SEC football: It means more.
There was a time when people in these parts would hear that slogan and react with a roll of the eyes or a slight chuckle.
Steve Sarkisian will coach in his first SEC game since serving as an assistant at Alabama in 2020. The Longhorns host Mississippi State on Saturday.
But underneath it all, they knew even then there was truth behind the conference bravado.
All of that hardware doesn’t lie.
With that said, I doubt you will ever hear many SEC chants coming from the stands at Royal-Memorial Stadium over these next eight weeks. However, we did hear them directed at Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark inside AT&T Stadium last December as the Horns were busy throwing up the deuces — and other digits — after celebrating a conference title win over Oklahoma State. The win was their final football game as part of the league they joined in 1994.
It means more in the SEC, but the Longhorns aren’t just happy to be a part of the most powerful football league in America. They want more than success by association.
“(The slogan) matters, but I feel like at Texas, when you take this job, it just means more here, too,” coach Steve Sarkisian said during his Monday media availability. “There’s a standard here that is very high and there’s an expectation of performance, and it’s not just in football, it’s in every sport.
“For us, whether it was the Big 12 or the SEC, there’s an expectation that we’re going to compete for a conference championship, year in and year out, and there’s an expectation that we’re competing for a national championship.”
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Now that the 4-0 Horns are in the SEC and sitting at or near the top of the two major polls, there has to be sense of belief given how routinely they have dominated their…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/means-more-sec-texas-football-110623777.html
Author : Austin American-Statesman
Publish date : 2024-09-26 11:06:23
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