GRAPEVINE – The Cotton Bowl held a Texas Media Day at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center on Wednesday afternoon. Texas offensive coordinator Kyle Flood and defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski were the only assistant coaches who addressed the media. Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian and Ohio State’s Ryan Day will have a press conference on Thursday.
I decided to give you an early War Room instead of waiting until Thursday night to share everything I learned on Wednesday. In addition, I thought it would be a great time to share a few practice notes.
As a bonus, the OB staff will add more notes on Thursday night.
Here we go.
* I was told the staff is very happy about the focus and preparation of their team this week. One person said the players were comfortable with the game plan and were pumped through practice this week.
The staff believes the players are dialed in because it is one of the rare times Texas enters a game as the underdog. They have heard some experts predict Ohio State will blow out Texas. I was told, “This group has been focused all year long and doesn’t need billboard material as motivation. But I can’t lie, it doesn’t hurt.”
* Texas receiver Isaiah Bond has looked better this week than in a long time. The staff is optimistic this may finally be the week we see the Bond of old.
* In addition, I was told Texas right tackle Cam Williams has shown improvement. The staff is confident in backup tackle Trevor Goosby if Williams is unable to play. However, Williams is trending in the right direction.
* Safety Michael Taaffe is dealing with a minor shoulder injury, but it should not prevent him from playing against Ohio State.
* Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers is locked in, according to one person close to the situation. I was told Ewers has been extremely crisp in practice, and every pass has been on target.
* In addition, I was told this has been a rare week without dropped passes by receivers or errant throws.
* Kwiatkowski said Ohio State has three talented receivers, a good tight end, and two strong running backs. In addition, he praised Ohio State quarterback Will Howard.
* Kwiatkowski on his team’s pass rush this season:
“The guys have done a really good job this year of obviously finishing on the quarterback. We left a few out there last week. That was a really good, athletic guy that made us miss a lot. We just really need to do a good job of not necessarily … we always want to get the sacks, but we’ve got to get him [Howard] off the spot. We've got to affect him with hurries, hits, getting our hands up. We’ve got to do our best to make him uncomfortable when he drops back to pass.”
* He said Ohio State’s goal is to run the ball, but the Buckeyes have a balanced offense.
* Kwiatkowski on facing Ohio State’s talented receivers:
"It's no different. It's just you got faster, quicker guys who are bigger. Number 4 [Jeremiah Smith] is a big dude. Got to play with great eyes, got to play disciplined, with technique, and then got to do a great job getting these dudes on the ground. They're going to catch the ball. We have to do a good job of keeping the ball in front of us, get them on the ground, create some turnovers, get some stops, and anything they do get, we got to make them earn it."
* In addition, Kwiatkowski said:
“Every week it starts with stopping the run. We’ve got to do a great job leveraging blocks, getting off blocks, having good gap integrity, and tackling. From there, on first and second downs, being able to transition from the run mentality to getting into pass mode, out of our stances. If we can do a good job against the run, get them into third-and-longer situations, that’s more of a benefit to us.”
* Kwiatkowski on the acquisition of former North Carolina defensive tackle Travis Shaw:
“Big, athletic guy. He's got a lot of good upside. Talking to some of our coaches, talking to some guys that they know, he's got a lot of room for growth and development. He's a good dude with a good head on his shoulders, a good family.”
* I asked Kwiatkowski to give me his early impressions of 2025 DL Justus Terry, DE Lance Jackson, former Purdue defensive lineman Cole Brevard, and Arkansas linebacker Brad Spence, who are practicing with the team.
“Just helping out the scout team,” Kwiatkowski said. “No early thoughts. They haven’t done much. A little bit individual. We don't have as much individual work in practice as we do early in the year. They've been out there and they've been down giving the offense looks.”
* Kwiatkowski described Alex January as a freshman who has shown occasional bright spots during the 2024 season.
