Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Top 25 Preview: 24. Texas Longhorns



      To build excitement for the upcoming season, I will be releasing an individual team preview for each of my top 25 teams every day from now until the season starts on Thursday night. The preview continues with #24 Texas.

2013 Review
     2013 was an up and down season for Texas. The Longhorns started off the year as the preseason number 15, before losing two of its first three games to BYU and Ole Miss. They would then rebound in conference play, winning their next six games to improve to 7-2. They would then end the season by losing two of its last three games, including a 30-10 loss to Baylor in a game that decided the Big 12 champion. The Longhorns would then fall 30-7 to Oregon in the Alamo Bowl.

Season Outlook
     Texas will be missing multiple starters for the first game of the season due to suspension, although they should still be able to take care of North Texas in the opener. They then finish their last two non-conference games against BYU and UCLA. They should be able to get their revenge on BYU for the loss last year, but I don't think that Texas can withstand the offensive attack of UCLA, leaving Texas at 2-1 going into conference play. After an easy conference opening game against Kansas, the Longhorns have back to back tough games against Baylor and Oklahoma, which they could easily lose both. I think that they will be able to get a big upset in at least one of these games though, leaving them at 4-2 half way through the season. They then have an easy home game with Iowa State before back to back road games against Kansas State and Texas Tech, which I think will be two losses, leaving Texas at 5-4. They then end the season with home games against West Virginia and TCU, with a road trip to Oklahoma State sandwiched in the middle. They should be able to win all three of these games to finish out a solid season to start the Charlie Strong era in Austin.

Season Prediction
8-4 (6-3) 5th in Big 12

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