Explaining why Texas always sets high expectations

Texas wants to be back so badly. The good people of Austin have spent a long time waiting for the Longhorns to arrive again at the top tier of college football. They’ve done so because, in the eyes of On3’s J.D. PicKell, the Longhorns consistently have talent that justifies those lofty goals.

PicKell took the pulse of Texas’ program in an episode of ‘The Hard Count’ last week. He pointed out how the Longhorn’s continued success on the recruiting trail has generated a lot of hype considering the talent that is on their roster and where it should be at this point of their development under Steve Sarkisian.

“Honestly? For Texas, the reason why they feel like they always have a chance is because they’ve consistently recruited well,” PicKell explained. “Since 2018, they have been outside the Top-10 in the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings one time. One time!”

“That tells me you consistently have a Top-10 class, which should equate to, typically, a Top-10 roster if you’re doing it right. Developing right, having the good culture, and all that,” said PicKell. “The talent in Austin, Texas is always there. Talent is good reason for optimism. It is good reason for expectations.”

As PicKell pointed out, Texas has recruited at a high clip on the national level over the last three classes of Tom Herman’s tenure and Sarkisian’s first three. In that span, the Longhorns have four top-five classes in 2018 (third), 2019 (third), 2022 (fifth), and 2023 (third). They finished ninth in 2020 and were still a respectable enough 15th in 2021.

Over the past two classes, Sarkisian has earned six commitments to Texas from five-star recruits. That includes IOL DJ Campbell and OT Kelvin Banks in ’22 as well as QB Arch Manning, LB Anthony Hill, RB CJ Baxter Jr., and WR Johntay Cook II in this year’s class.

This isn’t even to mention what Texas has been able to do as of late far as additions in the transfer portal.

If you do it right, talent should lead directly to production. From there, production should lead to results which, in the end, is exactly what fans down on The 40 Acres are ready for as Sarkisian heads into year three.

McElroy predicts Texas to go over 9.5 wins

Everyone wants to see if this is the season where Texas is officially back or not. Many are high on Steve Sarkisian’s squad coming into the year and among them is ESPN’s Greg McElroy.

McElroy looked at Texas’ win total of 9.5 during a segment of ‘Always College Football’ on Monday. He recognizes that several other people have already hopped on the bandwagon when it comes to the Longhorns. Even so, he does see several reasons to, especially considering how many close games they ended up losing in 2022.

“The Texas Longhorns? They come in at 9.5,” McElroy said. “Everybody and their brother is hot on the Longhorns this year, right? So hot.”

“Think about where they were last year. How close they were in so many games? Lost five games last year all by one score. And you think about a couple of those games? They had some leads that they just couldn’t hang on to,” explained McElroy. “Think about the Texas Tech game, think about the Oklahoma State game. They had significant leads in both games. They just could not hold on.”

With the direction that they Longhorns are moving in, and moving in quickly, McElroy believes that they’ll exceed that 9.5 win total and reach double-digit wins for the second time in the last 14 years.

“A big boost is coming for the Longhorns this year. I am very optimistic about it. I think they’re a Top-10 football team coming into the season,” McElroy said. “A lot of it has to do with the progress made offensively, progress made on the front seven defensively. But, given the strides made from ’21 to ’22, I think they’re going to continue to ramp it up. I’m taking the over on 9.5.”

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