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What did spring football games look like from potential playoff opponents?
Spring games for a handful of teams are complete. Some of them had our attention on Saturday. Continue reading “Impressions from potential Texas playoff opponents’ spring games”
The SEC followed a gift of a 2024 Texas schedule with another one for 2025.
Texas knows its 2025 football opponents after an announcement this week. Somehow the Longhorns managed to receive a second consecutive favorable schedule from their new league.
Head coach Steve Sarkisian’s squad drew the same conference opponents they drew for 2024. The only difference is where the games will be played. Texas will play the Arkansas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt at home. The road schedule with see Texas play Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Mississippi State. The neutral site game in Dallas against Oklahoma will count as a home game.
It’s not an easy schedule by any stretch. Texas will play Ohio State in nonconference before facing Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas A&M in SEC play.
In Ohio State and Georgia, Texas faces the two most highly touted teams for 2024. One would assume they would be around the Top 10 teams the following season. But for the first two seasons in its new conference, the SEC slate sees the Longhorns avoid matchups against Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee.
Making a College Football Playoff with Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Texas A&M on the schedule is an admittedly difficult task. Texas doesn’t have to beat Ohio State or Georgia, but it would need to beat everyone else. The rest of the SEC slate gives them a chance.
Obviously, Texas will need to reload again next offseason to contend nationally. Nevertheless, the team has to be excited about what SEC opponents it plays in 2025.
Texas will face the same 2025 SEC opponents as the 2024 season.
Texas’ SEC opponents for the 2025 college football season were released on Wednesday. Continue reading “Texas Football: Opponents for 2025 schedule revealed”
We debate whether or not Oklahoma or A&M is a more important game for the Texas Longhorns in 2024.
Rivalry games are of utmost importance. The Texas Longhorns have two of perhaps the ten best rivalries in college football with the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas A&M Aggies. For the first time since 2011, they will face both this season.
Respected Texas football analysts Bobby Burton and Gerry Hamilton sparked a debate over which game is more important for the 2024 season in particular. Hamilton gave the following thoughts on On Texas Football.
“I would say Oklahoma next year because Oklahoma won. … Brent Venables and (Danny) Stutsman celebrated on social media like, I, just name it. And it’s the first game (back against Texas A&M). Now I’ll say this, if Oklahoma beat Texas a second year in a row then the (Texas) A&M game takes on even more. But the return of the rivalry, I get what you’re saying, Bobby, but that Oklahoma (game) was a heartbreaker last year.”
Burton offered a differing opinion.
“No way. I mean, dude, you’re rekindling the rivalry with (Texas) A&M. … Is there going to be a game than an A&M person wants to win more than that? … I mean, last 100 years, is there gonna be more, I mean, no. Because Texas has had eternal scoreboard for 13 years.”
Both provide compelling sides of the discussion. Even so, given the way that Oklahoma has fared in Dallas lately, winning 16 of the last 24 matchups between the teams, the Longhorns can ill afford to lose to the Sooners this season.
Texas has weathered storms after losing rivals other than Oklahoma. In 2021, the team lost to Arkansas, 40-21. It also fell to the Baylor Bears in Waco as well as Texas Tech the following season. Albeit, another win for Venables and company in Dallas could set the tone for the future of the rivalry on the field and in recruiting. That’s something Texas will need to prevent.
A win over Oklahoma could usher the Sooners into a multi-loss season with tough matchups with which to contend against Alabama and Tennessee in Norman and Ole Miss, LSU, Missouri and Auburn on the road. Getting the upper hand in Red River could elevate the Longhorns’ ceiling moving forward.
Both rivalries are critical to determining what will be a successful season. But it’s time for Texas to start consistently beating Oklahoma in Dallas before anything else.
Which game carries more weight for #Texas in '24? Playing #OU or the #Aggies?
This morning on Coffee & Football, @BobbyBurtonOTF and @GHamiltonOTF had two different answers. Listen to the clip below for their reasoning.
Who do YOU agree with and why? #HookEm pic.twitter.com/V3t2oMxT3i
— Blake Munroe (@BlakeMunroeOTF) February 12, 2024
Texas is given 10.5 wins by FanDuel for the 2024 football season.
The Texas football hype has reached FanDuel. The site has the Longhorns’ 2024 win total set for 10.5 wins.
