Kyle Langston
June 25th, 2018. Sporting News releases their 2018 college football power rankings ahead of the upcoming season. The top of the list highlights the usual suspects including Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, and Ohio State. The rest of the list features some surprises, like placing an unproven Oklahoma team at five. Additionally, positioning the defending national champions (UCF) as low as 16 could merit some backlash. We are here today though, to question why on God's green earth the University of Texas is starting out the season in the top 25...again.
Going back as far as the 2016 season, Sporting News has given the Longhorns a spot in their preseason rankings every year, and every year Texas makes them pay for it. In 2016 Sporting News introduced Texas at the 24th spot in their power rankings. This after a 2015 season in which the Longhorns went 5-7 including an embarrassing 50-7 loss at the hands of TCU. The reason given was that in 2016 the Longhorns finished the recruiting cycle with the 10th best recruiting class (247sports).
In 2016 however, head coach Charlie Strong and the Longhorns finished another disappointing 5-7 season. This one highlighted by a defense that gave up 31.5 ppg. It is hard to imagine putting a team of this caliber among the top 25 in 2017, but low and behold Sporting News actually improved the Longhorns ranking, moving them all the way up to the 21st spot. The reason why you ask? Texas garnered the 25th best recruiting class of the 2017 cycle (247sports).
In 2017, under new head coach Tom Herman, the Longhorns entered the season opener against Maryland ranked 23rd in the AP poll, where they proceeded to give up 51 points and lose in Austin. The Longhorns did make an improvement over the previous two years with a 7-5 season capped by a 33-16 win over Missouri in the Texas Bowl.
This past season was indeed a step in the right direction for the Longhorns, but nothing that would merit a top 25 ranking going in to the upcoming 2018 campaign. Yet just under two months ahead of the opener, Sporting News released its power rankings for the upcoming season including the burnt orange and white sitting comfortably in the 22nd spot. Why would a team finishing 6th in the Big Twelve be ranked in the top 25 the following season? Yep, you guessed it. The Longhorns scored the third best recruiting class in the nation for 2018.
It wouldn't be right to lay into Sporting News when they are not the only one making this mistake. Athlon Sports ranked the Longhorns at 20th in the nation in their first preseason poll, and 247 Sports' Phil Steele curiously placed them at 10th in the nation. The list doesn't stop there, but that's enough to prove a point. Why haven't these self-proclaimed preseason experts caught on to this blatant trend of overrating Texas? I believe it stems from a generational nostalgia impacting sports writers everywhere.
Thirteen years ago, the Longhorns won the 2005 Rose Bowl. The highly anticipated clash between Vince Young and Reggie Bush culminated in Young famously scrambling into the corner of the end zone on 4th and 5 to win what many call the greatest National Championship ever. Adolescent college football fans watched on in awe as the confetti fell over number 10 as he hoisted the trophy. Some of those kids have now gone on to become college sports writers, and with Texas failing to do its part to stay relevant these writers feel like it is their job to do it for them.
It is high time the media realize that this is not Mack Brown's 2005 Longhorn squad, nor will it be for the foreseeable future. It is possible for Tom Herman to bring greatness back to Austin, but until he does they should not be given the benefit of the doubt every season. It is unfair to the coaches, players, and fans to hold them to a higher standard than they are capable of.
Obvious sour grapes from a Baylor fan. Nothing to see here. You are obsessed with a team barely getting ranked in a worthless pre season poll. No one else puts any stock in it, neither should you.
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