The “best” loss – Texas Longhorns
The media circus that followed Tom Herman from Houston to Austin was hard to ignore. He was the man who was supposed to usher in a new era of dominance for the Longhorns. At least for right now, the witty catch phrase “Texas is back” can only be ended with “at the bottom of the Big 12.”
Charlies Strong (2-0 with South Florida this season) might not have been the problem after all. One game is not enough to declare systemic issues at the University of Texas, but it wasn’t the start that the burnt orange faithful were expecting.
More: 3 things we learned from Texas’ loss to Maryland
ESPN FPI gave the Longhorns an 88.2 percent chance of winning on Saturday. Maryland is not an elite team, but they proved they’re no pushover either. The Terps went 6-7 last season in the Big Ten. They were blown out by the elite squads (Michigan and Ohio State) but managed to at least hang around with some of the middle-of-the-road teams on their schedule like Boston College (L, 30-36), UCF (W, 30-24), Michigan State (W, 28-17) and Indiana (L, 36-42).
While the Longhorns had higher expectations this season than the Bears, and perhaps their home loss to Maryland wasn’t the most surprising upset of the weekend. The absolute shredding of their defense was shocking, but the loss itself, while painful, wasn’t the most egregious.