Tag: Longhorn Football

Latest ESPN FPI has Longhorns in the top 12

ESPN has released their preseason FPI rankings for the upcoming 2020 season, the Texas Longhorns come in the top 12.

Recently ESPN released their recent FPI (Football Power Index). For those unfamiliar with the FPI, here is the explanation on ESPN’s model.

The Football Power Index (FPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season. FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 10,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule. Ratings and projections update daily.

Following the Longhorns victory over the Utah Utes in the Valero Alamo Bowl ESPN released their postseason FPI. They listed Texas inside the top 20. Their FPI at that time was 13, just a few months down the road and now the Longhorns find themselves ranked 11th with a FPI of 19.6. That number is just 0.5 behind their bitter rivals, Oklahoma.

  • Oklahoma (10th) FPI-20.1
  • Oklahoma State  (17th) 13.7
  • TCU  (20th) 12.0
  • Iowa State (27th) 9.9
  • Kansas State (32nd) 8.2
  • Baylor (34th) 7.8
  • Texas Tech (41st) 6.3
  • West Virginia (45th) 5.2
  • Kansas (98th) -6.7

The Longhorns will also play the LSU Tigers this upcoming season who ranked 6th in the FPI poll at 23.7.

Texas has a projected win total of 9.5 according to their simulations. There are a multitude of reasons that their FPI would increase over a four month span which could include a whole new staff essentially and the influx of another top ten recruiting class in 2020. This seems to fall right in line where most media outlets have Texas projected when it comes to their way too early top 25 rankings.

Chris Del Conte’s savage comment and football in the fall

Locked on Longhorns Podcast returns to discuss athletic director Chris Del Conte’s latest comments on playing the Aggies plus football talk.

Patrick and Cami open the show discussing Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte’s comment on playing Texas A&M in the future. Plus an update on Ja’Quinden Jackson as he recovers from partially torn ACL in December and new contracts set to be approved by the Texas Board of Regents.

They continue their depth chart discussion as they focus on the running back position. The NCAA Chief Medical Officer Brian Hainline’s comments about fall sports making a return. Another power five school has announced they are planning on returning to the practice field in the summer, is this another step towards a return to sports?

ESPN polled over 1,000 fans on whether or not they want sports to resume without fans. The results plus how do the hosts feel about it? ESPN has released their FPI (Football Power Index), where is Texas ranked? Mel Kiper Jr has released his top 25 big board for the 2021 NFL Draft, How many Longhorns are in the conversation?

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Texas Longhorns in Mel Kipers’ top 25 big board

ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr has released his early top 25 big board for the 2021 NFL Draft class. Sam Cosmi, Joseph Ossai and Caden Sterns make it.

Recently ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr released his 2021 top 25 players* for next year’s NFL Draft. The big name on the list for the Longhorns in the 2021 class will be Sam. No, not Ehlinger but Cosmi. According to Kiper, Samuel Cosmi is listed as the second best offensive tackle in the class.

* story requires ESPN+ subscription

Cosmi comes in at number 12 on the board.

Cosmi, who started at right tackle as a redshirt freshman in 2018 then switched to left tackle last season, is a phenomenal athlete. Just watch this 12-yard touchdown reception from 2019. He has great feet and can also bowl over edge defenders in the run game. If he puts all of his talent together, he could be a top-10 pick. The Big 12 is wide open in 2020, but the Longhorns have the league’s best offensive lineman and a really solid veteran quarterback in Sam Ehlinger.

The offensive tackle is the Longhorns best shot at their first round one draft pick since 2015. Recently, former linebacker Malik Jefferson tweeted about a time that he went up against Cosmi on the scout team, he knew then how talented he was.

Kiper goes on to list his top five players of the 2021 class at each position, here is how the Longhorns stacked up.

  • Samuel Cosmi, OT, 2nd
  • Joseph Ossai, OLB, 5th
  • Caden Sterns, S, 3rd

Joseph Ossai will be an interesting study this upcoming football season. Currently slated to play in the “Jack” role for the Longhorns defense as a pass rush-linebacker hybrid on the outside. Ossai is very much built like the weakside defensive ends at the NFL level. While Kiper listed him as an outside linebacker, he could be viewed more as a pass rush specialist after the 2020 college football seasons. He finished five sacks (three came against Utah) and 13.5 tackles for loss last season, with a new focus expect those numbers to skyrocket. As will his draft stock following his junior year.

Caden Sterns has recently been receiving some first round hype in some mock drafts early on in the process. Despite that he had a down year in 2019, big things could be on the horizon for the third-year safety. Sterns only played in nine games, starting eight due to injury. The 2018 Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year could have a return to his 2018 form under new defensive coordinator Chris Ash. With the emphasis being on getting to the quarterback, there could be plenty of opportunities for Sterns to make plays on the ball or create turnovers with his punishing style.

