Category: Texas Football

Longhorns TE Amari Niblack set for massive breakout season

PFF analyst thinks Amari Niblack could be the breakout TE in CFB in 2024

After spending the first two years of his collegiate career with the Alabama Crimson Tide, tight end Amari Niblack has found a new home on the Forty Acres with the Texas Longhorns.

Niblack announced his intentions to leave Alabama and enter the transfer portal shortly after the legendary Nick Saban’s retirement in January. It was a massive blow for the Crimson Tide as he was expected to have a huge role in Tuscaloosa in 2024, but instead, the Longhorns now have a top-10 tight end in college football.

Coming out of high school, Niblack was a five-star recruit and the No. 89 overall-ranked player in the 2022 recruiting class. Through two years with Alabama, Niblack had 21 career receptions for 342 yards and five touchdowns.

The Longhorns have tapped into the Alabama pipeline since Steve Sarkisian’s move three years ago and snagging several high-quality players such as Isaiah Bond and Jahleel Billingsley.

However, Niblack will likely be the largest contributor of any of those former Alabama players. He will be a day-one starter for the Longhorns and will have the difficult task of filling the shoes of Ja’Tavion Sanders who already departed for the NFL.

PFF analyst Dalton Wasserman believes that Niblack will be the breakout tight end in college football this year. With Sark’s style of offense combined with a first-round talent at QB like Quinn Ewers, it’s easy to see why so many people are so high on the Longhorns’ new addition.

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Texas HC Steve Sarkisian shares what he learned under legendary coaches

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian details the biggest things he learned from Nick Saban and Pete Carroll.

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian has grown to become a fantastic coach in his own right, but the path to get here was certainly anything but linear.

Sarkisian started his coaching career with the USC Trojans as a quarterback coach under Pete Carroll before taking on the same role with the Oakland Raiders under Norv Turner. His stint in the NFL was successful, but after one year he decided to rejoin Carroll at USC as the associate head coach.

Finally, in 2009 Sarkisian got his first chance to become a head coach as he took over a Washington Huskies program that finished 0-12 the year prior. Sarkisian went 34-29 with the Huskies over five years before eventually returning to USC again to take over as the head coach.

In the midst of his second year in LA, Sarkisian and the Trojans parted ways due to some off-the-field concerns. Sarkisian returned to the sport a year later with Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide as an offensive coordinator where he was an instrumental part in the Tide’s Playoff run. After another one-year NFL stint with the Falcons and two years with Saban, Sarkisian finally got his chance to be a head coach again.

Sarkisian has made the most of his new opportunity as he has guided the Longhorns to a 25-14 record over the past three years including a College Football Playoff appearance in 2023. Getting back to the top of the mountain has been nearly a decade in the making for Sark, but he will be the first to admit that the trials and tribulations he experienced are what got him back to being a successful head coach.

In an appearance on the ‘Joel Klatt Podcast’, Sarkisian named Nick Saban, Pete Carroll, and Bill Belichick as the three greatest coaches football has ever seen and what he was able to take away from them.

While Saban and Carroll have polar opposite coaching styles, they were both as successful as you can be in the sport, mainly because they were authentically themselves. Sarkisian said of the experiences, “I feel like I’ve been fortunate to work for two amazing men in our sport that have been tremendous, and the life lessons I learned from them well beyond football.”

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One historic Texas team among the most influential in CFB history

Where does the 1968 Wishbone offense Texas team rank compared to the other most influential teams of all-time?

Baseball may have a reputation as America’s pastime, but football is king in this country. Rutgers and New Jersey, now known as Princeton, played the first recorded collegiate football game on Nov. 6, 1869, and over the following 150+ years, the sport has rapidly changed.

In recent years, we have seen some monumental changes to the sport such as Name, Image, and Likeness, the introduction and expansion of the playoff system and now we are trending towards super conferences.

However, some of the most impactful changes that have ever come to the sport happened decades ago and are a huge reason football is what it is today. For example, from the cultural influence of the Miami Hurricanes of the 80s to the introduction of the Air Raid attack by Hal Mumme at Iowa Wesleyan in 1991 the sport has evolved in many different ways.

It’s difficult to quantify which of those teams over the sport’s 150+ year history has impacted football the most, but ESPN ranked the top 30 teams (subscription required) that stood out above the rest.

There are several teams with a strong case for the top spot, but no team has impacted college football more than Darrell K. Royal’s 1968 Texas Longhorns. Texas started the year 0-1-1, before introducing the Wishbone offense in Week 3 as the Horns rattled off nine straight wins to be named Southwest Conference co-champions alongside the Arkansas Razorbacks and eventually beat the Tennessee Vols 36-13 in the Cotton Bowl.

