The Red Dot: Texas is Hunting

“I think that’s all of us at Texas,” Arch Manning said. “And I think we kind of try to shift the narrative. We’re going for everyone else. The target’s not on our back, but we’ve got a red dot on everyone else.”

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The Longhorns quarterback is ready for a fight in Columbus on Saturday. Though Texas has done a good job of wearing “The Black Hat” for a few years now, his words are a stark contrast from teams of Longhorns past who were “ready to get everyone’s best shot.” In Manning’s words, there’s no hint of Mack Brown’s old “survive the surge” mantra. No, this is closer to Vince Young saying, If you want to beat Ohio State, meet me on the practice field at 7 tonight.

I’m not sure I’ve fully prepared myself mentally or emotionally. But I’ll certainly take the Longhorns quarterback and his teammates being readier than I am.

Most seasons let fans ease their way in. They usually feel like a slow descent on an airport escalator, where you’re welcomed home with balloons and signs. There’s a tune-up against UTEP, Rice, or Colorado State to catch your breath. Not this year. With Texas opening on the road against Ohio State, it feels less like a homecoming and more like jumping out of a helicopter into hostile, occupied territory.

There will be no welcome party.

Longhorn fans are being tossed directly into the frenzy. And the result of Saturday will shape how we feel about the rest of the season. I wrote over the weekend that I was still trying to convince myself the outcome won’t define the year, but it will absolutely become a major plot point in whatever narrative takes hold of Steve Sarkisian’s team.

When I started writing about Texas Football in the summer of 2021, I treated it like fan therapy, mostly for myself. I was constantly trying to convince myself, through rambling words, why Texas was back. Since I only wrote during seasons until the spring of 2024, whenever I did sit down it was an explosion of words. Months of bottled-up thoughts would pour onto the page and from that mess I’d try to make sense of who Texas was.

As I’ve written more consistently, my word counts have gone down. Part of that is simply necessity, I have to conserve energy with a bigger quota. But the other reason is that there’s been less sentence-by-sentence Jekyll versus Hyde.

Under Sark, the Longhorns have told us who they are. The Big 12 Championship, the arrival in the CFP, the SEC move, goal-line stands against rivals, the truths of this program have been on display. There’s less need for me to guess or interpret, because the team has written its own story.

Colin Simmons comments about new Buckeye quarterback Julian Sayin illustrate the identity of this Longhorn team further. “Honestly, I’m just excited that they chose a quarterback,” Simmons said when asked why he posted a picture of Sayin on Instagram. “You know, there’s really nothing major behind it I’d say. It’s no target for him or nothing like that. I’m just glad that they have a quarterback that I’m ready to sack.”

This is a team on the offensive. And if anyone in the back didn’t catch it, Simmons’ words and Manning’s “red dot” comment said it loudly. 

Fans won’t have time to ease in this fall, their Longhorns have already started the hunt.