Longhorns WR Xavier Worthy Reveals What He 'Needed to Fix'

"He's smiling now more maybe since his freshman year," Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian said of Xavier Worthy.

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Texas Longhorns walked off the field at the Alamodome in San Antonio this past December with an odd disappointment in the air. Making it to the Alamo Bowl for what felt like the millionth time was never the primary goal of the season, so losing it to the Washington Huskies likely felt weird to a Texas team that had bigger aspirations. 

To make matters worse, Texas' star receiver Xavier Worthy had just had a game to forget while rumors of him transferring continued to swirl.

Despite a switch to a new No. 1 jersey from No. 8, he played well below expectations in the 27-20 loss. While he finished with seven catches for 84 yards on 14 targets after a solid start, he also had three drops to his name, which was low-lighted by two would-be long touchdowns in the second quarter that both slipped right through his hands.

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Once the offseason hit, it was revealed that Worthy was playing with a broken hand, which excuses some of the errors. But it's safe to say that he's put the drops and mistakes behind him while growing into a new shell as he enters his third year at Texas.

With physical talent never being in question, Worthy opened up about how he's improved the mental side of things.

"Really the main thing I needed to fix was the overthinking," Worthy said Monday. "I feel like when I got past that, I feel like I'm the only one that can stop me."

Worthy said the overthinking can come down to anything. As a human playing in front of thousands of people that are ready to critique any last thing you do, it's understandable to need a mental reset.

"(Overthinking) just anything, just anything (that) happens," he said. "Like the bad, just overthinking, just carried over and it creates more bad things. If anybody's gonna stop me, it's me."

Echoing this, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian praised Worthy when talking about how he's grown this offseason.

"Really proud of him," Sarkisian said. "Right there with (Quinn Ewers) is the development and maturity of Xavier. ... What I've noticed is this guy really enjoying being a Texas Longhorn. He's smiling now more maybe since his freshman year."

Worthy has admitted that he's taken on a leadership role headed into this season, so having positive energy as practice and during games is a must if the Longhorns want to reach new heights.

This newfound approach combined with a level of receiving play that continues to be elite in the eyes of Sarkisian has the head coach ultra confident in what Worthy will bring to DKR for Saturday's season opener against the Rice Owls.

"We talked the other day about 'What do you know?' I think one of the knows is I know that Xavier Worthy is gonna show up at 2:30 Saturday," Sarkisian said.