2013 College Football Predictions: Texas Longhorns BCS Odds and Record Forecast

2013 College Football Predictions: Texas Longhorns BCS Odds and Record Forecast: It seems like only a couple of years ago that Texas was the dominant national power in college football, but it has been four years since the Longhorns fell to Alabama in the BCS title game and eight years since they pulled off a thrilling upset of USC. In the meantime, the program has taken a dramatic fall, hitting rock bottom in 2009 with a 5-7 record. Mack Brown has been slowly building Texas back up since then, but the Longhorns have yet make a serious push for a Big 12 or national title the past few years, and anything less just isn’t acceptable. The Longhorns do appear to be heading in the right direction after a 9-4 season in 2012, Brown could still be running out of chances to turn things around. Cautious optimism is probably the best way to describe the feeling surrounding this year’s team, but whether or not the Longhorns make the jump back the nation’s elite in 2013 remains to be seen.

The Good News:

Texas has an incredible 19 starters back in 2013, including 10 for an offense that ranked in the top 25 nationally in scoring. More importantly, one of those starters is quarterback David Ash, who has finally established himself as the main signal caller for the offense. He is also the most experienced starting QB in the Big 12 at this point. Ash will be joined by the running back tandem of Johnathan Gray and Malcolm Brown, and both players are former five-star recruits. Jaxon Shipley and Mike Davis lead the receiving corps, and up front, all five starters are back along the offensive line. On the defensive side of the ball, eight starters are back in the mix, including two experienced linebackers and three members of the secondary. Star defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat is back after missing more than half of last season, and Jordan Hicks returns at linebacker after being limited to three games in 2012.

The Bad News:

While the Longhorns do return a ton of starters on the defensive side of the ball, the players returning were part of a unit that ranked as the worst in school history last season. Not to mention the fact that safety Kenny Vaccaro is not among the returnees, and he was probably the unit’s best individual playmaker. As for the offense, Ash has to yet prove he can deliver in big games as Texas scored 24 points or less in losses to Oklahoma, Kansas State and TCU last year. The other issue facing Texas is the team’s continued transition to a more up-tempo, spread passing attack. Last year, the Longhorns simply looked lost on both sides of the ball at times as they tried to shift gears from a team that liked to pound the ball and play defense to more of a finesse team. There is no guarantee that the process will be any smoother this year.

Outlook:

Plain and simple, the Longhorns are loaded with talent and experience on both sides of the ball. A few years ago, this is the type of Texas team that would have been viewed as a legitimate threat to win the national title. However, Mack Brown’s bunch has been dealing with a bit of an identity crisis recently as the Longhorns have abandoned their roots and have tried to adjust their style of play to compete in college football’s era of offensive-friendly systems. In other words, the puzzle pieces are all there, but Brown and his coaching staff just haven’t figured out where they all go yet. Getting Kansas State and Oklahoma State at home should help matters, and the Longhorns’ edge in experience should help the team take another step forward in 2013. That being said, I’m not sure this team believes in itself enough to take down rival Oklahoma and reclaim the top spot in the Big 12.

Prediction: 10-2, Second Place in Big 12

Preseason Vegas Odds for Texas’ 2013 College Football Team:
Texas 2013 Odds to Win BCS Championship: +3000
Texas 2013 Odds to Win Big 12 Championship: +200

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