The 2026 Texas Longhorns schedule is loaded with land mines, and that’s exactly what makes the preseason buzz around this team so loud. Texas opens ranked No. 5 in the AP Preseason Top 25, but the road ahead is brutal: five games against top-11 opponents and seven total against top-20 teams.
That slate starts with a manageable one on paper against Texas State, even if the Bobcats bring plenty of firepower. Brad Jackson is one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and Texas State’s offense has some pop, but Texas is still favored by more than 30 points. The Longhorns are expected to handle that one without much drama.
The real pressure starts immediately after that when No. 1 Ohio State comes to Austin. The Buckeyes smothered Texas’ offense last season and made Arch Manning look pedestrian, but the prediction here is that the Longhorns flip the script and survive a tight one to stay unbeaten.
UTSA follows, and that one is treated as another straightforward win. The Roadrunners are a solid program, but they’re not being asked to match up with a Texas team that would likely be No. 1 in the country by then.
Then comes one of the season’s toughest road tests: Tennessee at Neyland Stadium. Texas gets the nod there, too, but it won’t come easily. Tennessee is still sorting out its quarterback situation, and that gives the Longhorns enough of an edge to grind out a hard-fought SEC win.
The Red River matchup with Oklahoma brings another familiar storyline. The Sooners haven’t scored a touchdown against Texas in over 1,000 days, dating back to 2023.
Oklahoma should be better on offense, and if it stays healthy, it has a real chance to end that drought. Even so, Texas is considered the better team almost everywhere on the field, with only a couple spots on defense tilting the other way.
The Longhorns are picked to win again and stretch their run over Oklahoma to three straight seasons.
Texas then heads to Florida looking for payback after last season’s debacle in Gainesville. The Gators are expected to make things uncomfortable, but the prediction still leans heavily toward Texas, with the Longhorns winning by two or three scores.
After that comes what may be the biggest challenge on the schedule outside of Ohio State. Ole Miss is bringing back two Heisman Trophy candidates in quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy, and the Rebels have upgraded almost everywhere except maybe at wide receiver. The expectation is a track meet, and the call is that Texas’ home winning streak ends there when Ole Miss steals it on a last-second field goal.
Mississippi State is next, and Texas is expected to respond. The Bulldogs pushed the Longhorns to the brink last year, but this time Texas is supposed to be ready, especially after taking the Ole Miss loss.
Missouri is also forecast as trickier than it might look. Eli Drinkwitz’s offense is dangerous, especially on the ground, and Texas is expected to win while sweating more than it would prefer.
LSU is another major hurdle, and the source frames that matchup with some skepticism about how quickly things can come together in Year 1 under Lane Kiffin with 40-plus new players. Even with LSU projected to be strong, the prediction is that Kiffin’s habit of pressing too hard against top teams leads to mistakes Texas can punish.
Arkansas is treated as a clear win for the Longhorns, who are simply viewed as the better team.
That sets up the late-season heavyweight clash with Texas A&M, a game that has shaped the SEC Championship picture in each of the last two seasons. College Station gives the Aggies an edge, but the Longhorns are still picked because Arch Manning is better than Marcel Reed, and that gap matters more than the location.
Finally, Texas gets another shot at Georgia in Atlanta, and this one is framed as the chance to finally break through. Georgia has the talent, but not the outside weapons to keep pace with Texas, according to the prediction. It’s expected to be close, but the Longhorns are forecast to finally get past Kirby Smart’s team.
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Former Texas Starter Heads To Texas A&M After Painful Twist
Jordan Popes next stop in the SEC will bring an immediate layer of intrigue for Texas fans. The former Longhorns guard has transferred to Texas A&M after a legal fight with the NCAA opened the door to a fifth season of eligibility, giving him one more college run and a fresh chance to make an impact in a familiar conference.
Pope said he would have preferred to return to Texas, but roster constraints made that path unavailable, pushing him to College Station instead. The schedule adds its own twist, with Pope set to face his former team in games in February and March, a pair of dates that will be circled well before tipoff. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Speed Debate Just Showed How Explosive This Offense Could Be
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The bigger takeaway is not just who wins a stopwatch race, but how that track-speed translates once the pads are on. Brown has reportedly hit 23.1 mph in conditioning, Wingo arrives with a high school 100-meter mark of 10.55 seconds, and Niblett's own game speed has already shown up in live action. Texas can measure burst in a lot of ways, and the argument here only underscores how many different kinds of explosiveness this offense can put on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Has A Safety Battle Fans Need To Watch Closely
Texas is deep into fall camp with one of its most notable September questions sitting in the secondary, where Kobe Black and Derek Williams are battling for a starting safety job. Black, moving over from cornerback, has drawn strong reviews from the staff after standing out in camp and during the Longhorns first scrimmage, while Steve Sarkisian has already pointed to his work in live action as a reason the coaches are paying close attention.
Williams still enters camp as the projected starter, but he is working his way back from injury and now faces a real push heading into the next scrimmage. For Texas, the competition is about more than just filling a spot on the depth chart, because the eventual winner will need to help anchor a defense that expects reliability on the back end as the 2026 season approaches. [Read more 🡒]