* Isaiah Bond just can't get right, Although the door isn't totally shut on Bond suiting up this weekend, the vibe behind the scenes on his high ankle sprain aren't positive. "I just don't think we're going to get the guy we need for the rest of the season," a team source told me Thursday night. "It's not two steps forward, three steps back, but it's probably two steps forward, two steps back all the time.
* I poked around on the pending Draft decisions that Bond and Matthew Golden will make after the season and I was given indications that concrete decisions haven't been made. There have been pretty widely-accepted assumptions that Bond would always be a one and done guy, but Bond hasn't been right since Dallas in early October. While there's nothing so wrong with his stock that a 4.3 time at a Pro Day couldn't lift up, one person with knowledge of his injury and NFL expectations admitted that he came to Texas to have the big season that could launch him into the first round and that's simply not what has happened. Everything seems to be in a wait and see mode for the receivers.
* "Very business-minded" is how the Longhorns were described to me on Friday morning from a team source. "Having been in the playoff last year has made this week feel very normal. Sark has them very prepared for this exact moment."
* The vibe on Kelvin Banks seems good.
* The vibe on Quinn Ewers would seem to indicate that nothing magical has happened in the time off from an injury management standpoint since the SEC Championship, but he's getting a little better with every day that has passed. Fingers are crossed, but there's hope he's about to play his best football. "It's the hope that kills you," one source jokes on Friday. "I think he just needs a rocket-ship of confidence injected into him. He can be a streaky shooter, but if he can catch fire, this team knows it can do this. My concern is that he never fully gets his strut back."
* There's definitely some anxiety over what in what Ewers is going to do after the season. It's just a thing that's in the air and it's not a fun talk.
* I was told by someone that sees the Texas defensive backs on a daily basis that the group is eagerly anticipating playing the very talented Clemson wide receiver unit. "These guys are excited by the challenge," the source said on Thursday night. "This is a chance for those guys to put some resume tape together. They love that."
