ALAMO AUDIBLE: Episode 296 - Recapping UTSA's 2026 Spring Game

[Music] What's up everyone, welcome to episode 296 of the Animal Auto Podcast. First time back in a little bit as beauty-assign has wrapped up their spring football cadence. This is your host, Jared Thomas, and I'm going to go skate to our comedies to recap the UTSA spring game. Adrian, how's it been? Hey, how's it going? Fantastic. It's going through on fantastic. Over here in sunny Soflo, do wish I could have attended the UTSA Fiesta football spring game. And, man, what fun competition sounds like it was. Sounds like it was a great turnout. Despite me not being able to be there, boots on the ground were still had from Alamo Audible company. By way of Commander-in-Chief Jared Kalmas, Jared, take us into the Alamo dome as far as environmentally. How was being at the UTSA football spring game? You've been to a lot over the years, 2026. Like kind of a like a what if year with UTSA coming off of two subpar 500 seasons. Like where's the energy gauge do you think spring game, you know, probably not like a great problem for that. How did you feel? You know, like how was it? I was getting the back of the action. How was the environment? How was the spirit? First off, I mean, I'll say that I did feel a little bit silly driving six hours of on trip to go to an hour long spring game. So if you had a flown in from Florida for that, I would have raised a lot of questions for me. But it was good to be back. I mean, it was my first spring game in the Alamo dome in like the longest time. I really don't even recall the last one I went to because they had a couple like just after wreck fields, you know, or race or whatever. And then they had the ones that Ferris. So you know, it had been a while since I had been out to spring game. So you know, it was nice to you know, get back to the stomping grounds there and you know, you kind of look at the carnival and the in-law see a Dernfiesta. And you can just imagine till getting coming back in a couple of months. So good to to wet the whistle of the ball a little bit. Pretty good crowd, pretty good turnout. I mean, I think they announced around 3000 people were there, which felt about right. I've definitely seen bigger crowds for spring games in there, but it was very respectable. I would say the crowd like wasn't all that into it because they really were not a lot of like big eye opening plays, right. There were maybe like three or four passes down the field, you know, it was a lot of kind of side to side. And you know, there's not like a lot of big hits on defense get fired up either because they're essentially just playing like tag. Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah. Yeah. So you know, the crowd wasn't too activated throughout. But you know, they keep the music go in. So you got something to tap your toe along to and yeah, it was just fine. Like that's I went up and met up with some friends. I was like, I thought I could start the game and they're asking how was it was fine. You know, it was just from game. It's a glorified practice. Yeah. Yeah. It was fine. But it was fine. It was all well. And Danny was sizable showing from the road runner faithful. And all of that is good and dandy and fun at that. But no, we had boots on the ground and that's important. I think and our love spring game a little bit different in the Alvados and back in the Alvado for I don't know maybe three years because there was one that I think I made it to that you had it made it to. So we've kind of flip flop for a couple of years. But it has been back in the Alvado for some time. Spring game now, like you say, Jared, one of those things that you don't want to read too much into, but it's our job to do exactly that. I think beyond just the things that everybody wants to know about who's starting who's doing what what's the team going to look like spring game doesn't necessarily answer too much of those questions for you. But I think there's a lot of other questions much further down the priority list that I think the spring game was maybe a loot to as far as things that are much more in the workings in the inner workings behind the scenes long term. Yeah, that kind of stuff and Jared always good at finding maybe through the muck what some of those shining talking points are what some of those pieces are. And so yeah, I think that's really what we need to do is try and dig out what we got out of the spring game, Jared in your watch and your live watch and review for it. Did you do a film study? Did you have any secret cameras going in and maybe I shouldn't be talking about this on the public feed? Did you have any camera? I don't know if they recorded. I didn't really see any social media posts of plays just other than like people's parents recording them from the stands kind of deal. Definitely definitely no film breakdown that I don't know how useful that would be, but I'm glad you mentioned all that because I always tell people I don't go to the spring game to see like how I'm a cow in this looking or how you know, Oh, and he was looking on there to see, you know, how does break a lot book how does what I'm trying to get some some deep cuts here branded young the transfer from North Texas the tight end, you know, kind of another guy that offered some good things about. You know, it's really those kind of dudes like the newcomers, the firms players, the young guys like that's where you you get some interesting observations and literally just seeing like what is their size look like in person, you know, because you can watch the huddle film and you can see what they're measured out and all that. But some guys it's just a bigger smaller and bad so yeah interesting there which you got a good bit of that because. Macau was sideline for the spring game right so you had a brand since