2013 Texas Longhorns
College Football
Preview
Odds and Schedule
The Longhorns are once again becoming relevant in the college football world. The last time they were respected this much came in 2009 when they finished the regular season undefeated and ended up losing in the National Championship Game to Alabama. The reason for this sudden respect doesn’t come from their recruiting class, but because of the maturity of others. Texas will have 18 returning starters for 2013 which can’t be said for almost anyone else.
Texas is listed at odds of roughly 40 to 1 at most sportsbooks, including 5 dimes and sportsbook.ag. That places them in the top 15 of all BCS teams.
On offense, they will be returning almost every relevant player there is although they have a new offensive coordinator with Major Applewhite. David Ash will be the main man under center and he’ll be running a new no-huddle, shotgun offense that MACk Brown implemented in the offseason. Texas will have a trio of running backs to use once again in Johnathan Gray, Joe Bergeron and Malcolm Brown. Wide receiver Marquise Goodwin is gone who averaged 30 catches in his Four years, but last year’s top two wide outs are back in Mike Davis and Jaxon Shipley. For a team that scored over 35 points per Game last year, even more points should be expected this season.
Defensively, the Longhorns have more room to work as they gave up a putrid 29 points per Game last year. They’ll be getting back linebacker Jordan Hicks who missed most of last season due to a hip injury and defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat who missed the final seven Games. With whatever players they are losing on defense, they’ll be getting back plenty of former starters that were injured for most of last year.
2013 Texas Longhorns Football Schedule
Aug. 31 vs. New Mexico State
Sept. 7 at BYU
Sept. 14 vs. Ole Miss
Sept. 21 vs. Kansas State
Oct. 5 at Iowa State
Oct. 12 vs. Oklahoma (Dallas)
Oct. 26 at TCU
Nov. 2 vs. Kansas
Nov. 9 at West Virginia
Nov. 16 vs. Oklahoma State
Nov. 28 vs. Texas Tech
Dec. 7 at Baylor
To make matters even better for this team, the Longhorns will get Kansas State and Oklahoma State at home this year. That should be an advantage although they lost more home Games than road Games last year. Ole Miss should put up a better fight than last year when they allowed 66 points, but it’s going to take a lot from them to come to Texas and get a win even though they are improved.
The Big 12 will once again be stock full of high-scoring teams across the board. However, the Longhorns are the only one returning almost every single starter which should help them to the top of the standings early on. If they can get by K State in their Big 12 opener and Oklahoma with a new quarterback just two weeks later, good things await for Texas. Their toughest road Games will be at TCU and Baylor, two teams with big aspirations this season.
If their defense can improve just a little bit from last year, this is a team that can rejoin the ranks of the elite and get up to 10 wins.