WATCH: Cedric Golden on Texas football’s 4-0 start, message it sent to SEC teams
WATCH: Cedric Golden on Texas football’s 4-0 start, message it sent to SEC teams
They say it just means more in the Southeastern Conference. Literally. That’s what the SEC slogan is.
But as the Texas football team prepares for its first conference contest in the SEC, it just means the same thing. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian and running back Jaydon Blue both said Monday that it’s business as usual on the Forty Acres. It doesn’t matter that Mississippi State will be UT’s guest at Royal-Memorial Stadium on Saturday. Aside from the conference-mandated injury report that Texas must release this week, the Longhorns won’t change their pregame routines.
“I think this team’s mentality is just the same it’s been for the four preseason games that we played,” Blue said. “We want to go into every week the same way we do as we’re playing a nonconference game.”
Said Sarkisian: “We believe in our formula for success and what that looks like. We respect that this is our first SEC game at home, and we’re going to embrace that side of it, but it’s not going to affect the way we prepare for the game or the way we go about our business in the game.”
In fact, Sarkisian leaned on an old line of thinking while speaking to reporters on Monday. In years past, Texas players liked to think of every game as a Big 12 championship game. Sarkisian said that approach won’t change since wins and losses matter too much to the standings and deciding which two teams play in the SEC championship game.
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“I don’t know if you guys saw the tiebreaker rules for who gets into the SEC championship game, but I did and I stopped reading after about two pages,” Sarkisian said. “I don’t really know how you get in if you’re tied, so let’s try not to get into a tie. If you think of it that way, this is a vital game for us this Saturday when you’re talking about trying to get into that championship game.”
Texas is already familiar with the SEC
Still, Sarkisian conceded that the SEC is not the Big 12. There’s plenty of beef in the trenches and a lot of speed on the perimeters. Since news broke in July 2021 about the Longhorns’ plans to join the SEC, Texas has made an effort to mimic those roster-building trends while also building its depth.
And it’s not that Texas is completely unfamiliar with life in the SEC. Sarkisian was Alabama’s offensive coordinator before he arrived in Austin. Texas’ Isaiah Bond was the leading receiver for the Crimson Tide last season. Quarterback Arch Manning has likely heard stories from his uncles and grandfather about their SEC days at Ole Miss and Tennessee.
Texas has played a team from the SEC in six of the last seven years. The Longhorns ended the 2017 and 2018 seasons in bowl games against Missouri and Georgia. Texas had nonconference games against Alabama, Arkansas and LSU in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Texas also would have also played LSU during the 2020 season had that game not been canceled by the pandemic.
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The Texas roster has turned over since those bowl games, but senior linebacker David Gbenda was on the team during that 2019 LSU game. Center Jake Majors started at Arkansas three years ago. Enough Longhorns still remember the two Alabama games.
“It’s very physical (in the SEC), it’s a four-quarter game, everybody’s great,” defensive lineman Alfred Collins said. “Every opponent we’ve played from the SEC has been tough, so we’re excited for the challenge.”
Texas is bracing for the SEC challenge
Texas is not the first team to make its SEC debut. Oklahoma did so last week when it was beaten 25-15 by Tennessee. Texas A&M and Missouri also lost their SEC debuts in 2012. Arkansas won its first-ever SEC game in 1992, but that’s only because the Razorbacks were playing another newcomer in South Carolina that lost its debut a week earlier.
Those aforementioned schools are the only other programs that have joined the SEC since the league was founded ahead of the 1933 season. Whether Texas stands alone aside Arkansas among the newcomers with a successful debut will depend on how the Longhorns play against Mississippi State. The Bulldogs are just 1-3 this season, but the Longhorns wouldn’t take the bait on Monday when they were pressed about their record and an offense that will be without injured quarterback Blake Shapen.
After Collins said the SEC is full of great teams, he was asked if he really thought that Mississippi State deserved to be described that way. “They’re going to play us hard,” he replied.
“It’s an SEC opponent, man, they’re gonna bring their best shot,” Gbenda later said. “When they’re coming to our house, they’re gonna give us their best shot to embarrass us. They’re going to try to knock off the No. 1 (team in the Associated Press poll). We’ve got to make sure that we do our best to just work hard and earn the right to beat them because everything’s not given, it’s earned.”
Saturday’s game
Mississippi State (1-3, 0-0) at No. 2 Texas (4-0, 0-0), 3:15 p.m., SEC Network, 1300, 98.1, 105.3 (Spanish)
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Publish date : 2024-09-23 10:59:00
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