Thoughts of the Day: Franz Beard, Oct. 14, 2026

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A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning:

It isn’t just the Florida Gators (4-2, 2-2 SEC) against the No. 7 Texas Longhorns (4-1, 1-1 SEC) Saturday in Austin (noon ET, 11 a.m. CT, ABC). It is the Gators against ghosts of the past.

On the Texas sideline coaching up the defense will be coordinator Will Muschamp, the same guy who dialed up the defense at Auburn to hand the Gators their only loss on their way to a national championship in 2006. He was Florida’s head coach from 2011-14, coaching some fabulous defenses and leaving behind NFL-quality talent that helped Jim McElwain win successive SEC East titles. Success faded as that talent moved on to the NFL.

And then there is Arch Manning, grandson of Archie, nephew of Peyton and Eli. Given the bloodlines, perhaps no high school quarterback has ever arrived in college with as much hype. He’s 16-4 as a starting quarterback, with 5,254 career passing yards, 45 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions, plus a 6-2 record against ranked teams. But no one in the country gets more criticism if the Longhorns lose a game.

Muschamp’s Texas defense is formidable. In his return to Texas as defensive coordinator, he obviously hasn’t lost his touch. Muschamp was on Georgia’s staff for its back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022. Texas has given up 601 yards in its last three games, just 41 more than Missouri had in its 45-17 beatdown of the Gators. Since halftime of the Longhorns’ win over then-No. 1 Ohio State, Texas has allowed two offensive touchdowns in 14 quarters, one on a short field after a shanked punt. The Longhorns left Knoxville with 10 sacks, 5.5 by Colin Simmons after a statistical correction. Simmons leads the nation with 9.5 sacks this season.

Arch Manning is the chosen one at Texas. Ever since he arrived in Austin, he has been expected to lead the Longhorns to a national championship. He has played well, sometimes borderline brilliant, but he hasn’t delivered even an SEC title, much less a national one. Last year he threw two interceptions and was sacked six times in a loss to Florida in Gainesville. He’s coming off a loss to Oklahoma in which his two interceptions helped cost Texas a win when the Longhorns were unbeaten and ranked No. 1 nationally. If you go by perception, Arch might be the cure for Florida’s ailing defense. On the other hand, Florida’s defense might provide Arch an opportunity for the biggest statistical game of his career. Right now that’s 18-for-30 for 389 yards and four touchdown passes against Arkansas in 2025.

Even with Florida’s two straight losses and Texas coming off a loss to Oklahoma, this is a very big game. For the Gators, it is more than a chance to snap the losing streak and regain some semblance of prominence. It is a chance to deal with some ghosts of the past, especially Muschamp. Muschamp remembers all too well getting fired as Florida’s head coach. For Arch, it’s a chance to avenge a loss that helped keep the Longhorns out of the College Football Playoff in 2025.

BUSTER FAULKNER ON OFFENSIVE ISSUES

Aaron Philo at QB: "I think, honestly, other than probably three plays -- I know that sounds crazy because you can't turn your ball over and that changes everything – but he really played within himself other than a couple plays.

He was throwing the ball on time. He was taking what the defense gives him. I thought he looked more comfortable probably this week, and was seeing it a lot better than really he was the week before.

He has done a good job of protecting the ball up until really the one throw. Because I think the other two, you know, were early in the season and they really weren't on him. He'd obviously like to have that one back. You know, the fumble was crucial because you're going to go in there and make that – I think that would have been an 11-point game with 13 minutes and 20 seconds to go. So, but he plays extremely hard, smart. You know, he's done a lot of really good things.

He's still, what, seven games as a starter in this league, and he's got a lot of football left to play."

Problems on the O-line: “Yeah, it still falls back to, you know, where you're being in the long-yarded situations and having to play catch-up, right? That's where defenses are able to pin their ears back, and you didn't get after the quarterback. You flip on tape, you know, as soon as you flip on the Oklahoma game, it's the same thing, Texas getting after, you know, their quarterback. So we've got to be able, again, go back to staying on schedule, being more detailed, being able to hey when we're 2nd-and-8 we got to be in a 3rd-and-4 and not 3rd-and-9, alright? And then the same thing when you're playing catch up in the second half, it takes all the play-action game out of the equation because they're able to pin their ears back, and I thought they were really talented at defensive end. And so that's just that's what we got to stay out of.”

