State of the Program – Longhorns unleashed talent in final stretch, Big 12 title game
On the latest video episode of On Texas Football’s State of the Program, Inside Texas’s Bobby Burton and Eric Nahlin discuss the Longhorns’ journey to the Big 12 Championship and the successful season as a whole for Texas, which will play Washington in the CFP semifinal in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on New Year’s night.
[Join Inside Texas today using our College Football Playoff sale and choose from two great offers!]
State of the Program is sponsored by the Loewy Law Firm.
“We’ve been here from the start of this three-year run for (Texas coach Steve) Sarkisian from when he was getting vetted for the job to being hired and to two, three years later and the Longhorns are Big 12 champs,” Burton said. “It has been a slow and steady pace, but the last, I don’t know six months, it’s kind of sped everything up.”
Nahlin, the publisher of InsideTexas.com, said the Longhorns grew mentally and physically throughout the campaign, with confidence rising as success was achieved.
“There was a build-up to the Big 12 championship game,” Nahlin explained. “The entire season was – specifically we started to see the team come together I think about midway through the Iowa State game. That was when they started realizing that they’re better than the other team and started asserting their will. And they started to build confidence, and once they built confidence, they started making more plays and started playing looser and faster, and more and more together, more in sync.”
Burton said the team flipped the switch when Texas receiver Adonai Mitchell went to his back for a catch over the shoulder to help the Longhorns close out TCU on the road.
“Mitchell made that catch against TCU and that like opened the floodgates mentally for Texas to have this next level,” Burton said. “It was an epiphany of a sense, like one thing begat another.”
Top 10
- 1
Updated SEC title game scenarios
The path to the championship game is clear
- 2
SEC refs under fire
'Incorrect call' wipes Bama TD away
- 3
'Fire Kelly' chants at LSU
Death Valley disapproval of Brian Kelly
- 4New
Chipper Jones
Braves legend fiercely defends SEC
- 5
Drinkwitz warns MSU
Mizzou coach sounded off
Nahlin concurred, saying: “That play reminded me of what we saw at Alabama, you know, that was a sort of a game-defining, game winning play when they had to have it.
“Texas had to get through that tough stretch,” Nahlin added. “You know, they didn’t have Quinn Ewers there for a while and I think everybody was a little nervous about that. I had quite the nerves walking into the K-State game knowing that Quinn wasn’t going to start. When he came back he had to knock the rust off.”
Nahlin said he agreed with the CFP committee’s four-team choice for the tournament even if it left out undefeated Florida State. Burton agreed with Nahlin’s take on the CFP committee’s four choices and understood that the choice was hard and the repercussions that Florida State had to endure was difficult to watch.
Burton and Nahlin broke down some of the happenings in the transfer portal and how it affects Texas both in players leaving and players being courted. Go check out the video in its entirety for more information.
