While SEC Awaits, Longhorns Focused On One Last Run At Big 12 Title

With the SEC waiting for its arrival, Texas' attention turns to leaving the Big 12 as a conference winner.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Across a television screen in thousands of households flashed the future of Texas football. 

Across the Twitterverse, however, the Longhorns flashed the present. 

When the Southeastern Conference released its 2024 schedule featuring newcomers Texas and Oklahoma as part of the format, attention from fans turned toward the impending year. The Longhorns, who will join the Sooners on July 1, 2024, as the newest members of the SEC, still have one year remaining as members of the Big 12. 

Third-year coach Steve Sarkisian took a different avenue when that Thursday evening. While team Twitter avatars and coaches were making posts of the future, Sarkisian posted the Longhorns 2023 schedule. 

One by one, players who don the Burnt Orange and White retweeted Sarkisian. Several posted the 2023 schedule on their personal pages to ensure the message was clear. 

Texas might be gearing up to eventually compete for an SEC crown, but the job's not finished in the Big 12 yet. 

"These guys don't need me much to express the message, they need me to support their message," Sarkisian said around a crowed media scrum Wednesday at Big 12 Media Days at AT&T Stadium. "That's what my job is. When the SEC released the schedule for 2024, they were the ones that wanted to make sure we put out our 2023 schedule." 

Sarkisian has been adamant since the Alamo Bowl that everything is fixated on the here and now. Sure, the Longhorns are destined to eventually be one of the top contenders in terms of recruiting among the "Power Two" conferences. 

They're also a program that has not won a conference title since 2009. Since Mack Brown's departure, the Horns have only made the trip to Arlington once, coming in a 39-27 loss to the Sooners in 2018.

It's why conversations in the locker room have yet to be on the team's eventual route to the SEC. Players rarely speak of the move since their goal is to win a Big 12 title one last time before the reality becomes a dream. 

And the dream itself is what drives veterans in the locker room. Seniors signed up to bring home a title in the current conference, not watch their brethren win after they're nothing more than a memory. 

"I'm gonna have a bunch of guys that are on this team right now that won't be on the team next year," Sarkisan said. "They're the leaders of our team right now as it stands. You're talking about a Jordan Whittington, a Christian Jones. You're talking about T'Vondre Sweat, a Jerrin Thompson, for that matter—a Jahdae Barron. 

"These guys who have been here have been fighting for a Big 12 title since they arrived. They see an opportunity to go get one." 

On paper, this feels like the year where it could all come together. The Horns return eight offensive starters, including Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Quinn Ewers at quarterback. Defensively, Texas upgraded its secondary on the recruiting trail and the transfer portal, with additions like Jalen Catalon (Arkansas) and Gavin Holmes (Wake Forest). 

The schedule bodes in its far, too. Texas travels to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for a rematch of Week 2's showdown in Austin against Alabama. Away trips include games against Baylor, TCU, Iowa State, and newcomer Houston. At Memorial Stadium, the only "trap game" would potentially be Kansas, which features the preseason Offensive Player of the Year Jalon Daniels. 

The consensus feel around the building? Belief. Outside the building, there's belief, too, as 41 of the 67 ballots submitted for the Big 12 preseason poll featured Texas as the front-runner to win it all, a first for the team since Colt McCoy was running the offense in 2009. 

"Everybody internally knows how good we can be this year," said Whittington. "We know what we want. We want to win the Big 12 championship. That's every team's goal, but I think we've been doing everything we can to move in that direction." 

The previous two conference champions weren't listed as front-runners in years they hoisted the trophy. Baylor, who then was in its second season under Dave Aranda, was projected to finish sixth in the Big 12 after a 2-7 season. Kansas State, which consistently produced eight-win seasons under Chris Klieman, was sixth in odds last July. 

Both should be players to win the crown in 2023. National champion runner-up TCU should also join the mix a year after being listed as seventh in the preseason polls. 

Whittington said the Longhorns have the pieces. Now it's about putting the puzzle together. Texas has exponential expectations to win it all in 2023. 

In retrospect, the Longhorns should play with no regret. After all, there is no tomorrow as the flagship program of a conference founded in 1996. 

Said Jaylan Ford: "We have a lot of seniors on this team. It'd be an amazing feeling for everyone, myself included, to go out and finish on a note like that." 

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