a lot of max girlish we saw a lot of max girlish a few different quarterbacks out there ripping it around and so you got exactly sort of. That deeper cut long term depth piece who's going to be coming in at one of those positions that you TSA has never been able to quite know who's up next to bat so I guess that might be probably Jared the biggest thing did you feel like maybe. Behind Owen was there something to feel semi kind of confident about for a backup quarterback role you TSA was there anything there. For people that are just listening to the audio not watching the video i'm just like slowly shaking my head as I started to figure out what Adrian's asking me. God I should know no no how is the backup quarterback situation behind oh Macau Jared. So starting a high level I mean I tennis and look pretty solid he showed that he can very clearly execute the offense he was comfortable and pressure seemed like you knew the play calls you knew where to take the ball. Pretty good anticipation of the coverage of stuff like that he didn't hit all the throws but I think he has clearly shown that he's sort of visible as the backup Owen this year you know it's kind of spot spot situations and then I think girl like showed a lot of potential. I mean he had some really nice plays you know kind of moving in and out of the pocket keeping his eyes down field and he had to throw the day as well really nice go route to. I think it's TJ West that came down with that one so he had some good arm strength. His first and struggled a bit you know he was not super accurate. And him and girl like both were kind of missing receivers both like with their eyes and with their throws you know and use your release in tennis and make a lot of look those really like plus plays I would say like probably his best plays where the receiver you know made made a really impressive play against tight coverage and maybe his question will throw from tennis and so definitely didn't walk out of there feeling like we know with the future of the quarterback room looks like for you TSA. You know maybe girl like continues to prove and you know maybe one of these other guys takes a big step forward but yeah not not a lot of jaw dropping moments from the quarterback room without own and filled. Sure okay yeah yeah a lot of guys that were well one guy two guys that were service serviceable manageable to be things together but nothing explosive for that matter right I mean there was a really big shot from well not a big shot but a big play that was made from. Grant's in a will Henderson that was talked about a little bit that was 69 yard touchdown but it was really just sort of like a dump pass. Yeah actually it was more so the receivers that were getting the place. Yeah I did see a clip of that one again it was like someone's self in video from the stands and that one actually wasn't designed screen pass but they like just ran it so quickly because the defense brought the blitz so tennis ended a good job. I was getting up all out quickly and it was off the races and man to speed the Henderson showed on that play was amazing I mean who he's got that extra gear you know. But yeah I mean nothing not a lot of like arm skill needed to make that throw like but that's what impressed me about Tennyson is you just ran the offense pretty well right he didn't make a lot of like really bad decisions and was just steady consistent just. I didn't make those like check plus plus kind of place. All you want from your backup is to be serviceable right. Yeah and also to I mean I got there early enough to watch a pretty good amount of the war once before the game started and it was very clear in the tennis and was like the most experience just like how crispy is you know taking the snap and you know getting the ball out quickly and giving the balls to the receiver the right spot and all that he definitely showed a lot more polished than the younger dudes. Comfort is what I'm hearing you look a little more comfortable out there than they did yeah to so yeah okay okay that makes sense well that's all that's all finding honestly to be expected from the quarterback. I don't know how you could expect too much more than that having a somewhat serviceable backup and then just you've got a bunch of underclassmen. Jerry's still a lot about what's going to be out about but yeah, I mean guys. From I understand. Mates of throws and miss of throws from the quarterback room and there's really nothing much much to stellar beyond that. Yeah, a lot of under throws so I would say. This person did have a pretty good one where he kind of the pocket kind of collapse around him and he stepped up and he scrambled and he delivered a pretty accurate throw on the run. You know, probably like 20 yards down the food or so up at the defender made a really nice play to kind of get around the target and break that one up. And that would have been a really nice first October version from him, but you know he pretty much did only could on that play. Just you know good play from a strong UTSA secondary, which was probably the relief of the day with it was how solid this secondary was. Yeah, I think tennis and also had a nice throw to Miles Campbell. He had one that he kind of like kind of often between the two zones and he found Campbell wide open there for a nice game. I think that one actually set up a field court touched on for the offense, but. Yeah, pretty much it just not a very noteworthy day from from the Senate callers. Yeah, again, it's about what you would expect from from this group of quarterbacks and the room of quarterback the way the quarterback room was always looked here at UTSA. So in own we trust and only we will continue to trust here in 2020, which already mentioned a speed on Willie Henderson. So I mean, why don't we stay in the backfield, move