Texas football’s September schedule tabbed as second-toughest

Now less than one month away from the start of the 2022 regular season, head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program are ramping up at the outset of fall camp. Texas began fall practice on Aug. 3, giving roughly three weeks for Sark and his staff to figure out what the two-deep depth chart will look like for the start of the regular season.

Sark and the Longhorns will open up the 2022 regular season at home at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Sep. 3 against the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks out of the Sun Belt. That will begin a non-conference schedule in early-to-mid September that will be rather difficult for the Longhorns.

Louisiana-Monroe will be the easiest opponent, by a good margin, during the three-game non-conference slate in September for Sark and the Longhorns. That’s due to the fact that Texas is set to face the reigning National Champion runner-up Alabama Crimson Tide and defending Conference-USA Champion UTSA Roadrunners in the following two weeks to round out the non-conference schedule.

Steve Sarkisian and Texas football ranked as having the second most challenging September schedule in the FBS

At least Texas gets all three of these non-conference games at home. That will really come in handy for any burgeoning hopes that the Longhorns have of putting Alabama on upset alert in Week 2 on Sep. 10.

Moreover, this difficult non-conference for Texas in the month of September recently received some attention around the college football media landscape this week. A piece from Sam Marsdale of 247Sports on Aug. 4 tabbed Texas as boasting the second-most difficult schedule throughout the month of September.

A good portion of why Texas looks to be included at the No. 2 spot in the ranking of the most difficult September schedules around college football is the caliber of Alabama and UTSA. Texas could be facing two top 25 ranked teams in the major preseason polls in the Crimson Tide and Roadrunners.

And that’s not to mention how Texas will also be facing a potential upstart team under new head coach Joey McGuire and the Texas Tech Red Raiders on the road in Lubbock to open up the Big 12 slate. Texas will face Texas Tech in Lubbock specifically on Sep. 24. The kickoff date is not set yet for the Texas-Texas Tech Big 12 opener.

All in all, it’s easy to see why the Longhorns face such a difficult road ahead for their September slate. The only team that ranked higher among the programs with the strongest schedules in September was the Florida Gators. Florida is set to take on potential preseason top 25 teams in the Utah Utes, Kentucky Wildcats, and Tennessee Volunteers in September.

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 opened up fall practice on Aug. 3, which came one month ahead of the regular season opener against ULM at DKR on Sep. 3, with the kickoff time set for