Texas opens a new season with the kind of buzz that can swallow a program whole, but Mack Brown thinks the first two weeks give the Longhorns a cleaner path than they had a year ago.
Brown, the former Texas coach and national champion, broke down the setup on his Texas Longhorns podcast, The Stampede, and his verdict on the schedule was blunt: last year was a mess, this year is “perfect.”
“Yeah, last year’s schedule, I thought, was horrible. You go to Ohio State in your opening game with a quarterback that started two games, and you got new receivers, you got new running backs, you got questions in your offensive line… there were just so many bad things about that,” Brown said.
“Then you come back and play three or four games that you should win after that, but you lose it, and all of a sudden there’s just negative on top of negative, and you’re behind the eight ball getting started.”
That was the trap Texas walked into last season. The Longhorns had lost a major chunk of their starting lineup on both sides of the ball to the NFL, and the early spotlight landed on Arch Manning, who had only two career starts under his belt - both against Louisiana-Monroe and Mississippi State the previous season. Those reps mattered, but they were nothing like a Week 1 collision with the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes.
Texas still managed a 9-3 regular season, but the early stumble made everything harder. Even with the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, that kind of record can keep a team in the mix; it just leaves very little margin for the kind of inconsistency Texas had to live with.
Brown sees a much better setup now. The Longhorns open Saturday against Texas State, and then get Ohio State in the second week with the Buckeyes coming to Austin.
“This year is perfect. You got a team that you should beat if you play well at home (Texas State).
Then you got Ohio State coming in the second week… and it’s going to be hot as can be,” Brown said. “That sun is going to be right in Ohio State’s face, and Texas is going to be over there getting jackets in the cold.”
The difference starts with rhythm. Texas won’t be thrown straight into the deepest end this time. Manning and the rest of the roster will at least have a game in the books before facing Ohio State, which gives the Longhorns a chance to settle in first.
Then there’s the simple fact that the Buckeyes have to come to Austin this time.
And Brown also pointed to the roster itself. Texas has loaded up with talent across the board, giving this group a more complete feel than the one that opened last season. With expectations already through the roof, the schedule now offers a different kind of test - one that could tell Texas a lot sooner whether this team is ready to live up to the noise.
If the Longhorns handle Texas State and Ohio State, they could be in a very different place than they were a year ago.
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