Another landmark in the march towards the season happened yesterday. The preseason coaches poll came out, with the Longhorns landing at No. 4 in the country, trailing Ohio State, Georgia and Oregon. As you can see, one of the Longhorns opponents occupies the top spot according to the coaches around the country. That is far from the end when it comes to Texas opponents that made the cut.
Texas avoids Georgia, but then catches the next three highest ranked SEC teams(Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Ole Miss). Another Texas opponent, LSU, comes in at 13. Finally, the last two SEC teams to make the cut(Tennessee and Missouri) both appear on the Longhorns schedule. That’s seven top 25 teams Texas will line up across from this season(most in country), including four top 10 teams.
On top of the tough opponents, very few of the games will be at home for the Longhorns Of the seven top 25 teams Texas plays, just two of them will have to travel to Austin for the game.
Ohio State will travel to Texas in Week 2, an advantage over the only team ranked above Texas. Texas will travel to Tennessee before playing in the Cotton Bowl against Oklahoma. The only other top 25 team they’ll play at home is Ole Miss on October 24th. In November, Texas will play at Missouri, LSU and Texas A&M, rounding out the gauntlet.
Texas enters this season with “title or bust” expectations. To fulfill those, they’ll have to navigate a schedule with a remarkable amount of landmines. Those seven games we discussed don’t include a very talented Florida team or a dangerous, Kamario Taylor-led Mississippi State. Point being, if Texas has to go 10-2 to make the CFP like last season, they could have to beat five(or more) ranked opponents to do it.
This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Coaches poll reinforces idea of Longhorns schedule being a ‘gauntlet’
Reporting by Tommy Bresee, Longhorns Wire / Longhorns Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tommy Bresee, Longhorns Wire | USA TODAY Network
