With the 2020 college football season now almost a week behind us, let’s take one last look at the highs and lows of this past year.
The Longhorns and then head coach Tom Herman had high hopes for the season. Some, including ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit, viewed Texas as a team that could contend for the College Football Playoff.
Herman’s squad was returning a large portion of their starters from 2019, led behind four-year starter Sam Ehlinger. The only real question was who would emerge at the wide receiver position with the losses of Collin Johnson and Devin Duvernay to the NFL. Tarik Black transferred in from Michigan to compete with leading receiver Brennan Eagles. Jake Smith was expected to take on a much bigger role, Jordan Whittington switched to wide receiver and Joshua Moore returned.
There was plenty to be excited about.
Defensively, their best defender in Joseph Ossai would take on a pass rush role in Chris Ash’s defense as the ‘Jack.’ DeMarvion Overshown would move to linebacker alongside Juwan Mitchell. Not to mention, the secondary was very experienced with D’Shawn Jamison, Chris Brown, Caden Sterns and Josh Thompson.
Somehow, the excitement quickly unraveled for the Longhorns.
Back-to-back losses early in the season doomed this team. They would need to win every remaining game on their schedule to have a shot at a Big 12 title. Those dreams came crashing down against Iowa State when Texas blew a 20-13 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Texas finished with an overall record of 7-3. However, given the expectation level for this team, it felt more like a disappointment. In our final look back, we viewed the total snaps for each of the top players and our end of the season grades for each position.
