Way-too-early Top 25 projections for 2021 college football season

Texas is a bit of an enigma heading into the 2021 season. Normally the type of comprehensive bowl blowout that the Longhorns displayed in the Alamo Bowl against Colorado would result in a big bump. At the same time, though, Texas will be adjusting to life with a new coaching staff and with a new quarterback leading the offense. That should lead AP voters to put the Longhorns somewhere in the high teens in the preseason Top 25 poll.

The past few years, Texas has entered a season with high expectations and fallen flat down the homestretch. That is why Tom Herman was sent on his way from Austin and Steve Sarkisian is coming in from Tuscaloosa to try to correct course. Sarkisian’s first season will involve breaking in a new starting quarterback, after Sam Ehlinger elected to head to the NFL Draft. Here’s guessing that AP voters will privilege the boundless optimism of a new coach over the cool skepticism of a new passer.

Texas opens its season with a tough test against Sun Belt co-champion Louisiana, and their non-conference schedule also includes a trip to Arkansas and a home game against Rice in two duels against former Southwest Conference rivals. The conference slate is the standard round robin that includes the annual Red River Shootout against Oklahoma on the neutral turf of the Cotton Bowl. The talent is certainly there in Austin even with losses to the pros for Sarkisian to engineer a fast start in his Longhorns tenure.