More on the O-line: “That goes back to the design of the run game has got to be a part of it. Being able to throw the ball down the field or throw the ball on the edges, early down situations. So, there's a lot of things. It doesn't just fall on them. You got tight ends that are involved in the run game as well. They're a crucial part of what we do in this offense. So, quarterback making the right read in the run game, running backs pressing it, hitting direct holes. So, there's a lot of things we gotta do to be able to kind of get back to where we were. But it's like I told the guys, hey, look, man, I don't even remember the final numbers, but I think it was around 140 rushing yards. Well, really, that's kind of like in 2.5 quarters because of what we were trying to do the rest of the time. Tramell had a late couple scrambles, so you tack that on. And then you've got 26 minus yards in sacks. So the numbers there could be a little deceiving. If you're playing four full quarters like the way that we want to play the game, that probably looks more like 180, 190, and you're in the game, right? And that's the complementary football I'm talking about that you gotta be able to play in this league.

And right now that's missing, and we gotta figure that out."

Regaining explosiveness: “So we just got to be a better execution, bottom line. You know, that's where it starts. We got to do a good job of putting them in a position to succeed. That's another area that we're going to do a lot of focus on. We gotta do what we're good at, and we've got to be able to play at the pace, the, you know, we were the aggressor early on, we got to get back that. That's what we want to do.”

BRAD WHITE ON THE DEFENSIVE ISSUES

Is the defense in for a midseason overhaul? “So many people just bail because it's easy or they feel pressure. I mean, we're going to stay the course now. Obviously, you've got to adapt, and you've got to do things that they can do and function. And I mean, I think you've already seen that in some of the stylistically, some stuff that we're doing. But no, we're not going to completely overhaul, you know, what we believe in."

On what it will take to get better: “You have to strain, and we talked about three levels of strain. Everybody thinks about the physical strain, which we need to do, like, we need to learn how to physically strain through hard stuff. But we’ve got to mentally strain. Every detail matters. How’s the offensive line? What are they trying to do formationally? Man, they motioned into a double condense, and we said they were gonna middle flood all week. You can’t in the moment forget about that. And third, and I think this is where we’re really struggling, you have to emotionally strain. Like, you have to fight your internal feelings. Maybe you’re a dauber-down guy, maybe you’re a guy that goes to 8,000 RPMs as soon as things go, and you want to just start fighting; you lose complete control. That doesn’t get you anything either, because now all of a sudden, you’re missing the play call or you’re jumping offsides. You have to strain and sacrifice your personal emotions in those moments for the betterment of the team. That’s where we’ve got to strain at all three levels. That’s the only way we’re gonna dig out of this thing.”

Missed tackles: “We do tackling circuits every day that we are in pads.”

Third downs, lack of turnovers: “We have to be drivers of momentum. That’s third down stops. That’s turnovers. We haven’t had a turnover in the last two weeks. Those are two crucial areas that even if you’re making mistakes – while we’re going through this process of learning everything and the detail of our defense – if you can force turnovers or you can play well on third down, you’re going to give yourself a shot to be a good defense. And those are two areas right now, especially over the last two games, that we had not played well.”

More on third down defense: “I think those are things that we continue to discuss and explore. Ultimately, what’s going to be our identity? It’s going to have to say, okay, we’re going to anchor into these things. And maybe to a detriment, you know, I’ve tried to do too much to try to figure out what they feel really comfortable at, where do they want to be, what can they execute at a high level. And it might be that we just need to—we’ll figure out what’s us, and we’ll go from there.”

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT

The Southeastern Conference’s fight with LSU isn’t over. In a federal court filing Tuesday, the conference called possible expulsion a “very real threat,” according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger.

The latest dispute goes beyond Lane Kiffin’s attempt to add players who spent the summer on NFL rosters to his football team. It now includes Will Wade’s recruitment of RJ Luis Jr., the 2025 Big East Player of the Year. After leaving St. John’s, Luis signed NBA contracts and a contract with Boston’s G League affiliate. ESPN reported in August that he had not appeared in a regular-season professional game.

According to Dellenger’s reporting on the filing, the SEC said LSU continues to “flout” the rules and has refused to state definitively that Luis will not be included on its basketball roster. The SEC also cited Wade’s own comments about how he intended to build his roster: “We’re going to be unapologetic about it. This is who we are. This is what we’re doing. This is the path we charted. We’re going to go down it, and that’s fine.”

There is an important distinction here: As of Tuesday, Luis had not been added to LSU’s roster. Wade said LSU would follow the SEC’s protocols, according to reporting by TigerDroppings. The conference’s expulsion threat remains part of an ongoing legal dispute.

Stay tuned on this one. It could get dicey.