JD PicKell: Why the UTSA game will show a lot about Texas' culture after Alabama loss

The Texas Longhorns lost a close one at home last Saturday against the former number one team in the nation, the Alabama Crimson Tide. And after that 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. “

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For the Longhorns not to fall back into obscurity, the team must prioritize taking down lesser opponents. PicKell, it’s not saying UTSA is a bad program, but they are no perennial powerhouse such as Alabama. Regardless of who plays Texas, the Longhorns must treat every game as if their very best is required to win it.

Now UTSA comes to town. The logo, no knock on the Roadrunners, it’s a little bit different than that script-A. It has a little bit less excitement around it. There’s no college game day in town this weekend. I don’t know what the attendance is gonna be like in DKR. But I would imagine that there’s gonna be a little bit less of a crowd this coming week for that game. What do you do for an encore?

There’s a lot on the line for the Longhorns in their Week 3 matchup, which is why it is of the utmost importance that they dispose of the Roadrunners and show them who is the better of the UT programs. UTSA is on the rise, and the last thing Texas wants to do is boost the Roadrunners program’s culture by continuing to fail to build their own.