JD PicKell: What's next for Texas football following moral victory vs Alabama

The Texas Longhorns are entering their third game of the season and are already at a crossroads. According to On’3s JD PicKell, after the Longhorns’ close loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide, the team must now figure out what direction to head in. Should they roll into Week 3’s matchup against UTSA proudly hanging on to their moral victory against Alabama, or is there another option they are considering?

“Two things to do now; two things that could happen, I should say. The first for Texas is you can say, okay, we throw our best punch; let’s take a load off, boys,” said PicKell. “Let’s sort of take a break here now. Good effort, good showing. Let’s catch our wind a little bit and relax. We’ve proved a point; let’s relax.

“Or you can say, there’s a lot of good things on tape, a lot of good things we did well. I think we proved a lot of things that we thought we could do on the field. We validated some of those, even with the dinged-up quarterback situation. Let’s build on that; foot on the gas. Like Steve Sarkisian says, all gas, no brakes. We’re going to keep this thing pushing in the right direction.”

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In sports, there is no tally for moral victories. But the Longhorns did prove that they are not far off from being a challenger for the national championship. Unfortunately, the health of their top two quarterbacks was compromised, with Ewers likely out for an extended period of time. Fans will get a quick answer to that question this Saturday when they take on the upset-minded UTSA Roadrunners.

UTSA game will show a lot about Texas’ culture after Alabama loss

After their Week 2 performance, the Longhorns’ future seasons are now at stake. On’3 JD sees the writing on the wall for Texas and explains why this week’s game against sister school UTSA we’ll speak volumes about the culture of their football program.

“What does Texas do? Because they are very clearly out of crossroads as a program right now,” said PicKell. “I think how they respond in Week 3, after this Alabama game, is going to be the most telling of the development of Texas going forward. Where is that culture at? Because that’s consistently the question around Austin; what’s the Texas culture like? What’s it like in that locker, on that coaching staff, the attitude and character like? Did they truly get an exodus of those players that were bad apples? Or is it still a work in progress?

I think the UTSA game will tell us a lot. Because the great teams, the teams that play really meaningful games in early January, their focus, intentions, and intensity even more so isn’t dictated by the logo across from them. It doesn’t matter if you have FCS West across from you or the Alabama Crimson Tide; we’re bringing our A-game. It doesn’t matter. The external circumstances don’t play into how we play. We’re showing up against the fence opponent every single week. That’s what the great ones do. And so now for Texas, you had Alabama across from you last week. Gave them a great showing, your best shot. Nobody is scoffing at what Texas did in a loss last week. “