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The burning question on every college football fan's mind this season was, "Is Texas ready for the SEC?"
Texas was poised to swap the kiddie table, aka the Big 12, for a seat among the adults, the SEC. Georgia and Alabama were regulars at the head table, feasting on the biggest slice of turkey. LSU always posed a formidable challenge. And then there were a slew of competitive squads that made the weekly SEC schedule tougher than facing Baylor and Kansas back-to-back.
Yet, here we are, four weeks into the college football season. Texas stands at a flawless 4-0 after a commanding 51-3 victory against Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday night. The Longhorns now hold the No. 1 spot in the AP poll for the first time since 2008. With wins like a decisive 19-point victory over Michigan in Ann Arbor, there are plenty of reasons to believe in Steve Sarkisian’s squad.
Next weekend, Texas will host Mississippi State in its inaugural SEC conference football game. After enduring months of skepticism, there’s one crucial question that naysayers must confront.
Is the SEC ready for Texas?
"In the end, the preseason is over," Sarkisian said on Saturday night. "Next week, SEC play begins. We must stay the course, trust our process. We have a formula for success, and when executed correctly, we can perform at a high level. We need to maintain that focus as we kick off SEC play next weekend."
Texas technically will play in its first SEC conference game next weekend.
However, playing Mississippi State is like visiting America for the first time and going to Jacksonville.
You are technically in the US, but not the best experience.
Unless you love the Waffle House.
Mississippi State is simply not a good football team. Watching them play against Florida last Saturday was regrettable. They struggled both offensively and defensively.
Check out an excerpt from ESPN’s recap:
“The Bulldogs defense surrendered a touchdown on all but three drives. The visitors averaged 6.3 yards per carry with 36 rushes for 226 yards. The Gators were 6 of 9 on third downs.
“For the third straight week, the Bulldogs dug themselves a first-half hole. After being outscored 55-6 in the first half against Arizona State and Toledo, MSU was behind 28-7 in the first half before getting a touchdown run from quarterback Blake Shapen to trail 28-14.
“MSU closed within 28-21 after Shapen found Jordan Mosley for a 13-yard catch in the third quarter, but a fourth-down stop from the 1-yard line at the beginning of the fourth quarter spelled the end for the Bulldogs.
“We’ve got a choice to make, and the choice is up to each and every one of us,” MSU coach Jeff Lebby said. “We’re going to wake up in the morning, the sun’s going to come up, we’re going to have breath in our body and we’re going to be thankful for the opportunity. There will be great relief, great energy and great confidence in how the guys are getting coached. I think our guys will respond.”
Unless the response is putting Ole Miss players in Mississippi State uniforms, it will not matter.
Looking ahead at Texas’s conference schedule, the Longhorns have a shot at victory in every game:
September 28, ULM – No Mississippi jokes this week.
October 12, Oklahoma – Beatable team.
October 19, Georgia – Potential No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown.
October 26, at Vanderbilt – Party on Broadway.
November 9, Florida – Another beatable team.
November 16, at Arkansas – Another beatable opponent.
November 23, Kentucky – Yet another beatable team.
November 30, at Texas A&M – Another beatable opponent.
Sarkisian built a program that is ready to compete against the SEC in year one.
In fact, Sarkisian built a program that could win the conference in year one.
Remember what Sarkisian told everyone during SEC Media Days?
“For us to sit here and say this is the deepest team we've had, probably the most talented team we've had in my four years here, I can unequivocally say that, and we lost some really good players a year ago, but we've got a very deep football team, one that we're excited about, and looking forward to watching them compete this fall,” Sarkisian said.
He was telling the truth.
Texas lost running backs CJ Baxter and Christian Clark before the season.
Quarterback Quinn Ewers did not play against ULM on Saturday.
Safety Derek Williams was inactive.
Texas did not miss a beat.
“I think it's easy to look at the results,” Sarkisian said. “We’re 4-0. We’ve had three home games and we've scored over 50 points in all three home games. I think we've given up, like a total of, I don't know how many points in the first three games at home. It's a small number, 10 points in three games in our home games. Our one road game, we go to The Big House at Michigan. We play really well as a team. We play really composed football. The results tell me, man, we have a pretty good football team. What I'm more proud of about this team is they haven't settled. They haven't been like, hey, we're good. They come back in on Monday mornings and they want to know where we can improve and then they try to go do that.
"I think this preseason tested the maturity of this team as well. You go to Michigan, you win that ball game, you come home, and you have these two games that you're supposed to win, but yet, I turn on college football every Saturday, and I see teams in dog fights in these games. I think the maturity that our guys display, not only on game day, but throughout the week to prepare to play, is huge for us as we start to move forward into some real challenging games and environments.”
