1st & 10: The wide receivers will take center stage at the Sugar Bowl
The 2023 Sugar Bowl between the No. 2 Washington Huskies and the No. 3 Texas Longhorns will feature the best collection of receiving talent on a college football field this season.
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5113 yards, 337 catches, and 40 receiving touchdowns spread among the Texas trio of Xavier Worthy, Adonai Mitchell, and Jordan Whittington and the Washington triumvirate of Rome Odunze, Ja’lynn Polk, and Jalen McMillan will take the field at the Caesars Superdome on January 1, and how each set of triplets fare will define the outcome of the game.
The Longhorns are led by Worthy, who’s tallied 969 yards and five touchdowns on 73 catches and brought home first-team All-Big 12 honors for the second time in his three-year career this season. Worthy’s flanked by Mitchell, the Big 12 offensive newcomer of the year who led the team with 10 touchdown receptions. Mitchell also pulled in 51 catches for 813 yards, both career bests. In the slot is Whittington, a fifth-year senior who’s tenacious in the open field with the ball in his hands and blocking for others. Whittington caught 38 passes for 435 yards and one touchdown.
Odunze, a Biletnikoff finalist, was second in the nation in receiving yards with 1428. He caught 81 passes and scored 13 receiving touchdowns. Alongside him is a Texas Tech transfer and Lufkin product in Polk, who caught 60 passes for 1000 yards and eight scores. Assisting those two is McMillan, who missed some time due to injury this year while still hauling in 34 catches for 468 yards and three touchdowns.
Each receiving corps is boosted by the presence of high quality quarterbacks. Texas’ Quinn Ewers is playing the best football of his career, as is sixth-year senior and Heisman runner-up Michael Penix Jr. of Washington. Everyone mentioned will be at as full health as a player can be after a 13-game season. And all six receivers will have ample opportunities to make plays versus secondaries that haven’t been world-beaters against the pass this year.
The Longhorn secondary is ranked No. 96 in the nation in passing yards allowed. Some of that is attributable to having the No. 4 rush defense in the nation. Teams tend to give up on the run when facing Pete Kwiatkowski‘s defense due to the presence of star defensive tackles T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy. That said, opponents have racked up 240.8 yards per game through the air against the Longhorns this year. Plus, freshman safety Derek Williams, who has become a regular starter in recent weeks, will miss the first half of the Sugar Bowl due to a targeting penalty.
And while Texas kept Odunze, McMillan, and Polk mostly in check last year in the Alamo Bowl with none tallying more than 60 receiving yards, all three are playing at a very high level and will go up against a UT secondary deploying players have been hit or miss in coverage this season.
While No. 96 is a poor ranking, it’s not as bad as Washington’s standing: No. 122. The only Power Five teams who have worse pass defenses are Arizona State, Oklahoma State, Colorado, Vanderbilt, Cal, and Stanford. The Huskies gave up 300 or more passing yards five times in 13 games, with Cal and Stanford — two teams respectively ranked No. 80 and No. 56 ins passing offense — both topping 360 through the air.
Each team is primed to gain yards, and a lot of them, through the air in the College Football Playoff.
While Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian and Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer like to move their wideouts around, each receiver typically fills a specific role.
Odunze and Mitchell usually operate in the boundary. Where Mitchell is adept at gaining separation (of his 78 targets only nine have been contested according to PFF), Odunze is a contested catch winner. Twenty-four of his 125 targets have been contested. He’s recorded receptions on 17 of them, meaning 50-50 balls are actually 70-30 balls.
Whittington and Polk mostly operate in the slot. Polk has better production this season, but Whittington’s come on of late with 145 yards and a score on 11 catches in his last three games. Polk recorded six 100-yard games within the first nine weeks of the season, but hasn’t gone above 60 yards since the Huskies’ win over Stanford.
McMillan and Worthy are guys who move all over the field down-to-down, and both have been battling the bumps and bruises one sustains over the course of a 13-game slate. McMillan missed a number of games this year while Worthy had to leave the Big 12 Championship and return to the sideline on crutches. Both should be good to go for the Playoff, and each are the types of players defensive coordinators will struggle to leave in single coverage.
And of course, all six will have offensive-minded head coaches utilizing nearly a month’s worth of time to scheme up opposing defenses and find ways to get their guys open.
