Texas football gets a dud of a home Big 12 schedule for 2023 season

For what could be its final season playing in the Big 12, Texas football got a pretty anticlimactic schedule in conference play for the 2023 campaign. Texas saw two usual conference foes in the Oklahoma State Cowboys and West Virginia Mountaineers drop off the schedule for the 2023 season, while a couple of new opponents were added.

The Big 12 released the 2023 schedule on the afternoon of Jan. 31, which featured the four new additions to the conference in the Houston Cougars, BYU Cougars, UCF Knights, and Cincinnati Bearcats.

Texas added BYU and Houston to the schedule for the 2023 regular season. Head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns will face Houston on the road on Oct. 21. The following weekend, the Longhorns will host BYU in Austin on Oct. 28.

Here are some other significant dates on the schedule for the 2023 football season.

• Sep. 9: at Alabama
• Sep. 23: at Baylor (Big 12 opener)
• Oct. 7: vs. Oklahoma
• Nov. 4: vs. Kansas State
• Nov. 11: at TCU

You can view the entirety of Texas’ schedule for the 2023 season, thanks to FBSchedules.com here.

https://twitter.com/Big12Conference/status/1620497148625448960

Texas football’s home schedule in 2023 doesn’t bring much excitement until November

Texas’ bye week will come right in the middle of the regular season slate, on the weekend of Oct. 14. That will give the Longhorns a week off after the Red River Rivalry game against the Oklahoma Sooners in Dallas on Oct. 7.

The regular season finale is set to come at home on the traditional Black Friday slate against the Texas Tech Red Raiders (Nov. 24). Thanksgiving Day comes early this year (Nov. 23), thus the Black Friday game will take place on an earlier date than usual.

All in all, this isn’t a very exciting schedule for the Longhorns for the 2023 football season. Texas doesn’t host a single team at home before the month of November that was ranked in the final AP Top 25 poll to cap the 2022 season.

In fact, I would probably say that the most exciting home game before the calendar turns to November comes against BYU on Oct. 28.

Texas also doesn’t get what could’ve amounted to the final home game against Oklahoma State next fall. While it is nice to some degree that Texas doesn’t have to worry about facing a stingy opponent in head coach Mike Gundy and the Pokes, it still would be good to see the Longhorns host Oklahoma State after what happened in Stillwater last fall.

I would also argue that the two best home games on the regular season docket will come in November, against Kansas State and Texas Tech.

Moreover, we did a breakdown from a few different perspectives for the 2023 football schedule. Texas gets seven home/neutral site games and five road games. Texas is only slated to take on three teams that were ranked in the final AP Poll of the 2022 season.

And, if Bill Connelly’s early edition of his returning production SP+ rankings tells us anything, Texas could be facing some opponents with a lot of new faces on the two-deep next season. Only two of Texas’ opponents for the 2023 season made it on Connelly’s early returning production rankings (TCU and Alabama).

Texas finished up the 2022 season with a record of 8-5 (6-3 Big 12) following an Alamo Bowl loss to the No. 12 Washington Huskies on Dec. 29. The opener for the 2023 regular season is set for Sep. 2 at home at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium against the Rice Owls.