Texas Ends Season With Alamo Bowl Loss to Washington
First things first - the Texas Longhorns' 27-20 loss to the Washington Huskies in the Alamo Bowl has no bearing on the future of the program.
It doesn't hurt recruiting, momentum, or start to make head coach Steve Sarkisian's seat warm.
Now that that is out of the way, what does it mean?
It means that the Longhorns still have a long way to go before they are ready to contend.
But we knew that already.
Without Bijan Robinson, DeMarvion Overshown and Roschon Johnson on the field, the holes in the Longhorns' armor were very apparent.
Robinson's explosive playmaking especially was sorely missed, and the Texas offense had a difficult time adjusting until it was too late.
And despite that, Texas still had plenty of opportunity to win the game.
Unfortunately for Sark and company, however, the Horns simply couldn't get out of their own way.
Whether it was dropped passes by Xavier Worthy, failing to convert costly third and short situations, or breakdowns on defense, if it wasn't one thing going wrong, it was something else.
But even with those mistakes, one more bounce here and there in their favor, and who knows how different the result could have been?
Only those bounces didn't go their way, and they will now head into the offseason with everything in front of them.
Yes, they lose arguably their best two players in Overshown and Robinson.
And yes, there is still much to figure out in terms of progressing into year three as a football program.
But, there was a very important positive to Thursday night as well - the play of Quinn Ewers, who bounced back after a tough final stretch of the season to complete 31 of 47 passes for a Longhorns freshman bowl game record 369 yards and a touchdown.
And though it wasn't enough to get the Longhorns over the finish line, it was exactly the kind of performance Ewers needed to show to build the confidence of the Longhorns staff and fan base.
Outside of that, however, there is still a top-three recruiting class that will bring depth, positive culture and talent to the roster.
And one of those recruits, No. 1 QB Arch Manning, will push Ewers to continue to get better.
Not to mention, Ewers and Worthy will have the entire spring and summer to fine-tune their timing in the deep passing game.
Either way, an improvement from 5-7 to 8-5 is a good jump for year two under Sarkisian.
And year three should - if things go according to plan - yield even better results.
Because at the end of the day, despite a loss in a meaningless bowl game, Texas IS heading in the right direction.
They're just not 'back', yet.
You can follow Matt Galatzan on Twitter @MattGalatzan
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