What will we learn about Texas football at Big 12 media days?

Big 12 Media Days are set to take place this week at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and the Longhorns will be present on July 12 to face the media for the first time since late April.

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Steve Sarkisian, Quinn Ewers, Jordan Whittington, Jahdae Barron, Xavier Worthy, and Jaylan Ford are set to be at Jerry World.

What are some of the things that will be revealed this week? Here are a few possibilities.

Team leaders

Under Sarkisian, the program doesn’t name a season’s permanent captains until the campaign’s conclusion. The four or five players who head to midfield for the coin toss on a game-by-game basis may change, but it’s usually a selection from a group seen as team leaders.

Who exactly has stepped into those leadership roles over the course of the summer will be important to note. Gone are Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson. Also off to the league are Keondre Coburn, Moro Ojomo, and DeMarvion Overshown. That group of five were constantly looked to for leadership.

Who has stepped into their place during the summer? Ewers, the Longhorns’ starting quarterback, is a player many fans would like Sarkisian to mention first or second. Ford, who could have been included in the 2022 leadership group, will be a name mentioned on defense. So too will Barron, who will be in attendance in Arlington for media days.

In an important season, Sarkisian needs a strong leadership group to hold the team to a high standard in order to compete for the Big 12 championship. The players who make up that group will have a significant effect on the 2023 campaign.

Updated roster

There have been a few changes to the roster, like Michael Taaffe getting No. 16 or Casey Cain switching to No. 8. But the real changes, like the additions of the 2023 class and updated heights and weights, are typically revealed during media days.

Which players will claim new measurables in the height and weight categories? Who bulked up? Who slimmed down? Who somehow grew over the course of a football season?

What Steve Sarkisian wants to disclose regarding injuries

Worthy’s broken hand that he played through in the second half of the 2022 season not being publicly revealed until 2023 indicates how Texas’ head coach treats injuries. He prefers to provide as little information as possible.

What he says about players who had some sort of ailment either late in the 2022 season or during the offseason will be notable. Are Jonathon Brooks, Jaylon Guilbeau, Maalik Murphy, Connor Robertson, Cole Hutson, and Keilan Robinson full-speed-ahead without limitation? Where are Isaiah Neyor, Derion Gullette, and Jalen Catalon in their returns from injury? Any information will be the first comment on the topic in many months.

How much Xavier Worthy’s injury affected him in 2022

Worthy will make his way to Arlington to face questions from the media. Worthy has been tight-lipped in press settings before, but any information about his struggles late last year, hand-related or otherwise, will be fresh.

How much did it affect his preparation on a day-to-day basis? Hands are used for catching footballs, and catching footballs is far more difficult when one of those hands is broken. Did he have to alter what he did in-game to compensate for the pain? When was the ailment at its worst? What happened versus Washington?

Worthy still has the respect of Big 12 media members as he was the only unanimous selection to the preseason All-Big 12 team. Coaches will likely focus their coverage on him this year. How he bounces back from a second-half of the season filled with struggles will be revealed this season, with one of the first answers coming at media days.

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Analyst hires

Following the departure of Gary Patterson during the offseason, Texas hired Paul Chryst, Payam Saadat, and Joe DeCamillis as special assistants to the head coach.

Chryst, a former Wisconsin head coach, is there to help on offense. He was a playcalling head coach himself and can offer perspective based off his years of experience that is always helpful for Sarkisian, let alone any head coach.

Saadat arrives after holding defensive coordinator responsibilities at Portland State and can help Pete Kwiatkowski in a variety of areas. Saadat has coached linebackers, defensive linemen, special teams, and has been a coordinator at the FBS and FCS level.

DeCamillis spent three decades in the NFL as a special teams coach with almost 15 years as a special teams coordinator with several different franchises. He can help Jeff Banks take care of the third phase, which has been a strong suit for Texas in recent years.

The areas of expertise are known, but have there been any significant and specific ways that group has helped so far? How did the connections come to be? Are they as effective in their special assisting as Patterson was by himself?

How the team is keeping focus on 2023

National media correspondents will descend upon AT&T Stadium with intentions on asking Sarkisian and the player contingent about their excitement for joining the SEC in 2024. Those reporters are unlikely to get much out of the Longhorns about anything SEC related.

Texas made it clear the night the 2024 SEC opponents were announced that their focus is on their last season in the Big 12 in 2023.

How exactly will they maintain that focus? What are they doing as a team to make sure that the Longhorns’ tenure in the Big 12 ends with a championship?

With team leaders present, that answer will be revealed. It will be to the chagrin of media members heading to Arlington with their eyes on a SEC related story.