. Is there any reason for concern there?

With the amount of guys that are now going to be wearing Texas uniforms for the first time in the receiver corps?

What's so fascinating about that question, and it's a good one, right, is that Steve Sorkisian, during SEC media days, said this is the deepest team that he's had in his four years that he's been here, which is crazy to me because, to your point, when you start talking about weapons, Texas had three receivers that were drafted recently. Obviously, I take it back in April. Then they also had a tight end that was drafted as well. So, I don't know.

I don't know how easily replaceable that they are. Now, don't throw in Isaiah Bond, who transfers in as some of the transfer guys that you're mentioning. Silas Bolden comes in from Oregon State, and he had a really good run that was out there. They have the incumbents as far as a John Tate Cook is concerned. They have a former five-star receiver by the name of Ryan Wingo that

If you want to be the smartest man in the room, just take a mental note of him, write him down. And then two years from now, everyone will tell you how smart you were. Like, how did you know who the hell this guy is? But he's a stud in the making that they absolutely just love, covet. I've done a lot of NFL comparisons that have been made towards him. So they feel like they have a lot of guys. You know, we were talking yesterday about,

I think it was Kyle Flood, who's also the offensive coordinator, but also he's also the offensive line coach. He said that they would probably rotate nine guys.

at the first and second team wide receiver position because they feel like they are that deep. So you'll see nine guys rotating between first and second team at least in training camp. So they feel really good about the depth that they have. And they also feel really good about having the quarterback with Quinn Ewers because they have a guy who's year three in the system that he should be comfortable by now. You know, he's going to be at least –

top three in the SEC. You know, you go with the guy from Georgia, you got Milrow there, and Quinn, you were like, he'll be at least in that conversation.

So when you've got the quarterback, you've got a bunch of good receivers. Steve Sarkeesian feels like they have a lot of depth at that position, and they have the system that everybody should be comfortable in. I don't know how easily it is to replace an Xavier Worthy, but the thing that they've said is that they're not necessarily replacing players. They're replacing the productivity from those players, and they feel like they have enough to replace the productivity.

Amar Richardson covers the Texas Longhorns. He joins us now on the Buyer's Ride Hotline. Camp opens today for the Longhorns. And you mentioned defensive line, the middle of it, obviously a big question because some extremely talented players being gone. A couple players back in the secondary, but it wasn't very good last year. What are your expectations for how much better it could be or just how much different it has to be for Texas to compete for another title?

Hey, yeah, you know, they have to be better, you know, like I said, from a consistency standpoint. You know, we saw the defense play well, for instance, let's say against Alabama, right? Like you saw like how well they played well against them. But then you saw them play against like Houston and they had trouble with just like the crossing route and how did they defend that. They gave up big yards against TCU. They gave up big yards against Kansas State. And so, yeah, they feel like they have guys

who can come in and compete right away not not compete that will be better than the guys that they lost right they feel like at the cornerback position they have a guy like malik muhammad who they were very high on uh as far as he is concerned from the safety position they have a guy by the name of derrick williams again another person that they're really high on as well um

They were able to bring in Javion Cole from the transfer portal. They were able to bring in Andrew Makuba from Clemson in the transfer portal. So they feel like overall they've gotten better at that position. They feel like they've upgraded that position, and they feel like they have a lot of young talent that's there. So they feel like it's almost going to be addition by subtraction. They lost some guys, but they feel like the guys that they have are actually going to potentially be better than the guys that they had there previously.

I think the thing that helps out Texas is if you look at their schedule, when you look at the first four games, outside of that Michigan game, which is going to be the toughest game, obviously, in that first four, they have games where a lot of guys should be able to get playing time. And so because of that, they feel real confident that –

they can, all these guys can get better. They open up against Colorado State, Michigan the following week, but then they have UTSA the week after Michigan, and then they have La Monroe the week after that. That should be, they feel like once they get out of that first four, they should have an idea of

of who can cut it, who cannot cut it. They'll play a lot of guys, at least in three out of those four games. I'm not expecting them to be able to go super deep against Michigan because obviously that's going to be a good game, a competitive game. But the other three, they feel like they should be able to get their bearings before they go into SEC play.

