SCHOOL: Texas
HEAD COACH: Steve Sarkisian (25-14, 4th year)
2023 RECORD: 12-1 overall, 8-1 (1st in Big 12)
RETURNING STARTERS: Offense – 5; Defense – 7, Special Teams – 1
PLAYERS TO WATCH: QB Quinn Ewers, RB Jaydon Blue, WR Silas Bolden, WR Isaiah Bond, LT Kelvin Banks Jr., Edge Ethan Burke, LB Anthony Hill, S Andrew Mukuba
VERSUS GEORGIA: October 19 (Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium)
Last year’s Longhorn offense averaged 36 points. Can Texas keep that up in its first season in the SEC?
The fact quarterback Quinn Ewers is back after a year that saw him complete 69 percent of his passes for 3,479 yards and 22 touchdowns bodes well.
So does the fact Texas returns four of its starting offensive linemen.
The team has to replace Jonathan Brooks – the first running back taken in last April’s NFL Draft – but features some excellent returnees in CJ Baxter and Jaydon Blue, who combined for 1,057 yards last season.
There are some questions at wide receiver, but only because so many are new to the program.
Otherwise, Alabama transfer Isaiah Bond, Houston transfer Matthew Golden, and Oregon State transfer Silas Bolden accounted for 140 receptions for 1,818 yards and 15 touchdowns combined for their former teams.
Gone are defensive tackle Byron Murphy II and T’Vondre Sweat, selected in the first and second rounds of the NFL Draft.
As they did at wide receiver, the Longhorns dipped into the transfer portal to hopefully fill the voids, adding former Georgia player (Bill Norton via Arizona), Tia Savea (Arizona), and Louisville flip Jermayne Lole.
The Longhorns also hope fifth-year player Alfred Collins will be able to make a jump, and if he can, then the unit may be able to do the job.
Still, it might be a bit unfair to expect the same production as Sweat and Murphy provided a season ago.
A Week Two trip to defending national champion Michigan will give the Longhorns an excellent early test before hosting Mississippi State in its first game as an SEC member on Sept. 28.
The two weeks that follow, however, will tell the tale.
Texas and fellow SEC newcomer Oklahoma in Dallas on Oct. 12, followed on the 19th by the highly-anticipated game with Georgia.
If the Longhorns can survive that, the rest of the conference schedule is certainly manageable.
Home games against Florida and Kentucky highlight the remaining part of the conference schedule, before closing at arch-rival Texas A&M on Nov. 30.