The Johnny Manziel Longhorn Tattoo Is Sure to Spark What If Chatter

Nov 17, 2012; College Station, TX, USA; Texas A

Via Busted Coverage, the Johnny Manziel Longhorn tattoo is sure to create the most internet buzz since…well, Manziel’s last viral exploits. The tattoo was spotted on a photo of the Heisman Trophy winner spring breaking in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

After a season racking up eye-popping numbers both in the passing and ground games and leading a five-win turnaround for the Texas A&M Aggies, one cannot help but ponder the what if?

What if Manziel had instead landed with Mack Brown’s Texas Longhorns? Brown did recruit Manziel out of Kerrville Tivy High School, after all. But then, Brown recruited Manziel to play defensive back, which has become the source of many a blogosphere punchline. The Longhorn coach is rumored to have done the same with 2011 Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III.

Both are perplexing, given Texas is hardly adverse to dual-threat quarterbacks. Brown nearly had a pair of Heisman winners himself, each operating as capable two-way play makers in Vince Young and Colt McCoy.

Since McCoy’s departure after the 2009 season, Texas has struggled to reestablish its offensive identity. The Longhorns have also failed to reach 10 wins in that time. Conversely, A&M hit that milestone for the first time in 11 years behind Manziel’s play.

With Colt’s younger brother Case and David Ash swapping quarterback duties the last two seasons, Texas has gone a combined 17-9 and averaged 28.1 and 35.7 points per game. None of those numbers jump out as particularly bad — or bad at all. But in the landscape of Lone Star football, expectations for UT football are high.

Good just isn’t when Baylor and Texas A&M are outperforming the Longhorns. And always inherent at Texas are the expectations past Longhorn teams established. This is a program that measures success in Big 12 and national championships, not Alamo Bowls.

Manziel captaining the offense would not necessarily have been the missing piece to get the 2012 Longhorns into the BCS picture. Texas’ woes were on the defensive end. Maybe Mack Brown was onto something with pursuing Manziel for the secondary.

Until Ash matches his potential, or the Longhorns again pass the Aggies on the state’s landscape, Manziel will be one of the big “what if” questions. And that tattoo is a reminder of what could have been.