The Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns will soon be off to the [autotag]SEC[/autotag], leaving behind the [autotag]Big 12[/autotag]. Texas is coming off an 8-5 season, but there’s a lot of optimism in year three under [autotag]Steve Sarkisian[/autotag].
Oklahoma is coming off a 6-7 season with mixed views heading into year two for [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag]. Venables and the Sooners started off strong with a 73-0 opening-day win. Sarkisian and Co. finished strong after a sluggish start against Rice earning a 37-10 win.
The Longhorns are set to face a future SEC foe, Alabama this weekend, which could propel all of the hype if Texas can pull off the victory. It’s long been discussed how well these two schools will do when they enter the SEC.
Some say they are big programs and will have no problems. While others think they have no idea what they are getting themselves into.
Longtime [autotag]ESPN College Gameday[/autotag] Analyst Kirk Herbstreit weighed in, saying he felt the Longhorns are more prepared for the move than the Sooners.
If you look at Oklahoma and you look at Texas, right now the rosters … Now, Brent Venables is a couple years behind where Sark is, but it just feels like when you look at Texas, they’re closer to being where you need to be than I think where Venables is currently. But I think he’ll be there as well because he understands it probably as well as anybody. He’ll get that program eventually there but I think right now Texas I think they’re ready to compete. So, we’ll see how it goes. – Herbstreit
Now at first glance, Sooner fans will probably take exception to that, but Herbstreit is just stating the obvious. Texas is in its third year of Steve Sarkisian’s program rebuild. That third season is typically when you have enough of your guys to show if what you are doing is working or not.
Oklahoma is in its second year of creating a roster in Brent Venables’ image. The 2023 recruiting class was great, but they are all young. The 2024 class is looking good right now, but it’s tough to expect much from them next season. Whereas Texas should be ready to compete next season, Sarkisian’s fourth in Austin.
The key line fans should be focusing on is his belief Venables will get the program going in the right direction. He’s already started that with recruiting. The Sooners are trending toward a third straight top ten recruiting class with an outside shot at a top-five class.
Now we just need to see the results on the field.
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