Texas HC Steve Sarkisian says Alabama prep started in camp

Texas has had its mind on Alabama since camp in August.

It seems as if Texas has been preparing for Alabama for nearly a month. Head coach Steve Sarkisian indicated as much in his comments on the matchup with the Crimson Tide.

Sarkisian said the following of the team’s preparation for the game.

“As we get into this week’s ball game, I think our players will feel comfortable with the game plan because we’ve done a lot of that stuff that we’re going to run in next week’s game earlier in camp.”

In the grand scheme of the season, the Rice game isn’t going to matter. Texas’ struggles could have revolved around not having the practical ability to game plan for Rice.

The Longhorns simply showed up for the game as we suggested they should. Albeit, they did so with less intensity from the offensive line than we would have liked to see. The Owls brought their A-game defensively to face Texas’ spring game caliber effort and still lost by 27.

Now, we move to the game that matters. It’s the game that Texas spent the entire offseason working towards. It’s the game they dedicated their mental focus toward with the intent of putting a winning product on the field.

There’s a history of teams performing poorly before games they prioritized. There’s a history of those teams winning those big games. Texas A&M typically plays poorly before it faces Alabama. It pulled off the upset in 2021. Kansas State routinely gets upset before facing Oklahoma. The Wildcats have won three of the last four games against the Sooners.

The above scenarios hit home with Longhorns faithful. We saw Texas defeat Tulsa in an underwhelming 28-21 performance before beating USC 37-14 in the 2018 season.

While Saturday’s stinker could mean Texas is in store for a long season, it could also mean the team was simply allocating extra resources to beat Alabama. The next game could reveal the current realities for the program.