We’re only months away from officially kicking off the Steve Sarkisian era at Texas.
The Longhorns will open the 2021 season at home against Louisiana on Sept. 4. Sarkisian’s coaching staff inherited a very talented roster, although many position battles are still up for grabs on both sides of the ball.
The primary question mark surrounding Texas this year is who will be taking the snaps behind center. Hudson Card and Casey Thompson will continue their close quarterback competition throughout the offseason and we may not officially hear who will come out on top until the season opener.
Regardless, each of the two signal-callers are talented enough to put Texas square in the race to compete for a Big 12 title in Sarkisian’s first year with the program.
Now that spring practices have concluded, Sam Hellman of 247Sports released his updated college football top 25 rankings on Sunday. Texas landed at No. 19 and were the third Big 12 program listed.
“The Longhorns enter a new era with Steve Sarkisian locked in as head coach following a national title at Alabama as offensive coordinator. After Bijan Robinson went for 443 total yards and six touchdowns in the final two games of last season, how dangerous can he be in the Sarkisian system? The Longhorns went 7-3 in Tom Herman’s last season. The Sarkisian era begins with a top-25 meeting against Billy Napier and Louisiana, followed by Arkansas and Rice before Big 12 play begins against Texas Tech.”
Overall, four Big 12 programs were included within the top 25:
No. 2 Oklahoma
No. 6 Iowa State
No. 19 Texas
No. 25 Oklahoma State
Texas will likely need to defeat at least two of those three Big 12 opponents to receive a berth to the conference championship game this season.