Texas football listed in top 10 of latest ESPN CFP power rankings

In their first edition of power rankings for the College Football Playoff in the midst of the 2020 season, ESPN had Texas football at No. 9.

Texas football officially opens up their 2020 season on Sep. 12 at home at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium against the UTEP Miners out of Conference-USA. This season opener against UTEP will come under the lights in primetime next weekend at DKR, with Texas kicking off with the Miners at 8 p.m. CT.

UTEP already opened up their 2020 season over the weekend, more specifically on Sep. 5, against the FCS Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks. The Miners were one of a few Group of Five programs around the state of Texas that opened up the first full weekend of the 2020 college football season on Saturday. They took command of SFA at home in El Paso in the second half, and won by the final score of 24-14.

That is the biggest margin of victory for the Miners since the 2018 season.

However, Texas will get their lone non-conference test of the 2020 regular season against UTEP next weekend. And the hype building around Texas is already growing heading into the first weekend of Power Five football action, thanks to big media outlets like ESPN giving into the excitement.

Not only did ESPN College GameDay media personality and college football commentator Kirk Herbstreit predicted the Longhorns to make the College Football Playoff this weekend, his company gave them a favorable slot in their post-Week 1 CFP power rankings. ESPN dropped their first power rankings for the College Football Playoff after Saturday’s action concluded.

Even though the BYU Cougars and Navy Midshipmen have yet to face each other to officially wrap up action in Week 1, all of the teams in ESPN’s top 10 in these power rankings have yet to play in any games.

In these rankings, the Longhorns found themselves at No. 9. That slotted them just below the Texas A&M Aggies, and above the Auburn Tigers. Although, the only team higher than the Longhorns in the Big 12 in these rankings were the Oklahoma Sooners, at No. 6.

Here’s more on what this ESPN ranking had to say about their placement of the Longhorns.

"Nobody in Austin needs to be reminded how long it has been since Texas last won a Big 12 championship. It was 2009, the same year the Longhorns lost to Alabama in the national championship game. Tom Herman is now in his fourth season as coach, and after a 10-win season and Sugar Bowl victory to cap the 2018 season, Texas dipped to eight wins a year ago. There’s nothing like having experience at quarterback, and Sam Ehlinger returning for his senior season was huge. He’s as tough as they come, but will need more consistent play around him if Texas is going to unseat Oklahoma in the Big 12."

The other Big 12 teams mentioned in this power ranking included the No. 11 Oklahoma State Cowboys, No. 13 Iowa State Cyclones, No. 16 TCU Horned Frogs, No. 21 Baylor Bears, and No. 24 Kansas State Wildcats. The top five was rounded out (in order from top-to-bottom) by the Alabama Crimson Tide, Clemson Tigers, Georgia Bulldogs, Florida Gators, and Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Texas finished up the 2019 season with a record of 8-5 (5-4 Big 12) after knocking off the Utah Utes in the Alamo Bowl by a score of 38-10. After facing UTEP in the season opener next weekend, the Longhorns will start Big 12 play on Sep. 26 on the road against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.