SPRING & SUMMER TREATS 2023:  Kool-Aid and Rat Poison

by Larry Carlson  ( lc13@txstate.edu )

I am often reminded of, and often resurrect Darrell Royal's definitive dismissal of football players -- or teams -- supposedly loaded with potential.

"Potential," DKR shrugged, "just means you haven't done anything yet."

Where do you think the Longhorns will be ranked when the first official preseason polls register in August?  And where would you put 'em, either in your brain or in your heart of hearts?

It's that time of year.  Three months to fret, sulk or lick your chops because the season is still but a distant mirage on the horizon.  Every sports media outlet has rolled out "Way Too Early" preseason rankings, some just one day after Georgia bashed TCU like a soggy pinata for its second straight national title.

Texas football, of late, has been more overrated than Whataburger.  The talent has been there but the development has not, now for 13 ugly years.  Football prophets chide those who have jumped early on the "Texas is back" train too many times.  But many of those same soothsayers consistently peg the Horns higher than is merited in preseason.

Get this.  In its January forecast, Sports Illustrated placed Texas fifth.

That was more than 100 days before Urban Meyer told SI that, "...man for man, roster against roster, it's hard to say Texas doesn't have the best roster in college football."

Hmmm.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  I recall that, back in the summer of 2001, UT had two experienced winning QBs,  Major Applewhite and Chris Simms in "the room,"  And a highly-rated freshman, Chance Mock, was walking in the door.

This writer is not about to knock UT's impressive three-deep quarterback picture.  But the lone QB at Texas with starting experience has been credited as "winning pitcher" only six times.

Interesting to note that perhaps three former Horn QBs will be starters elsewhere this fall.

The best, Cam Rising, is recovering from an ACL tear but aims to lead Utah to a third straight PAC-12 title.  Hudson Card has a chance to be outstanding at Purdue, and Casey Thompson joins his former coach, Tom Herman, at Florida Atlantic after a whistlestop tour at Nebraska.

But my noting that UT quarterbacks are short on game experience is not going to shut down any unlicensed "burnt orange Kool-Aid stands" this summer.

And I have already gone on record as saying that the Longhorns have zero excuses not to win the conference crown in their final Big XII season.  I believe they have all the talent necessary, in spite of having lost Bijan Robinson and a crew of defensive hosses.  

Not only did Texas show progress in developing players last year and bringing in another stellar recruiting class, they fared well with the portal.  A.D Mitchell's arrival from Georgia gives the Horns another offensive weapon and three defensive studs -- Arkansas safety Jalen Catalon, Wake Forest CB Gavin Holmes and Minnesota DT Trill Carter -- will inject experience and talent into what could become a very good defense.

So go ahead and let the Kool-Aid flow if you want.  The “Athletic” had Texas unranked in its first "way too early" poll this year.  After spring drills were completed, the Horns were promoted to #19 .

I expect Texas to come in higher than that in the polls before they stomp Rice.  And you can already picture plenty of Texas Exes swaggering under their Stetsons, just waiting to change that "way too early" eight-point underdog status at Bama into a Las Vegas flurry of action.

Let's just assume that Nick Saban has already pointed out Urban Meyer's praise for Texas to Crimson Tide players who were fortunate to escape Austin with a W last September.

Experts are saying that Alabama is deeply unsettled in that usually glamorous Tuscaloosa QB Room.  And Texas, if you believe it, has its prettiest trio ever, along with that whole "best roster in college football."

Steve Sarkisian knows, from the best, the definition of "rat poison."

So can Texas players play up to their enviable four-and-five-star press clippings at last?