The People's Champ Awards

Which Texas Longhorn player will be the fan favorite in 2024?

The Longhorns’ Fall Camp is underway, and burnt orange excitement would be through the roof and into the atmosphere—if only our damn running backs would stop getting injured faster than a six-pack of Jolt Cola vanishes from a tweaked Brent Venables' mini fridge. The losses of CJ Baxter and Christian Clark hurt, especially now that the Longhorns are down to three scholarship running backs and some white walk-ons who double as SAE members planning to watch the Oklahoma game from the stands with their Theta dates (shout out to my wife!).

But Texas was in a worse hole in 2019, thanks to Tom Herman’s mismanagement of the running back room, and through that, we uncovered Roschon Johnson. Thinking about Roschon got me thinking about players who are fan favorites, or The People’s Champ of a particular season. What differentiates The People’s Champ from the team’s best player, you ask? Well, the team’s MVP is typically recognized outside of our own fanbase, whereas The People’s Champ feels like family. You’d go to war for The People’s Champ, think about getting a jersey at minimum, but you’re also considering buying them a Christmas stocking, and after a few drinks, you could be talked into a tattoo. What’s more, you’d sucker punch someone who you heard speaking badly about them. So, I wanted to go back through some recent recipients, establish criteria for The People’s Champ award, and then outline a few candidates for who might receive the award this season.

Past People’s Champions (we’re strategically starting this list in the era that I’ve entitled Post Charlie Strong, or PCS):

• 2017: Sam Ehlinger. Remember as a true freshman when he almost led an incredible comeback against a superior OU team and then taunted the Oklahoma fans after a loss? I do. I wanted to put Michael Dickson here, but I think he was too good and probably the team MVP, which is a sad thing to say about a punter. The fact that Mensa Tom had to rely on a punter to get him to a bowl victory might have been an early red herring. In recognition of all the sickos out there, I wanted to give Reggie Hemphill-Mapps the award, but alas. Hope Reggie is doing well wherever he is.

• 2018: Lil’ Jordan Humphrey. A player with a name so good you wanted to change your own.

• 2019: Devin Duvernay and/or Joseph Ossai.

• 2020: Bijan Robinson. A late season ray of hope in an otherwise bleak year at Texas for more reasons than I care to remember.

• 2021: Xavier Worthy. Amidst a 5-7 season, Worthy served as proof of concept for what Steve Sarkisian was trying to build in Austin.

• 2022: Roschon Johnson. I wrote an ode to him two years ago.

• 2023: Jordan Whittington. Though he probably shares the award with T’Vondre Sweat and Jonathon Brooks, his forced fumble after an interception against TCU might have saved the season. At the time I wrote: “It was a winning play made up of football coach buzzwords like effort, grit, tenacity, and heart.”

Criteria for The People’s Champ, which I constructed after some half-assed research:

• Family: Already established, but The People’s Champ feels like family, which is something increasingly rare in college sports (“SAD” as Trump would tweet about the current situation, probably). Do you need established history with a People’s Champ? I’d like to think so. History like following their high school recruitment or watching their development. Maybe it was a criterion in the past, but I guess it’s not anymore. This upcoming season, we might have our first People’s Champ award won by a transfer.

• Discovery: My friends I grew up with and I have countless arguments about who discovered something that we love. Who discovered a particular band, movie, etc. The People’s Champ has to have an element of that to it. Sure, they can be a household name among UT fans, or even a name that later becomes an MVP or a legend (sometimes in that same season, like Bijan in 2020), but outsiders are less familiar with them in the season they win the award. There’s an element of discovery, of being early to the party and being proud of it. I remember telling a teacher once I went to a George Strait concert at the Frank Erwin Center and they responded with something like, “Oh, you like George Strait’s music? That’s nice, I saw George play a 25-person show under the Luling water tower back in 1976.”

• Hope: The People’s Champ allows the fans to dream, either about that particular season or what’s to come in the future about the program at large, even if they’re leaving. A team’s established best player gives you belief, “I know we won’t lose this game because Vince Young is our quarterback,” but the hope that The People’s Champ infuses into the fanbase is different, it’s a hope that the current season could be special or even a feeling that future ones could be.

• Moments: Maybe the biggest thing that the best player on a team and The People’s Champ share in common, but the moments are different. An MVP produces moments that don’t seem possible for us mortal, think about Bijan Robinson’s run against OU in 2021 where he stiff-armed Billy Bowman into the Earth’s mantle and you knew you were watching one of the greats tote the rock. Whereas, the People’s Champ’s moments have an element of grit like Whittington’s forced fumble or Roschon Johnson’s hurdling of diving defenders.

• Surprise: You don’t always see The People’s Champ coming, albeit for different reasons depending on the player. Certain players like Bijan or Xavier Worthy, you might expect big things from, but not yet, not that season. Others, like Jordan Whittington, T’Vondre Sweat, or Devin Duvernay might have seemed as if their story was already written and they might be forgotten, but then they etched a different history into Longhorn Lore.

Before we list some potential People’s Champ Longhorns for the 2024 season, let’s remove some names who aren’t eligible. First: Quinn Ewers, he’s in year three and a Heisman favorite who led Texas to a conference championship last season, ultimately he might never receive the love he probably deserves from Texas fans and that’s a victim of his early hype and also the current set of expectations. Second: Kelvin Banks, yep, an offensive lineman is on this list, but he’s probably the team's best player and a top 10 pick in next year’s draft. Third: Bert Auburn, he’s almost too People’s Champ-y with his hair and clutch kicks that it would be unfair to give him the award. Lastly, Jahdae Barron. He’s been around since 2020 and though he might be the defensive MVP with his move to corner, he’s almost too familiar of a name to be considered. So, let’s look at some candidates for this upcoming season.

