On Texas Football: What do the Longhorns need to improve on as they move to SEC in 2024?
On the latest video episode On Texas Football’s Saturday Conversations with Paul, Inside Texas’ Bobby Burton and Paul Wadlington discuss the Longhorns’ needs in recruiting and in the transfer portal as it heads into the Southeastern Conference in 2024 and throw a little friendly shade on their longtime rivals at Texas A&M.
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The first order of business for the duo, both of whom are Texas exes, was to chide the Aggies for the announcement of a “maroon out” for their game against Mississippi State on Nov. 11 in College Station.
Burton called the Aggies the gift that keeps on giving.
“If you happen to know anything about college football, you know that not only is Texas A&M maroon, but so are the Mississippi State Bulldogs,” he added. ”So is this going to be a home game effectively for Mississippi State as well?
“They can’t have thought this through and still thought this was a good idea. It’s not humanly possible, right?”
Wadlington suggested that A&M also ring cowbells in during the game – that’s another of Mississippi State tradition – and added that the announcement was one of the most “Aggie” things ever.
“This is the equivalent of hosting LSU and telling everyone to dress in their best safari gear and Tiger out,” Wadlington said. “I just love Aggies, man. They’re great.”
Despite the joking, Burton and Wadlington understand that when it comes time to play Texas A&M again beginning in 2024, it will be serious business.
“Everybody’s got to step up and try to play their best the day after Thanksgiving because that really matters,” Burton said. “I grew up in that and wanted that to be a part of my life and I still want to be that way. So while we can poke fun of them, there’s also another element of that, that we need to be able to respect them whenever it comes time to get on the field in 2024.”
Burton and Wadlington took a macro look at what positions they think Texas needs to look at from a recruiting perspective in the 2024 class as it relates to going into the SEC, including where the Longhorns are strong and where they needs to focus and improve on.
“You can’t really expect recruits to be immediate impact players in certain positions,” Burton said. “You have to develop some guys and some guys will come in and fill needs when the players from this year’s team move on to the next level.”
Wadlington said it would behoove the Longhorns to dive into the transfer portal at some positions, most notably at tight end.
“I think Texas has to go get a portal tight end, you know, go like let’s start out doing our scouting on Iowa or Notre Dame’s two-deep right now and go find their freshmen that they’re developing, or whoever,” he said. “I think we’ve got to get someone to replace to Ja’Tavion Sanders. I’m not disrespecting the guys that we have on campus but I just don’t think that they’re the type of 1A tight end that you’re going to want to integrate in your offense who really represents a threat not only as a receiver but a blocker.”
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There’s plenty more to glean from the video so you owe it to yourself to go watch it in its entirety.
