Texas football game-by-game predictions for the 2024 season
Game 5: vs. Mississippi State (Sep. 28)
Location: DKR (Austin, TX)
Sarkisian and the Longhorns play their first SEC game against a familiar foe in Week 5 of the 2024 season. Jeff Lebby leads the Mississippi State Bulldogs in his first year as their head coach after spending the last few seasons under head coach Brent Venables as Oklahoma's offensive coordinator.
Lebby is one of the youngest power conference head coaches entering the 2024 season in college football, at just 40 years old. He's had some very high-powered offenses he's led in past stops in the last half-decade at Oklahoma, Ole Miss, and UCF.
But he's now tasked with leading a P4 program in the toughest conference in all of college football. He returns only two starters, both on the defensive side of the ball, after turning over most of the roster during the coaching carousel early in the 2024 offseason.
Another familiar foe the Longhorns will face in the opener for SEC play against Mississippi State is former Baylor Bears grad transfer quarterback Blake Shapen. Lebby is relying on Shapen to lead this new-look Mississippi State air-raid offense in the SEC this fall.
Mississippi State has a couple of P4 opponents before matching up against Texas in Week 5. The Bulldogs face the Arizona State Sun Devils (Big 12) before opening SEC play in Week 4 at home against the Florida Gators and head coach Billy Napier in Starkville.
Texas should be able to put up a lot of points against a pretty inexperienced Mississippi State secondary and a defensive front that lacks proven pass rushers.
If Texas can build momentum entering the Red River Rivalry game against Oklahoma in Week 6 with a big double-digit victory at home over Mississippi State, that would be an ideal way to enter the toughest stretch of SEC play for the Longhorns in October.