Once again UT football fans and national media alike have prematurely anointed Texas “good at football” and it took just two weeks to prove them wrong.
This week Texas, allegedly the 15th best team in the country, was blown out at Arkansas, 40-21. And it wasn’t even as close as the score showed. UT’s defensive line was pushed around as Arkansas rolled to 333 rushing yards. Arkansas has now shot up to 20th in the AP poll, because Texas couldn’t be that bad right? Arkansas just has to be really good.
We’ll see how long Arkansas stays ranked, but the fact is that over the past decade plus, Arkansas has been one of the worst teams in the SEC, the conference that Texas is set to join. If this is what they do against Arkansas, I shudder at what would happen when they play Alabama, or Georgia, or Florida, or even Oklahoma, who will be joining the conference with them.
Texas is going to really struggle in the SEC and the “Texas is back” claims will just get harder and harder to make. I don’t think they’re going to contend for anything for a really long time. Not that that was ever the point of joining the SEC. I know it’s all about money. But it’s still funny to watch Texas fans and media, year after year, forget that there’s a big difference between being one of the biggest “brands” in college football, and one of the best teams.
I’m not basing my prediction of Texas struggling in the SEC on one game. I’m basing it on the fact that for the majority of the past decade, they’ve been a middling BIG 12 team, and are moving to an even tougher conference.
There is always the possibility that joining the SEC will lead to a recruiting boost that will allow them to compete. In fact, the top headline on ESPN’s college football page today is about Texas’s 2022 recruiting class jumping into the top five. It still remains to be seen though if top recruits will want to go to a team that’s getting beat every week just because they’re in the best conference.
When I heard about Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC, my initial reaction was to feel bad for Texas A&M, whose one recruiting advantage in the state was being in the best league. Now I’m not so sure that I need to feel bad for them. Recruits will probably be lining up around the corner to go to A&M after they watch them beat the breaks off of UT.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t been around long enough to remember the golden years for a lot of college football programs, but I just don’t understand where all of the arrogance comes from. One program that is even more arrogant — and bad at football – than Texas, is Nebraska.
I nearly did a spit-take when I saw that Nebraska was a 7-point favorite on the road against Illinois in week zero. Why? How many more years of Nebraska being terrible will it take before people realize Nebraska is terrible?
They lost, of course, to an Illinois team that in the following weeks has lost to UTSA and Virginia. They’re terrible, but still the biggest babies in college football. They’ve complained about everything from the frequency of media timeouts to the schedule being too hard. Look inward, Nebraska. Maybe the whole world isn’t out to get you. Maybe you just suck.
Last year they tried to schedule an out of conference game against Chattanooga when their game against Wisconsin was cancelled due to COVID-19 positives, citing how it could be “another data point for possible College Football Playoff and bowl consideration.” Are you insane? Nebraska in the playoff? In the year of our Lord 2020?
That along with their constant threatening to leave the BIG 10 makes them the most delusional program in the country. Leave then. The only thing other BIG 10 teams will miss is marking a W next to your name on the schedule. That’s why whenever teams like Texas and Nebraska lose, all I can do is throw my head back in laughter and aggressively swirl my brandy.
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