over to the running backs, talk a little bit more about Willie Henderson in company, right? Who else saw out there? It's tough to evaluate a lot of positions in a spring game, but I think running back is one of the hardest ones, especially when they're essentially just doing like tag tackle, you know, there were a lot of plays where. You could see the running back would probably break the tackle and pick up a nice big game, but it was blown, you know, dead pretty quickly. You know, Henderson did not get a lot of touches and actually, Maureen Peterson didn't get too many either. Brennan high, I feel like I'm more touches than the other two. You know, from what we could see, I will say like the defensive front just to be expected just generally the spring game, but also for any UTSA team that defensive front was way deeper than the UTSA. It's a line, but the ones held up pretty well, but once you add down to the second string offensive line and past that is pretty rough, but there were some plays where they will be able to get a hole and, you know, for an in high or. TJ Andrews, JC Salatair, they were able to pick up some yardage. But yeah, you know, just not a lot of run plays in general for a for a no contact with conduct spring games to be expected. Of course, yeah, so feel like it's a room that you've got to be a little more optimistic about new TSA for your offense, the running back. They just they look good out there. I mean, they look very, very athletic, just their builds, you know, they look very physical. A branded high look very well rested, very like he looked like he has his tank was refilled, right. He pretty much set out all the last year. He got hurt pretty early in the season at Cal. So he was great to see him out, moving around very, very well. It meant a Mario Peterson, nice touch down catch. It was kind of like a flier out, check down route. And I as soon as tennis and release that ball, I thought it was going to be like an 80 yard pick six. Just like where that that safety or that corner was, but Peterson just kind of went up and snagged up all. And it's one thing for a receiver to make a play like that, but to see a running back do that was quite impressive. Just really strong hands from him. And he was able to take that in for an easy touchdown. So, you know, I think good return tennis and to see how much space was on front of that check down, but probably shouldn't have thrown it. Just don't worry that single defender was. But since Peterson was able to catch it over that defender, he ain't nothing but green grass and fun home for the score. Right, right. I guess I ideally tennis. I want to loft it a little bit and let Peterson go run to that ball versus trying to throw the needle there. But Peterson athletic enough to make the play either way. Yeah, what you're saying. Yeah, and it was a really athletic play. Yeah, yeah, it's a synthetic crew. One guy we got our first look at was TJ Andrews. He was the running back out of one of the north side schools. So Stevens, maybe I don't recall, but he was a guy that I kind of forgot about and then run it back room. Honestly, but he looked pretty good. I mean, he's very big. He's like a six one. See running back. He's a very. Taft. Thank you. I knew it was one of those red north side schools. He has like a very like vertical running style and it was really bothered me. Some like, man, I don't think you just have running back that runs like that before. I was really struggling to think of an example. I think at the pro level, like I think a Brandon Jacobs is like a comp that would make where they're like a taller back. They're pretty upright, but I guess they'll shift around pretty well. So it's interesting to watch out run. He definitely look at a different time back out there. It's a very crowded room. I don't foresee him getting a lot of touches this season. But he's a guy that should have watching you moving forward. Right. If he's able to keep a good weight, good speed. It can be a fun time of running back to watch. What do you got a few touches? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Okay. Well, it'll be interesting. You know, it's one of those things that we've talked about before on this podcast is Jeff trailers usage of running backs in terms of quantity. Right. He'll use a lot and sometimes we'll we'll even critique and send maybe we should use less. Less is more so see, you know, sometimes he'll play some guys at the spring game and then they'll end up blossoming and turning some heads and looking good. It is interesting that you say that you can't think of a parallel from TJ Andrews to any other former. Yeah, because he's a big guy, but I don't know if I would compare him to like some of the traditional power backs that you do say his head because he's not as like stocky as those guys. He's like a little bit longer, right? So yeah, just I don't know. He just looks different. What was that a good job of having running backs with different styles in the running back room and in the backfield. So we'll sort of see that continue here. You see what young guys, which young guys are going to be the next ones to take the leap here. So Jared beyond running backs, looking at people that were our skill positions, staying on skill positions, wide receivers, tight ends, anything nice there. But it plays you say that it was more so the guys making the catches that were making the plays rather than the guys that were throwing the ball. So yeah, it was a little bit of good stuff from the wide outs of the tight ends. You know, it's interesting because I'm sure like if we had official stats, it wouldn't look like the receivers had like this huge day, but I thought I walked away most impressed with the receivers. And I think that's because some guys that like we just don't know we don't know