You’re going to have to forgive me for this, but before we talk about the scrimmage from Saturday or some positional discussion or even which season produced the best Texas defense in school history, I want to circle back a little note from Thursday’s War Room that I think deserves a little standalone appreciation.
If you missed it, I reported the following coming out of senior offensive lineman D.J. Campbell’s Thursday media availability:
“I’m saving the best for last. When D.J. Campbell was asked about how the team was handling being ranked No. 1 in the nation, Campbell shrugged it off, saying, ‘It’s what we do here.’ It’s a reminder that only 12.9% of the current scholarship roster playing at Texas has ever experienced anything less than making the national semi-finals in their Texas careers.”
This comment and truth about what Steve Sarkisian has done to this program in what feels like a blink of an eye is nothing short of astounding. We’re four seasons removed from a losing season and a ridiculous six-game losing streak that led to Xavier Worthy dipping out of his Orangebloods NIL agreement because it wasn’t any fun to do YouTube videos when you don’t win any games in a couple of months. It was only one year prior to that when The Eyes of Texas saga had threatened to rip the entire program apart at the seams. The culture was in such need of an overhaul that Sarkisian was content to bring in underwhelming players from very successful programs because at worst it would represent improvement from depending on underwhelming players from unsuccessful programs.
Do you know how many players on scholarship at the moment have lived the experience of a losing season?
Just two. Ironically, the names of those unlucky two are former walk-ons Michael Taaffe and Marshall Landwehr, both of whom arrived from historically famous winning high school programs and fought their way to free tuition and books. Oh, and maybe an NIL deal or two.
Do you know the names of the players on the Texas roster (along with Taaffe and Landwehr) who have NEVER experienced anything less than a national semi-final level of success while they’ve been in a Texas uniform?
Let’s count them out … offensive linemen Campbell, Colt Hutson, Neto Umeozulu and Connor Robertson, senior edge Ethan Burke, cornerback Jaylon Guilbeau, deep-snapper Lance St. Louis and kicker Will Stone.
That’s it. Ten out of 85 scholarship players on the roster. It’s actually 11.8% and not 12.9%.
On one hand, these extreme numbers explain why there are only 14 seniors and 26 total upperclassmen in the program heading into the season. It. means that 59 of the program’s 85 players are either third-year sophomores, true sophomores, redshirt freshmen or true freshmen. It’s why it’s easy to look ahead to the future and believe that as long as Arch Manning comes back next year, the 2026 team should be even better than the 2025 team.
But, more than anything else, Sark was able to cut the disease of ugly culture and turn it into championship culture in less than 24 months. It wasn’t that long ago when this program had earned zero benefit of the doubt. Now, being No. 1 and competing for the title is just what Texas does.
It might have been a ho-hum statement from Campbell, but days later the truth of this newfound reality is still hitting me like a ton of bricks.
