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The sixth in a series previewing SEC football teams.<\/p>\n
ATLANTA \u2014 In a way, the Arkansas Razorbacks played a key part in Texas\u2019 return to prominence in college football.<\/p>\n
The Hogs\u2019 40-21 rout of the Longhorns in 2021, which fifth-year Coach Steve Sarkisian labeled as an \u201cass whupping\u201d at SEC media days last week, served as a blueprint for Texas as it built toward its first season in the SEC in 2024.<\/p>\n
Sarkisian\u2019s skills as a program architect and offensive whiz, the Longhorns\u2019 substantial revenue generation and strong recruiting have combined to set Texas up for another big season. SEC media members picked the Longhorns to win the 2025 conference championship over Georgia in voting released Friday.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a lofty perch \u2014 considering the Horns have to replace ace quarterback Quinn Ewers, four offensive line starters and a swath of defensive standouts \u2014 and they face a brutal schedule.<\/p>\n
However, Ewers will be replaced by Arch Manning of the celebrated Manning quarterback family of New Orleans, plus the Longhorns have a bounty of playmakers coming back and 13 selections to the preseason All-SEC teams released Friday. That group is led by linebacker Anthony Hill, edge rusher Colin Simmons and safety Michael Taaffe on defense, and speedsters like tailback Quintrevion Wisner and receivers Ryan Wingo and Deandre Moore on offense.<\/p>\n
ESPN\u2019s Power Index rankings give the Longhorns a 34.1% chance of winning the SEC and an 83.9% chance of making the 12-team College Football Playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously expectations are high for our program,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cI\u2019m not naive to that. I don\u2019t put my head in the sand. \u2026 But also it\u2019s the University of Texas and the standard is the standard here, and that\u2019s competing for championships year in and year out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarkisian pointed out the Longhorns have retained all their coordinators \u2014 Kyle Flood on offense, Pete Kwiatkowski on defense and Jeff Banks on special teams \u2014 the past five years, a feat in today\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Texas appears built to make another run to the CFP as the Horns have done the past two seasons. Sarkisian listed Hill, Simmons, Taaffe and Wisner among others as having won state championships in high school and bring that mentality to the Texas program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got winners in our locker room, and we specifically and intentionally recruited winners into our locker room,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cSo when these guys are going into a locker room after a loss in the (CFP) semifinals, I promise you, it hurts them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so we don\u2019t forget that feeling, OK? And so we\u2019re back to work, and the leadership on this team is full of winners, and that\u2019s the way they want to go about this season is try to go win a championship. That\u2019s the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manning mostly sat behind Ewers, a seventh-round pick of the Miami Dolphins in the NFL Draft, for two seasons, though he appeared in 12 games and was 2-0 as a starter when an oblique issue sidelined Ewers last season. He has rushed for 115 yards and 4 touchdowns and completed 63 of 95 passes for 969 yards, with 9 touchdowns and 2 interceptions in the limited duty.<\/p>\n
Now that he has the reins of the program, he\u2019ll have plenty of key weapons to utilize.<\/p>\n
Wisner is the SEC\u2019s leading returning rusher after totaling 1,064 yards, 5 touchdowns and 4.7 yards per carry last season, as well as 44 receptions for 311 yards and a touchdown. Moore (39 receptions, 456 yards, 7 TDs) is the top returning wideout with Wingo, the younger brother of former Razorback Ronnie Wingo, set for a bigger role after catching 29 passes for 472 yards and 2 touchdowns in 2024.<\/p>\n
Manning came to media days with tons of hype, drawing a huge crowd of reporters at his various stops. He handled the extra attention in stride and said he\u2019s ready for his expanded role.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as it wasn\u2019t always easy, those two years I kind of feel like I got a ton of respect from the team,\u201d Manning said. \u201cNow being more of a vocal leader, they know it\u2019s coming from a place of love. When I get on someone, they know I\u2019m not just being a turd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manning also touted his targets.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur receivers are really good, really fast,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a bunch of young ones, but having Wingo and D-Mo back will be good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas players took a lot of questions about their celebrated teammate at media days.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though he doesn\u2019t say, I feel like he deserves it,\u201d Hill said of the Manning hype. \u201cSome of the stuff he\u2019s doing when he\u2019s playing football, a lot of people haven\u2019t seen. So I feel like he\u2019s going to have a great year and all the hype he gets is going to end up panning out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biggest questions for Texas revolve around whether the offensive line will become cohesive from the jump, as senior right guard DJ Campbell is the lone returning starter on the front.<\/p>\n
The Longhorns should have one of the nation\u2019s top defenses yet again, with a strong run-stopping unit and versatile pass rushers.<\/p>\n
Hill and Taaffee, both second-team All-Americans in 2024, are the leaders of a unit that led the SEC and ranked third nationally by allowing 283.4 yards per game. The Longhorns have big shoes to fill with the losses of Jim Thorpe Award winning cornerback Jahdae Barron, defensive tackle Alfred Collins and others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m always trying to do is I\u2019m trying to raise the standard and understand that there\u2019s a bar and we\u2019ve got to reset that every single year to keep chasing greatness,\u201d Taaffe said. \u201cAt the end of the day, if you want your name to be remembered, you\u2019ve got to keep going and keep doing more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Longhorns face a difficult schedule, starting at defending national champion Ohio State, which knocked Texas out 28-14 in last year\u2019s semifinals when it appeared Sarkisian\u2019s team was driving for a late tying touchdown.<\/p>\n
Texas does not play an SEC home game until Nov. 1 against Vanderbilt in its fifth league contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got road games at Ohio State, at Georgia, at Florida, at Kentucky, which are all going to be very difficult environments to play in, not to mention playing in the Red River Rivalry \u2026 against Oklahoma, and then playing at home against a couple traditional rivals again with Arkansas and (Texas) A&M.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be the most traveled team in the SEC this year, which is a great challenge for us. We\u2019re looking forward to it. \u2026 I think the popularity of the Texas Longhorns is at an all-time high.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Let us read it for you. Listen now. Your browser does not support the audio element. The sixth…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":78001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-78000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114885624309362019","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}