Bleacher Report lists Texas as a team with the most to prove
Although the sky seems to be falling in Austin, the Longhorns are only two games into the season and the Steve Sarkisian era.
The Arkansas game was a horrible outing for Texas, and was not a great showcasing of all the hype that Sarkisian had brought to the program when he signed on to replace Tom Herman.
Something to note though, is Sarkisian is making changes that he believes will help the team bounce back. After choosing to start redshirt freshman Hudson Card in the first two games, Sarkisian decided to make a switch at the quarterback position and named Casey Thompson the new starter on Monday. Sarkisian mentioned that the two are both expected to play moving forward.
It’s a change that may seem premature, but can also be considered necessary as Card was struggling with accuracy on deep balls, and the Texas offensive line looks like they have never blocked before causing Card to be rattled in the pocket. Something that could not be said for Thompson, as although the line still couldn’t block a soul with him in either, he was able to use his legs to create plays and get the offense going.
The quarterback position is not the only place that Texas struggled, as the defense gave up over 400 yards, and if you haven’t figured out already the offensive line has been abysmal. It is still early on in a season with a completely new staff, who will likely use that game as a teaching moment to help the team move forward.
The college football world still has high expectations for the Longhorns, and outlets like Bleacher Report mentioned Texas as one of their college football teams with the most to prove. It’s largely due to how important it is over the next few weeks for Texas to bounce back and prove something.
“Texas always seems to have a lot to prove, but that’s especially true this year.
Much like Auburn, Texas paid a lot of money ($15.4 million) to get rid of a coach who wasn’t doing that poorly. Tom Herman had a winning record in each of the past four seasons and an overall record of 32-18. But they kicked him to the curb to bring in Steve Sarkisian from Alabama.
About six months after that bit of coaching realignment, we found out that Texas (and Oklahoma) will be leaving the Big 12 for the SEC at some point in the next few years. While that doesn’t change anything for this year’s team or its expectations, it does draw a little more national attention than usual to a program that is already a lightning rod for #content.
And after an entire offseason of hearing about how good both Oklahoma and Iowa State are going to be this year, Texas badly wants to prove that the road to a Big 12 championship still goes through Austin every now and again.
Bleacher Report continued on to note the two opposite week of performances by Sarkisian’s quad.
New head coach, same Jekyll and Hyde tendencies.
Texas thrived in its 20-point Week 1 win over Louisiana with Hudson Card, Bijan Robinson and Jordan Whittington leading the way. But all three of those young stars were held in check in the Longhorns’ subsequent 40-21 loss at Arkansas.
The defensive front seven also took a colossal step backward, allowing the Razorbacks to rush for 333 yards one week after limiting the Ragin’ Cajuns to 76 yards on 29 carries.
The first glimpse of Texas looked like a team that could win the Big 12. The second one looked like a team that could go 4-8.
The Longhorns can and very likely will turn this around. Texas fans need to be patient. Taking a tough loss like the Arkansas one can seem like the end of the world, but it can also be a turning point game.
