ANALYZING SEC NEWCOMERS TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA
By Kyle Golik
#1 Texas may not have the quarterback advantage you think.
It is easy to compare Texas and Oklahoma’s quarterback situation and go with the Longhorns because they have Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning while Oklahoma just has Jackson Arnold.
I am a subscriber to one of Bill Parcells' known axioms that “if you have two quarterbacks you have no quarterbacks.”
By all accounts, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian has let it be known this is Ewers' team.
"I think it's pretty clear to say Quinn's our starting quarterback and we feel very good about that," Sarkisian said after Texas' spring game.
It was during that spring game where Manning threw 355 yards and three touchdowns with one interception while completing 19 of 26 attempts.
It is easy to suggest that Ewers is on a shorter leash and with the heightened expectations Longhorns fans have after making it to the College Football Playoffs. Now entering the SEC, the pressure will be at a fever pitch.
Conversely, Oklahoma is pretty set on Jackson Arnold as the starter.
“I always look at again, the body of work. I go all the way back to January, and I’m incredibly pleased with the progress. His leadership. The things that he does, from a decision-making standpoint, and taking care of the football. Those are the things that I look for, and he’s been a great leader.” Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables said recently about Arnold’s progression since ascending to the starting quarterback's job.
Arnold’s talent was the main reason incumbent Dillon Gabriel transferred prior to the Alamo Bowl. While Arnold’s three interceptions hurt the Sooners' chances against Arizona, it was his 26 of 45 passing for 361 yards, second most by a Sooners freshman in school history, and two touchdowns are what Venables hopes the Sooners are getting in a quarterback.
If there is indecision in the Texas quarterback situation, similar to the Caleb Williams/Spencer Rattler dynamic, Oklahoma could have the advantage and the only other QB situation I would prefer over the Sooners' in the SEC would be Georgia’s.
#2 Oklahoma may have a stable of backs, but none are at the level of Baxter
Oklahoma running backs Jovantae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuk will be among the best duos in the country and will complement Arnold and the Sooners’ stable of wide receivers very well.
However, the Sooners have not matched Texas’ run of big time backs the last few years that Sarkisian has built up.
Sophomore CJ Baxter seems to be worthy to follow Bijan Robinson and Jonathan Brooks, who last season averaged 6.5 yards per touch (1,351 yards from scrimmage on 209 touches).
Baxter, whom Sarkisian has dubbed as a ‘natural,’ continued to display that in the Texas spring game where many Longhorns fans wonder how high his ceiling is.
While Baxter will get much of the publicity, junior Jaydon Blue has displayed he can complement Baxter well. This was on display in the College Football Playoff Semifinal in the Sugar Bowl against Washington where Baxter and Blue combined for 123 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries.
#3 Texas and Oklahoma are both stacked at wide receiver
Texas boasted last season a trio of wide receivers that wreaked havoc on opposing secondaries and that trio: Xavier Worthy, Adonai Mitchell, and Jordan Whittington are all in the NFL.
Sarkisian leveraged the transfer portal and landed Alabama big-play wide receiver Isaiah Bond, Houston’s Matthew Golden, and Oregon State’s Silas Bolden.
Those transfers will complement freshman Ryan Wingo, a five-star prospect out of St. Louis University (St. Louis, MO), who was rated the No. 7 WR nationally by 247Sports.
During Texas’ spring game, it was Arch Manning’s viral performance that displayed just how good the Texas wide receiving depth is.
Oklahoma is no slouch either, and it was an impact transfer of their own that made heads turn.
Former Purdue wide receiver Deion Burks was all anyone could talk about following the Sooners' spring game.
Burks finished with five catches for 174 yards and two touchdowns, including hauling in a highlight 64-yard touchdown pass from Sooners’ starting quarterback Jackson Arnold on the first series of the game.
“He’s been fantastic,” Sooners coach Brent Venables said. “Great playmaker. He’s got tremendous speed and quickness. He’s got great hands. …. He’s really done a great job of learning what to do and transitioning that within our system.”
