Gentle reminder: For Texas, it's the year before the year

This has been a safe opinion since last December or January but I feel it’s never been more evident than now that this will be the year before the year. What I mean by that, is, expectations for this season should not be 10 wins and a conference championship. 

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I’m not a fan of reducing expectations due to disappointment the year prior. I said this under both Charlie Strong and Tom Herman, but it’s clear there are still numerous questions surrounding the program that were highlighted by the six-game losing streak last season. Or, in a couple cases, there are answers but they’re still in the rough draft stage.

Four major questions in particular are clear as we head into Sark’s second stanza. If somehow they all get answered in September, maybe the team will catch lightning in a bottle and jump its timeline similar to 2008. 

Quarterback

Steve Sarkisian was as proactive as he could possibly be in the transfer market and it paid off with a player who should have been at Texas the whole time in the ultra-talented Quinn Ewers. I’ve likened Ewers to a young Brett Favre, but not because of their deals with Wranglers. Well yeah, maybe a little of that too. I do believe Quinn is going to become a great quarterback, but as of now he’s more of a talented passer. There is a difference which we’ll discuss over the next week. As he experiments with what he can and can’t get away with at the college level, Quinn will be a little more boom or bust this season than at any other point in his career. I do think he’s going to be successful this season, but pairing his inexperience with a young O-line lowers the ceiling for the season.

Offensive Line

In my view, the two most important position groups on a team are quarterback and O-line. The good: They’re both extremely talented. The bad: They’re both extremely green. Coaches are not in a position to sacrifice wins for development this season, but fortunately Kyle Flood is in a position to assimilate his freshman signees on a timeline that doesn’t do that. I view Kelvin Banks in a similar vein to Ewers. He’s good enough to be a good enough this season, though he’s still a freshman and will make mistakes. Cole Hutson is going to start at right guard and he should be solid this season. Others, like Cam Williams and DJ Campbell, will also play. Experience for this group will go a long way towards next spring and then into 2023 when they’ll look much different.

Defensive Coordinator

The coordinator on the opposite side of the head coach’s expertise is always someone to keep an eye on. Though, it is interesting both Strong and Herman ultimately failed because of shortcomings on their side of the ball. Sark appears to be on solid footing on offense, even going into this season with the above questions. After a disappointing first season, and less immediate reinforcements on defense than offense, there are a handful of concerns around Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense.

There are indeed talent deficiencies on this side of the ball, but those can be somewhat mitigated with good schemes, development and teaching, and getting players in the right place. These are all things PK has built his reputation on. While there is some truth to this being very similar personnel to last year, that can be a bit misleading when trying to project whether or not the unit will improve. Byron Murphy will play a much larger role, as will Jahdae Barron at Star rather than corner. Both flashed genuine ability last season. Barryn Sorrell also played well at times last season and he’ll take on a larger role at a need position (he may be a year away from being good, though he should be solid). Former Star, Anthony Cook, is in a position more suited to his skillset. The addition of Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey, which barely registered on the fan Richter scale, could produce tremors. Even more notably at linebacker, Jaylan Ford has emerged as the sure-fire starter after looking the part later in 2021. Ryan Watts from Ohio State was the biggest addition on defense. We have heard mixed reviews about where he best projects, though he’s a starting corner to begin the season.

I do think defense will show demonstrable improvement, but we’ll need to see answers on the field, not in theory. Overall, the coaches need a full year to develop the 2022 signees, and to continue to upgrade talent and depth through the 2023 class and the portal. They are already doing that in recruiting, and they will do that through the portal, too.

Culture

Culture, or lack thereof, often falls on the players because we can see it on the field with their actions and effort, but I’m including Sark here because it certainly falls under the program management umbrella. I do think lack of culture received a bit of a bad rap last season and was more of a lagging indicator of the losing streak than the cause of the losing streak. Each team has a threshold for what it can withstand, and heartbreaking losses to Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Baylor proved too much. Hopefully we don’t witness that level of adversity again, but if we do I believe they’re better equipped to handle it.

We’ve highlighted the ways Sark has addressed culture through exPorting a few malcontents, increasing accountability within the program, more demanding strength and conditioning, and stoking player-driven leadership. By all accounts, even from players themselves at media availabilities, this seems improved, but it does remain a question heading into the opening game. Like with improvements on defense, it’s great to hear about it, but it’s time to see it.

Now, all that written, this team is improved across the board, but by how much remains a question I will attempt to answer in the next article.