“He’s got to build. The little time he's getting out there, he's doing okay, but he's learning as he goes. It's a big, big difference between being the big dog in high school and then coming to Texas and learning the culture, learning the ways, the standards, and physicality. Everybody's big that he’s going against. He’s doing awesome. He’s a work in progress.”
Kwiatkowski said January is a guy they hope to lean on next season.
* Flood was asked how to prevent Ohio State from having the same success Georgia did against his offensive line and said:
“I don't look at it like that. The question is a fair question. I understand why you would ask that, but I don't see the game that way. To me, what does Ohio State do? How can we be really effective against them, because they've got different players. They've got a different scheme. Coach [Jim] Knowles [Ohio State defensive coordinator] isn't going to look at what Coach Smart did and say, 'We're going to change our defense so we can do what they did because they played well against them.' That's not really how it works. He's got a really good defense that he believes in. So for us, it's going to be a matter of, 'Hey, we got to make sure we're ready for what they do.' When they run their third-down blitzes, we’ve got to make sure that we ID them correctly. They do a great job with their pick stunts, with their line stunts; those are all things that are going to present challenges in this game for us.”
* Flood was asked how he decides when to play Cole Hutson or DJ Campbell and said it boils down to his feeling at the moment.
“I generally try to make sure Cole gets in the first half so that he's ready to go at whatever point, or whatever that combination of guys ends up playing. Cole ended up playing through the fourth quarter, and then DJ came back in and, over time, played the overtime. It’s really more of a feel thing for me, but the important thing for me is that they're both in the flow of the game so if something happens, they’re both ready to play.”
* I asked Flood if he could explain what happens to this offense in the third quarter, and he said it boils down to execution.
* In addition, I asked Flood, as an offensive coordinator, if Bert Auburn’s struggles have impacted their decision-making process on offense.
“I think you know that that's really Sark's decision. As the head coach, he's got to make those decisions. Third and fourth down, those are decisions that only a head coach can make. It doesn't affect how we game plan. We've got a lot of confidence in Bert. Bert’s also made a lot of kicks in his career for us, too. Again, we would have liked to have made those last week. He didn't make them. This is a new week. I know his focus has been on getting better. But again, ultimately, the decision about 'Do you go for it, do you not go for it?' Those are always the head coach’s decisions. And again, a little bit of that is the flow of the game.”
* I asked Flood why they have resisted signing an offensive lineman through the transfer portal and to explain the benefits of focusing on development. Flood let me know that the Longhorns are not opposed to acquiring an offensive lineman if that person is the right fit.
“I don't know that I’ve resisted it, but I do think at a place like Texas, you should be able to recruit the best high school players in the country,” Flood said. “This is an elite blue-blood program. That's what it's been for a long time. When I came here, coming from Alabama, where we had very good players, I felt like, 'Well, now we'd better recruit that level of play,' and I feel like we've been able to do that. If you're going to bring somebody in—which I think we're open to—that’s part of college football. I don't think you would ever want to say, 'I'm not going to do that.' That would be kind of silly. But we have to feel like it's going to be somebody that's really going to make a certain spot better and fit in with the other guys. Because it's a unique position where that offensive line group, they're not independent contractors. They have to all work together. Even somebody as talented and as accomplished as Kelvin is, he still needs to work really well with Hayden Conner and Gunnar Helm in the run game and in protections. I think it's got to be the right player and the right person, and if that ends up happening, certainly we wouldn't be opposed to it.”
* Flood on Torre Becton's impact within the program: "Torre and his staff are super important for the development of a team. Your strength coaches really have more access to your players over the course of the year than you do as a football coach, in terms of training and development. The reason it works is because of the communication. The communication between him and the
head coach, the communication between him and us, and assistant coaches in terms of what we need at each position for each player.
"It is not a one-size-fits-all program he has down there. They do an excellent job of training the players individually for the specific needs that they have. I think that Trevor [Goosby] is probably the best case to look at right now just because of the jump he's made since he's been with us."
