How to fix Texas Football
Quite frankly, the Texas Longhorns have been the joke of college football since Charlie Strong first walked through the doors of Austin. The big, bad Longhorns have been mediocre at best. With only one Sugar Bowl victory to their name, made bitter sweet by Sam Ehlinger’s incorrect assessment of the program with his famous “we’re back!” phrase, Texas needs some fire to re-light the flame of championship performance.
They hoped to find that in Steve Sarkisian. With his experience at Washington and USC, along with his success at Alabama culminating in Devonta Smith’s Heisman win and another Nick Saban National Championship, the idea was that he’d bring a championship mindset to Texas. It looked promising as Sark was 4-1 headed into Red River. Then with a 28-7 lead over their arch rivals, Oklahoma made a change. Bringing in Caleb Williams, the Sooners would come back to beat Texas 55-48. Texas and Sark couldn’t handle and would lose their next six ball games, finishing the season at 5-7 ( a senior night win against K-state provided their fifth win). Quite frankly, I was unsure of Sark when he decided to start true freshman Hudson Card over experienced Casey Thompson. I mean I had just watched Thompson light up Colorado in the 2020 Alamo Bowl when he came in for injured Sam Ehlinger less than eight months before. I didn’t like the move and turns out I was right. It’s not that I don’t like Sark, I don’t believe in him. He falters when things get tough. It’s easy to win at Bama when you usually got a 21 point lead by half. It isn’t when you’ve been punched in the mouth. Can we name one moment this season where Sark has outcoached another team? Or a moment when Texas has outscored their opponents in the second half? Even at Washington, Sark won eight games in his best season. Chris Petersen took Washington to the college football playoffs. Sark won nine games in his only full season at USC, Clay Helton for whom I do not hold in the top echelon of coaches at least won a Pac-12 title and a Rose Bowl. To put it simply, if Texas wants to actually be back, they need to move on from Steve Sarkisian.
As of right now, Texas is closer to Texas State then Texas A&M in terms of championship aspirations between in state colleges. For the state of Texas, here’s how I rank the schools in probability of getting to the playoff. 1. Baylor 2. Texas Tech 3. Texas A&M 4. TCU 5. Houston 6. SMU 7. UTSA 8. Texas. Yes, that’s how bad it’s gotten. At least all the other teams are able to post above .500 records. However with their move to the SEC looming and with NIL, the Texas brand is still attractive to a lot of people. I mean Texas has produced some NFL talent in the likes of Devin Duvernay, D’onta Foreman, Lil Jordan Humphrey, Sam Cosmi and Jordan Hicks. The top Quarterback recruit of 2021 is from Texas in Quinn Ewers so the Longhorns have a relative ease with recruiting local talent alongside the fact that bordering states of Louisiana and Arkansas provide a pipeline to out of state talent as well. However in my opinion, kids want to play for a leader. Someone who inspires confidence and provides them an opportunity to be great. If I’m the Texas AD, I’m paying Sark’s buyout clause and spending every dollar of Texas booster money to bring in Marcus Freeman from Norte Dame. Texas was best when Will Muschamp was their defensive coordinator. The Texas defense was hard hitting, aggressive but most importantly, intelligent. His defense was allowing an average of 19.5 points a game and was one of the top rushing defenses in the country that year. Freeman in his last four games has averaged a total 5.75 points a game. Not bad for his first season. His coaching has propelled starting safety Kyle Hamilton from a first round prospect to a top five pick. Plus Freeman’s youth will be a point of relatability that has served coaches like Lincoln Riley and Dave Aranda well in recruiting. Along with the fact that Freeman’s experience in the Midwest and Great Lakes area in terms of recruiting could bring some far and wide talent to Texas.
From an offensive perspective, they need to get Bijan Robinson the ball. Texas has a wonderful roster of running backs and wide receivers to complement Thompson but the workhorse that is Bijan Robinson will take Texas to great new heights. Early in the season, Sark was lining up Bijan in the slot, throwing screen passes to him and putting him all over the field. It seems like towards the end of the season, Sark was only running the ball with Bijan. That would be fine if the current state of Texas’ offensive line wasn’t a state of disrepair. Texas has a long history of great running backs. Greats like Earl Campbell, Ricky Williams, Cedric Benson and Jamaal Charles took Texas to wonderful heights. Bijan is that talent but even Derrick Henry isn’t great when he’s stopped at the line.
They also need a new offensive playcaller, one name comes to mind immediately. Joe Brady. There’s a lot of rumors that the Carolina Panthers are gonna move on from him and the one time LSU passing game coordinator, responsible for Joe Burrow and the electric 2019 LSU offense could find financial stability and inspiration at Texas. I think its time to to let the ball rip and become the offensive juggernaut of the south like they were in the 2000’s.
My last improvement for Texas is the fans. A rebuild won’t be overnight and expecting it to be is insanity. Its the same expectations put on the end of Mack Brown’s time in Texas, Charlie Strong and Tom Herman. Give the new guy some time because it turns out Mack Brown wasn’t the problem, it was the lofty expectations on him. There’s a reason North Carolina played in a New Years Six game last season and Texas didn’t. Be patient with the new coach and in due time, the rewards shall be so fruitful, you’ll have a handful to shove in Oklahoma’s face.
