Texas Football: Game-by-game predictions for the Longhorns in 2019
Week 1
Opponent: Louisiana Tech Bulldogs
Date: Aug. 31
Location: Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium (Austin, TX)
The start of the 2019 Texas football regular season comes against a tougher Group of Five opponent than there was in 2018. The more challenging part for the Longhorns with that will be the fact that they nearly fell short against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane last season at home in Week 2.
But Louisiana Tech is going to bring a consistent and explosive offense and a very inexperienced defense to the Forty Acres on the final day of the month of August. The Longhorns need to take advantage of that hapless and inexperienced defense for Louisiana Tech head coach Skip Holtz.
Shutting down three headed monster for the Louisiana Tech offense that is senior quarterback J’Mar Smith, redshirt senior running back Jaquis Dancy, and junior wide receiver Adrian Hardy is key. If Texas gets a huge effort here from one of their new starting cornerbacks and sophomore safety Caden Sterns, it will go miles to help the Longhorns claim the victory.
In this game, I think Texas will take control early in the second half. But it could take a while for junior quarterback Sam Ehlinger to get up and running. Sophomore Texas running back Keaontay Ingram and senior wide receiver Collin Johnson both have 100-yard games in their respective departments.
Louisiana Tech keeps it close for two quarters, but head Texas football coach Tom Herman gets his team going early in the third quarter and never looks back.