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All eyes are on Quinn Ewers in 2023.
It feels like just yesterday that Texas Longhorns fans were theorizing that former Ohio State quarterback Quinn Ewers would transfer to Texas where he was once committed. Continue reading “Is 2023 the year of Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers?”
Steve Sarkisian could very well be on the cusp of greatness.
The question that has haunted Longhorns fans for over a decade, “is Texas back?”
Fans of college football have endlessly mocked the once power of the sport for their many failed attempts at returning to prominence, but the stars appear to be aligning for Steve Sarkisian and company. The 2023 season has the makings of being “the year” for Texas, which if you poll any Longhorn fan prior to every season since 2010 you’d probably get the same response.
However, when looking around the landscape of the Big 12 and even the country itself, Texas has every reason to have confidence. The Big 12 is as up for grabs as it has been in years with Oklahoma on the decline, and notable programs such as Ohio State, Alabama, and Georgia are replacing stars all over the field. This has many Longhorns fans and media members alike, certain that Texas will finally get over their hump of stumbling.
In a recent article by 247Sports, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian who is fresh off a 8-5 season was featured as a coach on the verge of his first national championship victory. Joining him were names such as Ohio State’s Ryan Day, Penn State’s James Franklin, and Florida State’s Mike Norvell among others.
His ability to recruit, access the resources that the great state of Texas has to offer, and the overall trajectory stemming from last season were cited as to why Sarkisian was featured despite never having a 10-win season.
Across 10 seasons and three different programs, Steve Sarkisian never posted a double-digit win total. Despite the lack of a national championship caliber season on his resume, the Texas head coach lands on this list because of the upward trajectory on which he appears to be leading the Longhorns and the wealth of resources at his disposal. Texas continues to stockpile talent, and it has one of the most loaded quarterback rooms in the nation ahead of the 2023 season, so expectations in Austin are high after the Longhorns won eight games last fall. If Sarkisian gets the most out of his players, Texas is a CFP candidate.
Sarkisian brought in the No. 3 recruiting class in the country headlined by five-star quarterback Arch Manning and five-star linebacker Anthony Hill. He also added five massive transfers from the portal that all will likely start or at the bare minimum be vital contributors off the bench.
The pressure on Sarkisian, while it is at an all-time high, has been placed on the shoulders of quarterback Quinn Ewers. The former perfectly rated recruit showed flashes of prominence last season, but also had fans questioning if he should be pulled for Hudson Card late in the season. If Sarkisian can channel his ability to be a quarterback guru to help Ewers take those next steps, the 2023 season could end up being Texas’ best chance to contend nationally since Colt McCoy’s final season.
Steve Sarkisian spoke at the Houston Touchdown Club on Wednesday.
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian addressed the media at the Houston Touchdown Club on Wednesday. Continue reading “Everything Steve Sarkisian said at the Houston Touchdown Club”
College football is a pressure-packed industry.
College football is a pressure-packed industry. Nowadays, schools are becoming less and less patient with coaches trying to turn around a program. If a head coach does not start seeing significant results in two or three years, their job is likely in jeopardy.
The 2021 season proved to be make-or-break years for many coaches around the sport.
Kirby Smart got Georgia over the hump to bring home the first national title in 40 years. Jim Harbaugh finally took down rival Ohio State en route to a conference championship. Mike Gundy got the last laugh against Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners as the Pokes had an impressive 11-2 season.
Unfortunately, not everyone had the success those programs did in 2021. Clay Helton and Ed Orgeron were fired after losing seasons at blue blood programs. TCU moved on from longtime head coach Gary Patterson after another down season in Fort Worth.
Here is a list of college football coaches under the most pressure in 2022.
In order for Texas to make significant strides in 2022, they must improve in these key areas.
With the dreadful 2021 season behind them, and what should be a prosperous future thanks to success in recruiting and the transfer portal, Texas is poised to turn things around.
It won’t be easy to get back to the top of the college football world, but competing within the conference may be a tad more attainable at the moment.
In order to do so, there will be some major improvements needed across the board, as this Texas team had numerous flaws that ultimately led to the demise of the team as a whole.
For starters, the Longhorns were home to one of the worst defenses in the nation giving up 430-yards per game. It was a unit that showed no signs of improvement throughout the season, and will likely benefit from the amount of talent brought in during the offseason.
The offense was no peach either, and it would be fair to say that outside of Xavier Worthy and Bijan Robinson, the rest of the unit was abysmal all season.
Steve Sarkisian and Texas have a lot of soul searching to do, and most certainly had to go back to the drawing board in order to figure out how to right their wrongs after going 5-7 in year one.
When a season goes as poorly as 2021 did for Texas, everyone is at fault with some more bearing more weight than others. However, with an offseason to improve and fine tune things, it is certainly reasonable to pinpoint who or what needs to improve in order for this team to succeed.
Here is a look at what Texas needs to improve upon in order to succeed in 2022.
Texas’ Week 2 game against Alabama has everyone’s attention.
Texas has a ton of soul searching to do after going 5-7 in Steve Sarkisian’s first year, and bringing in a myriad of new players to help solve the glaring issues from this past season will make it more difficult to do so.
This team has a very good chance to have plenty of youth all over the field, but these underclassmen are going to have to grow up quick.
