Joel Klatt claims Texas is 'elite' after important victory over Alabama

By Joel Klatt’s standards, Texas is back. After the Longhorns’ program-defining 34-24 win over Alabama on Saturday, Klatt discussed the game’s impact on Texas.

“Texas, you just did something. You just did something that basically nobody does,” Klatt said on “The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast.” “In fact, the only team that has in the last 54 games in Tuscaloosa is the Joe Burrow–LSU Tigers who went on to win the national championship, and that’s beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa.”

Not only did Texas beat Alabama, they did it in style. The Longhorns amassed 454 total yards in the win while committing zero turnovers. Additionally, UT recorded just four penalties compared to Alabama’s 10 violations.

“I have thought Texas is really good since the summer,” Klatt said. “I didn’t want to talk about it. I really didn’t. Why? Because they constantly play to the level of their competition. And candidly, we’ve seen that in both of the games this season in their sloppy and sluggish performance against Rice, in particular on the offensive line. And then, their incredible performance on the road against Alabama.”

Texas was incredible when it counted. Although the team scored zero points against Rice in the fourth quarter, the Longhorns rattled off 21 points against Alabama in the final period. For its efforts, Texas was awarded the No. 4 spot in the AP Top 25 this week.

Klatt has them in his No. 3 spot. Despite the team’s rankings, Klatt believes the Longhorns shouldn’t focus on reaching former heights. Instead, they must aspire for something new.

“This whole slogan and question of ‘Is Texas back,’ has hampered and hindered this program for years,” Klatt said. “They’ve had this standard and they’ve been trying to skip steps of how to build a program for so many years rather than just doing it right.

“That being said, Texas is an elite team this year. That’s the question we should ask ourselves every year. Not is Texas back, [we should ask] is Texas elite this year? Yes, they’re elite this year.”

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian might appreciate the praises he’s garnered, but he isn’t letting his team become satisfied. After beating Alabama, Sarkisian and Co. are on to the next.

“This is a tough task because Wyoming is a very gritty football team. They’re extremely well-coached,” Sarkisian said earlier this week. “Coach Bohl does a tremendous job. They’ve got a veteran football team, got a bunch of fourth, fifth, and six-year seniors. And their schemes; they’re disciplined. They execute, and they’re hard-nosed.”

Texas will square off against Wyoming on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on the Longhorn Network.