Fellas, this isn’t the time to flinch.
There’s no ambiguity in the mission of the Texas football program with less than four weeks to go until the beginning of the Steve Sarkisian era.
With recruiting in a sunken place where the Longhorns haven’t landed and kept a Rivals 150 player since February (176 days ago), it’s time to turn to the things that can change the momentum…actual football.
Sarkisian was hired to elevate the program. It’s not that Tom Herman’s two Top 20 finishes were awful or that he was an awful coach; it’s just that very slim margins can often decide whether a program can take the hardest steps, and Sarkisian represented a chance to upgrade.
With his arrival, the Longhorns were getting a head coach who would take the offense into his own hands. The quarterback development would be better, as would the game-day management and experience of the assistant coaches.
Now it’s time to see it.
With two quarterbacks bringing unique skill sets, one of the best running backs in the nation, a set of receivers and tight ends that any school in the conference other than Oklahoma would trade for, and an offensive line that is solid enough that portal upgrades weren’t seen as a need, there’s no reason why a Texas offense with better coaching should fall far from the Top 20 units of the last two seasons.
If the thought process that led Sarkisian to Austin in the first place is correct, we haven’t begun to see Sarkisian’s true impact on the program yet.
That is exciting.
The same is true on the other side of the ball. Pete Kwiatkowski is supposed to be the elite of the elite in this sport. If he’s an upgrade over Chris Ash, then the defensive side of the ball might just be cooking with grease.
That is potentially very exciting.
Nothing is going to happen in Texas football recruiting until the game-changers see something on the field to change their overall perception of the program; everyone might as well lean into the actual play on the field for the next couple of months and stop worrying about recruiting.
As I’ve been saying recently, the chicken and the egg debate inside Texas football about winning and recruiting has a definite answer. This program’s path to the top, both on the field and in recruiting, is through the development of the players already on campus.
Those are the stakes of this season. There’s no avoiding it.
Personally, I haven’t gotten a feel for how this is going to go, but I’m in the camp that believes that this team has better coaching than it did a season ago – from top to bottom. I’m also in the camp that believes that the talent in all three phases of the team has the ability to play better.
I just don’t know what to expect going into this season.
It’s time to find out.
No. 2 – The other elephant in the room about the quarterback position …
The battle between Casey Thompson and Hudson Card is …
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