Longhorns' AD Mitchell Ready for 'Special' Season After Texas Debut

In his Texas Longhorns debut, receiver AD Mitchell found the end zone.

For a player who's caught four touchdowns in the College Football Playoff, AD Mitchell found himself stumped when thinking of how to celebrate catching his first score with the Texas Longhorns.

In the third quarter of the Texas' season opener against the Rice Owls in Austin on Saturday, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers connected with Mitchell for a nine-yard touchdown to increase Texas' lead to 23-3.

As he reached the end zone for the first time in a burnt orange jersey, Mitchell was stunned.

"Yeah, I'm not going to lie," Mitchell laughed as he was asked how he felt after the touchdown. "I don't know if you could tell, but I didn't know what to do."

All jokes aside, Mitchell running out onto the field from the Longhorns' tunnel for the first time will be something he will remember for the rest of his life, and he is looking forward to more weeks to come.

"It was the first time for a lot of things, first Bevo walk," Mitchell said. "I'm excited for more, for sure."

© Scott Wachter, USA TODAY

Mitchell and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian knew that "relentlessness" was going to be the name of the game in Week 1. 

"Coach Sark said before the game even started that it was gonna be adversity and things weren't going to go the way we want it to go all the time," Mitchell said. "It showed out there and now it's all about bouncing back, and I feel like we did that coming out of the halftime with Quinn leading the way with three touchdowns right off the bat."

After an up-and-down first half, the Longhorns needed to make some adjustments on the field, but the fact that it was only Week 1 made Texas' game plan more difficult to construct.

"That's usually how first games are," Mitchell said. "We don't have a previous week film or we don't have their practice film, so we don't really know what to fully expect, but we can just control what we control and just execute how we are supposed to execute, just us doing it better."

Mitchell is very hopeful that the Longhorns will record a successful season this year, but trust in the coaching staff and in each other will be needed for proper execution.

"As long as we do our job the way that we know we can do our job, it'll be special," Mitchell said.

The Longhorns will be hoping for something special when they hit the road to face the Alabama Crimson Tide next Saturday.