As Texas Longhorns open another football season, team elders prepare for one last ride

Throughout the month of August, Texas football players regaled reporters with their origin stories in the sport.

Defensive lineman Byron Murphy II insisted that he was a solid running back until the ninth grade, when "I ate myself out of the position." Left tackle Kelvin Banks shared that he was once a little-league quarterback and running back who scored every touchdown one season for his team that won a championship in Louisiana.

As for senior offensive lineman Christian Jones ... well, he once hated playing football.

Like many, Jones was introduced to the sport at a young age. He was athletic enough to line up on offense, defense and special teams but wasn't focused on playing time as an 8-year-old. "I was like, I just need some water," he recalled on Monday.

So Jones quit and focused instead on soccer. But when he was a freshman at Cypress Woods High in the Houston area, he made a bet with one of the school's football coaches that centered around him making a soccer academy's team. If he didn't, Jones would go out for football.

Sure enough, he didn't make the cut at the academy and took it as a sign from God when he saw that coach the next day. When does spring ball begin, Jones asked.

So that's the abridged story of how a soccer midfielder who was "skin and bones" became a 6-foot-6, 321-pound offensive lineman for the Longhorns.

"I'm very thankful and definitely appreciative for the opportunity that football gave me," Jones said. "I'm going to give it my all this season."

Representing Texas' 2018, 2019 signing classes

With Rice in town Saturday afternoon, Texas will take the field for the first time this season. The opener will be Jones' sixth at Texas. As he puts it, "I've been here longer than some of the bricks in the building." And since Texas isn't that removed from its locker room renovation in 2017, that statement is only a slight exaggeration.

When Jones signed in the 2018 recruiting cycle, he was part of Texas' 27-player class that ranked No. 3 nationally. He's the only member of that class still at Texas.

Since Jones arrived on campus, the Longhorns have gone just 38-24 with one appearance in the Big 12 championship game. The Longhorns are 28-20 with three Alamo Bowl trips since the arrival of the 2019 class, which is still represented on the roster by receiver Jordan Whittington, linebacker David Gbenda and defensive lineman T'Vondre Sweat. That 2019 group also was No. 3 in the country.

How to watch Texas-Rice: Start time, TV broadcast and more stories to know

"We talk about that all the time," Sweat said. "We're always cracking jokes like, hey man, we're still here, we old. So it's a good time, though. I mean, we're excited. We're ready to win a Big 12 (and) national championship. We're ready to get this thing going."

Since the 2018 and 2019 recruits have been around for awhile, they've seen a lot. That's why Gbenda and Whittington haven't seemed that impressed with the positive attention that Texas has received this offseason. When it comes to preseason rankings, Texas is No. 11 by the Associated Press and No. 12 in the coaches poll. Texas was also picked to win the Big 12 while earning 41 of that media-driven poll's 67 first-place votes.

"I don't try to look at all the preseason stuff because I've been here before. I've been here, oh, we're ranked seventh and go up against LSU, fall short. Oh, we're ranked high and fall short," Gbenda said last month. "What I look at is the team's work ethic and how our mindset is. We're not paying attention to the rankings. We're not paying attention to the awards and stuff like that."

Said Whittington, at Big 12 media days in July: "Right now, we're just focused on the offseason and building a team that can actually go and do those things. I think we're moving in the right direction."

Hook'em! These photos prove UT football has the most spirited, loyal fans

Wanting to go out in style (and as champions)

Even though Whittington and Gbenda technically still have a year of eligibility left, Texas will say goodbye to its 2018 and 2019 classes sooner rather than later. That means there will be a sense of urgency for the elder Longhorns as Texas chases championships this fall.

Jones, though, is trying not to look at it that way. A 35-game starter who figures to be a fixture at right tackle this season, Jones got reflective when asked this week if he was taking a "now or never" mindset into the season.

"Definitely at first, I would say yes, I had that feeling," Jones said. "But not too long ago, I talked to my dad. He's just as excited (about) the season as me and he said that he is going to cherish every single game, at the end of every single game look around the stadium one last time, one hard look and just be appreciative of the opportunity, and that's definitely what I'm going to do this season. Take that role, and just look at it like that.

"So I feel like the all-or-nothing type thing would just cause stress and strain. I'm playing a game that I love, and I'm playing it with teammates that I love in the city that I love and the school that I love, so it should be no pressure and just go out there and enjoy it. That's going to be my goal."

Top Texas tailgates: Six spots fans should know for the upcoming 2023 football season

Over the past 20 years, Texas has won its opener and gotten off to a good start on 17 occasions. The exceptions were those surprising slip-ups against Maryland in 2017 and 2018 and a 38-3 loss at No. 11 Notre Dame in 2015.

The Longhorns enter this weekend as heavy favorites over a Rice squad that went 5-8 last season. Texas has won 43 of the last 44 games in this series and it currently owns a 15-game winning streak over the Owls.

Three players currently on the Texas roster — Xavier Worthy, Keilan Robinson and Jonathon Brooks — scored in UT's most recent win over Rice. Worthy had a 13-yard touchdown catch in the 58-0 victory back on Sept. 18, 2021, while Robinson and Brooks scored on 65- and 17-yard runs. In that blowout, Texas also recorded a safety when Robinson blocked a punt out of the Rice end zone.

Saturday's game

Rice (0-0) at Texas (0-0), 2:30 p.m., Royal-Memorial Stadium, 1300, 98.1, 105.3 (Spanish)

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Christian Jones, other veterans set for one more Texas football season