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Texas Football: 5 bold predictions for the Longhorns in non-conference play

By Andrew Miller

LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 16: Head coach Clay Helton of the USC Trojans meets head coach Tom Herman of the Texas Longhorns at the end of the game after a 27-24 Trojan win in overtime at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on September 16, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 16: Head coach Clay Helton of the USC Trojans meets head coach Tom Herman of the Texas Longhorns at the end of the game after a 27-24 Trojan win in overtime at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on September 16, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 16: Head coach Clay Helton of the USC Trojans meets head coach Tom Herman of the Texas Longhorns at the end of the game after a 27-24 Trojan win in overtime at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on September 16, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 16: Head coach Clay Helton of the USC Trojans meets head coach Tom Herman of the Texas Longhorns at the end of the game after a 27-24 Trojan win in overtime at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on September 16, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /

To get off to a good start this year, the standard for Texas football would be to win at least two of the three non-conference games, if not go undefeated.

Texas football has a difficult road ahead throughout the non-conference part of the schedule. Three games against the Maryland Terrapins, Tulsa Golden Hurricane, and USC Trojans could give a start to a make-or-break season for head Texas football coach Tom Herman in his second year on the Forty Acres.

All of the out-of-conference matchups for the Longhorns this season come in the first month of the regular season. Those three games are also back-to-back-to-back. The rest of the regular season will compose of nine in-conference matchups that could lead up to the Big 12 Championship Game if all works out well for Texas this fall.

It is nice that the Horns get a week break in between the Maryland and USC contests. Tulsa could be a rebound team coming out of the American Athletic Conference this year, under well-respected head coach Philip Montgomery, but shouldn’t be able to compete with the Horns. Texas dominated the San Jose State Spartans in the second game of the 2017 campaign in between the losses to the Terps and Trojans.

Since this is a similar out-of-conference slate for the Horns compared to last year, it should be less of a grueling grind. Texas also gets USC at home which could help in the biggest non-conference matchup of the regular season.

There’s a laundry list of reasons to be more excited about the 2018 season for Texas football fans than there was in the past five years. We’re just days away from the beginning of the 2018 season during Labor Day Weekend with a long off-season about to be in the books.

Here’s a look at the five bold predictions for the Texas Longhorns in the three non-conference games in 2018.

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