What is the best way to attract a young high school athlete to join your football program? Your program’s success over the years is a good start. Maybe the kind of endorsements and partnerships your program attracts can help. Even the list of players who have made it to the NFL from your program is a good way. However, as the Longhorns have proven, spending $10,000,000 on creating the best in class athletic facility also helps.
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Texas dedicated around $10 million back in 2017 to renovate its athletic center. Of which, $7 million was spent on the home locker room alone. The facilities inside the room seem to represent more like that of a top-end hotel/gym rather than a college football locker room. Though, it seems they have a very good reason to make such an extravagant change.
Texas Longhorns are looking to improve their recruitment numbers
The Longhorns do not lack talent in their ranks. With the likes of Quinn Ewers and Archie Manning lining up their roster, the Longhorns are one of the most formidable teams in the NCAA. However, that does not mean they can slack in their recruitment processes. In fact, their locker room might just have attracted a future star, as QB K.J. Lacey just committed to the Longhorns. His reason? “Why Not Texas!?”
The Longhorns’ locker room is less of a changing room and more of a piece of art. Each locker is worth around $8,700 and comes with a 37-inch television on top to act as their nameplate. Each locker also has a pin-pad safe and is decked with ventilation chambers to ensure the lockers do not stink up. Added to that, they are made of stainless steel, which gives added protection against bacterial infections.
Each locker also has a stand to hang their pads and helmet, with an internal fan to help dry them off quickly. The bathrooms are an immaculate work of art in itself, and look nothing like what a college locker room used to look back in the day. The trend of modernizing locker rooms started long ago. Clemson even made their lockers look like thrones, to commemorate them winning the NCAA at that time.
The Longhorns race against time to find a non-conference opponent
The Longhorns join the Sooners as the newest entries into the SEC, as part of the conference’s expansion plans. The new arrivals do bring about the prospect of new potential rivalries, though the conference recently voted to keep the 8-game structure for at least one more year. It seems fans will have to wait a while before witnessing the ‘Lone-Star showdown’ between the Longhorns and Texas A&M.
Though, the decision also puts the Longhorns in a pickle of their own. The retention of the current format means the Longhorns need to find another non-conference opponent. This is proving to be a difficult endeavor due to scheduling clashes. The fact that the Longhorns have planned their non-conference games for the next decade is certainly not working in their favor right now.
However, that is a headache the Longhorns’ athletic director has to take on. For head coach Steve Sarkisian, the focus is on making sure the team is in the best position to start the season. He will be hoping that his faith in Quinn Ewers will pay off dividends and that skipping Archie Manning will not end up biting him in the back. Will the Longhorns go all the way this season?
