Texas officially eliminated from contention for bowl bid
On the night of Nov. 27, any hopes that new head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program had of getting a bowl bid this year died out. Finishing up the regular season with a record of 5-7 (3-6 Big 12) following a win at home on Black Friday (Nov. 26) over head coach Chris Klieman and the Kansas State Wildcats by the final score of 22-17, Texas didn’t automatically get bowl eligible.
Yet, there was still a shot theoretically in the day following the Longhorns Black Friday win to get a bowl bid if there weren’t enough bowl-eligible teams to fill all 82 slots. But there were enough upsets from teams vying for bowl eligibility this weekend that the Longhorns would be knocked out of the running to slide into a remaining slot.
A few of the outcomes that helped to knock Sark and the Longhorns out of the running to get a bowl bid for good this weekend included the LSU Tigers upsetting the Texas A&M Aggies and the West Virginia Mountaineers staving off the upset bid from the Kansas Jayhawks. But there were multiple results from previously five-win teams that helped to knock Texas out of the running for a bowl bid for good this weekend.
Steve Sarkisian and Texas football officially eliminated from the running for a bowl bid this weekend
If there were some remaining bowl spots available after this weekend, then the Longhorns could’ve slid in with a good enough academic progress rating. Texas was trending up in this regard in recent years, giving them the hope of getting the extra practices for the postseason at one point in time.
Nonetheless, Sark and the Longhorns can now officially turn the focus to the offseason ahead. This will be the earliest offseason for the Longhorns since the end of the Charlie Strong head coaching tenure back in 2016. That was also the last time that Texas finished up with just five wins in a regular season slate.
Next. Overreactions from Texas' win over Kansas State. dark
There is plenty of work to do this offseason for Sark and the Longhorns. While it was nice to end the season on a high note to some degree by ending the six-game losing streak with a win over Kansas State, this was still a roller coaster ride of a campaign that fell dramatically short of preseason expectations.