Next season, the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners will be joining the SEC, leaving the Big 12. And college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit seems to think that both teams will be able to compete in college football’s top conference pretty immediately.
On Monday night, the SEC revealed their full 2024 schedule on ESPN. And during the schedule reveal, ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit explained why he thinks that Texas and Oklahoma will be competitive in the SEC immediately.
“I think most people in the SEC think, when they announced this, ‘Okay, OU and Texas. Welcome to the deep end of the pool; we’ll see how you’re gonna be able to stand up at the line of scrimmage,’” Herbstreit said according to On3. “But I think you gotta give both the coaching staffs credit. Both of them are very familiar with what it takes; Sark (Steve Sarkisian), obviously, [was there] in Tuscaloosa, and he learned what it took. [You] gotta get better at the line of scrimmage. And even Brent Venables. He competed so much against Bama and others in the SEC. He knows what it takes from his days of being at Clemson.
“They’ve gone out these last few years, and they’ve recruited not just trying to get quarterbacks and receivers and great skill players, but if they’re going to compete in this league, they’re going to have to be good at the line of scrimmage. Look at Texas this year. Really, what’s talked about them most is their defensive line, T’vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy; they have great depth, and it’s not just those two. Now, they’re going to have to be able to sustain that.”
It will certainly be an upgrade in competition. We’ll have to see how the two teams handle it.
