JD PicKell: Texas enters SEC 'in a position of power' but questions remain

Texas should enter its first season in the SEC with plenty of confidence after the way the Longhorns played last year.

Texas finished 12-2 in its last season in the Big 12, winning the Big 12 title, beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa and advancing to the College Football Playoff.

On3’s JD PicKell joined The Paul Finebaum Show on Tuesday and shared that he expects the Longhorns to carry that momentum over to the 2024 season.

“I think it’s just impressive the way that Steve Sarkisian has changed the entire conversation around Texas,” PicKell said. “I mean this time last year, they’re getting ready to play Alabama in Week 2 and we’re talking about how that’ll be kind of a rude awakening for them and kind of a primer for the SEC.

“They go into Tuscaloosa and beat Nick Saban and company pretty convincingly — by double digits — and they were driving with the football at the end of that game. And so I think the overall optics on Texas and the fact that they’re going into the SEC, I think in a position of power, really says a lot about what Steve Sarkisian has done there in a short amount of time.”

There’s no doubt that the biggest win of the season for Texas in 2023 was its road win at Alabama.

The Crimson Tide entered as 7.5-point favorites, before being upset 34-24 by the Longhorns. Texas controlled most of the game and finished with more total yards (454-362) and first downs (23-18) than Alabama.

The Longhorns also didn’t turn the ball over that night, while Alabama committed two turnovers.

Texas returns several key pieces off of last year’s team — most notably quarterback Quinn Ewers. With that said, PicKell does see a big question mark on the roster.

“My one concern I have is how do they replenish on the defensive line?” PicKell said. “Because we all understand it’s a trenches league, is the SEC. You’ve got to have those big boys up front, and they lose two All-Americans in Byron Murphy and T’Vondre Sweat.”

With that said, overall, PicKell is still high on the Longhorns as they head into Year 1 in the SEC.

“They’ve got a quarterback. They’ve got an offensive mastermind in Steve Sarkisian. And they also attacked the portal and landed some really key guys from the SEC themselves in Isaiah Bond and Amari Niblack,” PicKell said. “So I think Texas is in really good shape.”