There is a phrase that many fans and media use when talking about college football in regard to what teams are good now as opposed to the past or future: “It’s cyclical.” The Texas Longhorns and their fans should certainly hope college football is indeed cyclical.
We aren’t even out of September and already Texas Longhorn football is an afterthought nationally. As bad as that may be, it’s what is happening within the state that should really be cause for alarm.
The University of Texas Longhorns have been kings in the state for so long, I’m not sure they know how exactly to deal with competition or adversity within its borders. Sure, they’ve always had Texas A&M to deal with, but the Aggies have always played the role of the Red Sox to Texas’ Yankees when it came to prestige and success.
That’s no longer the case.
Nowadays, kids growing up in the state of Texas see an Aggie program that plays some of the biggest games nationally every week. They see a Texas A&M program — led by arguably the hottest coach in the nation — churning out first-round NFL talent every year. They see this while Texas struggles, mired in controversy and an identity search.
The Aggies aren’t the only problem for the the Texas Longhorns.
Baylor and Texas Tech used to be perennial doormats for the Longhorns and most of the Big 12 Conference for that matter. The same goes for TCU. Now, you could make an argument that all three programs are in better shape than the one in Austin that has ruled the roost for so long.
Baylor runs an exciting offense matched in entertainment value by only Oregon. Like Texas A&M, they’ve made a habit of putting big-name stars into the NFL. The ace up the Baylor sleeve is head coach Art Briles — a high school football coaching legend who knows the recruiting landscape of the Lone Star State better than anyone.
Texas Tech is lead by Kliff Kingsbury, a master recruiter in his own right. Kingsbury has continued the “air-it-out” philosophy made popular in Lubbock by Mike Leach — annually attracting some of the best signal callers in the state to campus.
During Texas’ coaching search this past year, I heard many talking heads say the Texas Longhorns’ heading coaching job might be the best job in all of college football. Initially I agreed with that statement. The more I though about it, however, the more I realized that might not be the case anymore.
It was thought that one of Texas’ main targets in that search was Nick Saban. Many thought the Longhorns had a chance to land him, but the fact that he turned them down spoke volumes and spawned many questions. Why wouldn’t he take the gig? Was he too comfortable at Alabama? Was the pressure not worth the money? Is Texas Longhorn football an irreparable sinking ship?
Hindsight being 20/20 and seeing what Charlie Strong has dealt with since he arrived in Austin, my answer to all of those questions at this point is “Yes.”
There was a time when Texas might have been the best job in college football. There was a time when every kid who grew up playing football in Texas dreamed of playing for the Longhorns. Texas was different. They had money that other programs didn’t and could offer exposure that other schools could not.
Nowadays, everyone has money. Everyone is on TV.
It’s the same problem that has plagued programs like Michigan, Penn State, Nebraska and Miami over the years. Sure, they are some of the blue-bloods of college football. In the eyes of many high school players, however, they are also the blue-hairs. Modern day college football is owned and operated by ESPN, the SEC, Nike and the alternate uniforms of the Oregon Ducks. That’s who sets the bars, makes the rules and drives the sport in 2014.
Can Texas recover? Possibly, but it might take a while. In the age of social media and conference networks, perception is everything. Right now, the perception of the Texas Longhorns from a college football standpoint is that they are your father and grandfather’s team. That used to mean something. It just doesn’t anymore. It’s all about the flavor of the month, and the Longhorns have been getting moved more and more toward the back of the menu for years now.
The only way I see this trend changing is to hire a Nick Saban-like figure. It’s going to take one of the biggest names in the sport to make some noise and change the opinion of the young masses. Charlie Strong knows X’s and O’s but isn’t going to out-recruit Art Briles and Kevin Sumlin.
That’s a problem and it needs to be the focal point of Texas’ mission to reclaim its own state. The problem is, Charlie Strong is going to be given time to try to build something — as he should. That’s going to take years, whether it be two, three or four of them. While he’s building a program from the ground up, The Texas A&M Aggies will be marching around the airwaves on the backs of ESPN and the SEC Network, while Art Briles’ Baylor Bears compete for Big 12 titles with a video game offense. The gap between those programs and Texas will get bigger before is shrinks.
With the college football landscape going through some of the biggest changes in its history, the Texas Longhorns can’t afford a parallel period of irrelevancy. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what is taking place right now. It could very well be the catalyst to an entire era of the same.
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