The biggest question many college football observers asked entering this season was, “Is Texas ready for the SEC?”
There is an important question that those skeptics need to answer.
Is the SEC ready for Texas?
“I've said this before, but we were building a team that had to go beat the best teams in the SEC anyway,” Sarikisian. “When you looked at the college football playoff, they were always in the national championship game, and they probably the ones winning it. You could name Alabama, Georgia, LSU, those were the ones. And so it was like, well, if we want to win a national championship here, which is what our goal was, and this is what we were striving for, we had to build our team that way. When we made the move to say we were going to go to the SEC, it really didn't change our philosophical approach on the type of team we were building. It just made it a little easier for some of the kids we were recruiting and different things to know that was the conference we were going to be in. I think we've done that.
“I think we've got a team that's more than capable to go on to this conference and compete. Definitely going to be challenging, but we don't need to make it more than it needs to be. Hey, it's going to be hard. We've got to have great mental intensity. We got to practice really well. We got to prepare really well, and then ultimately, have to play well. That's probably not a lot different than most conferences if you're going to try to go win it. We just try to lean into the strengths of our team that we have, but I think we're plenty suited to be highly competitive in the conference.”
******
Individual Notes
(via UT)
ARCH MANNING, QB
• Third career game with multiple passing touchdowns for Texas QB Arch Manning.
• Manning completed a 56-yard strike to Isaiah Bond. It's Manning's fourth play (3 pass/1 rush) of 50+ yards on the year, two of which have gone to Bond.
• Manning completed 15-of-29 passes for 258 yards and two touchdowns.
JAYDON BLUE, RB
• Jaydon Blue collected his second career 100-yard rushing effort after finishing with 25 carries for 124 yards on the ground (both career highs) and three touchdowns. Blue also finished with one catch for three yards and a touchdown. Blue is the first Texas player to record 100+ yards on the ground in a single game this season and the first since he ran for 121 yards on 10 carries against Texas Tech in 2023 (five games).
• Blue scored on a one-yard rushing touchdown with 7:11 remaining in the first quarter. It was his second rushing touchdown of the season and the fourth of his career.
• Blue added a receiving touchdown on a three-yard pass from Arch Manning with 5:31 remaining in the first quarter. It was his third receiving touchdown.
• It is Blue’s first career multi-touchdown effort.
• Blue carried the ball a career-high 25 times and recorded his second 100-yard rushing game of his career.
• With his fourth touchdown Blue became the first Longhorn since Bijan Robinson against Kansas in 2022 to have four touchdowns.
ANTHONY HILL JR., LB
• Sophomore Anthony Hill Jr., recorded his first career interception.
• In his true freshman season last year Hill Jr. played in all 14 games with six starts and recorded 66 tackles (40 solo), 8.0 tackles for loss, five sacks, one forced fumble, four quarterback hurries and two pass breakups.
ISAIAH BOND WR
• Isaiah Bond's two receptions of 50 or more yards (56 vs. ULM/51 vs. UTSA) already this season, marks the first time since Xavier Worthy in 2021 that a Texas player had two or more receptions of 50-plus yards in a season. Worthy had TD catches of 75, 63, 62, and 52 yards that year.
Team Notes
(via UT)
TEXAS CAPTAINS
• The Texas captains were: Alfred Collins, Hayden Conner, Anthony Hill Jr. and DeAndre Moore Jr.
DKR ATTENDANCE
• The attendance of 102,850 is the fifth largest in Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium history.
SERIES HISTORY VS. ULM
• Texas moves to 3-0 all-time against ULM
• The win clinches Texas' 952nd win - the fourth-most wins in FBS history.
• The win gives Texas eight consecutive regular season non-conference victories.
TALKIN' TURNOVERS
• Anthony Hill Jr. intercepted General Booty in the first quarter and Jay'Vion Cole added an interception in the fourth quarter. UT has recorded seven interceptions through four games this season. The Longhorns have intercepted at least one pass in each of their four games this season. Entering tonight’s game vs. ULM, the Longhorns lead the SEC and ranked seventh nationally in interceptions.
• Texas has registered multiple interceptions in three of four games this season.
IN THE RED ZONE
• So far this season, Texas is 22-of-23 on red zone chances with 21 touchdowns.
• The Longhorns were 7-for-7 in the red zone against ULM.
SAFETY
• Texas scored a safety for the first time since against Rice in 2021 (40 games).
PUTTIN' UP 50
• Texas has scored 50+ points in each of its three home games this season and four straight home games going back to their victory over Texas Tech in 2023. (52-0 vs. Colorado State, 56-7 vs. UTSA, 57-7 vs. Texas Tech.
• The last time Texas had three 50-point home games to open the season was 2008.
