College Football: Buy or sell top 25 teams as National Title contenders
All eyes will be on head coach Tom Herman and the Texas Longhorns in Week 1 of the season, as they take on the Maryland Terrapins at home. The non-conference slate is sure to tell us a lot about what the Horns will be like during Big 12 play.
Texas faces the USC Trojans in Week 3 in what could be a make or break game for Herman’s Horns this year. If Texas kicks off their season with at least two wins in the first three games, then they’ll be in good position to make a run in the Big 12. Yet, if they lose to both Maryland and USC, they’ll have an uphill battle in front of them against some of the better Big 12 foes.
The Big 12 has five ranked teams in the Coaches Poll this year, and Texas is the lowest ranked inside the top 25 of those squads. Texas needs to overcome at least two of the following opponents for fans to consider it a successful season: Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, West Virginia or Kansas State. Teams like TCU, Texas Tech, Baylor, and Iowa State are not going to be easy wins either.
We have to remember that we’re still talking about a team that could be looking at their fourth consecutive losing record. They also lost to Kansas last season.