what to expect from them. They showed a lot of potential James Madison is probably my player the day in terms of like. It obviously will hit us and you know the best play with with a screen pass. Yes indeed. But James Madison's guy who has not really played at all in college, right? He said the bench in Missouri and it was a high level recruits. You never know what these guys like are they a total bust and like, you know, they just don't have it or do they just need a chance to shine right and from Madison, it looks like the latter watching him and warm up. So I was very happy with like how smooth he was like coming in and out of his cuts. And then also the way they just caught the ball right. Very graceful strong hands, you know high point of a ball. And he didn't let the ball like come into his body right. So I was very surprised because I thought he would be kind of like a sloppy player and that's maybe what he didn't see the field of Missouri. But I didn't see that at all from him at this ring game. They really made him a focal point of the offense. They clearly wanted to see what he could do with the lights on. Yeah, but he was definitely up to the challenge very physical. He looks the part. I mean, he looks like a power for receiver. No doubt. He's a speed, you know, I really, the handful of really nice plays from him. So I think he's definitely going to be the mix. Come to fall. Now, historically, if we look at players who had big spring games and ended up never showing it in live action. Receiver is always the position where there's like that one or two dude that just goes crazy in this spring game. And he never hear from them again. So, you know, let's hold on. Of course, this little bit, but I think both with him and TJ West, the Texas Tech receiver, you see that pure talent, right? Like what got the level TJ West, we mentioned earlier, he had probably the best catch of the day. Was that one from girl like that through, you know, towards the sideline, got him into the red zone, got to feel well for the offense. But he made, he had made that exact same catch and warm ups. I saw him make that and I was like, OK, like that's nice and warm. And then a hour later, he does that exact same thing in the game, you know, over the shoulder, one foot down, fall down a balance comes out with the completion. So again, you know, with these kind of speedster guys, the part for level, you always wonder what are their hands like? Were they not playing much because they were dropping passes and practice, you know, were they not able to get open? So see those guys go make big plays with was really nice because like I said earlier, the secondary look really good. I mean, they were really putting those guys in tough positions. So a lot of these plays that Madison and when West made it's not like they were wide open, you know, just good coverage, but they made it to go play to, you know, check plus plus, you know, not like I said for the quarterbacks. So TJ West. Pretty acrobatic James Madison, very sure handed. Sounds like both guys highly athletic. It's funny that you throw that cab the asterisk on there that you did about. spring game whiteouts, you know, showing one thing within pinning out to be another. Because as you were kind of getting into your coverage, your spiel on James Madison, I was going to say, I was like, whoa, it sounds like this was the deep cut here. This sounds like this may have been the gym, the gym find maybe for Jared Kalmerson, the spring game. At least in the way that I think there was a little bit of an admiration in your tone, whenever you were talking about watching him catch the football. So that's exciting. That's extremely exciting. Trying to think back of a former road runner, so you have really nice spring games and we got our hopes for you know Greg Campbell was one of them. Greg Campbell every year, he would show out in the spring game and he never really showed on the field until senior year. He had a really really good season. Right. All things considered with how bad the offense was that year. That's one of the best single season performances from receiver. It took a while for that opportunity to come. Right. Another guy I can think of is Dan and Kaville would always look pretty good in spring games. Because he was, you know, just like some of these guys, he was a six foot three power for transfer. And then whenever you're in a spring game, you're going it's a third string cornerback. You're just going to totally moss that kid. Right. So you do have to keep in mind that aspect of it, but you know, you two say corners are so deep this year that like that third string they're going against on the quarterback room also powerful transfers. So right. Right. Well, that's good. Why don't you go. It's only pretty exciting position. Yeah. McCoy Anderson got loose a couple of times. He had one that he got a ton of separation against Xavier Walton on a go route. And I can't remember who the quarterback was on that one, but they under threw him pretty bad. And Walton was able to recover and could have passed break up to force to turn over on down. So on that one. And then AJ Wilson had one really nice catching run to send up a red zone attempt as well. David Amitou was out there a lot, but you didn't get a lot of targets, which, you know, kind of makes sense. He you know what you got with him. Yeah, that makes absolute sense. I'm fine with that. Because he was out there. Yes, we're seeing about them. And then for the Titans, I mean, they just they played a lot of dudes. I mean, they probably had four or five guys. Got a lot of dudes to play. I know. So it was. It was hard to try to get a sense for the separation between all of them and kind of who's in the lead. Brandon Young got the start. We had heard some good things about him from spring practice. So