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Texas Football: Was Lee Corso on point in predicting Longhorns as Big 12 champs?

By Andrew Miller

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 08: Lee Corso looks on during the first quarter between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 8, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 08: Lee Corso looks on during the first quarter between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 8, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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It wasn’t too far off fetch for ESPN College GameDay’s Lee Corso to have Texas football in the 2018 Big 12 Championship Game.

The time for preseason hype is almost over for Texas football with the start of the 2018 campaign just around the corner, coming against the Maryland Terrapins on Sep. 1. An initial edition of ESPN’s College GameDay also came out on Aug. 25, with the team including Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, and Chris Fowler.

Among all the programs that tend to generate a ton of preseason hype, the Longhorns usually fit the bill of getting the most of it. Texas football is similar to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, USC Trojans, and Michigan Wolverines, in the sense that achieving a top 25 ranking in the preseason tends to be automatic now.

However, the top 25 ranking could be very warranted for the Horns this fall considering the potential turnaround in the second-year with Tom Herman at the helm. Corso seems to be buying into the Horns at least with his preseason prediction that Texas would knock off the Oklahoma Sooners in the 2018 Big 12 Championship Game to win the conference.

Texas and Oklahoma do have the two best odds to win the Big 12 this year. Yet, the Sooners are the runaway favorites again to win the conference with teams like the Oklahoma State Cowboys, TCU Horned Frogs, and West Virginia Mountaineers garnering good odds too.

The other predictions from the College GameDay staff mainly went to West Virginia and OU participating in the 2018 Big 12 Championship Game that will take place on Dec. 1 at AT&T Stadium. However, getting to the point of eight or nine regular-season wins would put the Horns at the point of truly contending for a top two spot in the conference standings.

The fact that the Big 12 doesn’t have any true contender for the College Football Playoff beyond the Sooners makes for an open race below them this year. Texas, TCU, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, and the Kansas State Wildcats should all compete for a chance to knock off the Sooners at the top of the Big 12.

A realistic expectation for the Horns first makes for an eight or nine-win season. If that means falling short of the Big 12 Championship Game this year, that’s ok. Improving off the seven-win mark from last season and some progress coming from sophomore quarterback Sam Ehlinger would make for a successful season.

Next. 5 2019 commits to watch for the Longhorns in high school this fall. dark

Yet, the point here is that Corso might not be too far off by taking the Horns as a team to compete in the Big 12 Championship Game. Knocking off the Sooners once or twice this season might be a bit of a stretch when it’s all said and done.

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