#1 Alabama Crimson Tide @ Texas Longhorns Preview & Predictions

Julian Martinez: [00:00:12] This is not going to be easy. Segment record as the Longhorns are currently 20 and a half point underdogs against the Alabama Crimson Tide. And yes, we're still previewing this. Yes, we're still giving predictions. And yes, we'll have to fight through grit my teeth as I'm sitting across or around or in the vicinity of Longhorns haters Kyle Ledbetter and James. Really hard name to pronounce that. I won't even try that. Anyway, guys, Longhorns welcome in the Crimson Tide. Alabama just had a 55 point victory against Utah State. The Longhorns had a good opening game, for what it's worth, against Yukon. Neither one of these two teams were really tested in week one. Alabama, you already know what you're getting. Your game state, Nick, you're getting Bryce Young, you're getting Wil Anderson, you're getting five star players up and down the defense and offense. This is going to be the game that Steve Sarkisian wanted. James, what's your early read on this game? [00:01:05][52.5]
James Puopolo: [00:01:05] It's not good for you. I'll tell you the gun. And I know that goes with what everybody else is saying. I get that Sark is going to put this high powered offense out there. But man top to bottom, this Bama squad is just different. Like I can see this squad being a straight undefeated run. I have that much faith and just will Anderson alone what Bryce Young is doing to on the other side, it's just disgusting. It's disturbing. Maybe not with the same level of receiver firepower they've had in recent years, but it's still a really good squad spoiler. [00:01:36][31.1]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:01:38] First of all, I'd like to point out that the branding of Longhorns hater is just someone who shows the slightest bit of antagonistic zeal towards their team because it's easy to pick on the Longhorns when Texas does it to themselves, though these teams that have high expectations but the performance doesn't meet it kind of like Chicago Bears fans, where it's really easy to kind of like poke them a little bit. But you're at least a better Texas Longhorn fan than most that I have encountered, I would say. So in terms of the game itself, like we talked about last week with Oregon and Georgia and like we talked about with Ohio State, Notre Dame, although Notre Dame did hold their own for about three quarters, changing the measuring stick is the most important for this one. This is not about whether Texas is going to pull off the upset and beat Alabama. There's like a 1% chance that that's going to happen under any circumstance. So what this is for Texas is what does it what does the first two quarters look like? What does your first drive of the game look like? What happens say, if you go up three to nothing, what does your defense look like? The little things like that will be ways to evaluate, not necessarily the state of the program itself, but just how this thing is coming along, how this team reacts. They know they're going into this game set up to lose, and that's totally okay. Obviously, they're not thinking that in their head, but just changing the measuring stick will make it a more enjoyable experience because otherwise it's just going to be a frustrating cycle of recognizing that you are not Bama and you will never be Bama because no one in the history of college football has, and quite possibly never again will be what Alabama has been over the last decade. [00:03:10][92.1]
Julian Martinez: [00:03:11] How good is going yours going to be and how good is he really? Obviously, he started off last week with an opening drive pick. That is something that you just can't afford against this Alabama team. You can't have mistakes. They're going to force you into mistakes as is. Just don't give them any freebies for or this is only his second start in two years. So I expect this to be a struggle. This is going to be a hard time again. You have Will, Anderson. Yeah. That defensive line coming at you, they're just going to make it a difficult day outside of Xavier Worthy. I'm not really sure who's going to be that wide receiver that really steps up for the Longhorns. And I'd love to see Brian Robinson really control the clock and make this a difficult game for them in terms of time possession. But unfortunately, Alabama even has run stoppers, so you can't even establish a good running game against them. Ewers is going to be running for his life. James If there was any chance of an upset, how would the Longhorns have to do it? [00:04:03][52.9]
James Puopolo: [00:04:04] Man, I think the only thing you can really do is just pray that Bijan can capitalize on the offense and any slight mistake you can get out of Bama you can then capitalize on. Otherwise, I don't think there's much of a case to be had. I don't I don't see it defensively for Texas. I just think Bryce is going to come in and steamroll. [00:04:23][19.0]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:04:23] From the Alabama side. I would want to see how many turnovers they have because if you're looking for like a formula for how do you beat Alabama? Historically, the best Alabama teams have been beaten in those games like last year against Auburn, where Bryce Young throws like four interceptions in the game or three interceptions and Alabama does it to themselves. It's not a game where you win a shootout, except for that one weird time that Ole Miss went into Alabama and scored 40 points