Could Texas invade the College Football Playoffs?
Chip Patterson of CBS Sports dove into the College Football Playoff picture before the Power Five conferences kickoff the season. Who could be in the final four? Patterson brings up a valid point that each season a newbie pops into the conversation, so who is the newbie this year? He makes a case for the Texas Longhorns. So is ‘Texas back’ in the hunt?
Without a doubt, the conversations start with Oklahoma and the need not just to win the rivalry game (something Tom Herman has done) but also take care of business against the rest of the league (something Herman has not done). The Longhorns are 17-10 in Big 12 play over the last three years, and if Texas is going to make the CFP, it has to avoid bad losses. The Longhorns have fallen to an unranked conference opponent in each of Herman’s three years in Austin, Texas, and it’s those losses — not necessarily one to Oklahoma — that have to be eliminated in order for Texas to take the next step. Forget about “back.” For Texas, it should be all about “forward.” -Patterson on Texas
Patterson really hits the nail on the head, the losses to teams that they should be have really killed any momentum for the program. Playing a close game to the Kansas Jayhawks should not even be in the realm of possible A close game in that series should be Texas up three touchdowns instead of four or five. In the last several years even dating back to the Charlie Strong era, the Longhorns have lost four games each year.
Maybe it is unfair to have the same level of expectations that the program had during Mack Brown’s run when the team was in the conversation every year. Not to mention they won at minimum 10 games a season. Given the ability to get recruits to the University of Texas, there is absolutely no excuse to not perform. Which for Herman is why hiring Mike Yurcich and Chris Ash was key.
Herman needed stronger assistants because you can’t put everything on one person. If the hires boost this team this year, they could very well invade the College Football Playoffs provided they don’t get Kansas’d this year.