Quinn Ewers' 'everybody's biggest game' quote to be met with Horns Down by entire SEC

Without question, Texas is one of four college football teams that can realistically win the 12-team College Football Playoff this season. While Georgia and Ohio State look dominant in their new leagues, Texas and Oregon will have to be switching theirs in conference realignment. As of this morning, Texas is now a member of the SEC and Oregon is now a member of the Big Ten. Exciting!

However, Texas needs to be a little more respectful of the brand the SEC created without them for decades. Would it be shocking if Texas won the SEC this year? Not really, as I have them as the runner-up to my alma mater of Georgia at regular-season's end. Unfortunately, Texas' best player in starting quarterback Quinn Ewers just gave all 15 member institutions some bulletin-board material.

While attending the Manning Passing Academy as a counselor, Ewers said the following about Texas.

“We’re going to be everybody’s biggest game, for sure."

Texas may be some teams' biggest games, but that sweeping statement doesn't fly in a conference like the SEC. It's different down here, where not a single team or brand has to carry the entire league.

“It’s definitely a different level. I’ve always wanted to play in the SEC. I know we’re all excited to be a part of a conference like that."

Although Texas and Oklahoma should assimilate quite nicely into the SEC, keep in mind that the league has roughly five or six other playoff contenders in the league already in Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee. Those six have been battle-tested for years in this league.

“Football definitely means a lot for that conference. We’re going into it full speed. We want to win the SEC Championship, and we want to accomplish what we were so close to accomplishing last year. I know that we have a team that’s more than capable of doing that.”

No doubt Texas will be a huge game for most opponents, but other teams have to play the likes of national power Georgia, Alabama in a post-Nick Saban world and arguably the best Ole Miss team since Johnny Vaught was the Rebels head coach in the very early 1960s. Learn to read the room...

Texas is a huge for SEC opponents, but not every member's biggest game

With Texas being back after last season's great success of beating Alabama, winning the Big 12 and reaching the playoff, you're damn right that I am bullish on the Horns this year. Ewers could very well be the school's third Heisman Trophy winner and its first quarterback to do so. If all goes well, he could be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. He has that much talent at his disposal. I don't doubt it.

However, Ewers has been tagged with an injury-prone label and Texas hasn't won a national championship since 2005, and even that was a one-off. There is a thin line between being confident and cocky, and Ewers may have touched his toes ever so slightly in the latter. Again, I would have no problem if Texas beat Georgia in Austin en route to winning the whole league, but let's wait a minute...

Overall, this was always my reservation about extending a bid to Texas to join the SEC. They tend to operate from a position of being better than you. That may have worked in the Big 12, but that is not going to fly in the SEC. Everybody who has spent a season in this league know that everybody can get got, that nobody stays down forever, and you have to claw and scratch your way to the very top.

The last thing Texas needs is a giant, red bullseye on its back heading into its first season of SEC play.