Man, fuck you for opening this wound. Such a frustrating game to watch, in no small part because Penix and crew were just downright incredible that night. They missed/dropped several plays against Michigan they were making on us.
I've been of the opinion that 2026 is probably the year. We're breaking in a lot of young talent at the most important positions next year. Essentially the whole offense including QB, C, and both OT spots; interior DL, now it seems like CB. Texas is talented enough and the schedule sets up in a way they we should be looking at a ~10 win regular season, contention for the SEC championship game, a playoff berth, and being fun to watch for sure; but the chance of drawing a head scratcher on a given Saturday is always higher dealing with that volume of change and inexperience.
But 2026 we're talking Arch Manning and Ryan Wingo at the height of their powers and a year of experience for the rest of the WR/TEs, veteran OL, veteran secondary, bunch of talented Year 2-3 DTs, veteran LBs despite the probable loss of Anthony Hill (God, imagine if he came back) all led by a third year Collin Simmons... with another probable top 5 class coming in. There's a world where the 1.1 and 1.2 picks in the 2027 NFL draft play for the same college team. Long way out but we could seriously be monstrous. So I don't think these are mutually exclusive ideas.
Yeah. Breaking in one new corner against Ohio State was already a challenge. Breaking in two new corners and being thin-ish at Safety against Ohio State is... probably not going to be fun. It hurts no doubt but fortunately it should never be worse than it is that first game.
Well, this is the rub isn't it? People get this image in their head because Texas fans have this weird fetish about being the biggest, richest, etc. In reality Texas is a program at the top tier of NIL - or at worst tier 1B if the idea is Oregon, Michigan, and Ohio State are just out here truly out of their minds. "The" vs. "a" has a profound difference in meaning.
I'm no insider but it's not hard to grasp that we're at the top of the SEC in NIL and still have all of the natural football recruiting advantages that come with being the flagship university in the state of Texas. We'll be alright. Anyone thinking we could simply buy unquestioned dominance or having some difficult moment of reckoning realizing we can't, that's on you.