This weekend’s matchup against Kentucky will hold extra weight for some of the most integral parts of the 2024 Texas Longhorn football team. For seniors, it will be the last time these Longhorns take the field at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
This Saturday’s game is senior day and will highlight these veteran players.
“A lot of these guys have done so much work for us and have been such catalysts for our culture and what we do,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “And so to celebrate them, I’m looking forward to that.”
Sarkisian, who came to Texas in 2021, has seen a lot of these players grow and shape the program into the current No. 3 team in the country. He said he is appreciative that these Longhorns did not give up even when prior seasons looked bleak.
“These guys bought in,” Sarkisian said about the team culture. “And when it got difficult year one, year two, they didn’t jump off and go somewhere else. They stayed the course with what we were trying to do. And so, super grateful for these guys and I owe a ton to them.”
Fifth-year senior defensive lineman Alfred Collins has stuck by the Longhorns. Collins started six times last season, but still wasn’t a consistent contributor for the team. While Collins had numerous older players ahead of him for a starting position and, according to Sarkisian, struggled with consistency, he never wavered in his decision to stay at Texas.
This season Collins has started every game and this week was dubbed as Southeastern Conference Defensive Lineman of the Week, showing his growth under Sarkisian.
When asked why he never had the thought to transfer, Collins’ answer was simple.
“This is home,” he said.
Collins isn’t the only player to show growth in the past five years. Fifth-year senior Jahdae Barron, semifinalist for the Thorpe award for the second year in a row, and once a SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week, has grown not only as a player, but as a leader.
Senior tight end Gunnar Helm said the team was excited to have Barron return for his fifth year, due to his NFL grade last season, and thinks Barron can help the Longhorns take them far in the postseason.
“It’s massive to have a leader like that come back,” Helm said. “And he’s played a lot of college football, so to have him back this year to hopefully go on a championship run, it would speak volumes to Jahdae’s character.”
There are currently 23 seniors on the Texas roster, and while some may still declare a fifth year if they are eligible, a majority will play their last home game on Saturday.
However, there is one major question looming amongst Texas fans right now: Will junior quarterback Quinn Ewers be playing his last home game as well?
Ewers has appeared in mock NFL draft picks this season and when asked about Ewers’ decision, Sarkisian said he had “no idea.”
Texas will take to the field Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The Longhorns are ready for a championship run and Helm said that the team’s bond can help them to do it.
“So obviously, we’re very close,” Helm said. “We all want to win for each other. So I think that’s why everyone’s here.”
