College Football

Alabama vs. Texas on FOX: Longhorns get early chance to show they're back

Published May. 16, 2022 7:03 p.m. ET

By RJ Young
FOX Sports College Football Writer

Get some sleep, Texas. You're kicking at 11 a.m. local — on Big Noon.

With the announcement that Alabama’s first road game this season will be on the Forty Acres against Texas comes the best opportunity the Longhorns have had since 2009 to throw down a marker and give notice to the rest of the sport.

Texas is back.

Or at least it will be if Steve Sarkisian can lead his team to what would be the program's biggest win since Vince Young ran into the end zone to deliver the 2005 national championship to Austin.

While I believe Texas is loaded to get after its opponents, it's worth mentioning that Sarkisian has at his disposal an advantage other Texas coaches didn't: time, talent and tutelage in Tuscaloosa.

It's not just that Sarkisian was the last offensive coordinator to win a national title at Alabama. It's also that he has added to his Longhorn program assistants and players he helped recruit who also won a national title with the Tide.

Among those are special-teams coach Jeff Banks, offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Kyle Flood, wide receiver Agiye Hall, tight end Jahleel Billingsley and offensive lineman Tommy Brown. All were on the staff or the roster at Alabama.

Add to this the fact that Sarkisian pulled the No. 1 player in the transfer portal and former No. 1 player in the country, Quinn Ewers, and former blue-chip cornerback Ryan Watts from Ohio State, as well as Wyoming standout receiver Isaiah Neyor, and added former Pittsburgh wide receiver coach Brennan Marion — just after Marion coached Jordan Addison to a Biletnikoff Award — and it's easy to see why Longhorns fans are excited about this 2022 team, even after their squad went 5-7 last season.

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Having this game on FOX also allows Sarkisian the first chance to respond to Saban’s comment about how much he misses the time when winning in Tuscaloosa was still hard — like Elle Woods after she got into Harvard Law.

"One of the things I like to see us be able to work back to is everything in college football has always had parity," Saban said on the Paul Finebaum Show. "I don’t think we have that balance right now, which could affect the parity of college football and college athletics as a whole. I know we’ve got a lot of good people working on it, and I’m sure they’ll come up with a good solution."

Hold up. Wait a minute. Something ain't right.

Saban wants parity?!

This is like the Empire rolling up with the Death Star, saying it’s tired of destroying entire moons.

Like a Targaryen saying they're tired of being the only family with dragons.

Like a two-legged man saying he's tired of beating a one-legged man in that one contest.

Like fee-fi saying it's tired of fo-fum.

Now, quiet as it's kept, Texas leads Alabama 7-1 all time. But Saban has lorded over the sport since his first national title at Alabama.

And he didn't get to be the greatest college football coach ever by rooting for parity. This is a man who left the NFL in part because he got to select only one first-round pick when he could have 25 in college.

This is a man who answered Marc Spears’ car-ride question of "Aren't you tired?" with "Tired of what?! Winning?!"

That's the man Texas wants, and that's the man Texas is gonna get. They want that man and that program because it's the fastest way to convince even the most ardent doubters that you are for real. That Texas is back.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The No. 1 Ranked Show with RJ Young." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young, and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube. He is not on a StepMill.