Texas joins Georgia football for ‘big boy ball’ in SEC. The Longhorns aren’t backing down

Jordan Whittington is a Lone Star State native who spent five seasons with Texas football, so he speaks with some authority when he reeled off the best places to eat in Austin.

Listen up, Georgia football fans who are making the much-anticipated road trip next fall.

The first two mentioned by the wide receiver who just wrapped up his college career are barbecue: Terry Black’s and County Line. The other is seafood at Pappadeaux.

The Longhorns showed last season in reaching the College Football Playoff semifinals, where they lost 37-31 to Washington, that Texas joining the SEC for the 2024 season will bring more than good food and good music to the 16-team league.

Ticket prices for Georgia’s game at Texas on Oct. 19 start at $412 on StubHub. The Longhorns' home game against Florida, by comparison, is $178 per ticket.

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Texas offered a preview of what it could do in the SEC by going to Tuscaloosa and beating Alabama last September. The Longhorns also upset Georgia in the Sugar Bowl to end the 2018 season.

Tom Herman was the coach then, but he was fired two years later and replaced by Steve Sarkisian who spent a season as an analyst under Nick Saban in 2016 and then returned in 2019 as offensive coordinator for two seasons.

The Longhorns jumped from 8-5 in Year 2 under Sarkisian to 12-2 last season, earning their first playoff bid.

Now comes the move to the SEC.

Judging by the tone of key players from last year’s team interviewed at the NFL combine, the Longhorns aren’t going to be intimidated.

“Man, everybody’s like, 'Big boy ball,' but I think them boys are ready,” said linebacker Jaylan Ford, a two-time first-team All-Big 12 selection. “The way we train, I don’t think it will change the way, that mindset that Sark has been able to instill in those guys, including me, has been a game-changer. We’ve really been able to turn that program around. I think it’s only up from here. We’re only given confidence to the guys that are coming under us.”

Wide receiver Adonai “AD” Mitchell made the move from Georgia to Texas after the 2022 season, and from one former Saban coordinator to another.

He said playing under Kirby Smart was demanding, which made playing for Sarkisian smoother.

“At any Power 5 school you have to work just to see the field,” Mitchell said. “But at Texas it wasn’t like it was easy. Making the transition from Georgia to Texas made it kind of easier for me coming in, I was no stranger to working out, I was no stranger to running hard. I kind of fit right in there.”

Texas lost plenty of talent, but returns quarterback Quinn Ewers and its transfer portal pickups included receiver Isaiah Bond and tight end Amari Niblack from Alabama and pass rusher Trey Moore from UTSA.

“I’m expecting them to do exactly what we just did,” wide receiver Xavier Worthy said. “I feel like they’re going to do well in the SEC. Everyone’s going to have good success.”

The Longhorns are in the top four of nearly every way-too-early top 25.

“Quinn’s good,” said Texas Tech defensive back Tyler Owens, a Texas transfer whose team lost 57-7 to the Longhorns last season. “He’s going to be a problem. He’s really accurate throwing the ball. I feel like he’s good picking defenses apart.”

Texas’ schedule in its first SEC season looks manageable. The Longhorns play longtime rival Oklahoma, the other new league member, as usual but also get Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Kentucky and old rival Texas A&M.

So what will it look like for Texas playing in a league with the likes of Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss and Tennessee?

“Oh, dominant,” Whittington said. “Even better than last year I feel like.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Texas players who helped Longhorns to playoff say program ready for SEC