The importance of a strong team culture

On3 imageby:Bobby Burton10/25/22

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If you missed the news overnight, it appears there’s a free fall situation occurring in College Station.

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According to Billy Liucci of TexAgs, at least three Texas A&M freshman have been indefinitely suspended. Allegedly, the players were caught smoking weed in the team’s locker room following the Aggies’ 30-24 loss at South Carolina.

The Aggies, ranked in the nation’s top ten in the preseason, are 3-4 and rumors abound about additional player discontent that could lead more of them entering the NCAA transfer portal.

The Aggies, like teams across the country, are finding that adversity and player unrest in the age of the transfer portal can be difficult to navigate.

For Texas and Steve Sarkisian, it’s yet another example of why team culture is so important.

No team will be entirely unaffected by the transfer portal. But some teams will be less so than others.

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In talking with some folks behind the scenes following the Horns’ loss to Oklahoma State, it sounds like the players and coaches both took the loss hard.

That’s unsurprising. It was a tough loss in a game that was there for the taking.

The Horns are focused on getting healthy this week and also focusing on small changes and improvements going forward.

Some of what I’m hearing:

1. The secondary could see a youth movement of sorts, given the injuries and the off week. This does not mean there’s going to be a new freshman starter or a new starter generally; it just means Terrance Brooks and Austin Jordan are going to get increased reps and thrown in the fire even more. We‘ll see how they take to it.

2. It’s the second straight week that Quinn Ewers faced a somewhat new defense or defensive style. Learning from that is imperative this off week because K-State does a lot of what both Oklahoma State and Iowa State do. It’ll be interesting to see just how Texas and Ewers counters the K-State D after a couple of weeks to digest and work on what happened.

3. Jahleel Billingsley exceeded expectations in his first extended action of the season. And not just from his receiving skills. He blocked really well. There’s no telling what Sark might do with both Billingsley and Ja’Tavion Sanders together. We’ll see how practices go this week and next.

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