Texas Football: Longhorns crack top 10 in post-Week 3 SP+ rankings
The Big 12 opener against Texas Tech will be a good test for Texas football to stave off a potential upset bid early in the 2020 season.
The way that the Texas football program stacks up in the various polls and rankings after Week 3 of the 2020 college football season looks pretty good. Texas is about to open up the Big 12 portion of their regular season schedule next weekend, taking on the Texas Tech Red Raiders on the road on Sep. 26.
Head coach Tom Herman will see his squad take on what will be an upset-minded Texas Tech team in Lubbock next weekend. Texas Tech didn’t look too great in their season opener last weekend, in a narrow one possession win over FCS Houston Baptist at home. But that should just add more fuel to the flame for head coach Matt Wells as he hopes his Red Raiders team will be fired up to face the Longhorns.
Herman and the Longhorns are getting pretty favorable rankings in some of the ESPN polls heading out of Week 3. ESPN’s SP+ rankings, from Bill Connelly formerly of SB Nation, had the Longhorns in the No. 10 slot post-Week 3 of the 2020 season.
Texas was the second-highest ranked Big 12 team in the updated version of the SP+ poll. The only other Big 12 teams ranked inside the top 25 were the Oklahoma Sooners (No. 9) and Baylor Bears (No. 23). The next highest ranked Big 12 team in the updated SP+ were the Oklahoma State Cowboys, just ahead of the TCU Horned Frogs, at No. 32.
The Texas offense ranked with the fourth best efficiency in the country in the updated SP+, and their defense slotted at No. 27. Meanwhile, Oklahoma as the lone Big 12 team ranked ahead of Texas, saw their offense at No. 3 and their defense at No. 31.
Texas will take on 1-0 Texas Tech next weekend to try and continue to prove their case for College Football Playoff contention and pushing for a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game. Meanwhile, standout redshirt freshman quarterback Spencer Rattler and the Sooners take on the Kansas State Wildcats at home on Sep. 26.
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According to ESPN’s Football Power Index, Texas has more than a 91 percent chance to beat Texas Tech in Lubbock next weekend. That is a big margin of percentage chance for Texas to come away with the victory, so they’ll have to be careful not to get complacent.