Texas senior tight end Gunnar Helm was taking it easy when the updated Associated Press Top 25 rankings were announced at 1 p.m. Sunday. News flash: the Longhorns were suddenly the No. 1 team in all the land.
“I was on my couch on Sunday watching Red Zone,” Helm said Monday.
Senior center Jake Majors felt torn. “Pretty sure I was on the couch watching the Cowboys get smoked,” Majors said. “It was kind of bittersweet. Found out we were No. 1. That’s cool. My Cowboys were getting their butt handed.”
Texas leapfrogged Georgia in the AP poll, and now the top-ranked Longhorns (3-0) are standing atop the college football mountain. However, it’s only week four. It’s still mid-September. Halloween candy sales haven’t started, and Thanksgiving seems awfully distant.
“To be on the team to bring us back to being ranked number one in the country is a complete honor,” Helm said.
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Texas has not been ranked No. 1 since 2008. A lot has happened in the last 16 years. Fans were told the “cake has been baked” and that “winning is hard.” A coin flip was lost in embarrassing fashion. An extra-point attempt clanged off the upright. Urine color charts hanging in the bathroom made national news.
Maryland embarrassed Texas at home, and the program somehow endured two miserable Kansas losses — yes, two! The 5-7 team in 2021, coach Steve Sarkisian’s first year, had some competitive players but the roster needed to be rehauled.
Nobody in burnt orange was crowing too loud on Monday. Still, it was appropriate that veterans stopped for a moment to acknowledge how far the Longhorns have come in just three quick seasons.
“I think the coolest part about it is the guys that were here, the 5-7 team, know what it feels to be on a losing team,” safety Michael Taaffe said. “So I think it just feels good to get the praise that we deserve coming from 5-7 to now, right now, being the No. 1 team in the nation.”
Majors said he sure remembers the difficulty of going 5-7. “It doesn't really matter until January 20. I want to be number one then,” Majors said. “Right now, it’s all about how you attack this week. You can’t win the national championship in week four.”
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As one would expect, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian had a grounded view of the situation. He’s been affiliated with good programs and bad ones, teams ranked No. 1 at USC and Alabama and losing teams at Washington and Texas.
“I think now more than ever, and I don’t want to take anything away from the polls because of the 12-team playoff, it really doesn’t matter,” Sarkisian said. “We say it all the time as a team, it’s not really what other people think of us. It’s about what we do, and we’ve got to perform, and we’ve got to prepare to perform.”
He’s right. Under the new 12-team College Football Playoff, being ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 doesn’t mean has much as it used to. Now, if the team ranked 12th gets hot in December and January and wins four games, they are crowned the national champs.
“I think it’s good to show what we’re capable of, but at the end of the day, we’re going to have to go earn this thing,” Sarkisian said. “The mission is far, far from over. We’ve got a long way to go.”
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