What was supposed to be the year of the Texas Longhorns, who stormed the SEC and reclaimed their national glory, has turned into a season of heartbreak and sadness. With a regular season record of 9-3 overall and 6-2 in conference play, the Longhorns sit at no. 10 in the latest NCAA polls, a huge drop from their no. 3 spot last season.
Many expectations surrounding quarterback Archie Manning’s performance to win games for Texas fans, but sadly, that wasn’t the reality. Fans who flooded into Texas Memorial Stadium, averaging 102,00 strong per home game, now echo with “Is Texas pack”? Is being replaced by saddened sighs: “not this year.”
What was sold to us as the “arch manning era” has instead become a season-long sabotage. The warning shots became clear with a 14-7 loss at Ohio State, but we told ourselves it was a week 1 rust. Then came Florida with a 29-21 loss, and another scare at Vanderbilt. (34-31 felt like a loss.)
The stats are brutal with Texas this season. It feels like I’m watching them spiral down. Compared to its 23-24 season, it feels like a major downgrade from what I am watching at the moment.
Steve Sarkisian ( Texas UT Football Head Coach ) keeps talking about “execution” and “details”, but at this point, those words feel like a broken record. When your team leads the league in pre-season hype and then loses three games. The problem isn’t execution; the problem is coaching culture and how to use the talent we’ve been given at UT.
As a UT fan myself, I am very worried. The team I enjoyed watching began to feel like a team that quits on national television. I am honestly shocked at the current state of the team and how we are sliding backwards, while we let Georgia, Ole Miss and even Alabama pass us. We have too much talent to let it go to waste, and I hope we can change for the better, or Texas is going to feel like a joke for a very long time.
Other UT fans, such as my own sister and her boyfriend, worry about how the games have become this season. They are honestly disappointed with how UT has played this whole season, and they hope we can overcome the losses and be better as we play next season. They claimed Texas was going to dominate this year, but turns out they were very wrong: now all they can express are worried glances throughout the rest of the season.
Despite all these issues with the team, UT had managed one of their bright spots against their rival team Texas A&M. In a game fueled by tension, criticism, and desperation the Longhorns delivered one of their best performances this season.
In a hard fought victory the Longhorns managed to overcome their rivals winning 27-17. The win served as a small reminder of the team’s potential, a spark in an otherwise dim season. Sadly enough, the win did little to erase the concerns of longhorn fans, it relieved them for the moment but fans are still uncertain about the future of the team.
