Texas, minus defensive stars and wideouts, may be more rebuild than repeat in 2024 | Bohls
While I got ya, here are nine things and one crazy prediction:
Texas football should end 2024 like it ended 2023
1. Is this a rebuild or a redo?: Next season looks promising for the Longhorns, but not without its challenges. Head coach Steve Sarkisian stands to possibly lose his starting quarterback, who's 16-6 in his career and has thrown for more than 5,600 yards with 37 touchdowns and 12 picks, along with his top four receivers; his right tackle, one of the best defensive tackle tandems in school history, a star linebacker and three starting defensive backs, plus his punter. That’s a major rebuild, folks. I was glad when Sarkisian told us in New Orleans that his team must guard against complacency. There’s no going backward. Texas won’t be a shell of this year’s 12-2 team, but there’s much plugging to do. … If Texas truly thinks it’s ready for the physical SEC next fall, it must get better on the offensive line and — regarding a pass rush — the defensive line. The Longhorns couldn’t protect Quinn Ewers as the Huskies did Michael Penix Jr. and couldn’t harass or get Penix on the ground. Penix was darn near flawless, but know this: over the last 27 games over the last two seasons, he's been sacked just 16 times. Sixteen. Plus, he showed how poised and unflappable he is, how strong his arm is and how accurate he is. And he’s more mobile than he’s given credit for and showed the NFL that he can improvise off schedule. He sees the field so well. I think he’ll be a great pro. Ewers needs to come back for his own improvement. He looked anxious and nervous at times and didn’t have the best body language, but he’s also a warrior and didn’t flinch. But he could return, make another run at a natty and contend for the Heisman. … I worry for Washington in Monday's game that Michigan’s smothering defense is so much better top to bottom than Texas’, that the Wolverines’ Blake Corum may run all day against the Huskies and Washington may be without injured tailback Dillon Johnson. … It’s a shame that the second CFP semifinal game ended around midnight with the next day being a work day. Would it kill the Rose Bowl to kick off at 2 p.m.?\
More: Texas football turned a corner, but will that continue in a league like the SEC? | Golden
Whoa, hold your horses there, Longhorns
2. Texas isn't back: It’s too soon to suggest that. However, Texas is surging and is trending as a future powerhouse with its terrific season, but the program won’t be truly back until Sarkisian shows he can sustain this level of success. The players do believe it, and that’s where it starts. ”We felt magical, the whole time that we felt like it was already written," departing rreceiver Jordan Whittington said. "No matter what happened, I didn't know it was going to come down to the last, like, 10 seconds ... but we didn't waver one time.” … The Longhorns were really good and borderline great this season, and it’s a heckuva lot of progress for a program that hadn’t won a conference title in 14 years. Remember, they came within 15 seconds of beating Oklahoma and had a chance to knock off Washington on the final play of the game. And didn’t really play all that well in either one. OU didn’t have a turnover, Washington only muffed a punt and Texas had three turnovers in those games. In the 12 wins, Texas was a plus-6. Texas also faced precious few great quarterbacks other than OU's Dillon Gabriel and Penix, who combined to put up 71 points on a defense that gave up an average of only 17 points a game. … For those of you who are mad that Sarkisian got outcoached, Ewers got outplayed and Texas was sloppy and out disciplined, remember that Washington is not good, but damn good. ESPN’s Greg McElroy said the Huskies have at least seven NFL draft picks in the first two rounds this spring, including Penix and his top three receivers, an edge rusher and an offensive lineman. … So the SEC isn’t represented in the national title game for the first time in nine years even though Georgia looked like the best team in college football against, alas, a shell of a Florida State team. I’m doubting we’ll ever see that again from the 13th team in the nation with the advent of the 12-team playoff. And it’s so fitting that the Pac-12 has a team in the championship game in its final year of existence unless maybe FSU joins Oregon State and Washington State. I’m stunned we haven’t heard that the Big 12 is actively pursuing the Seminoles. Guess it’s waiting on the lawyers.
More: On Second Thought Ep. 321: what went wrong in the Sugar Bowl, how Horns stack up in 2024
Texas picked a bad night to be outplayed and outcoached
3. A revised script: For all the credit Sarkisian deserves, let’s not give him a pass on his play-calling. I was baffled by the plays on the final series. On two of the plays, Ewers didn’t give his receivers a chance at a catch with wild throws out of the end zone. In addition, Sark needed to get Xavier Worthy and Adonai Mitchell more involved in the offense with jet sweeps, slant patterns, curls. Something. They were non-factors for almost the entire game. Also, why didn’t Sark go uptempo earlier in the game? Texas didn’t adjust well and Washington took total control in the third quarter with its dominant offense when the Longhorns ran just five plays and had the ball for just over two minutes. That was embarrassing for Texas as were the season-high 10 penalties and so many false starts or illegal snaps. I really believe the month off since the Big 12 championship game hurt the Longhorns so much because their passing game had no rhythm all night and Penix got healthy. Ewers admitted he hit his head hard on the ground and was cleared for a concussion, but he didn’t look right. I wonder if Sark would have turned to Maalik Murphy if he had been here. Probably not, but it’s worth wondering.
