Bohls: Talent galore on Texas football roster has the Longhorns going places

ARLINGTON — Jordan Whittington wanted to see the world.

So he took off.

Texas' globe-trotting slot receiver set course for Europe on a solo getaway. He spent time seeing the sights in Italy and on a Greek island before going to Mexico and checking out some bat caves, of all things.

He’s clearly the adventurous sort and isn’t afraid of making his own path. He's got a can-do attitude and a can-go philosophy as well.

"Two weeks after I saw a picture of the Amalfi Coast on Instagram, I was on a boat in the same exact spot," Whittington said this week at Big 12 media days. “It was way more beautiful. I cried. It was beautiful in Greece, too, but they stay up all night. Italy was more calm.”

Between the pristine, hillside Italy beachfront and the vibrant nightlife on Mykonos, Whittington sampled a slice of life not always available to tunnel-visioned college athletes. He fell in love with the gelato in Italy served by the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen, and he still regrets not getting her number. On a layover in London, he was even recognized at the airport.

He also worked in trips to New York, Los Angeles and Miami before coming to AT&T Stadium to interact with 700 reporters at the annual Big 12 convocation.

Now he’d like to embark on a journey that could ultimately bring him back to the Dallas Cowboys' venue, where he once scored six touchdowns for Cuero in a dazzling performance in the state championship game. That’s the last time he’s been here, and he would like to revisit those memories.

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There’s no reason he and his fellow Longhorns can’t punch their ticket to the Big 12 championship game in December as they make their last travels to some of the league's destinations. Certainly wide receiver is as well-stocked as any position Steve Sarkisian has, not that one can find a dearth of talent anywhere on this roster.

Fourteen starters return, including the entire offensive line, and linebacker Jaylan Ford and nickel back Jahdae Barron anchor a defense that showed vast improvement. Texas has more than enough talent and want-to, but will it perform in the clutch in its final year in the Big 12?

'I think this is a team on a mission'

On offense, Texas' receivers room is as stacked as any in the country. And Whittington underscores the experienced receiver position, where potential first-round NFL draft choice Xavier Worthy appears healthy and energized, Adonai Mitchell brings a winning attitude, great hands and athleticism from Georgia and Wyoming transfer Isaiah Neyor will finally get on the field after his knee injury last August.

But Whittington and his coach think the primary factor should be the club’s mindset. Texas has done nothing of note in 14 years, other than a Sugar Bowl victory and a few awards for players such as departed tailback Bijan Robinson, and time is pressing in the Longhorns’ final year in the Big 12.

“This team is different,” Sarkisian said. “They have a different look in their eye. They look different on the hoof. They interact with one another differently. I think this team is on a mission.”

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Separating reality from hype

Texas isn’t getting ahead of itself, but it is more than aware that it is a heavy favorite to win the league in its last go-round and be champion for the first time since 2009. The Longhorns' last appeared in the Big 12 title game was in 2018, when it fell to Oklahoma.

Sarkisian isn’t blind to the lofty expectations, but he knows they’re just that.

“For every article I can read about how good we’re supposed to be, I can find another one why you guys are wrong for picking us to be good. Right?” the third-year Texas coach said. “So I did that exercise with them this morning. I put up five or six headlines of articles of why we’re not supposed to be very good. But in reality that really doesn’t matter. What’s going to matter is how we play.”

He hopes.

Whittington also has used the wall theme as a signpost for the 2023 season.

He’s part of the Leadership Council, which came up with a catchy if mystifying slogan for this year:

The Wall is Blue.

He asked a few reporters to guess the meaning, and I offered sunshine and blue skies ahead for the Longhorns, who have endured mostly stormy weather since winning the league in 2009 and playing for the national championship against Alabama.

“If I said the wall behind me is blue and it’s actually white,” Whittington explained, “we all have to believe it’s blue, moving in the same direction. You have to just trust the guy next to you.”

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A woulda, coulda, shoulda start for Sarkisian

There’s really no reason not to trust this team, except maybe previous outrageous expectations for Texas teams that largely went unfulfilled. Critics could point to Sarkisian’s first two seasons, a 5-7 first year sullied by a six-game losing streak and last year’s 8-5 campaign when Texas lost road games in Lubbock in overtime and in Stillwater in the winds that quarterback Quinn Ewers couldn’t master.

The team also fell to Alabama and College Football Playoff finalist TCU in spirited, close battles at home. Ewers suffered a shoulder dislocation at the end of the first quarter in a narrow loss to the Crimson Tide, and a baffling performance in which Texas scored only a field goal on offense and forgot it had the best running back in college football in Robinson, who got just a dozen carries, ruined an upset bid against TCU.

It’d be realistic to think the Horns could have won both those games — as well as the one versus Texas Tech, had not Robinson fumbled the ball on the first play of overtime.

No team in the Big 12 has a talent advantage over Texas, which has recruited well and most recently lured in the nation’s No. 3 class. In that group are four five-star blue-chippers and 14 more who had four stars.

Sarkisian brought five of his best players here for media days and said he wanted to add All-American tight end candidate Ja’Tavion Sanders.

“He made huge strides in year two,” Sarkisian said. “I tried to bring him today, but the Big 12 would only let me bring five guys.”

Unfortunately, he couldn’t bring the entire team with him this time. Perhaps he can on Dec. 2.

Covering Big 12 media days

All 14 schools participated in the annual Big 12 media days this week at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Follow the weeklong coverage of American-Statesman staffers Kirk Bohls, Cedric Golden, Danny Davis, Thomas Jones, Caleb Yum and Sara Diggins on hookem.com.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Talent-rich Texas has elusive Big 12 championship in its sights