DEFENSE COMING UP BIG
• Texas has allowed just 22 points this season, the fewest through four games since 1977. UT has held three home opponents to just 10 total points, the fewest through three home games since 1959.
• The Longhorns held ULM to 111 yards of total offense (54 pass/57 rush).
• Texas tallied six tackles for loss vs. ULM.
OFFENSIVE STATS
• The Longhorns registered 497 yards of total offense (258 pass/239 rush).
• Texas was 7-of-12 on third down.
*****
Funniest Things You Will See This Week
Fellas, wait until your wife is not around for his one
What can you say in a job interview that you can say in bed? (adult humor)
Some administrators are overthinking math in elementary schools
This is one of the wildest commit stories (adult humor/NSFW)
Would you eat this? (bad language alert)
Sports On A Dime
1. Texas QB Arch Manning on what he learned in his first start: “"Just continue to try and take what's there, not force anything, and knowing the shots will come with (Coach) Sark's offense. Try and move the ball forward every play, and one play at a time."
2. Longhorn linebacker Liona Lefau on how much he has developed since last season: “I would just say my confidence is up a lot. Thanks to my teammates, of course, we push each other each and every day. I get to compete with Anthony Hill Jr., David Gbenda, Morice Blackwell Jr., Ty'Anthony Smith, and the rest of the crew each and every day. Every day it's a competition between us who can have the right energy and perform each and every day. It just helps me to build my confidence each and every day, especially when I can trust my teammates around me. It allows me to play freely and just have a good time out there, basically."
3. Here is your weekly reminder: Oklahoma ran off former quarterback Dillon Gabriel because the staff believed Jackson Arnold was a better option.
4. Michigan defeated USC with Alex Orji completing 7-of-12 passes for 32 yards. Michigan rushed 46 times for 290 yards and three touchdowns. USC could not stop a one-dimensional offense and that says more about Lincoln Riley’s struggles at USC than Michigan’s victory.
5. Memphis, UTSA, South Florida, and Tulane in the Pac-12? Yahoo reporter Ross Delenger recently reported that the scenario is a possibility.
“Memphis holds the proverbial cards, it seems. The school is the jewel of the American (but not the only one), a proud member since joining the league from Conference USA in 2013.
“Its decision may impact the decision of the others, creating a cascading exit that would leave a gaping hole in the AAC. South Florida and Tulane are unlikely to leave without Memphis. And Memphis might not leave without them. This is a packaged deal or no deal at all.
“They may not want to go, but they don’t want the other guy to go without them,” someone involved in the negotiations said.
“UTSA, in a different geographical and financial position, presents a different case.
“Either way, three or four of them would create an eastern flank of the new Pac-12.”
6. Georgia vs. Alabama will kick off at 6:30 p.m., so we need Texas vs. Mississippi State to start at 2:30 p.m.
7. Nobody should be surprised by TCU getting curb-stomped by SMU on Saturday. Before Dykes inherited Gary Patterson’s TCU squad and had a miracle run in 2022, he recorded only one double-digit win from 2010 to 2021. Some Longhorn fans believed Dykes should have been hired instead of Sarkisian during that 5-7 season. Clearly, Texas made the right choice.
8. Paulie Malignaggi made a great point during a recent interview with Mirror:
"Former boxer Paulie Malignaggi has now warned Paul that viewers could potentially demand that the whole sport be banned should he deal out some damage to his upcoming opponent. He said: “Head blows from young, strong guys at Mike's age aren't good. When you're younger, you can handle hits better.
"When you're older, your body isn't made for that kind of damage anymore. Things could go badly wrong. If something like that happened, people would be calling for the sport to be banned. Personally, I don't think his fight with Jake Paul should happen. He'll be 58 years old by then. Fifty-eight is still 58. We live in a generation that doesn't understand ageing is a real thing. You can show highlights of Mike from the '80s, but the guy stepping into the ring won't be that same Mike Tyson."
“Malignaggi’s warning continued, with the American seriously concerned that Paul could harm Tyson given his age. Speaking to Canada Casino, he added: "Jake Paul might not be world-class, but he's certainly not a novice. He's been boxing for about five years. "After four years of boxing, I won the US National Championships, so Jake's far from a beginner. He's strong and young. Hitting someone Tyson's age has serious risks. Tyson wasn't taking punches well at 36, let alone now. "If you hit a guy who's that old, it affects them. Imagine what getting hit by a strong guy like Jake would do to him. I wouldn't want to find out."
9. Speaking of boxing, it might be time for Anthony Joshua to hang up the gloves.
10. As a goalkeeper dad, I feel for Austin FC's Brad Stuver. Holding your opponent to only one point should be enough for a win, but the goalkeeper will always wonder if they could have done more.
