Well, that's probably not the best summation as Texas opens play in its new conference Saturday when downtrodden Mississippi State comes to town.

After all, the Longhorns, you see, are the top-ranked team in college football and have the nation's best defense -- tied with Tennessee if you want to be technical -- and the 11th-most prolific scoring offense.

Texas has won 16 of its past 18 games, losing only to Oklahoma and Washington in the final minute, and have overwhelmed its four non-conference opponents by an average of 42 points. They've largely been no contests after halftime, and the Horns are a 38½-point favorite Saturday.

But Steve Sarkisian has preached playing to a standard and focusing more on Texas than whom Texas is playing.

That's especially true this week when the 4-0 Longhorns make their SEC debut against arguably a lackluster team at the bottom of the league with a 1-3 record.

First versus worst.

Don't tell that to David Gbenda, even if Mississippi State is breaking in a new starting quarterback and its third coach in three seasons, going back to the late Mike Leach.

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"Regardless of who they roll out (at quarterback), I know they're a great group of guys that are coming and an SEC opponent," the Longhorn senior linebacker said. "They're going to bring their best shot, and they're coming to our house. They're going to give us their shot to embarrass us. They're going to try to knock off No. 1."

Want-to and get-to may be two different things because Texas is a team on the rise with oodles of depth and no discernible signs of a dropoff.

But this is the SEC where every game means more, remember. More losses, if you're Mississippi State. That said, six of the league's 16 teams are still undefeated a month into the season, and five of the top six teams in the Associated Press Top 25 are SEC clubs as are seven of the top 14.

As Longhorn sophomore wideout Johntay Cook said, "You know this is the baby NFL. That's what they call it."

Of course, even in the NFL there are bad teams like the Carolina Panthers and the, uh, Dallas Cowboys.

Just don't expect the Texas players to denigrate any opponent, even a Mississippi State that has lost three consecutive games to Arizona State, Toledo and Florida and allowed an SEC-worst 123 points in four games.

Take Alfred Collins, for example.

The senior defensive tackle understands that all SEC contests will be "very physical, four-quarter games. Everybody is great."

Uh, everybody?

Even the Bulldogs who also who lost their starting quarterback Blake Shapen to a season-ending shoulder injury?

"This is a great challenge," said Texas senior center Jake Majors, who will be making his 46th start in his career. "I think it's a great indicator to start SEC play and see where we are as a team when it comes to this conference. I grew up watching the SEC and I'm just really excited to be a part of a conference that I grew up watching."

He admitted his dad was a huge Alabama fan and held such an allegiance to the Crimson Tide that he wore a plain white shirt to the games pitting his favorite team against Texas in their 2022 and 2023 games.

Majors even joked that he, too, rooted for the Greg McElroys and Mark Ingrams back in the day even when they beat Texas for the national championship in 2009.

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"But he loves his son, so I don't give him crap about it," he said. "I just think it's a cool thing that he and I have going on. And I always get the last laugh on it."

And what did he see when he was watching for all those formative years and how did that groom him on what to expect in Texas' inaugural season in the SEC?

"We expect bigger humans to block because they really recruit well in the SEC," Majors said. "Just the way that they play in that league, I always thought that the SEC represented college football the right way. But we treat every opponent like they're faceless."

Sarkisian has been building his roster to compete in the SEC since he arrived here in January 2021 even though he wasn't really aware Texas would be switching conferences after life in the Big 12 since 1996.

He was astounded by the overall makeup of the roster he inherited, but has quickly reshaped it with larger linemen on both sides of the ball and recruited speed everywhere.

When Gbenda was asked which side of the ball was faster, the offense or defense, he laughed and said, "I'll have to get back to you on that."

Four years into his plan, Sarkisian has a team he feels is complete.

"There's definitely big people in this conference," Sarkisian said. "There's a toll that this conference can take on you over an extended period of time. So you have to make sure your team's healthy enough and can perform at a high level. And I think that's why depth is so important in this league."

Beyond that, he said the SEC puts a major emphasis on the "mental intensity" that's required on a weekly basis as well as the "skill players on the perimeter who are so fast."

But he really stresses the need for consistent play week in and week out, no matter whether you're playing a Mississippi State or a Georgia.

"If you just look at the logo on a helmet or a ranking or something, you think, man, we better play really good in this stretch. It's every week."