Texas football game-by-game predictions for the 2024 season
Game 3: vs. UTSA (Sep. 14)
Location: DKR (Austin, TX)
After the Longhorns' huge road matchup against Michigan in early September, they return home to the friendly confines of DKR for an easier contest against the UTSA Roadrunners.
Fifth-year head coach Jeff Traylor has built a winner with the UTSA program in the Group of Five. UTSA has won a combined 32 games in the last three seasons, including two conference championships and three bowl wins.
UTSA is coming off another successful season under Traylor in 2023, where they won at least nine games for the third year in a row.
This offseason has seen Traylor undertake a pretty large rebuild of the UTSA program, after they lost multiple key multi-year starters on both sides of the ball. UTSA lost its super senior standout quarterback Frank Harris and its top two receivers on offense from last season.
On defense, UTSA lost the reigning AAC Defensive Player of the Year, edge rusher Trey Moore, to Texas via the transfer portal.
With Moore now lining up on the opposite side in a Longhorns uniform, Texas's edge rushers and linebackers will be tested following the Week 2 grind in the trenches against Michigan. I think this is a big opportunity for Texas's front seven to assert itself before the start of SEC play against a G5 opponent that lost a lot of key players on offense this offseason.