Texas Football: Ranking the difficulty of every opponent in 2018

Much of the discussion surrounding the Texas-USC meeting for 2018 revolves around the quarterback play. Former USC star quarterback Sam Darnold is now with the New York Jets as a 2018 NFL Draft selection. USC has one of the most intriguing quarterback battles to follow heading into fall camp.

Now, another highly-touted incoming freshman quarterback looks to take the reigns of the USC offense. It does seem like every other year USC has the potential answer from a four or five-star quarterback signee. This situation tends to work out less often than expected.

To-be true freshman quarterback J.T. Daniels appears to be the best choice to start Week 1 for the Trojans. Yet, USC head coach Clay Helton doesn’t have too much time to get the offense in sync if Daniels is shaky early in the regular season before his team travels to Austin to face the Horns.

USC is likely to be similar to TCU in the sense that it will rely on a talented defense and a boatload of weapons at the skill positions. The defense is led by a pair of seniors in linebacker Cameron Smith and safety Marvin Tell. Both Smith and Tell could be first round 2019 NFL Draft picks next year, and they’ll have a chip on their shoulder to shut down the Texas offense more so than they did in 2017.

To shut down this offense, Texas should come in with a similar gameplan that it had last year by drawing some turnovers from Darnold. In a primetime matchup under the lights at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Daniels or redshirt freshman Jack Sears will have a ton of pressure to deal with under center. If Texas can get in the face of a young USC quarterback and hold the likes of sophomore running back Stephen Carr and two premier wide receivers in Michael Pittman Jr. and Tyler Vaughns at bay, this could be a huge early season victory for the Horns.