There’s no doubt that Texas football has gone through trials and tribulations under head coach Steve Sarkisian, who now enters his third year of attempting to lead the Longhorns to Big 12 victory. With the pressure of being the projected champions this season, Sarkisian has stayed humble as he focuses on debuting a team built on confidence and chemistry.
Sarkisian has reached the point in his career where he’s been able to curate a team of veteran players he’s grown alongside and new recruits he hand picked. But now that the roster has been solidified, it’s time for the players to execute their specific roles in the field, especially for an offensive line that was looking shaky during summer training camp, according to Sarkisian.
From capitalizing on third downs to physically making a completed pass, Sarkisian expressed concern going into the team’s first game surrounding the offense and its stability when it comes to securing a touchdown.
“There’s some good things and there’s some things that we didn’t do well, and I think that all boils down to consistency,” Sarkisian said. “We get too many drops, you know, we had such a good camp up until that point of really catching the ball.”
As wide receiver Xavier Worthy settles into his third year alongside Sarkisian, this will be a crucial point of improvement to focus on now that he’s surrounded by an arsenal of offensive talent to ease the weight of being Quinn Ewers’ go-to guy. With the addition of Georgia transfer Adonai Mitchell, Sarkisian will have Worthy, Mitchell, Jordan Whittington, Ja’Tavion Sanders and Isaiah Neyor to bring the stability Texas’ offense needs.
Being named an AP Preseason All-American pick, Worthy will more than likely serve as the team’s featured wide receiver once again, as he boasts 21 career touchdown receptions, the third most in program history. But the decline in performance from last year in comparison to his freshman breakout season back in 2021 suggests that Worthy might not be as reliable as he once was. Across the 12 games he started during the 2021 season, Worthy accumulated 981 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns, averaging 81.8 yards per game. For 2022, he played in 13 games and brought in 221 fewer yards and only 4.6 completed receptions per game.
Despite what the statistics may tell, Worthy’s teammates seem to have no doubt about the junior receiver’s ability to make a difference this season. Media speculations have also hinted towards the fact that an impressive season from Worthy could put him in contention for the Heisman Trophy, which could be a motivating factor underneath his “unguardable” performance during scrimmages.
“The way that he can turn it from zero to a hundred in two steps, there’s not guys that can do that,” Mitchell said. “So you know he’s special.”
Worthy himself has expressed that he feels like he’s matured in comparison to this point in time last year. Now that he has veteran experience playing for Sarkisian, he mentioned the responsibility given to him by the head coach to be a vocal leader on the field. He also discussed the enhanced relationship between himself and Ewers, calling him the “head of the snake” for the offensive line due to his commanding presence during practice. Establishing a solid connection and purpose between Worthy and Ewers will be key to setting up the team for success early on in the season as Sarkisian looks to clean up tedious mistakes being made from the beginning.
