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After its great season, does this mean Texas football is really back? Well ... | Bohls

kirk bohls, austin american-statesman
·2 min read

Texas football is surging right now and is trending as a future powerhouse in college football with the Longhorns coming off a 12-2 season, Big 12 championship and College Football Playoff appearance. But does that mean Texas is back?

No, it doesn't. Texas isn't back. It’s too soon to suggest that.

It was that kind of night for Texas fans for most of the 37-31 Sugar Bowl loss to Washington. Here they react to a Huskies field goal that put Washington up by nine points late Monday night. Texas, though, reestablished itself as a national power this season, went 12-2, won a Big 12 title, earned a CFP berth and is headed to the SEC.
It was that kind of night for Texas fans for most of the 37-31 Sugar Bowl loss to Washington. Here they react to a Huskies field goal that put Washington up by nine points late Monday night. Texas, though, reestablished itself as a national power this season, went 12-2, won a Big 12 title, earned a CFP berth and is headed to the SEC.

The program won’t be truly back until head coach Steve Sarkisian shows he can sustain this level of success. The players do believe it, and that’s where it starts.

”We felt magical, the whole time that we felt like it was already written," departing receiver Jordan Whittington said. "No matter what happened, I didn't know it was going to come down to the last, like, 10 seconds ... but we didn't waver one time.”

Take the Sugar Bowl loss with perspective

The Longhorns were really good and borderline great this season, and it’s a heckuva lot of progress for a program that hadn’t won a conference title in 14 years. Remember, they came within 15 seconds of beating Oklahoma and had a chance to knock off Washington on the final play of the game. And didn’t really play all that well in either one.

OU didn’t have a turnover, Washington only muffed a punt on Monday night and Texas had three turnovers in those games. In the 12 wins, Texas was a plus-6.

Golden: Texas fans shouldn't overlook what it took the Horns to get this far

A tale of two quarterbacks

Texas also faced precious few great quarterbacks other than OU's Dillon Gabriel and Washington's Michael Penix Jr., who combined to put up 71 points on a defense that gave up an average of only 17 points a game.

For those of you who are mad that Sarkisian got outcoached, quarterback Quinn Ewers got outplayed and Texas was sloppy and out-disciplined, also remember that Washington is not good, but damn good. ESPN’s Greg McElroy said the Huskies have at least seven NFL draft picks in the first two rounds this spring, including Penix and his top three receivers, an edge rusher and an offensive lineman.

Michigan has the edge for Monday

I worry for Washington in Monday's game that Michigan’s smothering defense is so much better top to bottom than Texas’, that the Wolverines’ Blake Corum may run all day against the Huskies and that Washington may be without injured tailback Dillon Johnson.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas football has lots of positives heading into 2024 and beyond