Are the Texas Longhorns back? (The 2022 version)
Are the Texas Longhorns back? Coming off of a 5-7 season, there is reason to believe in Austin, Texas. They have a new highly touted quarterback that transferred from Ohio State, a well-known offense factory. Additionally, the Texas Longhorns make their sixth consecutive appearance in the Preseason USA Today Coaches Poll. Obviously, this is not new for the Longhorns. This year, however, one coach gave them a first-place vote. Let’s hear some of the guesses as to which coach voted the Texas Longhorns number one.
Ouch, that’s a theory and not one with a lot of confidence in Texas built into it. Lance Leipold, Kansas’ head coach, is a voter this year, so this is possible.
This message board genius has said what I was thinking. Saban might not have any reason to try to inflate the perception of his schedule, as he is going to be in the College Football Playoff barring an unrealistically bad season. However, the networks love it when there are two teams with numbers next to their names. Also, Nick Saban is a voter this year.
I don’t get this one. Mike Leach’s Mississippi State team does not play Texas this year (though they do play Texas A&M). He did coach at Texas Tech, which is possibly the connection that is being attempted here, but that didn’t exactly end well. Additionally, Mike Leach does not have a vote in the poll this year.
We have established that it was probably Nick Saban, arguably the best college coach ever, that voted Texas number one. He probably knows something about who is good, right? How do fans feel about this? Are they amped up for the season?
Answer: not really. While most of what this individual says is fairly pragmatic, I don’t know that a team can be ranked ‘0’. Still, the skepticism is understandable considering the last five years of being ranked in the preseason and falling short of expectations. What else is being said?
Good point. With high expectations comes bigger benefits in the way of recruitment and media coverage. That isn’t exactly a “we’re back” but we are getting closer. What else do we have?
A top 10 offense coupled with a top 30 defense will almost certainly win the Big XII. Baylor, last year’s champion, was the 53rd ranked offense and the 31st ranked defense, for comparison. Texas, had the 47th ranked offense and the 100th ranked defense. So Texas might have some room for improvement, right?
We have now come back to reality.
Texas, the 18th ranked team in the country, according to Texas Longhorn fans, is not back. It is true that someone voted them as the top team in the nation, but most of the fanbase are more skeptical than excited about that. The real premise, however, that helps us conclude that Texas is not back is that they were a 5-7 team last year with a loss to Kansas. To clarify, they lost to Kansas in football, not basketball (although they did that too). That is something that takes more than being ranked in a poll or receiving a first-place vote to come back from.
Follow Hawkguy Matt on Twitter @hawkguymatt
Special thank you to @steadyeddy for the main image for this article
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