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New faces will have plenty of impact for Texas on Saturday

On3 imageby: Bobby Burton09/01/23BobbyBurton87
Anthony Hill
Anthony Hill (Tim Warner/Getty Images)

Listening to Steve Sarkisian’s press conference yesterday, his final one of the 2023 preseason, one thing is abundantly clear: the Longhorns are going to be playing a lot of true freshman.

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Cedric Baxter, Anthony Hill, Johntay Cook, DeAndre Moore, Liona Lefau, Jelani McDonald, Derek Williams and Manny Muhammad were all mentioned by the head coach at various times in the conversation. There were so many, I may have even missed one or two, just as he might have.

Heck, he didn’t name a back-up quarterback. That means I don’t recall him even mentioning by name the nation’s no. 1 overall recruit, Arch Manning. That’s how talented this 2023 recruiting class is.

Here we are, one day away from the 2023 season, and the 2023 recruiting class, one that has not even played a down for the Horns yet, is already being set up to be highly influential on the season as a whole.

What’s more, if you add the arrivals via the portal to the 2023 recruiting class, the influx of talent starts to border on the ridiculous.

Many feel that Adonai Mitchell is the best receiver on the team. Jalen Catalon is already the most accomplished defensive back on the roster. Ryan Sanborn is your starting punter. Gavin Holmes is fighting for a starting job at corner going into the final week of pre-season. And Trill Carter is in the rotation at defensive tackle.

In total, that’s at least 13 newcomers that Sark plans to deploy on Saturday afternoon, and I’m not talking about only late in the third quarter, either.

So while the backbone of the Texas team – with Quinn Ewers, Jaylan Ford, Barryn Sorrell, Xavier Worthy, Byron Murphy, T’Vondre Sweat, Christian Jones and Kelvin Banks – will still look familiar to many of you. the sheer talent and volume of newcomers are what give this Longhorn squad a different ceiling than what Texas fans have been accustomed to the past decade. They are why I am so high on this Texas team heading into the year, more than any other in the last 13.

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So do me a favor: count the number of new faces that play on Saturday. I’ll be unsurprised if it reaches double digits by the end of the first half and go well into the mid-teens or higher by the end of the contest.

It’s a different Texas team.

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