DALLAS — Editor's note: Follow along with out latest updates from SEC Media Days' Day 3 right here . The Texas Longhorns are no strangers to attending media days here in Dallas-Fort Worth. Historically, they've been the big dogs with the shiniest toys at Big 12 Media Days in AT&T Stadium.
This year, though, with UT gearing up for its first season in the SEC , things are a little different. Make no mistake: Texas still moved the needle at this week's SEC Media Days at the Omni Hotel in Downtown Dallas -- just like they did in the Big 12 -- with questions about the Longhorns being asked at seemingly every press conference . But the SEC is not the Big 12.
The conference's "It just means more" tag is its mantra for a reason. Even with many pundits predicting Texas and Georgia to make the SEC title game this year, showing the immediate impact UT brings to the table in Year 1, the Longhorns contingent that arrived at SEC Media Days very much made a point to honor their new league rivals and the week-to-week lumps they'll be facing. "I think the key word is respect," Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said from the podium on Wednesday.
"We have a ton of respect for this conference. This is the elite conference in college football. We won't do anything without having a level of respect.
We have to earn their respect. We have to earn the respect of the opposing coaches and the opposing fans." By that same token, though, this is Texas we're taking about.
And wherever the Longhorns go -.