Desmond Howard still has questions about the No. 1 Texas Longhorns

While the majority of buzzing fans and visitors of the campus were focused on Ben Herbstreit walking out of the UT Tower, Inside Texas spoke with Desmond Howard about No. 1 Texas’ battle against No. 5 Georgia on Saturday.

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Howard, one of College GameDay’s hosts, is one of college football’s greatest wide receivers, earning himself a Heisman trophy in 1991 for the Michigan Wolverines. With this in mind and even after seeing the Longhorns himself in Ann Arbor, Mich., the analyst didn’t hold back with reservations on the strength of Texas’ secondary.

“Who have they played against that’s a prolific passing offense,” Howard said. “Numbers don’t lie but they don’t tell the whole truth. I always judge, I don’t care if it’s a person, a player for the Heisman, or a group, like a unit, like a secondary or a team, not just by what they’ve done, but who they’ve done it against.”

Howard went on to reference Ohio State, a team he might not be the biggest fan of with his maize and blue ties, and its loss to Oregon this past weekend. The Buckeyes had been seen as one of the best defenses in the country but had yet to play anyone of note. Oregon ended up scoring 32 points and giving up over 500 total yards to the Ducks, proving a team is only as good as who they can match up against.

Howard also discussed the context of what this game means, and what really is at stake for both Texas and Georgia.

“There’s a lot to unwrap, right, because we’re no longer using the four-team playoff format. We’re using the 12-team College Football Playoff format, which means we’re all trying to figure it out on the go, right?” Howard said. 

Howard mentioned that any two-loss SEC team would likely be given the chance to get into the playoff, making a loss for either side not as impactful as it would’ve been in the four-team era, where a two-loss Georgia would be eliminated from championship contention. 

“I mean, we all felt that coming to the season with the 12-team, there probably would be a two-loss SEC team that would get in,” Howard said. “The stakes aren’t as high as they would have been a year ago.”

One of the things that stood out the most when talking to Howard was his firm stance on Heisman voting. When asked if junior quarterback Quinn Ewers had a chance at winning the award, Howard said this.

“I’m tired of people putting quarterbacks in the Heisman conversation because why, you haven’t done anything,” Howard said about the position group as a whole. “ I’m tired of people throwing in these quarterbacks when they haven’t done a damn thing. Like, for real. It’s okay once you mention them for like the Davey O’Brien or the Johnny Unitas, but not the Heisman.”

Ewers really only played 11 full quarters of football this season between four games and is averaging 81 yards and just under a touchdown per quarter, or 324 and four per game. If the quarterback were to hold those impressive similar numbers the rest of the season, he would still finish the year with less than 3,000 passing yards and roughly 34 touchdowns, numbers that just aren’t up to par with past Heisman winners.

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Howard said that if he had to vote right now, he would choose one of Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty or Colorado’s Travis Hunter, two guys he thinks are the most elite players in CFB right now.