ESPN says of the legendary 1968 Longhorns:

“Having won just 20 games in the three previous seasons, Texas began 1968 with a tie against Houston and a loss to Texas Tech. But backup quarterback James Street looked good in a comeback attempt against Tech; he was named the starter the next week, and Texas wouldn’t lose again until 1971. They rolled through the rest of their 1968 slate, then went a perfect 11-0 in 1969, winning an all-time classic against Arkansas, then confirming a national title with a Cotton Bowl win over Notre Dame.

Because of Texas’ blueblood profile, the Wishbone didn’t have to work its way up from the lower levels of the sport. The other powers immediately understood that it could work for them. Alabama’s Bear Bryant quickly adopted it following the Longhorns’ 1969 success. So, too, did rival Oklahoma. And while the Horns would certainly reap the benefits of this offensive explosion — they enjoyed four top-five finishes from 1968 to 1972, then another top-10 finish before Royal’s retirement in 1976 — Bama and OU would dominate the decade, with five national titles and 16 combined top-five finishes from 1971 to 1980. Never has an innovation caught on so quickly, and for the success it brought both Texas and others, the team that perfected the ‘Bone should be considered the most influential team the sport has seen.”

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Texas is capable of winning the SEC and a national title in 2024

Joel Klatt is buying in when it comes to Texas and their national championship hopes.

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian is entering his fourth year in charge of the program, and the expectations in Austin are higher than they have been in over a decade. The Longhorns are coming off their first-ever College Football Playoffs appearance in 2023, and with the Playoffs expanding to 12 teams, the expectation is to be back competing for a national title.

Despite the expansion, the Longhorns’ path to the post-season may be even more difficult this year as they will have to navigate their transition to the Southeastern Conference. Texas’s year one schedule is brutal, including the defending national champion Michigan Wolverines, the No. 1 ranked pre-season Georgia Bulldogs, and bitter rivals Oklahoma Sooners all in the first seven weeks.

With Quinn Ewers returning for his third season as a starter and one of the top receiving cores in the nation, it is easy to see why many people have Texas as a top-five team in the country. It also doesn’t hurt that the Longhorn’s defense is one of the best in the nation as they were the No. 3 ranked rush defense, the No. 15 scoring defense, and the No. 2 third-down defense.

FOX Sports college football expert Joel Klatt is all in on Sark and the Longhorns in 2024 despite all the changes coming to the Forty Acres this fall. Klatt believes Texas not only can compete for an SEC title, but a national title as well.

“A culture within the building that is vibrant and authentic,” Klatt said of Texas. “I think that the players understand he really cares about them… I could not be more bullish on Texas football right now. In large part because I’ve known Steve (Sarkisian) for a long time. When I sit with him now, I sense something really special.”

Now, with a major target on their back, will the Longhorns be able to rise the challenges again in 2024?

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Texas projected to face SEC squad in College Football Playoff 12-team field

CFB expert projects Texas football to make the first-ever 12-team Playoff and face Ole Miss

The 2024 college football season will introduce many new things, but none more notable than the expansion of the Playoffs from four-teams to 12-teams.

In the revised Playoff system, there will be automatic bids to conference champions which will also come with a first-round bye. Additionally, the first round of Playoff games will be played at the lower seed’s stadium and the neutral site games won’t start until the quarterfinals.

After making the final four-team Playoff in 2023, the Texas Longhorns fully expect to be a part of the first-ever 12-team field. Steve Sarkisian has proven to be one of the three or four best coaches in the sport and quarterback Quinn Ewers returns for his third year as a starter which makes them a serious national title contender.

However, the Longhorns will have their work cut out in 2024 as they transition to the SEC and play one of the most difficult schedules in the country. Texas is slated to play both the Michigan Wolverines and Georgia Bulldogs in the regular season. These two teams are more likely than not to be in the playoffs come December.

CFB expert Andy Staples projected his first 12-team Playoff field and he has the Longhorns qualifying as the No. 7 seed taking on Ole Miss. Assuming they were to beat Ole Miss, Texas would be matched up with No. 2 Georgia in the quarterfinals.

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Texas QB Quinn Ewers ranks as second best passer

Texas’s Quinn Ewers ranked No. 2 QB in the country heading into 2024 season by ESPN CFB expert

With the additions of the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners to the SEC and the expansion to a 12-team College Football Playoff, the 2024 season will be unlike anything we have seen in years past.

With eight more Playoff spots now, teams with two to three losses will be getting into the playoffs and you won’t have to run the table in a loaded SEC to play for a national title.

