One college football analyst things Texas is doing a better job of preparing for the SEC than Oklahoma and warned the Sooners of a rude awakening.
Oklahoma and Texas may be focused on getting ready for the 2023 college football season but this whole season carries with it an undercurrent of change. The move to the SEC is now less than a year away.
The transition is full of intrigue, like how each team will handle the rise in competition and whether either can contend with the likes of Alabama, Georgia, LSU and the rest.
Billy Liucci of TexAgs.com thinks one of them is doing a better job than the other.
“Texas is doing a hell of a lot better job than OU is in terms of preparing to come into this league,” Liucci said on The Paul Finebaum Show, H/T Longhorns Wire. “Sooner fans are in for the rudest awakening because they’ve been going — except last year — 10-2, 11-1, making the playoffs. They’ve been doing that because they’ve been doing it against the Big 12.”
Will Texas or Oklahoma have an easier time in the SEC?
Liucci credited the Longhorns for their recruiting in recent years, giving them a leg up on the Sooners.
To be fair, Texas ranked No. 3 in the 247Sports recruiting rankings in 2023. Oklahoma wasn’t far behind at No. 4. The Sooners are also reanked ahead of the Longhorns in recruiting rankings for 2024 as it stands.
The bigger difference is the state of the two programs coming into this season relative to last. Steve Sarkisian and his team have a leg up after going 8-5 in 2022. Bringing back Quinn Ewers and signing Arch Manning has them set up at the quarterback position for years to come.
The Sooners, on the other hand, went 6-7 in Year 1 under Brent Venables, including an utterly embarrassing loss to the Longhorns, 49-0. They will need to show serious improvement to prove to doubters that the long-time Clemson defensive coordinator is cut out to be a successful head coach.
When it comes down to it though, both programs face question marks as they head to the SEC and assuming one or the other has a leg up on that front is pure speculation.