Football is back. We are less than five hours from the first college games of the season kicking off. As a primer to the season, the HornSports staff has compiled their official predictions for the coming season.
Will Baizer
Texas starts off the season with a loss to a much more experienced and overall better Notre Dame team on their home turf in a closer than expected contest. The team then cruises past a Rice team that is much improved but lacks the talent and size to match with the Longhorns. The next week Texas get pulled into an old fashioned shootout vs. the “Goffense” and his incredible corp of wide receivers who take our secondary for a ride. Luckily the Cal secondary is one of the worst in the nation and Swoopes has a fun time lobbing bombs over their heads to Armanti Foreman opening up the gates for Jonathon Gray to have a great game. From there the Longhorns head into conference play and barely squeak by Oklahoma State as their quarterback is not as good as they thought he was, and their offensive line still has problems. Traveling to TCU we come back with a loss. TCU’s defense is an even match for our offense, but their offense outplays the Texas defense by a hair.　
Texas next travels to Dallas in what is always the biggest game of the year to play the Sooners. Oklahoma by this time has once again been exposed and Texas will head in just as things are beginning to unravel for Stoops and Co. They come out of Dallas with a victory and a golden cowboy hat. Sitting at 4-2, the Longhorns face their real arch-nemesis, the Purple-Wizard (aka Bill Synder). As is tradition he tears the Longhorns apart and rips out the heart of Longhorns fans once again. To brighten our spirits the Longhorns feast on the lowly Cyclones and Jayhawks. And just when everything is looking up, the Longhorns trip on their way through Morgantown in an overtime loss in a hostile environment. Couches will burn. We rebound, finally winning a Thanksgiving day game, but it’s only over the Red Raiders *disappointed crowd*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYcS7ytNyB0
Texas then goes into Waco and loses to Art Briles and his bunch. Briles gets a Big XII trophy and thanks the Longhorns for his pay raise. Ending off the regular season 7-5 Texas then goes to either the Liberty Bowl or Texas Bowl, whichever bowl Texas A&M is not in.
Predicted Record: 7-5
Bowl Prediction: Liberty Bowl/Texas Bowl
Jon Nemec
This is really tough for me, because I look down Texas’ schedule and the first point I notice is just how tough the first five to six weeks are going to be. I think we will find out what this Texas team is all about fast. The young players are going to have to grow up quickly. With a heavy reliance on freshman I think there is a good chance it can be bumpy at the beginning. I really only see four games that I feel like the Horns are more likely to lose than win. They are Notre Dame, TCU, OU, and Baylor.
I think there is a good chance Texas can steal two of those games and the most likely candidates are Notre Dame and OU. It’s not likely Texas wins nine to ten games this year, but I think they are capable of it. Texas beats the teams they should, and lose to the ones they should. Don’t sell the Horns short though, I think Texas will win one that most people think they shouldn’t. This 8-4 record sends Texas to sunny Orlando to play in the Russell Athletic Bowl.
Hey, there are worse places than Orlando to spend a week of almost vacation.
Predicted Record: 8-4
Bowl Prediction: Russell Athletic Bowl
　
Aaron Carrara
Year 2 of the Charlie Strong era at Texas brings a more mature Tyrone Swoopes at quarterback coupled with a more experienced offensive line. The team lost leading receivers John Harris and Jaxson Shipley, but Marcus Johnson and a host of wideout playmakers are waiting in the wings to make names for themselves. The offensive weapon potential is there for the Longhorns, but will the Watson/Wickline recipe contain the right measurement of ingredients to make the Longhorns a better-than average team on offense?
On defense Texas returns only 5 starters. The secondary is young and filling in the linebacker positions vacated by Steve Edmonds and Jordan Hicks will be challenging – even with the tremendous potential at-hand. Lightly put, the defense as a whole is short on experience and in depth.
At Big 12 Media Days Charlie Strong reiterated that last year’s 6-7 record will “never be good enough at the University of Texas.”
