1st & 10: Longhorns want to add another year to the north end zone facade
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian‘s office is in the new south end zone facility that overlooks Campbell-Williams Field. It offers him a unique view of Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium and its many features, including where Texas lists national and conference championships on the facade of the Red McCombs Red Zone.
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The Longhorns have won four national titles and 28 conference titles, and all of those successful years are visible in big, burnt orange lettering just below the upper deck on the north side.
Twenty-eight conference titles is an achievement, but the Texas program has sat at that total for almost 15 years now. And during the Longhorns’ time in the Big 12, UT has only brought home three conference crowns.
“To think in the last 27 years, there’s only been three conference championships and we’re playing for one on Saturday where we can put our year up in that stadium forever?” Sarkisian said Monday. “That means a lot. That’s something we don’t take lightly. That’s a big deal.”
It sure is to the Texas program. Jahdae Barron said Monday that the team was reminded of the fact that the Longhorns, one of the most historic programs in college football, has won just four conference titles in an almost 30-year span every day since the summer. Ahead of blistering workouts and tough practices, every stretch period begins with the team looking up at the north end zone.
“We’ve been looking at that, shoot, every day in the summer when it was 110 and we were sweating, dying together,” Barron said. “We look at that and it reminds us every day. That’s always something we have in mind.”
Texas has an experienced and talented roster. Much of the young talent comes from classes Sarkisian himself brought in. Some of the older talent includes players from the classes of 2019 or 2020 playing their senior seasons.
One of those players is T’Vondre Sweat, who came back to Texas with other members of his 2019 class with a Big 12 title in mind.
“That’s part of the reason I came back, to come back and win a Big 12 Championship,” Sweat said Monday. “It’s been awesome playing with these group of guys and now we have an opportunity to win the Big 12 Championship.”
Names from the three previous Big 12 title teams are easy to rattle off for Longhorns fans, most notably at quarterback.
1996? That was when James Brown completed Roll Left.
2005? Vince Young and the Horns stampeded over Colorado 70-3 on the way to the Rose Bowl.
2009? Colt McCoy survived Ndamukong Suh for 59:59 to set up a game winning field goal for Hunter Lawrence.
There were plenty of stars on all those teams, but the quarterbacks quickly come to mind.
Quinn Ewers has an opportunity to join their company.
“It’s cool to be a part of a team like this that has an opportunity to go make their mark on this program and put their year up in DKR,” Ewers said Monday.
Texas has approached each week following the mid-October loss to Oklahoma like a Big 12 Championship game. So there was a sense of accomplishment when they finally reached Arlington with a 57-7 win over Texas Tech on Friday.
“It’s another championship game,” Barron said of the matchup with Oklahoma State. “Actually, the real championship game.”
The real championship game, indeed. Texas has an opportunity to put a new number up in DKR with a Big 12 Championship this Saturday. The place where it would go has been right in front of them all year dating back to offseason workouts. As the Longhorns exit the Big 12 on July 1, 2024, it’s the chance to win the actual trophy one last time too.
“To be the fourth team in 27 years would be a heck of a deal if we could get it done,” Sarkisian said.
1: Sweat was named a finalist for the Outland Trophy on Tuesday, an honor given annually to the best interior lineman in college football. A who’s who of Texas trench warriors have won or been nominated for the award, including winners Scott Appleton, Tommy Nobis, and Brad Shearer plus nominees Dan Neil, Leonard Davis, Justin Blalock, and Malcom Brown.
The other finalists are Kansas State’s Cooper Beebe and Notre Dame’s Joe Alt. Both are great linemen, but neither have the combination of dominant play and winning results that seems to matter for these honors.
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Sweat is Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded interior defender with a 91.6 grade. That includes a day versus Kansas State, often against Beebe himself, where Sweat graded out at 89.3. Bebee is an excellent lineman, and against Texas he had a pass-blocking grade of 89.0 working against Sweat and other Longhorns. But the Wildcats couldn’t run, as seen in Beebe’s 61.1 run-blocking grade and their 30 running yards on 29 attempts.
