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Texas in strong position to make run at conference crown

Eric Nahlinby:Eric Nahlin•10/09/22
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Quinn Ewers (Will Gallagher/IT)

Saturday was a great day for the program and fans a like. With each touchdown scored you could feel anxiety turn to relief turn to elation. I’m not sure how much of that game is useful when projecting the season forward, at least for Texas.

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Oklahoma’s season is effectively over. At 0-3 in Big 12 play Brent Venables finds himself in worse position than Steve Sarkisian was last year. We saw how that played out for Texas and also what it took to get Texas turned around so quickly. If Venables doesn’t receive institutional support, including the boosters, it’s going to be extremely difficult to get OU back to its accustomed level of play before entering the SEC. Texas may have to drag them in like a lifeless gladiator chained to a fellow combatant in the Coliseum. If so, yesterday was good practice.

Assuming you watched college football beyond the Red River Shutout on Saturday you saw how many teams struggled with their backup quarterback. Without Will Levis, Kentucky fell to woeful South Carolina. Heisman winner Bryce Young was out so Alabama went with Jalen Milroe and he struggled mightily. Texas A&M has nothing but backups at the position so they were used to playing QB2 and Haynes King almost helped the Aggies pull off the upset in Tuscaloosa.

Backups so prominently on display highlighted two things: just how bad OU had it (tight end Brayden Willis was their most effective QB); and just how good UT has it at quarterback.

After Quinn Ewers‘ performance yesterday and Hudson Card‘s while Ewers was on the mend, Texas might have the most enviable quarterback situation in the country. I wouldn’t trade Ewers for any player in the nation, and Card would start at countless universities. Let’s enjoy that for 8 more games.

To play 8 more games Texas will have to earn its way to the Big 12 championship game. Currently at 2-1 in Big 12 play, the program is in good position to do so. If the revenge tour continues apace, the only other loss would be to Kansas State, but they very well could win that one too.

Watching league play so far, my opinion remains the same — there are a number of quality teams, but no really great ones. Certainly Texas has the highest ceiling and to beat the Horns you will need a very good offense. Either that, or you’ll need to deploy Texas Tech’s kamikaze style that had them in position to upset Ok. State in Stillwater yesterday. That game had similar notes to Tech’s upset over Texas in Lubbock.

Up next for UT is Iowa State. When it comes to offense, the Cyclones represent their state as well as the Hawkeyes. That’s not the recipe to upset Texas in DKR.

After that, one of the league’s marquee games: Texas vs Oklahoma State. Cowboys quarterback Spencer Sanders is taking much better care of the ball this year and Mike Gundy is the best coach in the conference. That should be a good one. After that game Texas will be on its bye week while Ok. St. will have to go to Manhattan to play a relatively dangerous and physical K-State. The Horns will follow suit the following week.

While fans are justifiably concerned about Oklahoma State, the most difficult game remaining might be the Gary Patterson bowl against TCU. The Horned Frogs will spread the defense out and also run the quarterback.

Kansas won’t be a pushover, though they’re not as good as their record indicates, and then UT finishes at home against scrappy Baylor.

Yesterday’s drubbing of OU kept Texas in control of its own destiny, but there is plenty of meat left on the bone. Fortunately this is a very hungry program and there are a lot of mouths to feed on the revenge tour.

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