another potential gem. We'll see I think she out. I don't really remember a lot of place from him. Good or bad from the spring game. But Miles Gampels had that one big completion that I said earlier. I think that was like a 20 yarder. And then Isaiah Butler Tanner actually got opened a few times, which I wasn't sure what to expect from him. Because he's such a big guy. You know, former former tube weight even supplement. Yes. So he was able to get open a few times in the quarter of extra like didn't really place the ball well. So that was cool. Because he was kind of like cardiness out there just like this massive dude that somehow gets left wide open. So let's see on that. Definitely looks like I just let that ends a lot this year. We didn't really talk about that at the beginning to the office just looking very similar to last season. Doesn't not look like they implemented a lot of changes yet. Still always to go until you to your GV for sure. But still a lot of a lot of 12 personnel. They even have like four tight ends on the field for a push bush. Interesting. Yeah, same same same old in that regard. But I. It's so early to tell, but I will be shocked if this group of tight ends is good is what you to use this add to past two years. Because that was like a super super super deep and stronger. Okay. So for the highlight of the day, wide receivers and tight ends as well getting some shine there. What did the hogs look up front Jared offensive line? You know against spring game and. And Tancy wise we talked about there's. Minimal tackling. How about in the trenches? You know is a little scrapier in there at least. Yeah, no, definitely a bit more scrappy there. I mean they're going full speed in the trenches there. The first string offensive line was fine. There were some plays where when it was good on good, you know, once on one like tennis. It did have a pretty good amount of time to sit back in the pocket. And a lot of times whenever the pressure got to him, whether it was a sack or just throw away. It was like more of a coverage stack than anything. So I thought that first string offensive line held up pretty well. But man, once you got to that second string line, it was tough. Because you might as dude sitting out for the first string, right? Jalen Garth was unavailable. DeAndre Marshall was also unavailable. So that's two potential starters that you're down right there in both of them. Maybe tackles this year. I don't know. So that first string offensive line is already like a one and a half string. And then you get down in like now your second string is a two and a half string. Third string is a three and a half string. So it was pretty tough because like the defensive line is so stout and so deep that, you know, honestly like a one point. I was out there watching like third string offensive line going against a division to all American. It's like this just not fair, right? So that's really tough just like the amount of depth that you're able to accumulate on the defensive line is a lot more. That on the offense, but you know, the fact that the first string held up. Okay, I think is what matters the most. Honestly, you have to have to go pretty, pretty poorly to end up with a starting lineup that looks like what you saw for the second string and spring game. I think probably the most encouraging thing was Amarie and Berlin starting at right tackle. He's a super massive pressure freshman that you just ever predicted had his Bergman specific. Which I'll always remember because suddenly Mrs. Backyard is like six foot nine. And he looked good. He had really good bend for his size. He was able to get a pretty nice pass protection set. You know, he's been pretty well and you know, I'm sure he gets a place that he let up and I was watching on pretty closely periodically. And he was always like holding on pretty well. There were some times they said to you guys at him on the blitz and I could see some hesitation there. You know, he might have let it go past one of those, but you can't block two guys at once. Kind of is what it is, but was happy to see that. That was like probably the shining spotlight of the off the blind for me. Okay. We've seen offensive lines get rather hobbled before Jared. So let's just knock on wood as a car right up there. Yeah. So with your like overall temperature on the offensive line going into this season. I think whenever we spoke in the past, just in general term, I think it was okay. Not not like amazing, but not bad. Yeah. Is it sort of. Remain at that point after the spring game. Do you feel better? Do you feel worse? Where is your overall temperature on the offensive line for 2026 right now? I think probably about the same. I mean, Luke warm is too cold, but it's not fully warm either. I mean, okay. It's fine. I don't know. Trying to think of a good liquid temperature. Take a chance. Luke warm. I think I think I think you kind of nailed it with. Warm and Luke warm somewhere in between. Sure. And that's okay. I think that's something that you can be comfortable with at least to start the season on and see which direction it heads. I don't know being a little better than that. You can have a really good backfield. You're going to have a quarterback that's smart with the ball who's going to be healthy and hopefully can scramble a little bit this year. You're probably going to get two to three veterans become healthy as you approach the start of the season. You know, I think they'll be okay. Are there going to be a dominant unit, probably not. Do they have many all conference players on that line, probably not. But I think they'll hold up. Okay. You're saying that don't need to be because the skill positions that they've got. And so that's okay, right? A bend, but don't break off its problems. All they need to be. I mean, especially