Texas doesn't have the best roster in America, but Longhorns are loaded so Steve Sarkisian better do something with it
On the spice scale, Urban Meyer believing Texas has the best roster in college football qualifies as a burnt orange take.
Not too hot, but strong enough to perk up some ears.
“Don’t sleep on Texas this year,” the former Florida and Ohio State coach said on a recent episode of Urban’s Take with Tim May.
“Man for man, roster against roster, it’s hard to say Texas doesn’t have the best roster in college football right now.”
Do the Longhorns ever get slept on?
There’s a reason why ‘Texas is back’ has been meme’d to death. Every offseason, the Longhorns are one of the most hyped teams in the country precisely because of their talent and program cache.
And yet Texas has had just one 10-win season since its 2009 loss in the BCS Championship Game to Alabama. The Horns have had four different head coaches since then.
Talent hasn’t been an issue at Texas. It’s been player development. Team success (or lack thereof).
The Longhorns broke a ridiculous streak just last month in the NFL Draft, as star tailback Bijan Robinson became the program’s first offensive player selected in the 1st Round since quarterback Vince Young in the 2006 NFL Draft.
We’re talking 17 years! At Texas!
From 2009-19, Texas signed 17 recruits ranked as 5-stars. Only four were drafted.
That’s not just laughably bad. That’s almost impossible to comprehend.
The Longhorns ranked near the bottom of the study at sending 4-star recruits to the NFL, too, with just 11% of those signees making the pros.
You almost have actively to try to hamper development to produce such results.
And yet, it’s a perfect microcosm of why Texas and has not ever been back. Sure, the Longhorns always have talent, but for nearly 15 years, it’s a place were blue-chip recruits have gone to be put out to pasture.
We’re in Year 3 with Steve Sarkisian. It’s time to stop the trend.
Texas does not have the best roster in the country in 2023. I’m pretty sure Georgia, Ohio State and Alabama all still plan to play football in the fall.
But the Longhorns are plenty talented, and they do have the best roster in the Big 12. So Sarkisian needs to do something special with this group this fall.
“This looks like my team,” Sarkisian said in a podcast appearance last month.
“It’s Year 3. It feels and looks like my team. the way the players talk, the way they act, what they look like, the way they move, the way they run, how we practice, the speed, the tempo, all of those things. I’m like ‘Man, ok, now we’re about ready to go. This is what it is supposed to look like.’”
Steve Sarkisian has infamously never won at least 10 games as a head coach. He’s 13-12 at Texas, including 4-10 in one-score games. The Longhorns blew second-half leads versus Alabama, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State last season.
That can’t happen again this fall.
There are no more excuses.
Sarkisian has his quarterback in Quinn Ewers. The Longhorns have signed consecutive Top 5 classes. They have — per my 2023 positional rankings — Top 10 units at receiver and offensive line. Ja’Tavion Sanders is one of the nation’s best tight ends. Same for linebacker Jaylan Ford. They’ve added impact transfers to the roster like wideout AD Mitchell and safety Jalen Catalan.
Only Kansas returns more production from its roster this fall.
With a move to the SEC on the horizon, we’ve officially reached the peak of, ‘If not now, when?’ moment for the Longhorns.
“Now they got to play. It’s been a while since Texas has been good, or elite,” said Meyer, the truest statement he uttered on the podcast.
It has been a while. Can Steve Sarkisian change that in 2023?
He better.