College Football News Preview 2020: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Texas Longhorns season with what you need to know.
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– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Schedule Analysis
– Texas Previews 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
2019 Record: 8-5 overall, 5-4 in Big 12
Head Coach: Tom Herman, 4th year, 25-15
2019 CFN Final Opinion Ranking: 18
2019 CFN Final Season Formula Ranking: 29
2019 CFN Preview Ranking: 9
No one knows what’s going to happen to the 2020 college football season. We’ll take a general look at where each team stands – doing it without spring ball to go by – while crossing our fingers that we’ll all have some well-deserved fun this fall. Hoping you and yours are safe and healthy.
5. College Football News Preview 2020: Texas Longhorns Offense 3 Things To Know
– The season might not have been as good record-wise, but the offense was more explosive in 2019 after a good 2018. The Longhorns finished 14th in the nation in total offense, second in scoring offense, and the overall attack was generally strong, but it needed to do more.
Texas was 7-1 when scoring more than 27 points, and 1-4 when it scored that many or fewer.
Almost everyone is back outside of the top two targets, Devin Duvernay and Collin Johnson. Losing Duvernay is the killer – he caught 106 passes, Johnson was second with 38 – but the rest of the parts were really young and are really talented.
Junior Brennan Eagles and sophomore Jake Smith each caught six touchdown passes. In all, six of the key parts coming back were underclassmen for the nation’s 20th-best passing offense.
And they have the quarterback to make them all shine.
CFN in 60 Video: Texas Longhorns Preview
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– Sam Ehlinger would’ve been a mid-round draft pick, but the star quarterback returns after throwing all 32 of the team’s touchdown passes for a more efficient and dangerous attack. He’s the veteran Face of the Franchise who threw for 3,663 yards, but the team needs to get the backups some more work. Ehlinger is a pounding of a runner – he takes a whole lot of big shots.
6-1, 190-pound sophomore Casey Thompson completed 8-of-12 passes for 84 yards and ran for a score, but star recruit Hudson Card is going to push hard for the No. 2 gig.
– Is Bijan Robinson ready to be the main man for the running game? The five-star talent out of Arizona spurned all of the other big schools and left Pac-12 country for the Longhorns. The 6-1, 205-pounder can catch, has wonderful vision and balance, and he has the game-changing ability to get the ball and the work right out of the box. However, Texas already has good backs in place.
6-0, 235-pound junior Keaontay Ingram is a big back with nice hands, leading the team with 853 yards and seven scores, and catching 29 passes for 242 yards and three scores. He’s still going to be the No. 1 back, even if Robinson is thrown into the rotation early on.
6-2, 215-pound sophomore Roschon Johnson was third on the team with 649 yards and seven scores – averaging over five yards per carry – and senior Daniel Young is a reliable veteran.
Now the offensive line has to do a bit more.
Samuel Cosmi is one of the nation’s best left tackles – he has top ten overall NFL draft pick potential – and the rest of the line has to fill in around him. Derek Kerstetter can work at guard or center, senior Denzel Okafor should work at right tackle, and there are just enough decent options to fill in the spots. This group will power away for the ground game, but the pass protection has to be a whole lot stronger.