if they're playing at a very fast tempo, like it sounds like they plan to and they're able to keep the chains rolling with like quick pickups to the passing game and stuff like that. No, they're not being asked to go plow through the middle of the defense, you know, every two through plays. So I think that'll help them play the strengths. Well, on the other side of that is how good is your defense and can you lean on your defense enough to be able to take care of that and. It sounds like the defense was more so of the shining star at the spring games that more or less correct Jared. They would have played head for sure. I know like the custom scoring or whatever they call it shows like a seven to seven time, but. I mean, I think most people that were the game would stay pretty comfortably that the defense was well ahead of the offense. And I think that's just a matter of depth, right? Like it was hard for me to tell. It part of that is only players too, but it was really hard for me to tell just in terms of quality play. In terms of physicality in terms of speed. When the second string third string was that just because like they've got athletes like kind of up and down that roster. So you know, will they play cohesive? Will they not make mental mistakes? Etc. Etter that remains to be seen, but in terms of like from an athleticism of this quality standpoint really liked what I saw. And again, I just want to say that the secondary was the bright spot for sure. We heard that they feel really good about the cornerbacks. And you can see it. I mean. I'm having a hard time remembering any like truly negative play from a cornerback where they left a guy like what open really. There wasn't interception like I call back on a offsides. That was one of the chavon brothers grab that one. Yeah, just super strong super strong. Great to see CJ Lester back out there. You know, he was he had a sit out last year because he had a hard issue. And he played really strong really. I was I he has another guy's watching really closely. He played very well about chavon brothers were locking it down. Nate Robinson made a great play at safety. He came downfield and was one of those plays where if he would have had a little bit soft and reticle, the receiver probably would have been leaned forward and get the extra inch for the first down. But he was able to hold them to a fill bowl attempt or a punt or something like that. And then Xavier Walton as well, just covered a lot of ground. Very fast, dude. He had that play where he got beat. He was able to recover. He was able to find where the receiver is at, get his eyes in the football, adjust, get his hands up, break the play. So that was pretty good safety play there. So most impressive group of the day for you, the secondary and UTSA's defense. And some of that is the nature of this run game, you know, where it's not full contact and all. But yeah, I mean, they looked the part for sure. Wow, it's wonderful. And even though UTSA's wide receivers were the best part of the offense, the secondary, so the group of the day. That's a lot of good points from the receivers. They were covered, right? Right. Just made a good, I see. Yeah. Okay. So what other unit on the defense then played extremely well. That's fantastic to hear about the secondary and the quarterbacks quarterbacks and secondary is one of those positions. We're always unsure of it seems like every single year, at least in the off season. And then they always end up being a little bit better than sure. We thought they were going to be. They always end up holding themselves up and being pretty solid, but we're never quite confident in them in the off season. So it seems like maybe we might have a little bit more than that this year than we had in your strike. Yeah. So I think the depth of safety is still pretty unknown. Like I was waiting to see how guys like George Dickerson would do. Elijah Newell would do. I didn't see them get tested a whole lot. But you know, if you think of like who was playing at quarterback, like just not the experience and the arm strength to like really test those guys really, really hard on field. So that probably helped them, you know, not get exposed if, you know, they were having some issues, right? Okay. Yeah. In terms of other unit that I really liked, I thought the interior linebackers looked really good. And that's a position on paper. There's a lot of question marks, you know, not really sure what to expect. But a ton of guys there looked really good. Say a Sunday got the starting middle linebacker because the cow, I think cow you see the transfer and he looked pretty good. See James Wally, man, he's a big dude, really big dude to linebacker. He had one play that he blitzed on. I mean, it was intimidating for sure. He was able to get the quarterback forced to get his person to roll out of the pocket. And I think that was a throw away or something like that. And then there were a few plays where the interior linebackers just read the play really well and it was able to break through for a tackle for loss. Very vanilla offense, right? So, you know, it's easier to, you know, make this kind of jumps and reads and all that when all pins are running at kind of place. But Jamari Vincent had one of them. He had a pretty good speed, pretty good burst, pretty good, pretty good quickness. Brayden Lot had one as well. He looked pretty good out there for a young guy. You know, if you think back to some of our recruiting content that we did, he was the one guy where his junior year, I wasn't that high on him. But then when the senior film came out, he showed a lot of growth and he added a lot of backload of the system. Really like what I saw from him out of there. Again, pretty tight room. Only two guys can play. You know, one side, I don't know how much we'll see