Heartland Sports is not buying Texas in 2023. Outside of Oklahoma media, they are about the only outlet that isn’t believing in the Longhorns.
The overwhelming majority of Big 12 media members have Texas taking home its first conference title trophy since 2009. The Longhorns came in at No. 1 in the conference standings prediction receiving 41 first-place votes. Kansas State came in next with 14 first-place votes. Oklahoma (4), Texas Tech (4), TCU (3) and Oklahoma State (1) also received first-place nods.
Heartland Sports’ Pete Mundo shared interesting points as to why the Longhorns don’t belong in the Big 12 favorite conversation. Much of Mundo’s beef with the rankings center around Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian and starting quarterback Quinn Ewers.
Mundo challenged the relevance of Texas’ talent advantage in the following quote.
“While there’s no doubt UT has the most talented roster in the league, that’s nothing new for the program. Texas has long had the most talent in the conference, which has resulted in zero conference championships since 2009.”
Texas has always been talented, but it hasn’t always been developed. That’s not exactly a problem anymore.
The Longhorns haven’t had players the caliber of Ja’Tavion Sanders, Xavier Worthy, Kelvin Banks, Jaylan Ford, Jalen Catalon, AD Mitchell or Isaiah Neyor at their respective positions prior to their time in Austin. Those are just a small sample of the proven players Texas has either developed or acquired.
The above players are just a few proven commodities that should all be drafted in the first four rounds of their respective NFL drafts. Did Texas produce that kind of the developed talent from 2013 to 2022? I think we all know that answer.
There’s plenty to prove for Quinn Ewers and Steve Sarkisian. Albeit, they are starting with a sizable advantage. Texas is talented and developed as evidenced by its 55-14 road rebuttal to Kansas’ 2021 upset last season. There should be more of that this year.