Sweat should receive credit for that in the minds of the Football Writers Association of America committee members, more than enough to be the fourth Outland winner in school history.
2: Despite being the home team as a result of earning the No. 1 overall seed in the Big 12, the Longhorns announced via social media they’ll wear their all white uniform combination on Saturday versus Oklahoma State at AT&T Stadium in Austin.
Wearing white as the home team is not something the Longhorns do often. Texas wore all white throwback alternates in a 27-16 win over Baylor in 2020 at DKR to honor the 50th anniversary of the 1970 national championship team. The last time Texas wore all white at home prior to that game?
September 30, 1950 in a 34-26 win over Purdue.
Texas wore burnt orange in the 1996 and 2018 Big 12 title games, winning the former and losing the latter. All white was worn in 1999, 2001, 2005, and 2009, with the Horns winning only the latter two contests.
3: Texas was ranked No. 7 in last night’s College Football Playoff rankings reveal. Before diving into the rest of the word salads issued by Boo Corrigan representing the selection committee, one thing became evident: a Texas win and a Florida State loss, and the Longhorns are in the four-team playoff barring an act of God.
4: Word salad time. Corrigan is great at whipping them together.
Can you take us through the discussion between Oregon, Ohio State, Texas and Alabama and how you guys kind of figured out that order?
BOO CORRIGAN: Well, what I’d share with you, a lot of conversation early when we went into the room, at the end of the day, and then coming back again this morning to make sure that we were hearing every opinion.
The good news is everyone is weighing in to everything, where they’re opinions are, what their point is on each one of those teams. All 11-1, all with good wins, all obviously have lost a game, and looking at it and as we came through the evaluation of that, after weighing many points and making sure that we took our time going through it, we ended up where we did at 5, 6, 7 and 8.
5: On Texas and the Crimson Tide…
How much separation does the committee see between Texas and Alabama there at 7 and 8?
BOO CORRIGAN: Yeah, same thing. Again, it is close. As we look at it, you can look at any part of what we’re doing when you get here in the different groupings and everything that we do, but two really good teams that have had really good years, done a great job by Sark and by Coach Saban, and we’ll just continue to evaluate.
6: There was one thing that Texas fans should read into, however…
To follow up, I guess I’m trying to clarify the whole recency thing. Does Texas’s head-to-head win against Alabama carry as much weight as it would if it would have happened later in the season? Does it still carry that same amount of weight even though it happened in week two, or does it carry less week because it happened earlier in the season?
BOO CORRIGAN: Head-to-head is head-to-head, no matter when the game is played, and that’s how we look at it.
You can find the full transcript here.
7: Speaking to Texas’ rush defense, here are the 1000-yard rushers Texas has faced this season and their performance against the Longhorns
- Kansas: Devin Neal – 8 carries, 45 yards
- Kansas State: DJ Giddens – 9 carries, 22 yards
- TCU: Emani Bailey – 21 carries, 98 yards, 1 TD
- Texas Tech: Tahj Brooks – 19 carries, 95 yards
While Brooks put together a nice stat line, those 95 yards were not terribly effective. It also turned out to be one of Brooks’ three games this year where he was held under total yards. Bailey was the most effective running back against the Horns, and the only one to score.
8: The top conference championship game of the weekend is on Friday and features undefeated No. 3 Washington versus No. 5 Oregon. Field goals decided the previous meeting in Seattle, an awesome battle that might be the game of the year. For Texas’ sake, the Longhorns wouldn’t mind seeing a game equally as thrilling but with a similar result ahead of their own conference title game.
9: Rodney Terry‘s team takes on Texas State tomorrow night, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a decent number of Bobcat fans made their way to the Moody Center to cheer on their team. The Longhorns should be able to handle a Texas State squad hovering around No. 200 in the KenPom rankings.
That leaves plenty of time to prepare for No. 3 Marquette, led by former Texas head coach Shaka Smart.
10: The All-Big 12 teams should come out later . Be on the lookout for how many Longhorns make the cut on Inside Texas.
