Texas Football: No. 21 spot in AP Poll lower than the Longhorns should be

Despite all of the change that was enacted for the Texas football program this offseason, there seems to be a consensus around where this team should sit in the preseason polls. Most don’t believe that new head coach Steve Sarkisian should have his squad in the top 15 in any of the preseason polls. But it’s hard to find too many that think that Texas should rank outside the top 25.

Sark and the Longhorns ranked at No. 19 in the preseason Coaches Poll released last week. And the preseason AP Poll, which was released on the morning of Aug. 16, had Texas at No. 21. While No. 19 seemed about right for the Longhorns, No. 21 does feel a little bit low.

Yet, the fact of the matter is that the Longhorns have some teams ranked ahead in the preseason AP Poll that are hard to put up valid arguments for. The Washington Huskies (No. 20) are still working in some uncertainty under the Jimmy Lake-coaching regime, and didn’t have many games to speak of last season.

It’s also hard to put up a good argument for the Penn State Nittany Lions (No. 19) to be ranked two spots ahead of the Longhorns coming off a tough 2020 campaign.

Texas football down two spots in the AP Poll compared to the preseason Coaches Poll

A big win for the Longhorns in Week 1 over the Louisiana Ragin-Cajuns could be enough to move the needle to get closer to the top 15 in the major polls. And then, if Texas can convincingly beat both Louisiana and the Arkansas Razorbacks in the first two games of the regular season, we should really see this squad slide up in the polls.

Louisiana rang in at No. 23 in the preseason AP Poll and Coaches Poll. That puts Louisiana two spots behind Texas in the AP Poll and four in the Coaches Poll.

Meanwhile, there were only three teams from the Big 12 in the preseason AP Poll. The Oklahoma Sooners topped the list (at No. 2 in the AP Poll), and then the Iowa State Cyclones ranked at No. 7. Oklahoma got six votes for the No. 1 ranking (tied with the Clemson Tigers for the second-most of any team).

That put the Sooners in a position to fall in line only behind the Alabama Crimson Tide in the AP Poll.

Three other teams from the Big 12 did get votes outside of the top 25. Those listed in order are the Oklahoma State Cowboys, TCU Horned Frogs, and West Virginia Mountaineers.

The Big 12 didn’t have a great showing in this release of the preseason AP Poll, but it’s hard to judge before any game action goes down this fall.

You can view the entirety of the preseason AP Poll, thanks to ESPN here.

Texas will be looking to improve on the 7-3 (5-3 Big 12) record that the team posted last season under former head coach Tom Herman. There is a good amount of optimism about the path ahead for the Longhorns under the new coaching regime under Sark.