Horns Up! Can The Texas Longhorns Win The Big 12?

Sept 15, 2012; Oxford, MS, USA; Texas Longhorns fans during the game against the Mississippi Rebels at Vaught Hemingway Stadium. Texas Longhorns defeated the Mississippi Rebels 66-31. Mandatory Credit: Spruce Derden-US PRESSWIRE

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Let’s turn the clock back 4 years ago, Barack Obama and John McCain were running for president, one of the biggest economic collapses was about to happen and the future looked bleak. But for all Texas Longhorns fans, there was one consistent theme in their lives, the Texas Longhorns football team will be in contention for a Big 12 championship. You could set your watch to Longhorns winning football games from 2000 to 2009, but just like the housing market, the bubble burst on the Texas Longhorns. In the season most Longhorns fans don’t want to talk about, the Longhorns fell to 5-7 and the Longhorns missed a bowl game since 1997.

So now we ask a question that would seem crazy to ask four years ago, Are the Texas Longhorns ready to contend for a Big 12 championship?

On paper, the Texas Longhorns has the talent to win a title, but if we learned anything from the 2010 season, that paper isn’t worth too much on the field. The Longhorns have changed many of the policies that the old regime had in place.  One major change that was to extend late offers to high school seniors who blossom in their senior year into legit top caliber Division I prospects.  Two of those late offers went to Dalton Santos and Daje Johnson.  Those two have been immediate contributors to the Texas Longhorns team this year.   The other change was recruiting junior college transfers to the Texas Longhorn program.  This has paid the biggest dividends with Donald Hawkins at left tackle.  All three of those players were undervalued to most recruiting services and have paid off big time for the Texas Longhorns.

So what about the offense? This is been the problem for number of years even when Colt McCoy was running the offense that the offense relied solely on one player. Well the Longhorns have done their best to alleviate that issue. Players seem to understand and embrace their roles on this football team. Instead of being selfish and causing locker room issues by their displeasure of not getting the ball, seniors DJ Monroe and Jeremy Hills, use their limited time on the field to their full potential. DJ Monroe has had a touchdown run in each of the last three games and he is barely touched the ball in any of those 3 games. This allows for the development of Joe Bergeron and Malcolm Brown to becoming elite running backs in the nation. The unselfishness of these players that are buying in for one goal makes this a dangerous team in the Big 12.

On defense, you see the intensity and the drive that these players have to be great. The tackling has been an issue and some cases they do get complacent. The fact that they have all these issues and are only giving up 16 points a game just goes to show you how good this defense can be once they fix their issues.

So now after the last two seasons, we can ask the question:  Can the Longhorns win the Big 12?  If they play the way they have the first three weeks and make the necessary improvements, they will win the Big 12.

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