Spring football has come to a close for the Texas Longhorns. First-year head coach Steve Sarkisian inherits a team that finished fourth in the conference and were just a few plays away from being one of the top teams heading into the Big 12 Championship game. Can he finally get Texas over the proverbial hump in year one?
2021 Texas Longhorns Outlook
The Texas Longhorns return a total of 15 starters in all three phases of the game. Six return on offense and seven on the defensive side of the ball. In the previous way-too-early rankings from ESPN, the team was listed at No. 21 but dipped just one spot in the updated post-spring rankings to No. 22.
The Longhorns defense added a pair of transfer linebackers from the SEC to help enhance Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense in Ray Thornton (LSU) and Ben Davis (Alabama) among a few others. Offensively, they will deploy a new quarterback between Hudson Card or Casey Thompson. The offense will hopefully use Bijan Robinson as their workhorse much in the way that Najee Harris was used for Sarkisian in Tuscaloosa.
What ESPN Says…
Steve Sarkisian’s first spring camp concluded without a definitive answer on who will replace Ehlinger, a four-year starter. Casey Thompson took snaps with the No. 1 offense in the spring game, and he’ll continue to battle Hudson Card throughout the offseason.
New defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski will have a busy offseason trying to build depth at linebacker and on the edge. Along with losing Ossai to the NFL draft, 2020 leading tackler Juwan Mitchell announced on Monday he will transfer to Tennessee.