Texas Football: 5 takeaways from the 2018 regular season

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DALLAS, TX – OCTOBER 06: Sam Ehlinger #11 of the Texas Longhorns smiles as he runs into the endzone for a touchdown against the Oklahoma Sooners in the second quarter of the 2018 AT&T Red River Showdown at Cotton Bowl on October 6, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /

2. Flip in the balance of power in the Big 12

Coming into the 2018 campaign, the Big 12 was expected to be a battle between the Sooners and TCU Horned Frogs for the second straight year. Oklahoma and TCU played in the renewed Big 12 Championship Game last year and both started out in the top 20 of both preseason polls this year. Oklahoma lived up to the hype while TCU fell off behind a swell of injuries and suspensions.

Some of the other teams that were contenders at some point over the last four or five years in the Big 12 have fallen out of relevance in the standings too. Oklahoma State, TCU, and Baylor are the main teams that took hold of the Big 12 while the Horns were sitting in the middle of the pack in the conference standings.

This year saw the restoration of power, as many expected for a while now, between the Red River programs. Oklahoma and Texas football finished as the top two teams in the Big 12 standings this year, and that should be the outlook for the 2019 campaign too. The balance of power for Texas and Oklahoma in the Big 12 seems to be restored, beyond other teams like Oklahoma State and TCU.

If Texas had got the best of the Sooners in the Big 12 Championship Game, then this could be a squad that was searching for its 11th win of the season and a top five 2019 preseason rankings could’ve been looming. However, this was still a very successful regular season that saw the Horns emerge as one of the three clear best teams in the Big 12 alongside Oklahoma and West Virginia.

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