Sarkisian must build via careful vetting
Steve Sarkisian didn’t want to get too giddy about what he saw on the first day of spring football Tuesday, but had to admit the Horns looked good in shirts and shorts which he affectionately called underwear.
“We don’t play football in underwear,” Sarkisian said.
The Texas football coach has gone through often a painstaking process to build this culture into what he hopes is a consistent winning program, especially after he delivered 12 wins, a Big 12 title and a first College Football Playoff appearance.
From first glance, quarterback Quinn Ewers looked good throwing the ball with 10 pounds added to a 6-foot-2 frame that carried 195 pounds last season.
Backup Arch Manning is bulkier than the starter, but showed a live arm in the 20 minutes the media was allowed to watch but Ewers got the edge on accuracy, particularly on the deep ball.
They’re now veterans of Sarkisian’s vision, along with others like cornerback Jahdae Barron, left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., tight end Gunnar Helm and defensive end Barryn Sorrell to name a few.
The challenge now is to continue to build through recruiting — the Horns signed the nation’s sixth-ranked class, including five-stars in Duncanville defensive end Colin Simmons and St. Louis wideout Ryan Wingo — while successfully navigating the transfer portal, a sensitive process given that Sarkisian is bringing in veterans who have been playing in other programs.
With 11 players having just participated in the NFL scouting combine — an obvious nod to the talent on that 2023 team — the Horns have brought in some good-looking veterans in Houston wideout Matthew Golden, Alabama pass catchers Amari Niblack and Isaiah Bond, Oregon State wideout Silas Bolden, Clemson safety Andrew Mukuba — a former LBJ star — and UTSA edge
rusher Trey Moore, to name a few.
Talent is ultra important at this level, but chemistry is crucial in building another national title contender. The vetting process of a person’s character is a huge part of the process since locker room/program culture is highly valued in today’s game.
“The portal is very unique because these guys go in the portal and sometimes four days later, they’re on your campus on an official visit,” Sarkisian said. “So we really have to be diligent and doing our process of getting to know them, tapping into the right people that have worked with them, whether it was high school coach trainers, sometimes their own coach from the school they’re coming from, to make sure that they can fit in our culture.”
Sarkisian added he doesn’t want players who show up and are just trying to survive with little to no enjoyment. No coach bats a thousand in this area, not with the turnover given the sheer volume of athletes entering college football’s version of free agency.
“We want people that are really going to thrive in this environment,” he said. “And so far, a couple months into this thing with these guys being here, it seems really good.”’
It’s early yet and a lot can happen between now and the season opener against Colorado State, but as far as starts go, the Horns are feeling good as are 132 other FBS programs.
Texas women have a nice path to Cleveland
Hello, March Madness: Texas’ reaction to earning one of four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament spoke to this team’s desire to break through for its first Final Four in 21 seasons.
A national television audience watched junior DeYona Gaston lead her teammates in some celebratory dance during ESPN’s selection show. The fan base may have more cause for giddiness if the Horns can get past first-round opponent Drexel and the Alabama-Florida State winner.
It’s actually a decent path to the national semifinals, thanks to that No. 1 seed that prevents them from having to play South Carolina, Iowa or USC until the final weekend. That means any collision with the unbeaten Gamecocks or superstars Caitlin Clark or JuJu Watkins will have to wait.
A potential matchup with No. 2 Stanford might be the sexiest pre-Final Four matchup outside a possible national title rematch between Iowa and defending national champion LSU the same weekend.
The more I look at both brackets, I tend to agree with coaching legend Jay Wright who said the women’s tournament is more intriguing than their male counterparts.
Spurs’ competitive spirit will yield eventual success
An Austin welcome: Texas Longhorns fans did a good job of making Moody Center a cozy home court this past season, but I’ve never heard that place as loud for a basketball game as I did in the final moments of the San Antonio Spurs’ overtime win over the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday.
If you were blindfolded and dropped into the arena with no idea who was playing, one could have confused the electricity with what you get in a Game 7 of the NBA Finals, not a matchup of teams that will likely both end up in the draft lottery.
It’s not just that the Spurs captured a 122-115 win, but how they did it. In a season that will go down as its fifth straight losing campaign one decade after its fifth league championship, the Spurs are still playing with the enthusiasm as a Last Dance Chicago Bulls.
The Spurs are outgunned on most nights and while there is a huge building block manning the paint in 7-foot-4 rookie Victor Wembanyama, several pieces need to be added before they can start talking about becoming relevant again.
That said, they are playing as if their lives depended on it, a testament to head coach Gregg Popovich, whose desire to win still burns brightly amid the losing seasons. Anyone with half-vision can see that the Spurs are only a couple of players away from being a playoff team again. Pop and CEO R.C. Buford will take care of the personnel. Meanwhile, the desire to win is obvious on this club.
“Winning is a habit,” Popovich said. “If they can have this kind of spirit in a tough season win-loss wise, it portends for great things in the future.”
You can’t fake effort and spirit. These young Spurs have plenty of both.