"This is the baby NFL": A resurgent Texas is ready for the Southeastern Conference

In late July of 2021, a report from the Houston Chronicle revealed Texas and Oklahoma would soon be invited to join the Southeastern Conference. Proceedings in February of 2023 revealed the Longhorns and Sooners would join the SEC starting July 1, 2024.

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Close to 1,200 days since the news about Texas’ departure for a league where “it just means more” broke, the Longhorns will finally play a conference football game against a SEC opponent this Saturday when Texas hosts the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

It’s a league Longhorn players understand will demand their very best.

“This is the baby NFL, that’s what they call it,” Johntay Cook said Monday. “Just want to show them what we’ve got.”

There have been a number of mile markers on the calendar since that day in July of 2021. Texas has lost to a SEC team (Arkansas), beaten a SEC team (Alabama), and won one last Big 12 Championship in football as part of one of the best years in athletic department history. But the odometer arguably resets on Saturday when Texas plays a SEC game.

That’s a moment many within the program, including head coach Steve Sarkisian, are happy to see arrive. That said, the No. 1 Longhorns don’t plan to change their approach just because league play is here.

“Literally business as usual,” Sarkisian said Monday. “Like I said, we believe in our formula for success and what that looks like. We respect that this is our first SEC game at home. We’re going to embrace that side of it, but it’s not going to affect the way we prepare for the game and the way we go about our business in the game.”

Sarkisian has often said and repeated once again on Monday that he did not know the Longhorns were SEC-bound when he took the Texas head coaching job in January of 2021. However, he explained once again that his approach toward building a program was going to look similar no matter what league his team was in.

That approach would feature large humans playing in the trenches, fast people on the perimeter, and skilled quarterbacks who could deliver the ball to every part of the field. Even if Texas remained in the Big 12, Sarkisian understood that the team needed to look like a SEC team if it wanted to beat other SEC teams in the College Football Playoff.

There is something different about actually being in the SEC compared to playing SEC teams in a one-off game. Texas made it through Big 12 play last year with just one loss, even though it put together several performances that were C+ at best.

C+ games, even against programs perceived as being down, can lose football games in the SEC.

“To me, probably the biggest thing about this conference that really should be important in every conference but in this league it seems even more important is the mental intensity needed to compete every single week,” Sarkisian said. “If you just look at the logo on a helmet or a ranking or something, and you think ‘we better play really good in this stretch here.’ It’s every week.”

That’s a testament to the talent within the league Cook described as the “baby NFL.” But in 2024 with Texas claiming the top spot in the AP Poll, the Longhorns are doing just as much to support that moniker as the traditional powerhouses of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee.

Texas built a roster through recruiting, the transfer portal, and player retention via the efforts of Sarkisian and his staff. For some players like Cook and Jahdae Barron, they admitted the SEC factor wasn’t a major one in their decision to join Texas or remain in Austin.

For others, whether as a recruit or as a Longhorn player with options to mull over, it played a key role.

“I originally wanted to play in the SEC and when I found out that Texas was going to be playing in the SEC, it was kind of a no-brainer for me,” Jaydon Blue said Monday. “I wanted to follow Coach Sark here. I had a relationship with Coach (Tashard) Choice already. When he got here, it was easy for me.”

Said David Gbenda, “that was one of the better bits that I got to experience and I’m going to get to experience. Playing against the best is a very great opportunity. Just getting to do it with the guys I’ve been knowing and seeing them develop as well, it’s a fun opportunity.”

Alfred Collins mentioned the league change is a chance to prove that the baby NFL will show he can compete with the best in the real NFL.

“Man, I’m excited,” Collins said. “We get to start the journey. It’s going to be a long one, a physical one, but we’re excited for it.”

The physicality is going to be a step up. Coaches both at Texas and from around the country comment often about how there’s talent spread throughout the league of both the skill and big human varieties. No matter what helmet the opposition may wear, someone on that team is likely a pro prospect worth dedicating extra attention to.

For the Longhorns, it’s a challenge they can’t wait to face.

“This is what you come to college for, to play in the SEC and play against these top teams in the country,” Blue said.

An air of confidence is palpable not only from experienced team leaders like Collins and Gbenda, but also underclassmen like Cook and others. Sarkisian can feel that confidence, especially as his team is 4-0 with three easy wins at home and a triumph on the road at Michigan.

“I love our personality that is coming out in this team,” Sarkisian said. “I think we’ve got a pretty good swagger about us right now, but that swagger has been earned because of the work that they put in day in and day out.”

The Longhorns who spoke Monday were on the Big 12 Championship team of 2023 that went 12-2 and reached the College Football Playoff. They took a mentality into every regular season game that they were playing in the Big 12 Championship. They did that until actually raising the trophy.

They’ll take that same approach in the SEC as they look to win back-to-back conference titles, albeit in different leagues.

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“For us, whether it was the Big 12 or the SEC, there’s an expectation that we’re going to compete for a conference championship year in and year out, and there’s an expectation that we’re competing for a national championship,” Sarkisian said. “The conference may have changed, but our standard and our expectations really haven’t.”