Texas Football: ESPN Week 3 power rankings have Longhorns in top 8

Texas football can move their record to 2-0 (1-0 Big 12) on the season if they can take care of business next weekend against Texas Tech.

The return of the Big Ten prompted ESPN to include a few new teams at the top of their latest version of power rankings out of Week 3 of the 2020 college football season. But the Texas football program still stuck around in the top 10 out of their first official bye week of the regular season. In their season opener, Texas took down the UTEP Miners out of Conference-USA by the final score of 59-3 at home. That happened back on Sep. 12.

That was enough, along with their preseason hype, to get the Longhorns at No. 8 in the latest version of ESPN’s power rankings. Texas rang in as the second highest ranked team in the Big 12, behind just head coach Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners.

The only other teams from the Big 12 inside the top 25 this week on ESPN’s power rankings were the Oklahoma State Cowboys (No. 20) and TCU Horned Frogs (No. 23). Teams like the Baylor Bears and Iowa State Cyclones were nowhere to be found in this version of the power rankings.

Here’s more on what ESPN had to say about their placement of the Longhorns in the post-Week 3 power rankings.

"Overreaction is always tempting after a first game, but senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger looked plenty comfortable spreading the ball around in Texas’ 59-3 pasting of UTEP last week, and he did so with guys who didn’t play starring roles a year ago. Ehlinger is experienced enough that he doesn’t need to depend on one or two guys, which should pay big dividends for the Longhorns this season in an offensive system designed to spread the wealth."

Texas now has a pretty far spread between themselves and Oklahoma State and TCU. But star senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger will have to continue to prove that this team is up to the occasion when they open up the Big 12 slate on the road on Sep. 26 against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Ehlinger cooked the UTEP defense in the first half of Texas’ season opener, to the tune of well over 400 passing yards, five passing touchdowns, and no interceptions. Texas went into the locker room at halftime against UTEP with a commanding 45-3 lead.

Sep. 26 will mark the opening weekend of Big 12 conference action. Texas taking on Texas Tech is one of five crucial games to open up the Big 12 slate. There will also be an interesting game between No. 4 (in the ESPN power rankings) at home in Norman against the Kansas State Wildcats.

Last year, the Longhorns downed the Red Raiders at home in the regular season finale by the final score of 49-24. Texas will be looking to extend their winning streak to three games in the series over Texas Tech if they can win in Lubbock next weekend.