More: After his fifth career CFP touchdown, Adonai Mitchell is mum about Texas future, NFL draft
Plenty of ways to fix the college football season
4. No time to breathe: The NCAA must do something about the crowded December schedule. Sarkisian mentioned it in his Sunday press conference and talked about how “taxing” it is, especially for CFP coaches who must prepare for a game of huge stakes, worry about the early signing date in recruiting, try to re-recruit his own players and handle the incomings and outgoings of the transfer portal. “This was really challenging, especially the first two weeks coming out of the conference championship games, which we both played in,” Sarkisian said of Texas and Washington. “I’d have a hard time imagining preparing for a playoff game, talking to players about going into the portal, new guys getting jobs and trying to hire guys off your staff. I hope guys who are smarter than me can find a calendar that better suits the game. I don’t have all the answers and don’t pretend to. I hope we can come up with a better mechanism for us moving forward.” Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin called the current model “a terrible system” and rightly said college football is the only sport with free agency “before the current season ends.” Georgia’s Kirby Smart also made a plea for a solution because it’s unfair to previously unbeaten Florida State, which was snubbed by the CFP selection committee despite a perfect record only to get drubbed 63-3 after almost 30 players reportedly opted out of the bowl loss to the Bulldogs. … The portal window probably cannot change since players need to be at their new schools for the spring semester in early January, but the NCAA should consider moving the early signing day to August or abolish it altogether.
The officiating and rulebook needs fixing, too
5. Throwing a flag: Had a great conversation with good friend Kevin Sherrington, the brilliant Dallas Morning News columnist, about the crying need for better officiating. We both think it’s archaic to use first-down chains instead of chips in footballs and lasers. I also contend that pass interference is so subjective, there should be two levels of penalties. An egregious infraction should remain a spot-foul, but those iffy calls with gray areas should be 15-yard fouls.
With football over, some early thoughts on Texas baseball
6. Play ball: David Pierce is pumped about his returning Texas baseball team, especially a starting rotation of Lebarron Johnson Jr., Tanner Witt and Charlie Hurley. Witt is trying to come back from Tommy John surgery after a rocky trial late in the season, and Hurley lost his starting spot. Pierce shut down the latter two after some positive results in the fall and says Witt will start the season with no restrictions. “Tanner’s in such a good spot,” Pierce said. “LBJ is 6-5 and chiseled. He looks like a Greek god.” … He loves the high expectations at Texas and said, “We’ve never taken a team picture in front of the UT Tower for winning the conference.” … A huge key for Texas will be the maturation of Jalin Flores at shortstop after his brutal freshman season when he overswung, wasn’t selective at the plate and tried to hit everything out of the yard. He hit only .175. . “I think Jalin will flourish and take the next step from a work ethic standpoint,” Pierce said. “He’s had a taste of starting but he was just trying to survive last year.” … The SEC hasn’t ruled its format for the postseason conference tournament, but Pierce like a league without divisions and favors talk of a 16-team, single-elimination affair.
Emptying the notebook from the Arch Manning interview
7. Bloodlines: Arch Manning readily admits his family tree has had a lot to do with his success. Texas' backup quarterback said his grandfather, Archie Manning, has been his role model and clearly “was the best athlete of the family.” Arch noted that his grandpa, who's in the New Orleans Saints' Ring of Honor, played baseball in addition to football. He said he never got to play in the Superdome, which hosts high school state championships, because his Isidore Newman team lost in the state semifinals his sophomore and junior years but never reached the final. “I wish I could have played here where my grandfather played. And ran for his life here.” … When a New Orleans reporter said Newman just had a great season, Arch said, “That’s right. And they have a really good quarterback, Eli Friend. Y’all should go bother him.” … Manning was poised and playful with the media crush that surrounded him Saturday on Sugar Bowl Media Day. “I talk to my grandfather almost every day,” he said. “He’s always told me when talking to the media that less is best. Sorry about that, guys.” That drew laughter from reporters, but Manning added he was a communications major and might be calling on us for career advice. … Finally, Manning said NIL plays no role in any of his decisions and said he was amused when he was told he makes more money than San Francisco’s $800,000-a-year Brock Purdy.
Remembering that 2005 Texas-Michigan classic
8. Scattershooting: While wondering whatever happened to former Longhorns kicker Dusty Mangum, who beat Michigan with a 37-yard field goal in the 2005 Rose Bowl.
Meanwhile, from the greatest seat in the world ...
9. On the couch: Sat through “Maestro,” the movie about prominent composer Leonard Bernstein but mostly about his bisexuality. Bradley Cooper did a more than credible job, and the makeup people deserve an Oscar, but what was mostly little, random snippets about Bernstein's life just bored me to tears. Gave it three ducks.
Watch out, LSU
Crazy prediction: Brian Kelly’s name will come up for the Michigan job if Jim Harbaugh leaves.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Longhorns face a big rebuilding task in 2024 without star players
