Texas Longhorns News: Football hosts key visitor, Joseph Ossai remorseful

News around the Texas Longhorns universe on Jan. 30 still revolves around hoops and football. Winter workouts are underway for head coach Steve Sarkisian and Longhorns football. Meanwhile, Texas men’s and women’s hoops are fully in the thick of conference play as the regular seasons wind down.

In terms of what’s happening on the recruiting trail for the football program, Sark and the Longhorns staff are preparing for the traditional National Signing Day (a.k.a. the late signing period) on Feb. 1.

The two recruits that are worth watching for the Longhorns faithful this week as the late signing day approaches are the highly touted four-star TCU Horned Frogs safety commit and Red Oak (TX) safety Warren Roberson, and the elite five-star Pinnacle (AZ) tight end Duce Robinson.

Texas hosted Roberson on an official visit to Austin last weekend. The early returns from Roberson’s official trip to Austin are almost unanimously positive.

Roberson is the most likely candidate to join the Longhorns 2023 class heading into the late signing day later this week.

Meanwhile, Robinson is likely bound for Athens as head coach Kirby Smart and the defending National Champion Georgia Bulldogs hold the momentum ahead of his likely Feb. 1 decision date.

In men’s hoops news, interim head coach Rodney Terry and the Longhorns return home to the Moody Center on Jan. 30 to host the No. 11 Baylor Bears. Terry and the Longhorns will be looking to snap a six-game losing streak against Baylor dating back to the 2018-19 season.

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This will also be an important game for Terry and his staff to get back on the right track and Texas is in the midst of the most difficult four-game stretch of the regular season. Texas got the first of four straight top 20 matchups out of the way last weekend when it fell short to former head coach Rick Barnes and the No. 4 ranked Tennessee Volunteers on the road in Knoxville on Jan. 28, by the final score of 82-71.

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Moreover, women’s hoops continues to trend up as head coach Vic Schaefer and the Longhorns got their third straight win over the weekend over the Oklahoma State Cowgirls. Texas moved back into the top 25 this week, at No. 24 in the latest edition of the AP Poll.

Other Texas Longhorns news on Jan. 30

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• Texas men’s tennis moves to an undefeated 5-0 on the season after sweeping the No. 14 Arizona Wildcats 4-0 over the weekend.

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• No. 1 ranked women’s tennis kept rolling over the weekend with a 4-0 sweep of Baylor in Austin on Jan. 28.
• It was a rough weekend for all three of the Longhorns remaining in the NFL playoffs. Defensive end Charles Omenihu and the San Francisco 49ers were dominated by the Philadelphia Eagles by the final score of 31-7. But outside linebacker/edge rusher Joseph Ossai and the Cincinnati Bengals might’ve had it worse in a late loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

• I couldn’t feel worse for Ossai late in the AFC Championship Game on Jan. 29. A mistake he made late in the game proved to be costly as the Chiefs eventually got the one-score win over the Bengals. Even worse is the fact that Ossai was having a good game up until that point with two QB pressures, five tackles, one tackle for loss, and one pass deflection.

• You could tell fellow former Longhorn football players were feeling for Ossai after the AFC Championship Game.
• In other hoops news, Terry and the Longhorns held steady at No. 10 in this week’s AP Poll.

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• Valery Tobias was able to break her own 800-meter record for No. 1 ranked Texas women’s track as they rolled in Boston over the weekend.

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• No. 18 ranked Texas men’s golf begins the Southwestern Regional on Jan. 30, which will take place through Feb. 1.

News around the Big 12

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• Jalen Hurts and the Eagles will battle Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the Super Bowl as two former Big 12 quarterbacks duke it out in a couple of weeks for the NFL’s biggest prize.

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• The Big 12 ultimately emerged victorious in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge in men’s hoops over the weekend, with a record of 7-3.

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The saga of the former Florida Gators quarterback commit Jaden Rashada continued over the weekend as he made the unofficial trip to Fort Worth to see the TCU Horned Frogs. TCU and head coach Sonny Dykes are clearly still in the market for a quarterback following the departure of the Heisman runner-up Max Duggan.

A

good piece from 247Sports’ West Virginia

site (paid content) talks about the future of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge once Texas and Oklahoma leave the Big 12 for the SEC in a couple of years.

What we’re reading around FanSided

• John Buhler breaks down the 10 best returning quarterbacks in college football for the 2023 season.
• Saturday Blitz’s Chris Peterson analyzes what the possibility of losing offensive coordinator Todd Monken would mean to the Georgia Bulldogs. He is reportedly in talks with the Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the same role in the NFL.