Where Texas football landed in updated 2022 bowl projections

A couple of days into summer workouts for second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program, we’re starting to see how the roster will come together ahead of next season. Texas is probably close to being done with adding players on the NCAA Transfer Portal at this point of the offseason. And the summer enrollees arrived on campus this week to start off the summer semester and workout schedule for this phase of the offseason.

This is also a point in the offseason when the Longhorns will start to see expectations come together in some form of a consensus for the upcoming season. While there’s not much in the way of actual football taking place, Longhorns fans have some time to think about what lies ahead for the 2022 season.

And with that comes the updated bowl projections in the midst of the summer months. Some of the latest updated bowl projections in the midst of summer workouts came via Brad Crawford of 247Sports this week.

This bowl projection seemed to be pretty realistic for the Longhorns, as Crawford of 247Sports pegs them to play in the Texas Bowl against the Kentucky Wildcats out of the SEC East.

Updated bowl projections this summer slot Steve Sarkisian and Texas football in Texas Bowl vs. Kentucky

Here’s more on what this 247Sports piece had to say on this bowl projection pitting Texas against Kentucky in the Texas Bowl.

"Steve Sarkisian’s team is inside the preseason top 25 according to most way-too-early polls, while the Wildcats are in a similar position this spring and won 10 games last fall. For Texas, climbing out of the 5-win cellar has to happen for the current regime. Keep an eye on Bijan Robinson, who could win the Doak Walker."

Landing in the Texas Bowl would very likely mean a winning record for the Longhorns coming out of the regular season. It could also likely mean around a .500 record in Big 12 play, which might be a bit disappointing if that turns out to be the result from the conference slate this fall.

Most Longhorns fans would be happy with this result for Sark in his second year at the helm, though, if they came away from the Texas Bowl with a hypothetical win over Kentucky.

Moreover, the Texas Bowl is commonly considered the fourth bowl in the Big 12 pecking order (not counting a spot in the College Football Playoff). The Big 12 bowl pecking order last year went (from first to last) the Sugar Bowl, Alamo Bowl, Cheez-It Bowl, Texas Bowl, Liberty Bowl, and then the Guaranteed Rate Bowl.

The last time that the Longhorns played in the Texas Bowl was back in 2017, in the first year under former head coach Tom Herman. Texas beat the Mizzou Tigers in the 2017 Texas Bowl.

Texas finished up last season with a record of 5-7 (3-6 Big 12), missing out on bowl season for the first time since 2016. Sark and the Longhorns will open up the 2022 regular season at home on Sep. 3 against Louisiana-Monroe.