How deep is Texas this year?
The second team should be so good, another coach said, that it would finish in the top 10.
No wonder Coach Jerritt Elliott of Texas, when asked how excited he must be to start the season, replied:
“On a scale of 1-10, probably a 12.”
But before getting to the abundance of riches on the Texas roster, how about the coaching staff?
One associate head coach is two-time Olympian Erik Sullivan, the USA’s starting libero in 2004 and also an Olympic assistant. He is starting his 12th year in Austin.
The other associate head coach is newcomer David Hunt, the former Pepperdine men’s coach. He has coached in the USA men’s and women’s national-team gyms, where he also met his wife.
And Hunt’s wife is the Texas volunteer coach, Jordan Larson. She’s an international superstar and was the MVP of last summer’s Tokyo Games, where the USA won its first Olympic gold medal. Larson, 36 and contemplating retirement, is still one of the best players in the world, which will make for some pretty stout competition in the Texas practices.
All of which led Elliott, who played at Pepperdine and Hawai’i, to quip: “We have three people who have been in the Olympics. I’m the worst coach in the gym.
“If nobody knew who the head coach was and you just had it on paper, I think I’d be the fourth seed.”
Perhaps, but the bet here is that Texas, chasing its first national championship in 10 years, should be seeded even higher than that when the NCAA Tournament field is announced November 27.
“Our team is the deepest I’ve ever had as a coach, it’s the most talent I’ve ever had,” Elliott said.
Texas is coming off a 27-2 season (15-1 Big 12) that ended with a loss to Nebraska in an NCAA regional final. The year before, in the spring 2021 season, Texas lost in the national-championship match to Kentucky.
An already loaded roster that includes Logan Eggleston — last year’s VolleyballMag.com national player of the year — has some tremendous additions that more than offset some big losses. And that was before the stunning announcement last week that Kayla Caffey, the Nebraska All-American middle, is transferring to Texas. The Longhorns were already boosted by the arrivals of Kentucky outside Madisen Skinner, UCLA libero Zoe Fleck and another Husker, DS Keonilei Akana.
“Obviously there’s been a huge amount of change in our program,” Elliott said. “We lost some really talented…
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