Texas head coach Tom Herman can rid the monkey off of his back in regards to consistency if he can find a way to power through a few tough stretches of games this season.
Towards the beginning of the season, Texas is scheduled to face LSU and Oklahoma, the two best overall opponents on their schedule. Closing out the year by facing Oklahoma State, Iowa State and TCU is no easy task either.
An early, quality nonconference loss to the Tigers wouldn’t impact the Longhorns outlook very much. However, if Texas suffers a loss to the Sooners two weeks later, it could quickly derail their season. The Longhorns can only afford one loss between these two ranked opponents.
After Texas travels to face LSU on Sep. 12, they will host a very favorable matchup with UTEP before traveling to face Kansas State. Once returning from Kansas, the Longhorns will prepare for the Red River Rivalry which is set to take place on Oct. 10.
Can defensive coordinator Chris Ash and his new scheme at Texas contain one of the nation’s top receivers in Ja’Marr Chase? Oklahoma presents an overall better passer at quarterback in Spencer Rattler, but he lacks the experience. Even Kansas State quarterback Skylar Thompson is a solid threat, who is on pace to become second-all-time in passing yards in school history.
Although UTEP is included, this presents the toughest four-game stretch for Texas this season. Of these four games, UTEP is the only team that Texas will get to face in Austin. Herman must have his players prepared to start out strong, something that has he’s been unable to accomplish recently.
Ed Orgeron and Lincoln Riley are no doubt the two top coaches that Texas will face, you can bet they’ll be ready to challenge the new coordinators in Austin. The Red River Rivalry presents enough passion and fire in itself, but Texas is also looking for revenge in a hostile environment against the Tigers.
If the Longhorns were to successfully make it through this stretch of games without a loss, they could cement themselves as a national title contender and ride that momentum all the way to the Big 12 Championship.