When Steve Sarkisian took over the Texas Longhorns football program ahead of the 2021 season he knew that getting back to the top of the college football mountain would be no easy task.
Year one made that challenge quite evident as the team went 5-7 on the year and finished an abysmal 3-6 in the Big 12. While Sarkisian shouldered the majority of the blame, the fact of that matter is the roster he inherited just wasn’t good enough as the Longhorns had zero players selected in the 2022 NFL draft.
In just two years, all of Sarkisian’s hard work is coming to fruition as the Longhorns head into the 2024 season with arguably the best roster in all of college football. During that time, Sarkisian guided Texas to a 20-7 record with a Big 12 title and College Football Playoff berth in 2023 as well as some of the best recruiting classes in the country.
Now, heading into his fourth year, Sarkisian is really starting to turn Texas into an NFL factory as he just had two players selected in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft in DT Byron Murphy II and WR Xavier Worthy.
Murphy was selected No. 16 overall by the Seattle Seahawks and has blown away the coaching staff in the Pacific Northwest so far. Current Seahawks defender Leonard Williams had plenty of positives to say about his new teammate.
“He understands the game already, which is really nice to see. A lot of times you see first-rounders, rookies … they have all the physical attributes but they still have to kind of learn football a little bit. Williams continued, “Whereas he seems like he kind of has that under wraps already. So they did a good job over there at Texas teaching him football. Also, he’s just a hard worker. That’s the No. 1 compliment I can give somebody is that they work hard.'”
However, the most shocking move of the 2024 draft came when the Buffalo Bills traded out of their No. 28 overall selection and allowed their AFC rival Kansas City Chiefs to move into their slot and select the new 40-yard dash record holder, Xavier Worthy.
Adam Teicher says of Patrick Mahomes’ new weapon, “Worthy did not practice for much of the offseason because of a sore hamstring so the Chiefs didn’t get an extensive look at him. The Chiefs said they were being cautious and that barring a setback he should be good to go at training camp. Worthy had an up-and-down performance at the team’s rookie camp shortly after he was drafted. He dropped some passes the first day but responded with some big plays at the next practice.”
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