When two college football titans like Texas and Ohio State lock horns, the world stops to watch. With just over three months until the season opener on August 30, the kickoff time remains up in the air. Crazy, right? Look, the game belongs to FOX’s $20 billion empire, and most assumed it to air during their ‘Big Noon Kickoff’. But strangely, FOX is yet to set a time. Turns out there’s some other drama brewing behind this mess….

As per Patrick Murphy’s report, Ohio State asked FOX to shift the game — either later on Saturday or into a prime-time Sunday spotlight. Texas, though, refused that idea. Turns out Ryan Day’s grand vision failed to sway Steve Sarkisian’s firm stand and it looks like Coach Sark is clapping back at Day after they ended their championship hopes last year.

However, Steve Sarkisian had every reason to make that move. And Juck on Bucks College Football host Juck is out there laying out the exact reason why Sark made this savvy move. “So not only did Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork get Fox to consider moving the game time, he got them to consider moving the entire day of the game, which is amazing. A job very, very well done by Bjork. Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen because Texas killed it,” Juck said. “Now you can say, why in the world wouldn’t they kill it? Why would Texas agree to that? Why would they agree to a tougher matchup coming and playing at Ohio State at night when they can play during the day?”

That makes sense. If the game had moved to Sunday in prime time, it would have gone against ND and Miami’s game on ABC. Now, we know the game would still be massive, but going up against another high-profile matchup could have eaten up the ratings. And no wonder Steve Sarkisian knows how tough it is to play against the Bucks in prime time. Then Juck also highlighted another factor: “Why would they agree to a shorter week’s preparation the following week, just six days to prepare for that banger in week two against San Jose State?”

Look, one thing is pretty straight and clear: Steve Sarkisian isn’t making any random decisions this time. Firstly, playing against Ohio State is already stressful on top of that, cutting your practice time makes no sense. That’s exactly what Juck said: “Now you can also say from Sark’s opinion, if he’s looking at this saying, ‘Wait a minute, you guys made this deal with FOX. Your conference makes more money than us. Now you want me to change my preparation from week one to week two to six days of prep, throwing us off a little bit so you can have a night game and put me at a further disadvantage? No, no, man, I’m good.’ And you can somewhat understand that.”

Ohio State fans despise “Big Noon Kickoff.” FOX repeatedly schedules the Buckeyes for early games; last year, they had five noon kickoffs—more than any other Big Ten team. Even crucial matchups like Michigan and Penn State were at noon. The frustration is so intense that Ohio Representative Tex Fischer of Youngstown proposed a bill banning Ohio State from playing before 3:30 p.m. against top-10 opponents or other state schools. This highlights the widespread anger over the noon kickoff times.

But for now the dust is settled, and Steve Sarkisian is out there addressing another roadblock in his path to winning a natty this year.

Steve Sarkisian is building Texas troops

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian and offensive line coach Kyle Flood face a major challenge rebuilding their line, losing four starters with 157 career starts. With Kelvin Banks and Cameron Williams in the NFL and Malik Agbo transferring, they’re relying on their strong 2022 recruiting class. DJ Campbell, Cole Hutson, and Neto Umeozulu will lead the revamped line, a youthfulness that Steve Sarkisian downplays. “We’re really not that young of a team — you just have new faces, right? Beauty of it is, a lot of these new faces have been developing in our program,” Sark said.

Daily battles against NFL-caliber defensive linemen, seven of whom went pro in three drafts from Texas, are what Steve Sarkisian credits with improving the new offensive line. “Those guys have been having to go against all those defensive linemen that just went to the NFL or that just moved on. They’ve had to compete at a really high level every single day. And Coach [Kyle] Flood’s been developing them, and Torre Becton has been developing them. So I feel very good about that group,” Sarkisian added.

Despite progress, Sarkisian acknowledges that development is meaningless without on-field success. Team cohesion hinges on game experience, a crucial element currently lacking. “Now, granted, there’s nothing like game experience, and so are we going to have some growing pains? Sure, we are. I’m not naive to think that we’re not going to have some. But that doesn’t mean that we have to go out there and play like a bunch of freshmen, because we’re not,” Sarkisian stated. Campbell’s 30 starts offer experience, but Hutson and Umeozulu need to excel beyond rotational roles for consistent performance.

Summer workouts and fall camp will focus on consistency built through trust. Brandon Baker secured right tackle over Andre Cojoe, and Trevor Goosby replaces Kevin Banks Jr. at left tackle. However, cohesive play needs rapid development. “I think that the key for this unit, as we start to move forward, summer, fall camp, early in the season is going to be continuity and consistency. We had such a comfort level of continuity over the past few years because of so many familiar faces, that now we have to make sure that we almost force feed consistency and continuity amongst that group,” Sarkisian said.

He further added, “Trust in calls, trust in footwork, trust in the guy next to you… It’s not going to be about talent with that group. It’s going to be about the level of consistency that they play with, individually and collectively, and that’s going to be about the continuity that they play with as a unit when they take the field.” Now, only time will tell if Coach Sarkisian’s rebuild will work in his favor or not.