Steve Sarkisian says Texas Longhorns better positioned to compete after weeding out 'some of the warts' from last year

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Wednesday he's closing in on naming a starting quarterback and believes the Longhorns are better equipped as a team than they were a year ago to face whatever trials come their way in 2022.

Texas, in Sarkisian's first season as coach, finished 5-7 and lost six straight games, marking the Longhorns' longest losing streak since 1956.

«The kids knew not everybody in that locker room was all-in last year,» Sarkisian told ESPN. «I think they could feel it, and they wanted to weed out some of the warts, some of the bad apples. I think they got a sense of reality about some of the things we were talking about and trying to instill last offseason. I don't know how much they gave credence to it, and then those same things reared their ugly head in-season.

»They came back in January with this mindset of, «We've got to take these things to heart because they will show up again.' They've made that investment and bought into every aspect of it, and you can feel it amongst our team.»

Similar to a year ago, the Longhorns again have a quarterback battle this preseason. Redshirt sophomore Hudson Card and redshirt freshman Quinn Ewers, a former five-star prospect who spent the 2021 season at Ohio State, are vying for the starting job. A year ago, it was Casey Thompson and Card battling for the job. Card earned the start in the first two games, but Thompson replaced him late in the 40-21 loss to Arkansas in Week 2 and remained the starter the rest of the way. Thompson has since transferred to Nebraska.

«Last year was difficult in having two players that were new to the [offensive] system, and that's always hard, especially when one of them isn't a returning starter who had really been in the