Texas Football: 3 bold predictions for Horns in non-conference play

Texas beats Alabama by 10 points

We said this is a list of bold predictions, so here you go.

Two weeks ahead of the Texas-Alabama matchup on Sep. 9, the Longhorns are between a six and eight-point underdog, depending on the sportsbook. The fact that Texas is just a touchdown underdog facing the Tide in Tuscaloosa shows how close Vegas thinks this game will be.

In one light, saying the Longhorns beat the Tide by 10 points in Tuscaloosa isn’t the biggest swing compared to the current pre-game betting lines.

Last season, Texas entered the Alabama game as a 21-point underdog in most major Vegas sportsbooks (including DraftKings Sportsbook and FanDuel). Texas beat the pre-game spread by 20 points in the 20-19 loss to Alabama in Week 2 when these two teams met in 2022. Albeit improbable, if Texas beat the spread by 20 points against Alabama for the second year in a row, that would result in a two-score victory for the Longhorns in Tuscaloosa.

This shows how far the Texas program has come in the last 15 months that Texas is a one-score underdog on the road against the Tide one year after entering that game as a three-score underdog at home at DKR.

Beating legendary head coach Nick Saban and the Tide will never be easy, especially on his home turf at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. Under Saban, Alabama is 44-1 at home against non-conference opponents (per Sports Reference). The only loss was a huge upset that Louisiana-Monroe pulled in Saban’s first year at Alabama in 2007.

Moreover, if Texas does pull the upset of Alabama on Sep. 9, the College Football Playoff hype will get real on the Forty Acres. That will also skyrocket the Longhorns’ momentum on the recruiting trail and the field heading into Big 12 play in late September.