on them. But other than that, it's basically Alabama only scores 17 points and you find a way to win it at the end. Because I think the Alabama defense, if you take out the Georgia championship game in the regular season, like once in the last two years, they've allowed more than 20 points in a game. So. The way to win is with defense. And obviously, I don't know a ton about the Texas defense going into this game. I know that they have this prolific offense and five stars up and down, at least at wide receiver and running back and quarterback. And and they have a couple of good offensive linemen who might be NFL guys. So defensively, I think the hope is that they can force turnovers and Alabama makes the mistakes that at least give them an opportunity to cover because it's going to take like three or four or five weird Alabama mistakes to actually swing the tide of the game. That's just a byproduct of being a three touchdown underdog and deserving to be a three touchdown underdog. [00:05:42][78.8]
Julian Martinez: [00:05:43] Okay, so we've all kind of like said that this is just going to be an insurmountable mountain for the Longhorns. But do they cover? [00:05:51][7.4]
James Puopolo: [00:05:52] I'm going to say no. I'm going to say no. And then I'm going to say UTSA and next week, too. [00:05:56][4.2]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:05:59] That would be fantastic in terms of whether they'll cover, you know, what maybe. [00:06:04][5.2]
Julian Martinez: [00:06:05] Or something along those lines. [00:06:07][1.6]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:06:08] Maybe they will. [00:06:08][0.5]
Julian Martinez: [00:06:10] Some stats I'll just throw in here towards the ends. Obviously it's about containing Bryce Young, the Heisman candidate, and against top 50 defenses. Last year, Bryce Young was averaging over 300 yards a game against top 25 teams. In general, he has 157 passer rating, so there's just not a lot to really love. But one thing I will want to watch from this this week in terms of knowing what this team is going to be like. You mentioned you don't really know much about the defense. And I think that that's a sentiment echoed by everyone who watches and covers the Longhorns. It's because you are and you had no idea whether or not that was actually defensive improvement or it was just playing a really bad team playing Bama. That's going to show you exactly where your defense is. Again, you know what the offense is going to give you because you have Quinn, you have Xavier, and then you have Bijan. So those are three talented pieces right there. Knowing what you have from the defense that was low effort, had no intensity last year is what Texas Longhorns fans want. I'm going to keep an eye on that. James, having thrown the UTSA thing there at the end, just how dare you? How dare you? [00:07:16][66.2]
James Puopolo: [00:07:17] I've seen multiple paths. I saw people like talking about it. It would be like it would be hilarious if they beat Bama. Like, Yeah, let's go then UTSA teams in the next week. Because it wouldn't. [00:07:26][8.6]
Julian Martinez: [00:07:26] Be unnatural with the pattern we saw last year where they were fooling themselves after the home game and then Arkansas punches them in the mouth and then they just go on a tailspin. [00:07:35][8.8]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:07:36] So that tailspin that involved losing to Kansas, who hadn't won a PAC 12 road game since 2008. You mean that tailspin? [00:07:42][6.4]
Julian Martinez: [00:07:44] Well, I would find it hard for them to win a PAC 12. [00:07:46][2.5]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:07:47] Big 12 big game. But they'll all be give it two years, they'll all be the same conference. [00:07:51][4.1]
Julian Martinez: [00:07:52] That might be the case. That might very well be the case. [00:07:54][2.2]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:07:55] Yeah. For Texas's standpoint, we talked about this last week, Texas getting eight wins would be a successful season. It doesn't matter how you get the eight wins, just get the eight wins. And you can at least convince yourself that this is a building point and not two years from now, Stark is going to get fired and you'll still be broke and trying to pay three different coaches buyouts. [00:08:15][19.6]
Julian Martinez: [00:08:16] Get this window and you could change the expectations forever undefeated going to the national championship win Texas back. Let's get it right now. [00:08:25][8.9]
Kyle Ledbetter: [00:08:26] 1% chance. [00:08:27][0.7]
Julian Martinez: [00:08:28] 1% chance. I'll take it. All right, guys, you probably notice the segment's a little different. Not just Kyle and I, but we also joined by guest James. James from Bota. James, we need you to drop all the obligatory plugs. That way, people know where to find you. [00:08:42][14.2]
James Puopolo: [00:08:42] Hey. Well, thank you for having me. You can find us everywhere at Bota sports. Bota, Instagram, Tik Tok is the biggest one. There's also a Twitter, but it's really not worth them. 500% honest about it. Yeah, you can find all of our stuff everywhere just by searching about sports. [00:08:57][15.3]
Julian Martinez: [00:08:58] Okay, guys, find that below in the bio we will like on this video. Subscribe to the channel from juju talk sports and Kyle Ledbetter. Stay safe, happy and healthy. We'll see you on the next one [00:08:58][0.0]
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