JD PicKell reveals why Texas fans are hesitant about hype surrounding roster

Urban Meyer recently said Texas has the best roster in college football. The former coach told Tim May on Urban’s Take the Longhorns shouldn’t be slept on.

But that could cause some hesitation in the Texas fan. On3’s J.D. PicKell broke down why Texas fans might be a little cautious before naming the roster the best in football.

It’s about living up to the standard of the premier programs in the country.

“I think what it comes down to is the standard Alabama and Georgia have, is Texas able to replicate that and kind of have their own version of that,” PicKell said on The Hard Count. “And I think it gets distilled down to three key things. The first pillar is development. That’s great. We got a five star kid, can we make him a five star player for us at the collegiate level? Five-star the high school level was awesome. It means you were a freak show.

“It means you project really well to the NFL, it means that you did a lot of good things at the high school level, but are you a five star player at the collegiate level? That’s what we have to do. That’s on us as a program now to develop you physically. And also to develop you from a football perspective to put you in position to succeed.”

If Texas can take that first step consistently, it’ll bold well with the elite programs in college football.

“Georgia and Alabama do that really well. Texas are they able to do that,” PicKell said. “We’re gonna see this coming season. The second pillar, the second piece of this is competitive excellence. And this is a term that is maybe a little bit more coach speak but I promise you it is 1,000% true and needs to be talked about with Texas. Competitive excellence is what Georgia and Bama do so well. 

“How many times have you seen Nick Saban after a blowout win, take the podium and just seem frustrated. Just seems kind of annoyed. Just gives an elite postgame press conference speech after they just blew out whoever 45-10. It’s because Nick Saban isn’t worried about the opposition. He’s worried about his standards. Are we meeting the standard internally that we set for ourselves? That’s gonna be the difference for Texas, is the standard internally set to where it needs to be. That’s competitive excellence. That’s what Texas needs to have in place to go along with the talent.”

There is a world of expectations on Steve Sarkisian and Texas this season. A Big 12 title can certainly feed the beast.

But since everyone used to ask if Texas was back, a College Football Playoff appearance might be the expectation at this point.