Assessing 3 biggest trap games for Texas football in 2022

2. Kansas, Nov. 19 (Lawrence, KS)

It pains me to put this on this list, but the Kansas Jayhawks clearly can’t be ignored for Sark and the Longhorns at this point.

Kansas beating Texas twice since 2016 means that this is a game worth noting on the regular season schedule this fall. Yet, that could be a good thing for the Longhorns given that they should be able to roll over Kansas with no problem.

Texas will clearly be the more talented team compared to Kansas, and revenge will be on the minds of the Longhorns players. More than anything else, though, Texas will want to put the nightmare that was the overtime loss to Kansas last season behind them.

Yet, this meeting with Kansas could come with some similar concerns compared to the last few years. Texas gets Kansas at a point in the schedule where they’re easy to be overlooked. Sark and the Longhorns draw the Jayhawks in between matchups against the TCU Horned Frogs and Baylor Bears. And this meeting with Kansas comes on the road in Lawrence.

Depending on how head coach Lance Leipold and the Jayhawks show up for this game, it could be a tricky one for the Longhorns. Leipold and the Jayhawks started to figure some things out last season following their near-upset win over the Oklahoma Sooners on Oct. 23 in Lawrence. From that point forward, Kansas was a tough out for most teams outside of Oklahoma State.

That included one-possession losses to the likes of the Horned Frogs and West Virginia Mountaineers.

In the preseason SP+ rankings this year, Kansas ranks as the No. 109 team in the FBS. And neither the Kansas offense nor the defense, ranks better than No. 88 in the SP+ unit rankings for the 2022 preseason.

Theoretically, this will be a very manageable game for the Longhorns as long as they don’t overlook Kansas like last season.