Texas Football: 3 games that will make or break the 2020 season

There’s a lot on the line for head coach Tom Herman and the Texas football program this fall, with three crucial games sticking out in particular.

Entering the 2020 offseason, the Texas football program had a number of question marks and it looked like a long time until some answers might arrive. This Texas fan base has to be very patient until the arrival of the 2020 season. All of that has to do with the coaching staff turnover enacted at the conclusion of the 2019 regular season, and the rather subpar finish last year.

Texas is coming off a 2019 campaign where they rounded up with a record of 8-5 (5-4 Big 12) after beating the No. 11 ranked Utah Utes in the Alamo Bowl by the final score of 38-10. That was a finish that fell well below expectations, when the Longhorns held a top 10 preseason ranking in pretty much all of the major polls.

Most of the pressure for the Longhorns success this season will fall on the shoulders of fourth-year head coach Tom Herman and rising senior star quarterback Sam Ehlinger. Herman and Ehlinger present one of the most interesting dynamics of any head coach-quarterback combination of any Power Five program this coming season.

This should be the year where Herman and Ehlinger can finally get the Longhorns over the hump, or at least get closer to the form they were in during the 2018 season.

The 2020 regular season opens up with the South Florida Bulls out of the American Athletic Conference at home at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Sep. 5. That is one of two non-conference games that the Longhorns will get at home this season. The non-conference slate will have a big impact of how the 2020 campaign turns out.

Here’s a look into the three make-or-break regular season games for the Longhorns during the 2020 campaign.