 

Texas Athletic Director weighs in on resuming an old rivalry

Texas Longhorns’ athletic director Chris Del Conte weighed in on resuming a rivalry with the Aggies of Texas A&M and it wasn’t pretty.

One of the more burning questions surround Texas athletics outside of the COVID-19 situation has to be on rekindling an old rivalry that died in 2011. Recently Missouri and Kansas announced a return to their border war that ended with the Tigers made the jump to the Southeastern conference along with Texas A&M. Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte joined Horns 247 where he answered many questions about Texas athletics, one such question involved bringing the A&M-Texas game back to life.

The Longhorns did play the LSU Tigers this past season and have a return game in 2020 as they travel to Baton Rouge. As far as the Aggies, well CDC’s answer pretty much summed up why the Longhorns won’t be playing their long-time rivals. The Longhorns football team seems more interested in playing teams that have won a National Championship in the last 80 years.

Guess that answers that question.

Texas regents set to approve four football coaches contracts

Texas regents are set to approve raises for three Texas football coaches, while finalizing new associate head coach Mark Hagen’s contract.

Texas football is still moving right ahead amid the COVID-19 outbreak that has hindered many operations. Continue reading “Texas regents set to approve four football coaches contracts”

Rivals recruiting director lists top 10 college football helmets

Mike Farrell of Rivals recently released his top ten college football helmets, but we have a few concerns with the rankings.

At first glance, you may wonder if a toddler assisted in ranking this particular list of the top 10 college football helmets. Continue reading “Rivals recruiting director lists top 10 college football helmets”

Jordan Thomas commits, a look at the 2021 class rankings

The latest Locked on Longhorns podcast where Cami and Patrick discuss recruiting, 2020 season for two players and the men’s basketball team.

Cami and Patrick open the show to discuss the latest recruiting news. The Longhorns lost out on a top wide receiver in Quay Davis who committed to the USC Trojans. Texas did get a top defensive end in the state with the addition of Jordan Thomas as they continue to give weapons to Oscar Giles to deploy on opposing quarterbacks. An update on the 2021 recruiting class with the Texas Football rankings from Dave Campbell. How many top prospects in the state are locked in to join the Longhorns?

Pro Football Focus came out with their Big 12 rankings for the top returning cornerbacks with D’shawn Jamison coming in at number three. What is the outlook for him and Caden Sterns who is projected as a first round draft pick in 2021 according to the Draft Wire. What is the depth chart projections for quarterback?

Despite the fact that the team cannot participate in organized team activities, that hasn’t stopped Vernon Broughton II from working out with his dad. The Athletic discusses classic uniforms and Rivals’ Mike Farrell botches the top 10 helmets in college football. Plus the hype surrounding the men’s basketball team with the Jon Rothstein 45. The Longhorns make the top 20.

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Texas Recruiting: Longhorns lose out on top WR to USC

One of the top wide receivers in the state and Texas Longhorns’ target Quaydarius Davis commits to USC.

The Texas Longhorns had their eyes set on one of the top wide receivers in the state, Quaydarius Davis of Skyline (Dallas, TX). According to 247’s prospect page, Davis was rated the 17th wide receiver in the country and 17th rated player in the state according to their composite rankings. He was once committed to SMU but then changed his commitment to Texas on June 9, 2019. Only to then decommit from the Longhorns on November 11th of that same year.

Despite re-opening up his recruiting, some still felt that the Longhorns were in the running to land the state’s top receiver. However, Davis committed to the Southern California Trojans on May 1, 2020. A school that he had yet to even visit.

Ryan Young of Rivals’ USC website details how hard the Trojans were going after Davis. This could be taken as a shot at how lackadaisical the staff at Texas were in terms of targeting him to come to the Longhorns. This marks the second time in a calendar year that a receiver chose USC over Texas. Bru McCoy enrolled at Texas before transferring to USC, the school he was once committed to before eventually landing in Southern Cal.

 

Texas Offers 2023 wide receiver from Las Vegas

The Texas Longhorns have offered 2023 wide receiver Zachariah Branch of Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas. The 5’8″ wide receiver can be a weapon.

The Texas Longhorns staff have offered a 2023 wide receiver out of Las Vegas. Zachariah Branch might be small in stature but the Bishop Gorman product is one that you must keep an eye on at all times. He is very shifty and can make plenty miss in the open field leading to big plays.

Continue reading “Texas Offers 2023 wide receiver from Las Vegas”