University of Texas, the future of football By: Jase Brown

Football’s Future

Pre-COVID University of Texas fans cheer at a local Austin football game right before kickoff. By: Karen Given

Take a dive into predictions on what will happen next season for the University of Texas

By: JaSE BRowN

Your team is down 13 to 17 in the conference finals. They are on the goalline with five seconds left on the clock. This one play will decide the fate of the team. They snap the ball and the crowd falls silent. All eyes fall to the quarterback as he throws the ball into the air. Your team has played so hard this season, and this is their chance!

The University of Texas football team, the Longhorns, have had their fair share of wins and losses throughout the years. However, since 2014, the University of Texas, or UT, has had many disappointing football seasons. In fact, UT has had three different head coaches in the past six years and not one of them has delivered. For this upcoming season a new head coach, Steve Sarkisian, will lead the Longhorns. Along with him there is also a new Offensive Coordinator named Bo Davis and a new Defensive Coordinator named Alex Grinch. They have so many new coaches that, in essence, it is basically an entirely new coaching staff. Along with the coaching changes, we have also seen players leave. Sam Ehlinger was UT’s most recent quarterback that has now moved on to the pros. But what happens next season is unknown, and the team’s performance will depend on many different things. I spoke to two award winning sports journalists who specialize in UT Longhorn football to find out what next season may look like.

Kirk Bhols has been a UT sports journalist for over 40 years, and currently works for the Austin American Statesman. He says there are two possible

Kirk Bhols, an Austin American Statesman sports journalist, recieveing the 2018 Sports Writer of the Year award. Photo courtesy of Kirk Bhols

University of Texas football quarterback Hudson Card practices throwing to his fellow teammate. By: USA Today

University of Texas football quarterback Casey Thompson prepares to pass to his wide receiver at a local game. By: Expressnews.com

quarterbacks competing for the open spot on the team.

“You have two candidates, Casey Thompson and Hudson Card who have both never started a college game,” Bhols said. ”Casey Thompson seems like he’s been here 16 years already, and you would think it’s his time to grab the spot and run with it. On the other hand you got Hudson Card who is basically a redshirt freshman, and he didn’t get many meaningful snaps. But he’s got great mechanics and a great release. Sam Elinger gave him his blessing and said this guy was throwing spirals out of the womb with such natural talent.”

Shehan Jeyarajah is an awardwinning sports writer who is an insider at Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, and has gained recognition from his works. He believes Casey Thompson has the upper hand in the fight for the starting spot.

“If I had to pick right now, I think that Casey Thompson has a little bit of a leg up,” Jeyarajah said. “He played in the Alamo Bowl last year and had a really great performance, got some rhythm with these wide receivers. But you know, Hudson Card has a big arm. He was a great player at Lake Travis High School in Austin, so he definitely has a chance to win the starting job even as a freshman. But I think that Thompson has the upper hand, at least for right now.”

The worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 has just about affected everything, including UT football. “COVID-19 affected UT in some ways with the cancellation of games, so we’ve missed out on the Texas LSU rematch in Baton Rouge,” Bhols said. “As much as LSU struggled last year, that was a big loss of the schedule because Texas kinda targeted that for a pay back game and that was gonna be the high water nonconference game on the schedule. So if you beat LSU, the defending champions, no matter what kind of season they had it might have sparked a big rise for Texas. So they lost (playing) that game, they also lost the Kansas game which, you know, (probably would have) made Tom Herman 7 and 3 at the end of the year instead of 8 and 3.”

As for Jeyarajah, he believes that COVID-19’s most profound effect was that it got in the way of

Shehan Jeyarajah, a sports journalist, at a local sports event.

COVID-19 has impacted University of Texas throughout the past two years. he football program has been affected, too.

By: Texas Education

relationships with the teammates. “I think that one of the things that has been underrated about this whole COVID situation is that it’s not really taking away practice time, it’s mainly denying opportunities for the team to get to know each other and to build relationships with their coaches and with teammates,” Jeyarajah said. “I think it just takes a little bit more time to kind of build a team culture. And the other thing I’ll mention is that for high school recruits, a lot of them haven’t even met the coaching staff in person.

They weren’t allowed to come on recruiting visits up until this past month, so a lot of them haven’t even been on campus this past year. So I think it’s just a lot of adjustment to kind of just get back into the swing of things.”

COVID-19 has also limited the stadium’s capacity. Bhols said he is really optimistic that stadiums will reopen to full capacity next season. Football allows athletes to represent their college and achieve recognition for themselves. And, just recently a new law has been passed in Texas called the Name, Image and Likeness law.

“Starting July 1, Texas players and players at any college are going to be able to profit off their likeness. That means participating in stuff like advertisements for a profit,” Jeyarajah said.

Just like Texas’s law, there is also a new law by the supreme court that reiterates amateurism. “The Supreme Court brought down a ruling that basically kind of chipped away at the idea of amateurism in college athletics,” Jeyarajah said. “What that ruling means is that schools are going to be able to provide free things to College Athletes, if they’re related to education.”

This means that schools who have more to offer can attract better players. UT is not a cheap school and could use the new law to their advantage to gain some really talented players. UT’s upcoming season depends on their performance, and that has a lot to do with how they are improving and who is playing for them.

“UT is looking at a couple different things like bringing in a new offensive coordinator,” Jeyarajah said. “I think they’re trying to sort out the weaknesses on the offense. Some guys like Bo Davis are going to be huge factors. And the other thing, too, is that they’re working on developing those defensive linemen. We saw a kid named Alfred Collins from Bastrop last year, and he was really able to come in and make a big impact as a freshman, and I think he’s going to be even more important this year. You have some other guys like Ojomo and Keondre Coburn who will help the team. I think that they’re trying to shore up that front seven, especially because they are essential to the team.”

UT has potential stars on their team for the next season but there are going to be some growing pains with all the new coaches, the post COVID-19 situation, the impact of new laws and the lack of a proven quarterback. Overall both sports journalists agree UT is not expected to win their conference. The upcoming season starts on August 28, 2021, and we will have to wait and see how the season unfolds.

Pre-COVID University of Texas starting offensive line raises flag after winning a game.

By: John Rivera