if I'm this year. But he's one of those guys that, you know, file away for the future, show it's a progress. And a walk on, I'm going to give him a shout out to Lane Rogers, I think, is from Cal Allen, I think. I can't remember which school he walked on from. But he was very active out there when he got on the field at the end of the game. Just really moving around side on the design line. I hit another big tackle for lots of force, support the long for the offense and he had a little juice up there as well. So he caught my eye. Nice to hear. Sounds like some monsters up there. The backers and secondary combined, pretty ferocious there with the defense, I think, just two really, really strong units. And those are going to be like kind of the cornerstone for UTSA. I think that needs to be really, really good for 2026 road runners. So a really, really good season. That's good. That's good. Janssen. We've got some good names. It sounds like veterans and newcomers to look forward to in that lineback in group. Take us up front, defensive line. So a lot more pressure than what we're seeking in games last year. But also that's the second string, third string offensive line. They're going against on a lot of plays. So we have to take that a consideration. I think just from a stature standpoint, the interior of the line is smaller than last year, whereas the edge is a lot bigger. So I think you average them out and like the size is pretty good. But like Elijah Baldwin and Dylan Spencer and what's the ball and green ones like Colin, Archipago or something like that. Oh man, those guys, they look real good getting off the bus for sure. A lot of a lot of lanes, a lot of muscle, just big, big, big dudes. So as you know, compared to the guys they had playing at that will linebacker position last year. It's a huge upgrade. And Baldwin looked good. I mean, I have high expectations for him. And you know, he's showed up in the spring game. He can kind of fly off the edge. He's got really good length. He had one pressure on Curly that I think led to a punt, I believe. And that was against the other first team offensive line. So he looked at the park for sure. He was moving. He was Ruben. And then on the end here, you know, it's so hard to tell from just watching one time from up the stands in a spring game. But they look really deep there. I mean, whatever, you know, and just like we're used to with the UTSA, like they're going to rotate on the deep. It's a line. So whenever they did go, you know, to what I think is probably the third string right now, they just looked ready to go a little bit on the short side, I would say. But they had good technique and they were very active. You don't see too many guys can push around. But again, pretty limited off the line. So tough to to full gauge out. Yeah, what you liked what you saw even from those dead pieces. Yeah, I said so. What do you think about offense and defense together those two units? What about like? And kind of what they would do it in. But like areas, big areas that you think might still need to be addressed on any of those specific position groups. Are you as a concern? Yeah, hard to pick anything out on defense. I was like particularly negative because like I said, the score was 77, but the defense like really won the day in my book. I think you know, definitely offensive line is always a constant for sure. But just according to my play, I just don't think that room right now is ready for a post open Macau in future. Oh, that's it. That's the biggest one. It's not a matter of being worried about who's going to be all Macau's backup quarterback in 2026. It's a matter of being worried about who's going to succeed. Oh, Macau. After 2026. No, we have no idea. That's friendly. Yeah, I hope I'm wrong. And one of these guys takes a huge step forward. But I don't think that guys on the roster right now, just people. And it's one of those positions that you think if it's that right guy, you can tell pretty right away. You'd hope so. Right. Yeah. But I would say, I mean, I've seen a lot of improvement from Tennyson. So if you continue on that trajectory, that's good. But just from a physical standpoint, you so short, his person's really short. So we'll see. Girl, like, girl, he's delivery, like so little funky to me too. I think you could use some mechanic work to really light up the arm a little bit. Yeah, schematically pretty vanilla to spring game, not too much to really talk about there. No, but we call it place with sideline. But you know, I don't know if that's what he's going to do. Come fall or if that's a spring game thing. Yeah, sure. Sure. Sure. They're all out there. It's like a practice, you know, then. Sure, they have a lot of box. But yeah. So place kicking special teams, right? This is a big one for road runners fans, Michael Petro. I hit two field goals all the day, one for 27 yards, one for 37 yards. And then there was a Jesse Perez who hit a game time field goal on the last play of the day. Wow, Jared, is that pretty impressive stuff? You know, they didn't what they're supposed to do. Yeah. I think, you know, kicking in a spring game and a very empty album with home is one thing. But you know, do I get on the road against 30,000 is very different. But you know, they didn't they didn't what they were expected to do. I think having two kippers that, you know, hit from 35 out is really good sign that, you know, there'll be a battle that, you know, goes into the fall and, you know, made the best one win. And you know, it would be surprising like Petro is to kick off specialist and Perez is the place kicker. So we'll see. I think the fact that they have Perez take the last field goal probably says that he's going to be the guy, you know, it's like, you know, time to game right the pressure on kind of deal. The planning