The Sooners were without senior Jalil Farooq and redshirt sophomore Nic Anderson. Both are expected to play a major role in the Sooners' vertical game this fall.
Along with senior Andrel Anthony, the quartet of Anthony, Anderson, Burks, and Faarooq are on the same level as Texas’ pass catchers.
#4 Venables front-seven is ‘SEC ready’
When Brent Venables took over for Lincoln Riley, he realized the defense needed a rebuild. However, during his first season where Oklahoma finished 6-7, Venables realized the rebuild was deeper than just reloading. During last season's Big XII Media Days, Venables stated the following.
“We've got a lot of work to do, but I've got a lot of faith in both our players, our staff, and certainly how we do what we do and our developmental processes. But there's no area on defense – we led the Big 12 in interceptions. We led the Big 12 in tackles for loss. Those are building blocks, things you can build from. Scoring defense, I think we're in the 90s. That's where it starts, keeping people out of the end zone, becoming a better red zone defense, stopping people. We were really poor stopping people in the run game”
Oklahoma improved last season from the 99th scoring defense in 2022 at 30 points per game to 49th with nearly a full touchdown improvement to 23.5 points per game. The rushing defense improved over a half a yard from allowing 4.5 yards to 3.9 yards per carry, albeit still a far cry from where Venables would like it.
What has Venables excited is the depth in the front seven to attack the quarterback.
EDGE rushers on the two-deep: Ethan Downs, Trace Ford, R Mason Thomas, and Adepoju Adebawore demonstrated early in the Sooners’ spring game that when the offensive line struggled it could get to the quarterback.
Interior lineman freshman David Stone, the No. 4 defensive lineman and rated five-stars by 247Sports, alongside Gracen Halton made an impact on the interior of the line.
Venables, and new defensive coordinator Zac Alley, seem to have five or six interior defensive linemen to rotate. Halton and senior Da’Jon Terry should get the lion's share of reps, but Stone, and fellow freshman Jayden Jackson, redshirt freshman Ashton Sanders, and senior Davon Sears all have capabilities to be impactful on rotation.
#5 Both Texas and Oklahoma are poised to challenge for SEC supremacy, but Texas has a distinct scheduling advantage.
When you look at the schedules of both Texas and Oklahoma, the SEC schedule makers did the Longhorns a solid.
Texas has the tougher draw in the out-of-conference slate, they visit Michigan in Ann Arbor in Week 2.
After the October 5th bye, they go to Red River against Oklahoma, then host Georgia who should be near the top of the polls. Outside of those contests, the Longhorns face Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Florida, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Texas A&M - not exactly “murderer’s row.”
Oklahoma, however, may not have a difficult out-of-conference slate, but draw Tennessee, Auburn, Alabama, Texas, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Missouri, and LSU in their first SEC season.
I get Alabama isn’t the same Crimson Tide dynasty that Nick Saban oversaw, but Kalen DeBoer possesses a 104-12 record as a head coach, and Alabama still has an incredible foundation for him to be successful.
Traveling to Jordan-Hare, Faurot Field, Tiger Stadium, and Vaught-Hemingway is infinitely more difficult than Texas’ travels to Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas.
The Longhorns have some defensive issues to overcome, losing the heart of the defensive line to the NFL Draft in Byron Murphy and T’Vondre Sweat hurt. So does linebacker Jaylan Ford, who was playing at a Butkus Award-winning level. The Longhorns have a sophomore duo in the back seven in linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. and cornerback Malik Muhammad they will be banking on.
To me, the Longhorns have reloaded well enough and the favorable schedule to capitalize early in their SEC tenure, but the Sooners have the talent to contend as well. A 10-2 Oklahoma team will make the new expanded playoff and it isn’t out of the realm of possibilities we might see both Oklahoma and Texas representing the SEC in the expanded College Football Playoff.
2024-05-06T19:31:31Z dg43tfdfdgfd