Matt Leinart cautious about the Texas football hype for 2020
Texas football has a difficult road ahead to get through the 2020 season while meeting the hype, and Matt Leinart is cautious about the excitement.
The 2020 college football season might be the most volatile since 1918. This fall looks to be the first pandemic season that the Texas football program played in since the influenza struck 1918 campaign. But Texas surely made their mark on the college football landscape in 1918, when they finished up with an undefeated record and nearly the first true national title in program history.
This year, the Longhorns need to somehow focus on the season ahead in the midst of all the obstacles that hit them this offseason. While it has only been a little more than eight months since Texas played in their last game, it feels like a couple of years for a lot of people.
The start of the 2020 season will be surreal in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic. But the start of the 2020 season is also less than a month away with the supposed kickoff coming on Sep. 12 at home against the UTEP Miners out of Conference-USA.
It would be easy to buy into the hype that the Longhorns bring to the table this fall with all of the weapons they have returning on both sides of the ball. But not all fans and analysts in the media landscape buy into the Longhorns quite yet.
Former USC Trojans star quarterback and Fox Sports college football media personality Matt Leinart gave his take on the Longhorns for the looming 2020 season earlier this week as part of the Big Noon Kickoff crew (written piece per 247Sports). At one point this week, Leinart mentioned that he’ll need to “see it to believe it” before buying into the Texas hype this year.
Given that the Big 12, ACC, and SEC, are the only three of the Power Five conferences playing a football season this fall, Texas has a real shot to be one of the five or 10 best teams in the entire country. But Texas was a top 10 preseason team in both polls last year.
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Texas finished up the 2019 season with a record of 8-5 (5-4 Big 12) after beating the Utah Utes in the Alamo Bowl by a commanding 28-point margin. They’ll get UTEP in their season opener, and the Texas Tech Red Raiders on the road in the Big 12 opener on Sep. 26.