Texas and Oklahoma: Here are Your SEC Warnings

Welcome to the SEC Texas and Oklahoma. I have five warnings for each program…

To Texas…

1. You couldn’t dominate a crappy Big 12. You aren’t coming into the SEC to dominate. Keep your head down, work hard and be humble to start.

2. You will have good years, you have a good program and a good coach. You could win a national title or two in the next decade who knows? But you will also have some bad years. You’ve had too many losing seasons in the last 20 years for me to think that it’ll all be winning now in a tougher conference.

Nov 24, 2023; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns fans holds up a sign after a victory over the Texas Tech Red Raiders at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

3. The SEC grind is different. It will wear you down. You will quickly learn that you will need to be more physical as a football team and will have to adjust accordingly. You’re not ready yet, you have to experience it first.

4. Just because you beat an Alabama team at their place last year doesn’t mean you’re ready to dominate. That Alabama team was ripe for the taking and finding itself. The Alabama team that lost to Michigan in the playoff likely would have beat you down.

5. Oklahoma still kinda owns you and until that changes you can’t talk about much else.

To Oklahoma…

1. One of the keys will be to continue to beat Texas consistently. Make that your first focus. Don’t lose sight of that.

2. You better get a defense and get one fast as the SEC is a different ball game as you’ve learned a few times. You’ll have to outscore teams to win if you don’t shore up the defense and that won’t work consistently.

Apr 20, 2024; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners linebacker Jaren Kanak (7) and Oklahoma Sooners linebacker Kobie McKinzie (11) and Oklahoma Sooners tight end Jake Roberts (87) react after the Oklahoma Sooners spring game at Gaylord Family OK Memorial Stadium.

3. You have a good coach and he should build a good defense but even with that there’s an issue. The question is can your offense be as explosive as it was under Lincoln Riley? You’ll need both.

4. The recruiting disadvantage you have just got worse. Yes, you can now recruit as a SEC program and that’s a selling point. But recruiting gets amped up in this league and teams will attack your home state and borders early just to send a message. And you have a very weak geography.

5. Despite your Big 12 titles and wins over Texas, you are in much more jeopardy than the Longhorns of being a consistently mid SEC team. They have more money, they have a better recruiting territory and they fit into the landscape better. This goes back to No. 1 — you better keep beating them.