Here's the thing ... I want to be wrong.

With every fiber in my body, I want to be wrong. For the entire off-season, I've seen one person after another peg the 2023 Texas Longhorns as potential playoff contenders, while I've been sitting on a 9-3 record and there's consistently one thought inside of my head.

I hope I'm wrong.

Understand that nothing would be better for business, both on Orangebloods.com and our growing Orangebloods Live venture, than to have this team embark on a special season. Just typing it gives me the tingles. If I could will it into existence, man, would I give it a go.

Also, there would almost certainly be zero downside if I joined the masses and predicted an 11-1 season. Hell, many of you would applaud me for it, suggesting along the way that my ... ahem ... you know whats had grown in size.

It's not like botched pre-season predictions have cut my legs out from under me in the past. After all, I once suggested that Garrett Gilbert was the next big thing and that the 2010 Texas Longhorns would win the Big 12 title. You guys didn't burn me at the stake for that errant prediction. So, what's the fuss with just typing 10-2 or 11-1 and letting the chips fall where they may land, especially when former Heisman winners are stepping out on the limb with these Longhorns?

Hell, even Kirk Bohls is predicting that the Longhorns land in the playoffs.

I suppose it merely comes down to this ... for better or worse, I'm always going to be true to myself and my readers. It's not that I'm trying to zag when everyone else is zigging.

From where I'm sitting, I still think this program is a year away from truly competing for really big things. It still needs to learn how to win in big moments. It still needs to learn how to play consistently, week in and week out. It still needs to learn how to play at its highest levels on the road. It still needs another year for all of the super blue-chip talent on hand to grow up a little.

People will see a 9-3 prediction that I think comes with a bid in the Big 12 title game and they'll ask if my hesitation is related to questions about starting quarterback Quinn Ewers and Steve Sarkisian.

Yup, them, too.

It's not any one thing as much as it's all of the questions I have and hurdles this team has to prove it can clear all rolled into one that has me slightly cooler than a lot of others.

I'm reminded that Mack Brown's team of super blue chips didn't blow down the house with its first few huffs and puffs. Its first true swing of things in 2001 ended in disappointment, with a quarterback and head coach that weren't quite ready for prime time. It took another three seasons and a different quarterback before one of Mack's teams was truly ready to not only reach for greatness, but to grab it.

While an occasional TCU will come out of nowhere and skip a few steps in the standard winning learning curve, it typically doesn't go that way. In almost every instance, efforts to cheat the process gets swatted back.

The last time we saw this team play in a game that counted, it was losing by three scores five minutes into the fourth quarter. The game before that one, Steve Sarkisian admittedly (and rightfully) took the ball out of his quarterback's hands in the fourth quarter out of caution. Two games before that, the offense couldn't score a single touchdown at home. Two weeks before that, it blew a 31-17 second-half lead in Stillwater.

Does that read like a team that's suddenly ready to be among the best in the country?

I'm convinced that this is going to be a hell of a fun season with a team that should score a ton of points over 12 games. The defense looks like it might be even better than I would have guessed a month ago.

Glory with a developing roster is going to come, but perhaps it won't quite be the glory we tell our grandchildren about.

We might still be a year away from that.

Don't shoot the messenger. Please know he's ready to accept your ridicule with glee if he's wrong.

No. 2 - August Training Camp Awards ...

With the first game week of the season upon us, let's hand out some August camp awards. ...

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