Texas Football: Managing expectations after Week 1

This time last week, we had several questions pertaining to No. 21 ranked Texas football. Hudson Card had just been named the starter, were wondering if the Longhorns would come out slow, the Louisiana team looked formidable, and it looked like it would be a very close game, with an Orangebloods beat writer even predicting an upset.

Given the last decade of how this program performed, his skepticism was warranted. However, there were too many unknowns and too much failure in the past to give Texas the benefit of the doubt.

Now that the game is behind us, we have some answers to our questions. While Lousiana was a good team, they were no match for Texas’s physicality, speed, and overall talent. Card hardly looked like a freshman, attacking the field with poise and confidence.

Bijan Robinson continued to look like a Heisman hopeful (and was spotted in the game from beginning to end, a massive change from Tom Herman). Jordan Whittington looked like the 5-star talent we have long known he was. On the defensive side, DeMarvion Overshown is beginning to look like an All-Big 12 linebacker, with Luke Brockermeyer more than looking like he belongs as well. And the defense held a good offense to less than 20 points. All in all, it was about as good as you could hope for.

But that is now all in the past, and we now need to look to the future. After week one, there tend to be two opposite but similar overreactions.

Texas football has a good outlook under Hudson Card at QB heading into the Arkansas game

The first would be to think that your team can be a national championship competitor after game one; the other is that your team is a complete failure and needs to fire the coach immediately and start over. (Ed Orgeron and LSU come to mind, but I digress.) I propose a middle path for Texas at this point. Based on what we have seen thus far, Texas certainly can contend for the Big 12 title, but they are likely not ready to be a playoff team.

All over the Big 12, other teams struggled. Presumptive playoff team and perennial Big 12 champion Oklahoma struggled to overcome Tulane, Iowa St had its hands full with Northern Iowa, Houston lead Texas Tech for a large portion of that game, and so forth.

The point here is that the Big 12 is there for the taking; no Alabama or Georgia is in sight. As I predicted earlier this summer, Texas can be a 10 win team and make the Big 12 championship game.

Having said that, there are many things to work on and causes for concern. The offensive line remains a major concern, and Card will need all the time he can get. Texas will need more than Whittington to be competitive, which means that Joshua Moore and Xavier Worthy will both need to step up, starting this week at Arkansas, which has an excellent defense led by Jalen Catalon.

And of course, Texas fans will well remember that in 2016, Texas beat a top 10 Notre Dame team only to come down to earth and find out that neither Notre Dame nor they themselves were outstanding? Could the same be true of Louisiana? Again, time will tell.

For now, the focus needs to be solely on Arkansas, which will be a greater test than Louisiana. Of course, this team would sell its soul to beat the Longhorns. But even with all the questions surrounding the team, Texas should win this game and continue laying the foundation for an excellent season.