Texas Longhorns football predictions

Josh Pate predicts Texas’ ceiling, floor and most likely record

Josh Pate says Texas’ most likely record is 11-1.

Burnt orange fever has reached Nashville. Another respected analyst has the Texas Longhorns winning the Big 12.

Josh Pate of the Late Kick podcast continued his series on setting ceilings and floors for college football teams. His predictions for Texas might surprise you. Pate set the same ceiling and floor that I did earlier this week. He has a 12-0 ceiling for the Longhorns with a 7-5 floor for the team. Pate shared his thoughts on why Texas should be considered as dangerous.

“Are you buying into Texas hype? Well, look. Apparently I am. But I don’t think it’s hype, I think there’s substance behind it. … Take the (Texas) logo away. Just look at the football players, and put Alabama jerseys on ’em or put Michigan jersey’s on ’em. You wouldn’t think this team’s about to do some big things or you wouldn’t think that team has potential? If you put Southern Cal uniforms on this Texas team every one of you would have them in the playoff.”

The college football analyst cites Texas’ defense and offensive line as substantive pieces that could lead it to a championship. Both of those components have been lacking on the Forty Acres for much of the last decade. But his high ceiling isn’t the biggest takeaway from his thoughts on Texas.

More surprising than the high ceiling is Pate’s most likely record prediction for the team. He believes the Longhorns’ most likely finish is an 11-1 season, which he indicated would be his prediction for the team. That would likely result in a College Football Playoff berth for the team.

I am not as high on the Longhorns as Pate, but the overwhelming talent advantage makes a 10-2 finish highly possible if not likely on the year. If Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian masters some of the nuances of the head coaching position, an 11-win season is certainly on the table.

Final game-by-game predictions for the Texas football season

Let’s predict the 2023 season for Texas after offseason developments.

There’s only one more Saturday without college football before the 2023 season kicks off. Our opinions are starting to solidify.

We recently shared our standings prediction, but given Iowa State’s betting scandal our prediction changes. We don’t think the Cyclones will beat the Longhorns without an experienced starting quarterback. And there’s a real possibility that’s what Iowa State will be up against when game planning to defeat Texas.

There are only a handful of games Texas could lose given roster depth and talent advantages. The Longhorns’ most likely losses would come against Alabama, Baylor and TCU on the road, Oklahoma on a neutral site and Kansas State and Texas Tech at home. Some of those games are still extremely unlikely losses.

Let’s predict the 2023 season for Texas.

Texas Football: Game-by-game predictions and storylines ahead of fall camp

Here are pre-camp predictions and storylines for each game on Texas’ schedule this season.

Fall camp begins in Austin soon, and we have a good idea what team will take the field in the season opener. While starting positions are still up for grabs, the roster that will emerge from the tunnel is now on campus.

Freshmen offensive linemen will show whether or not they are ready for playing time. Certainly, they will look lost at times, as we have often seen from returning linemen. We will see which five have the strongest grasp of the offense and work the best together.

Linebackers could determine what defense Texas most often deploys. Pete Kwiatkowski would welcome the emergence of David Gbenda or Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey as reliable linebacking options.

Here is a look at how I see the 2022 college football season playing out for Texas, along with potential storylines ahead of each matchup.

Texas QB Quinn Ewers will be good, but how soon?

Bobby Burton of Inside Texas shares his belief in Quinn Ewers.

Inside Texas’ Bobby Burton believes Quinn Ewers will be a good quarterback. The only question he has is how soon Ewers will meet that standard.

Paul Wadlington and Burton discussed a number of things in Wadlington’s “Everyone Gets a Trophy” podcast. In their most interesting topic, they weighed in on whether this Texas team will live up to expectations. According to both, it all hinges on how soon they get great quarterback play.

Burton had the following to say about the 2022 football team, starting at the 40:28 mark.

If they get (good quarterback play), I think the offense can be terrific. Because everything else is there. I can’t remember a skill position group at all positions, other than quarterback, that were this loaded. … I think Quinn Ewers is going to be good. Is he gonna be good (early), or is he gonna be good eight games in after Texas is already 4-4?

Wadlington echoed the importance of quarterback stating: “If the quarterback plays well enough, the offensive line won’t matter much. And the lesser the quarterback plays, the more the offensive line will matter.”

Texas figures to have an excellent team next year should they bring back Ewers, Xavier Worthy and Isaiah Neyor. To be great this season, Ewers or the young line will need to vastly improve their respective positions.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbz52bnpekkafqb player_id=none image=https://longhornswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

[pickup_prop id=”21118″]