With a challenging 2015 schedule that ranks Top-20 in the country, Strong will have his work cut out to improve on the team’s 2014 campaign.
The Longhorns open the season with a legit non-conference game against Notre Dame in South Bend and finish the season against Baylor. In between it gets no easier – the Longhorns will need to perform every week.
Predicted Record: On paper, Texas is a 7-win team, but I think the Longhorns win an away game they aren’t supposed to win this season (@Notre Dame, @TCU or @Baylor) and finish with an 8-4 regular season record.
Bowl Prediction: Russell Athletic Bowl
　
Mike Roach
Year two of Charlie Strong presents a lot of the same issues as year one. The most questions once again surround the quarterback position in Austin. It’s clear that even though Tyrone Swoopes “won” the quarterback competition in practice, neither he nor Jerrod Heard set the world on fire. Much like last year, they will field a solid defense who should expect a drop off early on due to youth and inexperience. The offensive line unit should be better, and the backfield has more explosive ability going into this campaign. For the Longhorns to succeed they will need average to above average play from whoever is taking the snaps. Texas must minimize the mistakes made pre-snap, as well as the turnovers that position was responsible for last season. If Texas can get elevated play from the quarterback they might have a chance to turn in a pretty encouraging performance. The first half of the schedule is absolutely brutal for Texas as they open at Notre Dame and then travel to Ft. Worth to face TCU before taking on Oklahoma the following weekend in Dallas. The Horns could find themselves looking at 2-3 or 1-4 out of the gate if they aren’t careful. The back half of the schedule is a bit more forgiving, but trips to Morgantown in November and Waco in December are hostile environments for this team. If the Longhorns can steal some momentum in the front half, they might be able to carry it on into the later part of the season. By looking at the schedule you can see Texas somewhere between 6-9 wins being likely.
Predicted Record: 7-5 (Losses to Notre Dame, TCU, Kansas State, West Virginia, Baylor).
Bowl Prediction: Russell Athletic Bowl
　
Ryan Bridges
A close loss in South Bend to open the season will motivate the team to big wins over Rice and Cal. They’ll get cocky like young teams do and drop the Oklahoma State game. TCU is a closer one than most fans will expect — the Longhorns will be the first team on the Horned Frogs’ schedule to show that their 2014 season was an anomaly. Both Texas and Oklahoma left Dallas last year knowing Texas should have won, and the Longhorns will get their revenge Oct. 10 in an upset (though so many people are calling this upset right now that it may not be an upset by the time we get there). A bye week does the Longhorns no good and Purple Kryptonite takes them down at home. The Wildcats will be in the middle of an ugly stretch (at Oklahoma state, TCU, Oklahoma, at Texas, BYE, Baylor) but Texas seemed utterly clueless as to how to attack their defense last season. Texas rebounds by creaming the bottom of the Big 12 — Iowa State, Kansas, West Virginia. The Red Raiders get another reminder that they made an enormous mistake hiring — and then extending the contract of — Ryan Gosling. That one won’t be close. Finally, Baylor clinches its third straight conference title with a win over Texas in Waco. The game was closer than the scoreboard indicated last year, and it’ll be relatively close again, but the Longhorns are still a year away from unseating the Bears. Texas ends up in Memphis on Jan. 2 for the Liberty Bowl against an SEC opponent not named Texas A&M because they’ll dodge the Longhorns … again.
Predicted Record: 7-5
Bowl Prediction: Liberty Bowl
Chris Flanagan
I predicted in my Big 12 rankings columns that the Longhorns will go 8-4 and I will stick by that prediction.
Texas will lose to Notre Dame but not by much but they will beat a good Cal team. They will also beat Oklahoma because they just will.
8 wins with such a young roster will bolster the Longhorns into 2016 with a lot of hype. That might be a bad thing but that’s another conversation for another day.
The Longhorns are being relatively overlooked but they will re-establish some of that Texas swagger this season.
Predicted Record: 8-4 (6-3 Big 12)
Bowl Prediction: Liberty Bowl
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