All of a sudden, the Texas Longhorns are creating the biggest buzz during the early part of the college football season – yes, surpassing Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes after Saturday night.
Quarterback Quinn Ewers is a legit Heisman Trophy candidate, and the Longhorns are serious contenders for the national championship. That’s what happens when you roll into Tuscaloosa as big underdogs and then come away with a 34-24 upset win over No. 3 Alabama, handing the Crime Tide their first loss at home in 22 games.
Now the program with all the resources and recruiting cache is in a conversation it hasn’t been in in over a decade. But it has been interesting to hear the Longhorns, themselves, talk about their first serious arrival into the national championship conversation for the first time since the College Football Playoff era began.
“It’s still early, we still have a lot of games to play,” said Ewers, who is the Longhorns second-year starter as a sophomore. “So we will enjoy this for 24 hours and then regroup and see where we are at.”
But make no mistake about it, the Longhorns understand how big of accomplishment they just managed. The Crimson Tide were a mind-blowing 52-1 in their last 53 home games prior to Saturday night’s meltdown.
Texas trailed its soon to be SEC rival 16-13 at the end of three quarters Saturday, before Ewers and the offense made every must-have play in the fourth quarter, scoring 21 points to not just rally the troops but keep the explosive Crimson Tide at bay.
Ewers looked special running the offense, as did receivers Ja’Tavion Sanders, Adonai Mitchell and Xavier Worthy catching the ball and running back Jonathon Brooks picking up critical yards in the fourth quarter. And the defense, led by linebacker Anthony Hill Jr., came up with big stops in important moments.
Big road win ‘shows a lot about what we are capable of’
It was certainly the kind of win that came in a hostile environment that seems to suggest the Texas Longhorns (2-0) are finally a threat again.
“I think it shows a lot about what we are capable of,” said UT coach Steve Sarkisian, whose team jumped four spots in the AP Poll this week to No. 4. “This game is not going to define our season. We’ve got 10 more regular season games to play. But I do think it serves a good benchmark for us, kind of what we are capable of and what the potential of who can be as a team moving forward.”
If Sarkisian and his staff were looking for a way to convince their team they are headed in the right direction Saturday night was it. The win over the Crimson Tide was the Texas Longhorns’ first non-conference road win over an AP Top 3 opponent in program history.
It was also their first road win over any top-three opponent since the No.1-ranked Longhorns defeated Southwest Conference rival and second-ranked Arkansas, 15-14, in 1969 and a matchup that was dubbed “The Game of the Century.”
“Why did we play good (Saturday night)?” said Sarkisian, who joined Jimbo Fisher and Kirby Smart as Nick Saban’s only former assistant coaches to score a victory off him. “I think we played good because we prepared really well, we practiced really well.
“Now for them to recognize that’s what it takes every week. That’s what championship teams do. They don’t have ups and downs in their preparation. They prepare right mentally, they prepare right physically and then ultimately performance.”
That message certainly seemed to resonate with a Texas Longhorns’ team that made fewer mental errors and costly mistakes than the usually disciplined Crimson Tide.
Texas Longhorns’ offseason leading to success
Ewers said the Longhorns always felt they could be successful against Alabama after the offseason they are coming off.
“It’s awesome, especially with the work we put in as a team,” said Ewers, who was named the Walter Camp Offensive Player of the Week after completing 24 of 38 passes for 349 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. “The cold winter runs that we do. The hot summer runs that we do.
“I’m so glad that it’s coming to life.”
But the Longhorns still have some challenges ahead, although their next two games at home against Wyoming and at Baylor should be counted as wins. But rival Oklahoma is still on the horizon as is a gauntlet of Big 12 teams determined to keep Texas and the Sooners in check before they bolt for the SEC next year.
Sarkisian, however, feels he has built the culture at UT to the point his players can handle all obstacles coming their way.
“We’ve worked really hard on the culture aspect of it,” he said. “I love these guys. They really give us everything that they have and they trust us and they believe in what we are doing.
“We’ve tried to recruit really well to get good players in our program that are made of the right stuff. It’s not just about stars but are they made of the right stuff and are they coachable? And I think that’s what this group has.
“In the end, the coaching continuity is shining through a little bit. Our guys understand our calls, why we are doing what we are doing. And then they really put forth the preparation and then the go and try to execute it on game day.”
Terrnce Harris covers college sports for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.