When the No. 2 team meets the No. 3 team in the country, there’s going to be star-power all over the field. These teams don’t reach this point with average players. They reach the final four with great, and often excellent, players.
Both Texas and Washington have excellent players at wide receiver, several of the best in the country even. What they do in New Orleans might make the biggest impact in determining who heads to Houston to contend for a national championship.
1: The Washington pass defense’s best player might be EDGE Bralen Trice. According to Pro Football Focus, Trice has an 84.8 defensive grade bolstered by an 88.8 pass-rush grade. He’s recorded 5.0 sacks this season after tallying 9.0 last year, but Kelvin Banks and Christian Jones will have their work cut out against Trice.
2: The Texas football creative department is led by Derek Ochoa, who has been around the program about as long as I’ve been covering it. He’s seen the Longhorns’ ups and downs throughout the years, and finally got to cover and create strong content emanating from win after win after win.
Texas released the Big 12 Championship mini movie on Tuesday, and Ochoa was proud of the work his team put together. Rightfully so.
3: There was a point that I left out of the what we lost section when talking about the 12-team playoff that members on the IT Members Only message board correctly pointed out. Extra games means a lot more extra cost for fans. Consider life following a successful team in the 12-team era. First there’s the conference title game at a NFL venue. Then, for eight teams, there’s another game to travel to or tailgate for. After that it’s another NFL site, and then another, and then another. These venues will be all over the country. That’s thousands and thousands of dollars for hometown or even in-state fans to have to cough up. That’s more money in ESPN’s pockets because people will vote with their wallet and their eyeballs from their couch.
4: One thing we brought up on Tuesday night’s Inside Texas Livestream on the new Inside Texas YouTube channel is the news that a number of members of Texas’ 2024 class will enroll early and participate in bowl practices. While they won’t be doing much more than getting their feet wet, that’s still a huge boost for their development. They’re learning how Sarkisian and Torre Becton run things, getting used to practice, and diving into the playbook. Of course, it’s also nice for their wardrobe, too. Team issue stuff, especially CFP team issue stuff, is quality gear.
5: On the hardcourt this weekend, Texas will take on LSU in the Toyota Center in Houston on Saturday as part of The Halal Guys showcase. The last time these two teams met in the Toyota Center, Kevin Durant, DJ Augustin, and A.J. Abrams were Longhorns. Texas won by one point in overtime after Abrams hit a three-pointer with 1:04 remaining. Glen Davis missed two layups and Garrett Temple missed two threes for the Tigers to help the Longhorns escape Houston with a 76-75 win.
6: Bowl games start this weekend, with an all-day slate this Saturday. While bowl games might have a diminished meaning for some programs, for others they are the sign of progress or even sustained success. SEVEN games are on tap this weekend, including Cal vs. Texas Tech in the Independence Bowl at 8:15 p.m to end the night.
7: There’s little doubt T’Vondre Sweat is going to become a unanimous All-American after earning a first-team nod from Sporting News on Wednesday. All that’s left for him to be named a unanimous All-American is first-team honors from the American Football Coaches Association. If they give Sweat first-team recognition, he’ll become the 24th unanimous All-American in program history. Bijan Robinson in 2022 was the last to accomplish the feat.
8: Any time the Longhorns play in the Sugar Bowl is a good time to look back at one of the craziest stories in Texas football history. The tale of Ron McKelvey, a.k.a. the Roster Imposter, is something that’s so far-fetched you wouldn’t think to even make it up. CBS Austin’s Jeff Barker put a great piece on the Longhorns’ 1996 trip to the Sugar Bowl during the 2018 season.
9: D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers posted the other day that Texas shortstop Jalen Flores took a massive step forward during the fall season. Flores slashed just .175/.293/.311 last year, but found some pop during the postseason. In Texas’ NCAA Tournament run, Flores had three hits including a homer while walking five times in 13 at bats. Look for him to be another from last year’s group of freshman contributors who takes a big step.
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10: A seemingly forgotten aspect of Darrell Royal’s career is his one-year stint in Seattle in 1956 as head coach of the Huskies. Royal left Mississippi State for Washington after two years with the Bulldogs. Royal led U-Dub to a 5-5 record that included a 4-4 mark in the Pacific Coast conference. Royal recorded wins over rivals Oregon and Washington State, and upset an Illinois team ranked No. 13 in the country, before taking the Longhorns head coaching job in Austin. We all know what happened next. Two of his teams battle in just under three weeks.
