SEC ready: The Texas Longhorns join new league ‘obsessed’ with winning from the start (2024)

The new conference logo is on the field

SEC ready: The Texas Longhorns join new league ‘obsessed’ with winning from the start (1)

By JIM VERTUNO

Published: Aug. 21, 2024 at 11:37 AM CDT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The new conference logo is on the field. The campus party over the summer was a hit. New chants of “S-E-C, S-E-C!” are perfected and a historic rival is back on the schedule.

Now it's time for No. 4 Texas to play some ball.

The Longhorns are now officially members of the Southeastern Conference, and roll into new territory with the swagger of the new kid at school who thinks he's got the talent to be the big man on campus from the start.

And why not?

Texas won the Big 12 last season, played in its first College Football Playoff and returns a load of talent from a 12-2 squad that finished the year ranked No. 3.

Year No. 4 under coach Steve Sarkisian has Texas not just dreaming about winning, but “obsessed” with it after last year's near miss at playing for the national championship. It starts with an offense that could prove to be as explosive as any unit Sarkisian has had, with quarterback Quinn Ewers, a veteran offensive line and a receiving corps rebuilt with talented transfers.

“They got a taste of what it can taste like, of being a Big 12 champion, playing in a College Football Playoff, and we fell short,” Sarkisian said. "They couldn’t wait to get back to work. They couldn’t wait to get back in the weight room.

"When I took the job, I don’t know if I could have said that. It was almost like kind of prodding cattle to make sure that what they were doing day in and day out to get them to that point. Now we’ve got a team full of hungry players," Sarkisian said.

Quarterback experience

Ewers took a big step in 2023 with 3,479 yards passing with 22 touchdowns and chose to return for his junior season rather than head for the NFL.

Sarkisian believes Ewers could prove to be one of the college game's elite passers this season, though he has had durability issues. Ewers has missed at least two games each of the last two seasons with injuries.

Waiting behind him is Arch Manning, the former 5-star recruit who might be the most anticipated backup QB at Texas since Vince Young in 2003.

Transfer time

Texas landed a load of transfer talent, with a pair of pass catchers from Alabama in receiver Isaiah Bond and tight end Amari Niblack. Edge rusher Trey Moore (UTSA) and safety Andrew Mukuba (Clemson) were big gets as well.

Bond carries the load of the biggest expectations. Texas lost its top five receivers from 2023 and Bond led the Crimson Tide with 48 catches for 668 yards and four touchdowns. He's the one who caught the 4th-and-31 touchdown in the final minute to beat Auburn.

Injury watch

The Longhorns are already shorthanded at running back.

Projected starter C.J. Baxter was lost for the season with a knee injury in camp. A week later, freshman Christian Clark tore an Achilles tendon in practice and will require season-ending surgery.

Next up is fast but seldom used junior Jaydon Blue, who has 80 carries for 431 yards and three touchdowns in 23 career games. Blue is a former high school sprinter who once clocked a 10.7-second 100 meters in high school.

Hill to climb

Sophomore linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. looks primed for a breakout year for a defense that lost last year's dominant line duo of T'Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy to the NFL. He ranked second on the team in tackles last season when he played on the edge and was turned loose to chase the ball.

Hill will move to the middle this season, which defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski called his natural position.

The schedule

Texas opens the season Aug. 31 at home against Colorado State. The next week, it's a trip the Big House at defending national champion Michigan. The annual rivalry with Oklahoma on Oct. 12 is now an SEC game and the following weekend Texas hosts preseason No. 1 Georgia on Oct. 19. The bow on the regular season is Nov. 30 at Texas A&M, a renewal of a rivalry that dates to 1894. The Longhorns won the last meeting on a last-second field goal in 2011.

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll

SEC ready: The Texas Longhorns join new league ‘obsessed’ with winning from the start (2024)

FAQs

Why did the Longhorns join the SEC? ›

Geographically, the SEC makes sense for Texas. A potential move would also reunite Texas with rivals like Arkansas and Texas A&M. Meaningful games against those two and other top-tier competition from the SEC also would sell tickets and fill up DKR, which could offset some of those tax-related losses.

Will Texas join SEC? ›

July 1 marks the start of the 2024-25 athletic calendar and the start of the journeys in the Southeastern Conference for the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners.

Who is the starter for Texas Longhorns? ›

Quinn Ewers is the starting quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. And barring disaster, that is not going to change.

Will Texas give up Longhorn Network to join SEC? ›

The streaming service replaces the broadcast channel due to Texas' move to the Southeastern Conference. All live sporting events will be broadcast through the SEC's rightsholder's networks and a conference bylaw states that no school can operate its own television network.

What is the biggest rivalry in the SEC? ›

The most-played rivalries in SEC football history entering 2019...
  • #1 Auburn vs. Georgia. ...
  • #2 Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State. ...
  • #3 Kentucky vs. Tennessee. ...
  • #4 Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt. ...
  • #5 LSU vs. Mississippi State. ...
  • #6 Georgia vs. Georgia Tech (no longer in the SEC) ...
  • #7 LSU vs. Ole Miss. ...
  • #8 Alabama vs. Mississippi State.

Who is Texas biggest rival? ›

The Oklahoma–Texas football rivalry is a college football rivalry game between border rivals Texas and Oklahoma. The two teams first played each other in 1900, and the rivalry has been renewed annually since 1929 for a total of 119 games as of 2023.

Why did Tulane leave SEC? ›

Tulane, a third charter member, votes to leave the SEC, effective 1966. Then-president Herbert Longenecker cites playing a more national schedule, insisting the university was is de-emphasizing sports. Tulane had gone 28-82-8 from 1953-64, failing to win more than one SEC game in all but two of those seasons.

What is the smallest school in the SEC? ›

Vanderbilt University is the only private university in the SEC, and it is also the smallest and most selective school in the conference.

Who will be the Texas quarterback in 2024? ›

Texas football enters 2024 season with a solid leader in quarterback Quinn Ewers. With Texas needing someone to break the team off to its various drills after it had finished stretching ahead of the first preseason practice July 31, Quinn Ewers skipped to the center of the field to do the deed.

Will Arch Manning stay at Texas? ›

Many fans and media members were pushing the young quarterback to transfer and find a team that would start him during the 2024 season. Despite all of the rumors and the fact that he will likely sit for the 2024 season as well, Manning chose to stay at Texas and wait his turn behind Quinn Ewers.

Who wore 1 for Texas Longhorns? ›

The No. 1 was taken by Xavier Worthy this past season, but now that Worthy is off to the NFL, Cook will wear it like he did in high school.

Why did Texas A&M join the SEC? ›

Texas A&M would not accept 'little brother' terms. So when the LHN formed as a Texas-centric broadcast and nuked any possibility of a Big 12 Sports Network, Texas A&M jumped for the SEC.

Why did Oklahoma move to SEC? ›

Joseph Harroz: Move to SEC was about two goals

"Two conclusions that we reached that governed all of it — The University of Oklahoma must be in a place to win championships in all the sports," he said. "Second is we wanted to remain among the handful of athletic departments in the country that weren't subsidized."

Why didn t Florida State join the SEC? ›

FSU at present is an independent. It formerly was a member of the old Dixie Conference but dropped out after it began beating other members at football with monotonous regularity. State had football games with two SEC members this season and lost both.

When did Texas start playing in the SEC? ›

July 30, 2021: The SEC announced that the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas will become members effective July 1, 2025, with competition to begin in all sports for the 2025-26 academic year.

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