What is the floor, ceiling for Texas football for the 2022 season?
Floor
For this piece, there are opinions from myself and Hookem Headlines contributor Shane Black. We’ll start with looking at the floor for the Longhorns in 2022.
Andrew Miller:
So much of the fate for the Longhorns this season will rest on the arm of new starting quarterback and redshirt freshman Quinn Ewers. If Ewers can come even close to living up to the hype by the start of conference play this fall, the sky really is the limit for the Longhorns.
On the other hand, if Ewers struggles to manage turnovers and the defense doesn’t markedly improve, then this season could be a very wild ride on the Forty Acres.
Given the abundance of youth on the offensive side of the ball among the projected starters, the floor is pretty low this season. Eight of the 11 projected starters for Texas on offense this season are freshmen and sophomores.
If we’re talking absolute nightmare scenarios here, I think the floor for this team would be another five-win season where the heat really picks up on Sark heading into the offseason.
Shane Black:
With 35 new scholarship players on the roster, Sarkisian has his hands full piecing together this Longhorn squad in year two. With that said, the roster turnover could also be seen as a welcomed sight for a team that won just five games a season ago. Like most of the underachieving Texas rosters of the past decade, this team is filled with talent.
Unlike those other teams, the 2022 Longhorns have a high level of competency at the quarterback position. Ewers was named the starter for the 2022 Longhorns, but should things go awry, I have confidence Hudson Card will be able to step in and command this offense.
The backup quarterback is crucial when predicting a team’s floor because there is a good chance that guy will be called on at some point throughout the season. I do believe there is a chance that this Texas defense struggles again, specifically on the outside. Pete Kwiatkowski very well may be on the hot seat two months from now, but regardless, I believe this offense will carry Texas to bowl eligibility.