Texas Football: Where initial SP+ rankings slotted Longhorns

Yet another list of preseason rankings, this time ESPN’s SP+ projections, placed the Texas football program in the top 20 for the 2020 season.

ESPN released a bevy of initial rankings early this week for the 2020 college football season that is still a long ways away from kicking off. And a lot of those initial releases of rankings involved the Texas football program up pretty high on the lists. Head coach Tom Herman likely isn’t focused on any of the way-too-early rankings being released for his team, though.

But one of the most significant lists released so far involving the Texas Longhorns football program among the preseason rankings came from ESPN’s Bill Connelly, with his famed SP+ projections. Connelly released his first set of SP+ projections for the 2020 college football season on Feb. 17, and it included the Longhorns pretty high on the list.

Moreover, Connelly mentioned at the beginning of this piece that the projections were pretty much entirely based on three factors: returning production (where Texas was ranked No. 21), recent recruiting, and recent history. Texas does well to some degree in all three of those categories.

Texas rang in at No. 14 on the initial set of SP+ projections for 2020. Given the fact that they hauled in a top 10 ranked recruiting class in the nation for the third straight year and are coming off an Alamo Bowl win over the No. 11 ranked Utah Utes, these projections should stack up in their favor. Texas is also just a year removed from their Sugar Bowl win over the Georgia Bulldogs and their first 10-win season since 2009.

Here’s what the article dug in on particularly in regard to the placement of Texas and the former Big 12 foe Nebraska Cornhuskers in these projections.

"That was last year, however. This time around, the Horns and Huskers might be … gasp … underrated? Texas just signed another elite recruiting class and, more importantly for SP+’s purposes, brings back quarterback Sam Ehlinger and a defense with infinitely more experience, especially in the secondary. Nebraska returns almost everyone on offense and is projected to make a major leap there. Defense could still hold the Huskers back, but they’re experienced in the secondary, at least."

Other significant teams to watch in the projections were the No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners, No. 21 Oklahoma State Cowboys, No. 6 LSU Tigers, No. 10 Texas A&M Aggies, and the No. 30 Iowa State Cyclones. Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Iowa State (in that order) were the only four teams from the Big 12 to make it into the top 30 of the SP+ projections for 2020.

Texas returns a good amount of their significant production from the 2019 team. Senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger will be the leader of the offense, and junior linebacker Joseph Ossai will command the defense. Also watch out for junior safety Caden Sterns, junior nickelback B.J. Foster, and junior running back Keaontay Ingram to make a big impact for the Longhorns this fall.