Texas football becomes bully under Steve Sarkisian as Michigan withers without Jim Harbaugh

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Jaydon Blue’s callouses remind him of the work required to toughen that skin.

You don’t develop callouses by soaking your hands in baby oil. Like any day laborer, these Texas Longhorns develop their callouses by putting in sweat equity.

Blue would know. Texas’ junior running back has played for coach Steve Sarkisian long enough to understand what was required to toughen up this program.

“We worked out in 100-plus degrees. We worked out in probably 30 or 40 (degrees) in the winter. That builds callouses,” Blue said Saturday, after contributing to No. 3 Texas’ 143-yard rushing output in a 31-12 destruction of No. 9 Michigan. “We emphasize toughness.”

What an evolution for Texas (2-0).

Texas football now has the cattle to go with the hat

Used to be, whenever situations called for toughness, the Longhorns wilted. For too long, Texas waded through mediocrity while boasting blue-chip talent and two-star toughness.

College football fans laughed at an underachieving program that was all hat, no cattle.

All sizzle, no steak.

No more.

Now, Texas is home to Grade A beef.

Sarkisian, in his fourth season, oversees a well-rounded program without obvious flaw.

“We weren’t really trying to come (here) to prove anything,” Sarkisian said nonchalantly, after watching his team push around Michigan for four quarters. “We wanted to play our brand, our style of football.”

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The beatdown at the Big House reminded us what Sarkisian's brand of Texas football looks like.

The Longhorns have speed. They have playmakers. They have sure-handed tacklers. They have a big-armed, cool-headed quarterback.

And, yeah, they’re tough. Much tougher than Michigan on this day.

Michigan won a national championship with a stingy defense, a punishing offensive line and a coach who wore pleated khakis to work. Jim Harbaugh’s dad pants fit the mold for a program built with a hard-hat and toolbox mentality. Harbaugh left for the NFL in January. One heck of a lot of talent followed him to the pros.

Michigan insufficiently replaced what it lost, while the NCAA’s toothless investigators bumbled in to conduct their probes.

What will those feckless NCAA suits find? Well, for starters, a team that’s a shadow of what it was last season.

Texas blasted the defending champs.

“Whenever things get hard, we’re able to be at our best,” Blue said.

Years after infamous bus ride, Steve Sarkisian's Texas bully Michigan

Things got hard for Texas in the preseason, when a pair of running backs suffered season-ending injuries. That included CJ Baxter, the projected bell cow.

But, Texas returned four veteran starting offensive linemen. Those fellas create running lanes wide enough that a Longhorns fan clad in cowboy boots could scamper through the hole.

Once Texas reached the red zone on its second touchdown drive, freshman tailback Jerrick Gibson and his veteran O-line took care of the final 20 yards. Gibson followed a cavalcade of Texas blockers to run 7 yards untouched into the end zone to cap a 76-yard scoring drive.

“For a young runner,” Sarkisian said, “there’s nothing like running the ball when you’re not seeing color right in your face.”

Gibson had two colors in view: The white Texas jerseys worn by the men paving his path, and open green turf.

Texas’ starting offensive line is exclusive to juniors and seniors. Those linemen range from 6-foot-3 to 6-5 and weigh anywhere from 315 to 335 pounds.

They’re road graders. They kept quarterback Quinn Ewers clean while he picked Michigan apart. They made their running backs’ job easy.

Jake Majors, the senior center, shrugged it off.

“It’s what we do,” he said. “It’s the new standard. We score touchdowns.”

Majors climbed aboard for the full Sarkisian experience. He started in Texas' infamous 30-7 loss to Iowa State in 2021. The Cyclones outgained Texas by 269 yards that day. Texas allowed four sacks.

On the bus ride afterward, assistant coach Bo Davis blew a fuse in a profanity-laced tirade.

“You think it's a (gosh-darn) joke?!” Davis said, among many other barbs.

And, no, Davis didn’t use the words gosh-darn. A bit more colorful than that.

Sarkisian supported Davis after video of his outburst leaked online. Davis departed Texas' staff after last season for LSU.

By then, Sarkisian had reshaped the culture, one callous at a time.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas football becomes bully as Michigan melts without Jim Harbaugh