texas Longhorns Season Preview
New coach, new quarterback, and in 2025 a new conference. Much has changed since the Texas Longhorns’ Alamo Bowl victory over Colorado in January. Steve Sarkisian – the coordinator of Alabama’s national championship winning offense – replaced the oft derided Tom Herman as the head coach. Cult hero and quarterback Sam Ehlinger is now an Indianapolis Colt and the school has announced plans to leave the Big 12 and join the SEC from 2025 (or until their lawyers find a way to break their Big 12 TV deal earlier). For much of the offseason, the narrative was of anything but football; but with fall camp beginning this week, that will soon change.
The One's to Watch: Robinson and Overshown
Very few players in the last decade have excited Longhorns fans like Bijan Robinson. The sophomore running back out of Arizona showed glimpses of superstardom in limited chances last year. The limited nature of those chances are one of the reasons Tom Herman is no longer in charge of this program. Sarkisian cannot afford to make the same mistake. With a new quarterback under center, Robinson is sure to shoulder the bulk of the offensive load this year, a statement that should excite not only Longhorn fans, but fans of the sport as a whole. Robinson’s explosive play style and penchant for popping off long touchdown runs make him the biggest weapon for Sark in year 1. After seeing what Sark did for Najee Harris, Robinson is sure to become one of the must watch players in CFB over the next two seasons.
With 27 starts under his belt, linebacker DeMarvion Overshown is the leader of a Texas Longhorns defense that has the potential to be frisky this season. An awesome athlete with a safety background, Overshown can make plays in all areas of the game. Long and fluid in coverage, the duo of ‘DO’ and senior corner Josh Thompson could make life tough for the offenses in the Big 12. Add in ‘Snacks’ Coburn on the defensive line and D’Shawn Jamison at the other corner spot and for the first time in a long time, the Texas Longhorns have elite defensive talent at every level. If they can keep opposing teams to less than 30 points, particularly early in the season, it will lift a lot of the pressure on the offense.
A Quarterback Battle: Thompson vs Card
The highlight of the upcoming fall camp is sure to be the battle between Hudson Card and Casey Thompson for the starting quarterback spot. Thompson comes in as the favourite after his virtuoso showing in the Alamo Bowl in January, where he went 8/10 for 170 yards and 4 touchdowns. Card on the other hand, hasn’t seen much worthwhile action during his time at Texas thus far. However, the former Lake Travis HS standout has pedigree. Coming from the same high school as Cleveland Browns’ signal caller Baker Mayfield, Card has a strong arm and good athletic profile. The battle between these two signal callers is sure to be interesting and will drive the majority of the storylines in fall camp. Whichever guy wins the starting job is sure to provide an intriguing option for the Texas Longhorns offense this fall.
Evaluating the Schedule
The Texas Longhorns’ schedule is far from kind to new head coach Steve Sarkisian. The opener against Louisiana-Lafayette is the ultimate lose/lose game for the Longhorns. Win against a tough opponent who beat conference rival Iowa State last year and you wont receive much fanfare, but lose and the pressure is cranked up from the get-go. Things don’t let up in week 2 either, as Texas heads to Arkansas in a game that will be live on prime time on ESPN. Similar to the game in week 1, Arkansas are a program with low name recognition, but a far better team on the field. Head coach Sam Pittman has helped the program make huge strides and the Texas Longhorns will again find this game a tough one to win. Come out of these first two weeks 0-2 and it will be a long season for Longhorns fans.
After another out of conference game against Rice, the Texas Longhorns head into conference play. Outside of the Red River Rivalry game, the toughest matchups will probably come in Ames against Iowa State and in Fort Worth against TCU. Winning in Ames – given where in the CFB cycle both programs are – would be very unexpected, whilst TCU are always a tough outfit to beat at home. It would be pretty disastrous, but a 7-5 season is well within the realms of possibility for the Texas Longhorns. I feel 8-4 is a more appropriate prediction, and 9-3 is very possible if the offense can click early. Fans will do well to remember that Sark isn’t going to fix things overnight.
The build to the first scheduled year in the SEC (the 2025 season) should be just that, a building project. With the reputation of the program close to as low as it has been in recent times, the Longhorns have a long way to go.