The Dark Horses: A heavy dose of “I discovered him!”

• Jelani McDonald, Safety (RS-F): An athletic thoroughbred that will remind Texas fans of the SEC safeties we never seemed to get during the dark ages, but now we have one of our own. McDonald is probably a year away from making enough of an impact to win, but he’ll produce a few “wow” plays this season.

• Tre Wisner, RB (Sophomore): Wisner was a heat seeking missile on special teams last year, has a little Roschon Johnson to him with his do-it-all mentality and will be relied upon after the recent running back injuries, but I’m not sure I see the production required, yet.

Tre Wisner, Jelani McDonald, Texas football / Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman

• Jaylon Guilbeau, Nickel (RS-Soph): The recruit-niks out there probably don’t remember Guilbeau’s recruitment too fondly. He originally committed to Herman, stayed committed to Sark, later decommitted and seemed to want to get into Jimbo Fisher’s historic class at A&M before settling on Gary Patterson and TCU. It was a wild ride, as many of them are. But, Guilbeau flipped from TCU to Texas and briefly started over Jahdae Barron as a true freshman in 2022 before injuries and other factors took control. Once expected to depart via the portal, he stuck around and has worked his butt off to become a starter, allowing Barron to move to corner. He has the kind of resilient story that had fans resonating with guys like T’Vondre Sweat, but nickel’s also a position not on the field enough of the time even if his production and story resonates.

The Transfers: High on hopes, heavy on moments.

• Trey Moore, Edge (UTSA): It’s hard to win The People’s Champ award as a defensive player, but Moore might have the chops to do it. The Longhorns haven’t had a double-digit sack man since 2013, and the giant loss of defensive tackles Sweat and Byron Murphy must be supplemented by increased production from the edge position. A dominant pass rusher off the edge makes you feel a little invincible, just think back to watching Brian Orakpo. Well, Moore might be just what the doctor ordered, as he had 22 sacks the last two seasons at UTSA and led the FBS in sacks last season. To throw a few more People’s Champ ingredients into the recipe, the Smithson Valley graduate grew up wanting to be a Longhorn, now he has his chance to win the people’s hearts.

  

• Matthew Golden, WR (Houston): 15 total touchdowns in two seasons at UH, two on kickoff return and two against Texas last year in the stress-fueled affair against the Cougars. Golden is an explosive athlete who can be utilized in many different ways, but health is the key concern as he’s often nicked up. Another transfer wide receiver might be more likely…

• Silas Bolden, WR (Oregon State): You might look at Bolden’s height and weight (5’8”, 160 lbs) and think “Aww, that’s cute! We’ve got our own Wes Welker or Julian Edelman.” Then you watch Bolden’s highlights from Corvallis and realize he has tricks in his bag that Texas lost in Xavier Worthy (electrifying yards after the catch), Keilan Robinson (explosiveness out of the backfield), and AD Mitchell (jump ball-winning ability). Fans are going to love him, not in a warm and fuzzy way, but in an I just swallowed fire and feel unstoppable sort of way.

  

-Sweat Redux

• Alfred Collins (5th year DT): A defensive lineman with an NFL body who has struggled with consistency finds themselves and bursts onto the national scene during their last year of eligibility sounds familiar, doesn’t it? I’ve typed the text that Alfred Collins needs to look like a first-round pick for the last three seasons, but I’m not doing it this time. I’m going to take his own word for it. Collins says he was inspired by T’Vondre Sweat’s emergence into a national award winner and top 40 draft pick and wants to follow in his footsteps. Alright (x3).

The Breakouts: Infusions of hope, dreams of immortality.

• Colin Simmons (Edge, freshman)/Ryan Wingo (freshman, WR): In the way that Worthy or Bijan were once People’s Champs, these two could be the same. If I didn’t list them, I’d feel like an idiot. Simmons could bring everything that Moore might bring as a pass rusher, just as a true freshman who Longhorn fans can enjoy for a lot longer than they’ll get to watch Moore. The Duncanville product could be the defensive force of nature Texas hasn’t seen in a long time. Xavier Worthy busted out in 2021 partly due to an empty cupboard at wide receiver. Ryan Wingo is making plays late into the season, it’s because he’s taking snaps away from very talented players like Isaiah Bond and Johntay Cook. Reporters have said he’s the most talented wide receiver on campus since Roy Williams. 

  

  The Favorite(s):

• Anthony Hill (LB, sophomore): I’m probably too late on Anthony Hill, he might already be the team’s best player and that’s saying a lot with guys like Ewers, Banks, and Barron on the team. Derrick Johnson, is that you?

  

• Jaydon Blue (RB, Junior): The criteria is stacking up in Blue’s favor. He’s been around enough to where Texas fans know his name already and it won’t take much for him to feel like family. The sour mood around the running back room is affecting some fans’ views on the season and a burst of hope is needed. But that’s something Blue can easily provide with a few of his electrifying runs early in the season. Take a long run to the house in The Big House, that my friends is your hope and your moment. Lastly, Blue has a bit of narrative surprise on his side. He was a five-star recruit once upon a time that fell down in the recruiting rankings and then sat out his senior year of high school football to focus on prepping for college, to the chagrin of many people with Twitters. He almost transferred after the 2022 season, but he stayed in Austin and was never expected to be the starter, until now. Now he’s the lead ball carrier on the team that had the first running back selected in the last two drafts. He’s got all the makings of a People’s Champ. 

  

*Check back with us at our awards ceremony after the season.*