After what should be a tune-up game in Week 1 against Louisiana Monroe, Texas will play host to what should be the best team in the nation in Alabama. A game that graced 247Sports’ list of must-watch games of the 2022 college football season.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZSAPZUuiQm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
It’s a very scary game for Texas who will need to have the quarterback situation figured out before the second week unlike last season, and going up against a Crimson Tide team that is coming off a championship defeat will prove to be Texas’ toughest and possibly most important game of the season.
We will also see if Nick Saban can end his recent woes against his former assistants as he suffered his first two losses against former staff members last year in Jimbo Fisher and of course Kirby Smart.
This matchup against Alabama can either make or break the confidence of the players for the rest of the season going forward.
Is Texas the perfect fit for Evan Stewart?
This has not been the season that Steve Sarkisian and the fan base were hoping to have, as the Longhorns are currently sitting with a 4-5 record.
Texas is in the middle of a four-game losing streak, and many fans are having flashbacks of the prior coaching regimes. Tom Herman and Charlie Strong started off their tenures in Austin with 4-5 records as well.
To make matters worse, outside of the Arkansas loss, Texas was in position to win each of the last four games.
When you take into consideration the off-the-field exotic issues, altercations with coaches, and someone recording one of the coaches berate the players for laughing after being embarrassed on national television by Iowa State — the program has not been shown in a positive light as of late.
However, the viral video of defensive line coach Bo Davis has seemed to work in the favor of Texas as a plethora of recruits tweeted their support of the program. One of them being five-star receiver Evan Stewart. On Tuesday, Bleacher Report recently named Texas as the perfect fit for Stewart.
Here is why they believe Texas and Stewart are a match made in heaven:
Texas has just three healthy receivers who have played significant snaps this year. The Horns need major help at the position alongside Xavier Worthy and Jordan Whittington.
Enter Evan Stewart, the nation’s No. 3 overall player and a virtual Worthy clone from Frisco, Texas. The 6’0″, 175-pound pass-catcher is a near lock to be an instant-impact playmaker, and while Florida has hung around his recruitment for a long time, this looks like a Texas-Texas A&M battle.
He’d be smart to go to Austin, where Sarkisian can team him with Worthy and watch them show out.
The Longhorns need a lot of help on both sides of the ball to rebuild after decades of disappointment, and Stewart would be a major PR win for the school.
Texas could likely experience even more attrition at the receiver position, but adding Stewart along with current Texas commit Brenen Thompson, this receiver group can go from dreadful to elite in no time.
Positive news for Texas.
Texas got banged up on the field and the scoreboard in the 30-7 loss to Iowa State last week.
Several key players went down against the Cyclones, prompting Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian to provide an injury update on Monday. Fortunately for the Longhorns, it was some much needed good news.
Running back Bijan Robinson, linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, and defensive lineman Alfred Collins are all considered day-to-day. The trio appears to have dodged serious injuries.
No significant injury updates per Sarkisian but DeMarvion Overshown, Bijan Robinson and Alfred Collins are all day-to-day.
— Longhorn Network (@LonghornNetwork) November 8, 2021
The health of these three players is crucial for Texas, who is in the midst of a four-game losing streak and badly needs to win two out of their next three games to be bowl eligible.
Although many of their preseason goals are now out of reach, ending the season on a high note with a decent bowl game could help on the recruiting trail.
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Steve Sarkisian had a lot to say to the media on Monday.
Texas is free-falling at the moment, and have found themselves in the midst of a historic losing streak.
The program is in a very frustrating three-game losing streak that has seen double-digit leads evaporate, and rather than sitting at 7-1, they are watching inspirational movies to encourage themselves not to give up with a 4-4 record on the year.
The blame can be passed around to literally anyone, you could probably stand in the room with the team and blindly point at someone, and the person you are pointing has likely contributed to this dreadful season somehow.
Steve Sarkisian faced the media on Monday as he usually does, and although he still seems optimistic about the trajectory of the program, which he kind of has to, he also gave some very interesting and somewhat passive aggressive statements to the media.
The nation is ready to push the panic button already, but Sarkisian is displaying confidence that he and the team are just in a bad stretch that they will find their way out of.
Here are a few of his best quotes from Monday’s media session.
Hudson Card connects with Bijan Robinson for the first touchdown of the Steve Sarkisian era.
Texas’ 2021 season is in full swing at home against Louisiana. The Ragin Cajuns opened the scoring with a field goal but the Longhorns have responded in a big way.
After a disappointing first possession, Texas was able to put together a solid drive toward the end of the first quarter. The ground game has been the key early on, with Bijan Robinson, Roschon Johnson, and Hudson Card all gaining yards.
To begin the Sarkisian era, of course, it was Robinson to get the first points. On a third-down inside the red zone, the running back shifted to the left side of the quarterback before running into the flat. No Louisana defender followed him out there, leading to a walk-in touchdown.
You can watch the full highlight below:
TOUCHDOWN, TEXAS. #HookEm pic.twitter.com/rpxLetQmPo
— Justin Wells (@justinwells2424) September 4, 2021
Card has thrown his first career touchdown after a shaky start. The offensive line needs to do a better job protecting the redshirt freshman quarterback if the offensive success is going to continue.
Texas is currently leading Louisiana 7-3 early in the second quarter. You can watch Sarkisian’s offense and the rest of the game on Fox.
Contact/Follow us @LonghornsWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas news, notes and opinions.
