Texas Football: Ranking 7 worst Longhorns teams since 2000

2. 2010

Record: 5-7 (2-6 Big 12)

Postseason Result: Missed bowl game

It is very hard to cycle through which Texas football season was worse between 2010 and 2016. Since 2010 was such a letdown under the former five-star highly touted Texas quarterback recruit Garrett Gilbert, it does hold one of the clear top two spots on the list.

The Longhorns had high expectations heading into the 2010 regular season with the hope that Gilbert would take steps to improve compared to what he showed in the 2009 national title game against the Crimson Tide. Instead, Gilbert seemingly took another step back in 2010 while amassing just 10 passing touchdowns compared to 17 interceptions.

Texas came into the regular season ranked No. 5 in the AP Poll and No. 4 in the Coaches Poll. But it didn’t take long for the Longhorns to be bounced from both polls for good. Starting in Week 9, the Longhorns would never find themselves near the top 25 rankings again. That was largely thanks to just two wins in Big 12 play and five overall.

The season started off fine with wins over the Rice Owls, Wyoming Cowboys, and Texas Tech. But losses in seven of the final nine games derailed any hopes the Longhorns had at even making a bowl game. This was an insane collapse just one year after making a national title game.

The 2010 campaign was the first season that saw Texas miss a bowl game since 1997 under former head coach John Mackovich.