After blowing the No. 23 Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns out of the water in Week 1, the Longhorns are gaining a lot of respect in the college football world.
While the AP or coaches poll’s have yet to be released, national publications such as Bleacher Report and Pro Football Focus have released their own rankings. The common theme? Texas is trending upwards.
In a very convincing win, the Longhorns overmatched Louisiana winning by 20 points and really looked the part of a team ready to make noise. The quarterback play of redshirt freshman Hudson Card, who completed 14-of-21 passes for 224 yards and accounted for three total touchdowns, was a great start to the young gunslinger’s career.
Texas also got monster performances from running back Bijan Robinson who had over 170 all-purpose yards along with two touchdowns, and wide receiver Jordan Whittington contributed seven catches for 113 yards and one touchdown. It proved to be Whittington’s breakout performance as a Longhorn due to being injury plagued his first two seasons on campus.
The defense played extremely well, as they were getting consistent pressure on Louisiana quarterback Levi Lewis, sacking him four times while only giving up 76 yards rushing. The best part of the Texas’ defensive performance was that they were actually able to bring ball carriers down, as they only missed eight tackle attempts the whole game, which was a season best in 2020.
The performances on both sides of the ball are a major factor as to why many are buying stock in the Texas football program, and it also helped that eight top 25 teams suffered losses to open the season. While the AP Poll viewed Texas as the No. 21 team, Bleacher Report originally had the Longhorns at No. 17 and moved them one spot to No. 16, but PFF felt much more confident in Texas.
PFF’s rankings saw Texas skyrocket all the way to No. 8 in the country, which would be tied for their best ranking dating back to Week 9 of the 2018 season when the Longhorns came in at No. 6.
The Longhorns cannot buy into any of the hype otherwise they will fall flat on their face, and this week’s road matchup against Arkansas will be a great test to see if they can be consistent.