from kill hook and like, really good. And he had really nice puns all day long. And he had one that was really great. I mean, I think it was probably a like a 60 yarder and like, pen dumb at like the seven or eight yard line or something like that. Fantastic. Yeah. No field goals were missed, right? And I think that's something you got to you got to take stock. And like he said, Jared, and he had some, it's got a little bit of respectable length on there plus 35. You know, it's something that we forgot to catch on is how many false starts there were from the offensive line. So not a very clean day. No, no, no, not at all. There are a few holes that work missed, I think, but yeah, the false starts were super accurate. And I think that's a big reason why I fell off the defensive so far ahead, because the offense would, you know, pick up, you know, not a great play. They pick up four yards on first down and then a false start. Next thing, you know, you know, second and nine, second and 10, whatever. Writing on the wall free at another season of that very repetitive annoyance of an issue. I think most of the false starts were from guys that I don't expect to play this year. Okay, good. But still concerning. Well, only time we'll tell Jared every day, it takes a little bit closer to kick off. I guess you see real grand Valley in the Alamo dome, 2026. College football season. So we're very, very much excited to inch a little bit closer with the ending of spring camp and spring game for football. Any other talking points or anything that you may have heard, any of the press conferences that you want to touch on. And now I don't think a whole lot. Honestly, I'm scrolling back through my notes to see if there's anything big to be missed. And I think we're pretty much at all. I mean, again, it's a spring game. 45 minutes on spring game, roster coverage is probably reading just as much into it as we ought to, Jared probably too much. Honestly, we're keeping it real. I can guarantee you that we probably mentioned at least five days that like we'll never see us now in game for the room. In a U.S. A. Jersey, in a U.C. A. Jersey. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's what we're here for. You know, content. It's important to know. I should have set this up front, but man, it was especially on defensive. Just so hard to keep track of who was who? I mean, on defense, almost every player is new. A lot of those guys do the cute thing where they rolled the jersey up into their pads. So you can only see half a number. I mean, I drained my phone battery. It's so bad. Just constantly scroll that roster all day long. Yeah, it's a completely different unit brand new unit. The world that we're living in. Yeah, but you say that they played pretty good. And I guess cohesive for that matter. Yeah, but it's a lot easier to install a defense, especially if you're, you know, looking pretty base and pretty vanilla. It's a lot harder to, you know, implement new guys into an offense. And generally speaking, it's like not a huge surprise that, you know, at least from an execution standpoint, the difference would be ahead because they've lost things to memorize less things to know, you know, less confusing terminology and all that. Sebald get ball. Yeah. Yeah. Ultimately. All right. Well, before we wrap it up with some patreon shout outs, I do want to give a reminder, baseball season is getting down to the crunch of conference play. I think there's like what a dance hit is like nine conference games left to play or something like that. Yeah, just a few series left. So we made a hub and a football episode for a while. Maybe sure to turn into around the bird bath as you two say, prepare us to, you know, try to go get another bid to the install tournament. You know, we'll take original super original again. It would be fantastic. Looking like a pretty nice and it'd be three bid year for the American. So I'll be sure to tune in over there. Well, I do want to say thank you to some new Patreon subscribers that came in from our since our last episode that it puts a list of Kelly at the insider tier and Stacey at the booster tier. Also, I'm going to give a big thank you to our board of trustees members, Tijetique, John, well, who I got to catch up with in this brand game. Great senior John Gary and Rupert and represent the U.S. networking till gate. We're ready. Ian McClendon is your LLC. John Towson, president of DFW chapter of the UTC London Association, water obstruction. UTC and your giving for an uproar. You just taking bowser and run as you know, they're going to www.co.uTC.co to support UTC student athletes. Yes, and a big shout out to our big money donors. That's Mr. Ben Tovar, the bunch family. Zachis Betty Quetta and the San Antonio podcast network. Alejandro Benavites, Dan Nurdal, our host of around the bird bath. John Nally Rick Cortez of Routing Road, grillers, Sumner McDaniel, Joe Rodriguez, UTSA grad, 1998 Russell Rincón, Brandy Dunigan, Realtor with the social house group, and home field apparel where you can use UTSA once home field to say 15% on your first quarter. Also support Alwell Audible at our Alwell Audible fan shop. We've got some very awesome merch across all sports for that matter. For stuff you can wear football season, tailgate season, and it's a pretty awesome baseball merch as well. You keep your eyes glued. You might have some more headed your way. And Jason. Very soon. All right. Well, these are joining me. It's fun. We'll see all this stuff ages. I feel like we could probably go back to multiple game up. So it's just cringe it in some of the takes that were dished out. So, hopefully, but one thing I want to thank everyone for tuning in and be sure to go check out around the bird bath as once we get down to the stretch of conference play and the American. [MUSIC]