Quentin Johnston, Dee Winters address being first Texas team to play for a title since 2009-10 season

For the first time since Colt McCoy‘s senior season at Texas, a team from the Lone Star State will play for the college football national championship. The TCU Horned Frogs have schocked the world and look to bring the state it’s first title since 2005.

For Horned Frogs stars and Texas natives Quentin Johnston and Dee Winters, they’re excited to represent the entire state when they battle Georgia this coming Monday.

“It means a lot to us being from Texas, just having everybody in Texas backing us up on this run we’re making. [It’s] having overall a very positive impact,” Johnston said postgame. “And then for me, myself, is like the process, this whole year has really like humbled me. … It’s something me or Dee hasn’t experienced up to this point. Overall, I would say it’s a blessing and I’m just extremely happy for me and my teammates.”

Winters piggybacked off his teammate, reiterating how much it means to the state during its championship drought.

“I think it means a lot for the state of Texas. Like you said, it’s been over a decade that a Texas team has been in the College Football Playoffs and to be going to the national championships,” Winters said. “I think just realizing you’re in the state of Texas and we produce great athletes in Texas, us going from high school, as [Johnston] said. And I think we were capable to perform at this type of level. We’re excited.”

Looking back, if you were told before the season that a Texas team was going to play for the 2023 national championship, which team do you think you’d have guessed? Texas A&M? That train fell off the tracks before it even got started. Baylor? Don’t kid yourself. Texas? The Longhorns were impressive, but could never get over the hump. If you guessed any other team, you’d be grasping at straws.

TCU might’ve been the last team you’d think would be in the position they’re in right now – 60 minutes away from the heist of the century and dethroning the Georgia Bulldogs, the reigning kings of college football. In part, they can thank all of the home-grown Texas talent on their roster that have helped get them there.