If we had told you two years ago that the Longhorns’ initial predicted win total in the SEC would be set at 10.5 wins few would have believed it. But the conference gave Texas a favorable schedule, and the program built itself into a college football powerhouse.
The Longhorns will face four SEC teams who had losing records in 2023 in Vanderbilt (2-10), Arkansas (4-8), Mississippi State (5-7) and Florida (5-7). In addition, they only face three true road games. Add in the return of starting quarterback Quinn Ewers and an elite offensive line plus six starter caliber transfers and Texas is poised for a big season.
The list of win totals goes as follows in the conference.
We share who we lean toward picking in every Texas football game next season.
We’re forecasting out the 2024 football schedule for the Texas Longhorns as are several others. Most view the Longhorns as legitimate College Football Playoff contenders. Others have starkly varied opinions on the team.
The vast majority view the Longhorns as a Top 10 team heading into next season. A minority of media members view Texas as a team due for a fall off, comparing the team to its 2019 iteration that went 7-5 after a Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia. But Texas returns far more impactful players than it did that season.
We expect across the country there will be some roster shakeup after spring football, but don’t anticipate much impactful roster change across the college football landscape. Let’s give our early prediction for each game on the Longhorns’ schedule.
We break down the most important games on the Longhorns’ football schedule.
There are four games that will make Texas fans most excited. Three of them take place in the state of Texas.
The Longhorns will take on the Oklahoma Sooners in Dallas before facing Georgia in Austin and Texas A&M in College Station. Those three games will command much of the attention of the Texas fanbase.
The schedule gets tougher for the Longhorns though the team could improve from a season ago. Texas will face two of the major playoff powerhouses from the last three seasons in Michigan and Georgia. This comes in addition to the team’s annual knockdown drag out battle with the rival Oklahoma Sooners and a loaded SEC slate.
Outside of those games, the ‘Horns are fortunate not to face teams like Ole Miss, LSU, Alabama, Missouri and Tennessee in 2024. All of those programs won at least nine games a year ago.
Let’s look at what Texas is up against in its four biggest games.
We look at what Michigan team Texas will face in Week 2.
The premier nonconference matchup of the 2024 football season is set for the Texas Longhorns. The Longhorns will travel to Ann Arbor to face the blue blood Michigan Wolverines.
Michigan comes off its first national title since the 1997 season. The defending national champs are usually not the team you want to draw in Week 2, but the Wolverines that Texas will face will not be the same team that won the national championship. In fact, it will be a much different team.
What Michigan loses is well documented. Its entire offensive line departs as well as nearly the entire defensive line. Starting quarterback JJ McCarthy leaves as does star running back Blake Corum, top receiving target Roman Wilson and leading tackler Junior Colson. We haven’t yet mentioned that head coach Jim Harbaugh is gone.
As you might have noticed, that leaves several key players for the Wolverines to replace. So what team will Texas face in 2024? Let’s look at what the Longhorns’ nonconference opponent could look like in Week 2 next season.
Texas dominated Alabama and won 12 games in 2023. One writer is certain that the Longhorns will fall off in 2024.
It was a warm night in Tuscaloosa in mid-September. Fans of SEC programs across the country were eager to watch Nick Saban’s Alabama squad humble Texas and prove the Longhorns an inferior Big 12 squad.
One dose of humbling was prepared for the game that night, but it wasn’t for Texas. The Longhorns bullied the Tide running away with the game with a dominant 21-point fourth quarter.
We knew Texas would have its hands full in its new conference, but this game was a warning shot at what the SEC would be up against.
The win was so decisive Alabama head coach Nick Saban began reflecting on what a great program his team had built. It was the kind of postgame press conference that had us thinking Saban would retire. And then he did.
Fans of the SEC are still dealing with Texas’ convincing defeat of Alabama in their own way. Most comically, media members who cover the conference are predicting a significant fall off for the ‘Horns.
Predictions of drop off are rolling in despite Texas having the third easiest SEC schedule. The Longhorns do, however, face a Michigan team that replaces 16 starters including eight of its nine starting linemen departing across both lines of scrimmage.
SEC Unfiltered contributor Lucas Hill writes that Texas is in for a “rude awakening.” Let’s break down a few of his claims.
The national champion Michigan Wolverines are going to look much different next season.
The Michigan Wolverines are the reigning champion of college football. They’re going to look different next season. Continue reading “2024 road game against Michigan shaping up to favor Texas”