What about how this team has kind of ebbed and flowed? And I feel like this has kind of been lost because most of the nation has paid very, very close attention to Texas in performances against Oklahoma State, which is a big number, Oklahoma, which is a big number. They had so many self-inflicted mistakes in that game. The Alabama game, they looked like a juggernaut. But I think people are kind of forgetting how they looked offensively against Iowa State, how they looked defensively.

Both sides of the ball against TCU, how they played against Kansas State. And I feel like this team really, since Sark took over, has ebbed and flowed and kind of increased or decreased their level of consistency based on the opponent. So are they going to be able to continue to do that? And is that a trend that you've noticed as well?

I mean, you left out Wyoming. I mean, it was 10-10 heading into the fourth quarter. That was a bit of a look ahead. That was a look ahead, though. That one I can forgive. Week one look ahead. Like, that one makes us crazy. No, no, that was week three. Oh, no, that was week three. You're right. That was week three. Yeah, that was a hangover. They looked bad in week one, too, to be honest with you. They looked bad in week one. I forget who it was against.

That was right. Yeah, right. So to your point, though, there has to be that kind of consistency. To your point, and I've made this point as well, so I'm totally agreeing with you, is that I feel like the good teams go out and they handle their business. Now, Texas will tell you at the end of the day we pulled out the win, and whether it's a pretty win or an ugly win,

It doesn't count anymore. But that's in the Big 12 is my thing. I think in the SEC, you're not going to be able to rise and fall based on who you're playing.

Yeah, 100%. I still agree with you. They do feel like, though, they do get up for the big games, and they feel like every game that they play in the SEC will be a big game. So they feel like they'll get up for the Georgias of the world. They feel like they'll get up for the Floridas of the world. They'll feel like they'll get up for all the big games that are on the schedule this year. You know, for them, there are times where –

They get into a lull because it's hard to get excited about the TCUs of the world, even though they should. It's hard to get excited about the Baylor's of the world, even though they should or Iowa state. But I think we can agree that when you know that Georgia is coming to town, you're definitely going to get pumped up for that. When you know Florida's coming, when you know you got to go on the road against Arkansas, what that team did to you just a couple of years ago to really embarrass you. And then, you know, you've got Kentucky, then, you know, you got Texas A&M and

I think the ability to get up for those games. And we know when Texas gets up for games, sure. We saw what they did against Oklahoma State in the Big 12 championship game. I know you said the Big 12. We saw what they did on the road against Alabama, beating that team by double digits, right? So we know that they can compete against SEC programs. We know they can beat SEC programs. So I think for them...

The thing is, is knowing that every single week, though, good coaches, good quality opponents, you can't look at a Mississippi State and shoulder shrug because we know what will happen against a team like that. You can't look at Florida, wherever they may be, at whatever time they play them in November.

and look at if they're a 500 team, you can't shoulder shrug them or Arkansas or anything like that. I think the SEC will take care of itself as terms of motivation because Texas doesn't want to be embarrassed in any of these games, and they still walk out like they have something to improve. Anwar, great stuff. Really appreciate the time taking a look at this Texas team before they hit the field today, and obviously we'll have you back again soon, but thanks for carving out a little bit this morning.

All right, you guys take care. There you go. M.R. Richardson joining us on the Buyer's Right Hotline for all your insurance needs. Look to Buyer's Right Insurance. A member of the WRM group where relationships matter. So there are a few questions.

around this Texas football team. Amar, by the way, at Amar Richardson, follow him on Twitter, covering UTFootballfororangebloods.com. Some we feel like answered. Some maybe not as concerning as they are for a lot of other people. Don't let your HVAC system be a concern, especially this time of the year.

We'll be right back.

There's an SEC coach that had something to say that some people think may have been directed at one of his SEC coaching counterparts. We'll let you hear who it was and what he said next on McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubelik in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than a player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Jock Gap or wherever you get your podcasts.

When you have sports mixed with your pop culture, along with humor and celebrity interviews, your earbuds are enjoying the Rich Eisen Show. Good to see you, Bruce Feldman. The Big 12 landscape, I just know how Dion is, where he's coming from. His wins are measured differently. The question is, as you said, it's got to go from four to eight. I think they can do that. It would be hard not to get better considering how bad they were on the offensive line last year. Now, their schedule actually feels harder this year than it was last year. Search for the Rich Eisen Show on YouTube or wherever you listen.

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