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Texas Football: 5 thoughts halfway through the regular season

By Andrew Miller

DALLAS, TX - OCTOBER 06: Jeffrey McCulloch #23 of the Texas Longhorns celebrates a win against Oklahoma Sooners in the 2018 AT&T Red River Showdown at Cotton Bowl on October 6, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
DALLAS, TX - OCTOBER 06: Jeffrey McCulloch #23 of the Texas Longhorns celebrates a win against Oklahoma Sooners in the 2018 AT&T Red River Showdown at Cotton Bowl on October 6, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /
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LUBBOCK, TX – SEPTEMBER 15: Alan Bowman #10 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders stands on the sidelines during the 4th quarter of the game against the Houston Cougars on September 15, 2018 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech won the game 63-49. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TX – SEPTEMBER 15: Alan Bowman #10 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders stands on the sidelines during the 4th quarter of the game against the Houston Cougars on September 15, 2018 at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas. Texas Tech won the game 63-49. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /

1. Rivals watch out

Texas already mopped up two of its biggest matchups with its biggest rivals. TCU and Oklahoma both fell short against the Horns this year. Those were the two teams that played in the Big 12 Championship Game last season, and Texas took care of both of them within the first six games of the 2018 campaign.

Still on the horizon are some key matchups with rivals like the Texas Tech Red Raiders and Baylor. It’s hard to call Baylor a “huge” rival for the Horns, but it’s still an in-state conference battle that could test Texas coming off such a tough stretch at the beginning of the regular season. It’s easy to overlook games like those.

Texas Tech might actually be one of the five best Big 12 teams this fall even when most pundits counted them out completely. Head coach Kliff Kingsbury has the team on a good track with a decent defense and a very talented, but hurt at this moment, true freshman quarterback in Alan Bowman.

Next. Takeaways from wild Red River Shootout win. dark

Now that Texas is past the two toughest rivals of the season, the rest down the road shouldn’t be as much of a problem. Yet, if the Horns do meet up with a team like Oklahoma or TCU again in the 2018 Big 12 Championship Game, this level of effort cannot be lost. The way Texas took care of the first three conference opponents of the year, games like the one in Week 7 against Baylor could get pretty ugly.

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