The move to the SEC could not have come at a better time as the Horns made a CFP appearance for the first time in 2023. Texas will be one of the favorites to compete for an SEC title and national championship in 2024 largely due to quarterback Quinn Ewers.

Six QBs were selected in the top 12 picks of the 2024 NFL draft, so there is a bit of a step down in talent at the position this year. However, for guys like Ewers and Georgia Bulldogs Carson Beck, it’s a great opportunity to become QB1 in the 2025 NFL draft class and potentially win the Heisman Memorial trophy.

Former Alabama quarterback and now ESPN CFB analyst Greg McElroy ranks Ewers as the No. 2 quarterback in the sport heading into the 2024 season behind only Beck. Jalen Milroe of Alabama and Jaxson Dart of Ole Miss were the only other SEC passers on the list.

McElroy said of Ewers, “He looked so much more comfortable last year, and because of the lost weight, I thought he was more athletic. His feet were better. And all of those things helped him to really progress and lead Texas to their first-ever CFP berth.”

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One analyst breaks down Texas’ move to SEC, quarterback situation

Fox Sports Joel Klatt shares why he doesn’t think there is any QB battle at Texas and how they will transition to the SEC

Despite coming up just a game shy of making it to their first national championship game since the 2009 season, the Texas Longhorns’ 2024 campaign was a massive success.

The Longhorns were able to go into Tuscaloosa and beat an Alabama Crimson Tide squad by double digits, claim a Big 12 title in their final year in the conference, and make it to the first-ever College Football Playoff game. An Alabama team, mind you, that also won the SEC and earned a berth in the CFP.

However, with one of the best defenses and quarterback rooms in the country heading into next season, the expectations in Austin are sky-high. Texas will be tasked with navigating one of the toughest schedules in the country with games against the Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, Michigan Wolverines, and Oklahoma Sooners as they transition to their first year in the SEC.

QB [autotag]Quinn Ewers[/autotag] was named a second-team All-Big 12 selection in 2023 but has all of the talent to make a massive jump this season and become a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft.

Unfortunately, Ewers’ surrounding cast will look much different than a year ago with Xavier Worthy, Jonathan Brooks, AD Mitchell, and Ja’Tavion Sanders all being selected in the first few rounds of this past draft.

Fox Sports college football expert Joel Klatt appeared on Colin Cowherd’s show this week where he discussed a variety of Texas football topics ranging from the conference transition to the quarterback room.

When Klatt was asked if he thought Texas would be a viable national title contender he said, “Texas is easily one of the four best teams in the country right now. No doubt about it. Anytime I get asked about Texas, by anybody that is not involved with the program, they all talk about Arch. When I go to Texas and I am around the program all they talk about is Quinn Ewers.”

Klatt and Cowherd’s discussion around Texas starts at about the 6:00 minute mark.

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CFB expert Joel Klatt predicts 10 Games that will shape the 2024 college football season

Texas’s games against Michigan and Georgia ranked as two of the most important games of the 2024 season

From conference realignment to the beginning of the 12-team College Football Playoffs, the 2024 season starts a new era. The sport has already been rapidly changing between the introductions of NIL and the transfer portal, but now it will be on full display.

For the Texas Longhorns, joining the SEC and the playoff expansion could not have come at a better time. Going from the Big 12 to the SEC will be a major step up in competition, but the Longhorns have one of the two or three best rosters in college football next to Georgia and Ohio State and are much more equipped for the change than in years past.

Additionally, the expansion from four to 12 teams allows for Texas to drop a game against Georgia or Michigan without worrying about their postseason chances being ruined by one loss.

As a fan, the conference realignment makes for plenty of intriguing matchups on a week-to-week basis that wouldn’t have occurred in years past. For the Longhorns, the 2024 schedule is highlighted by a visit from the No. 1 ranked Georgia Bulldogs and a return to the Lone Star Series with a trip to College Station to take on bitter in-state rivals the Texas A&M Aggies.

Both games combined with a trip to Michigan make for one of the toughest schedules in the entire country for [autotag]Steve Sarkisian[/autotag] and his staff.

Fox Sports CFB expert Joel Klatt is as excited as anyone about the changes coming to the sport. On his podcast ‘The Joel Klatt Show’, the former Colorado Buffaloes quarterback broke down the 10 games that will shape the 2024 season.

Klatt projects that Texas’ games against Michigan and Georgia are among the most important. With the Longhorns playing so many games on Fox, Klatt has covered as many Texas games over the past couple of years as anyone. The play-by-play announcer typically has a pretty good feel.

Contact/Follow us @LonghornsWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Sam Murphy on Twitter @SamMurphy02.