Saturday blew up the AP Top 25, and Texas came out of the wreckage in a better spot.
The Longhorns moved up two places to No. 8 in Sunday’s latest poll after a 34-20 road win over No. 19 Missouri. Texas had to rally from a second-half deficit to get it done, but unlike a bunch of teams sitting ahead of it, the Longhorns left the weekend with a victory in hand.
That climb makes it three straight weeks Texas has moved up in the rankings.
The biggest shakeup came at the top. Miami entered the day as the nation’s No. 1 team, then saw its unbeaten run end in South Bend as No.
4 Notre Dame pulled out a 31-24 win. The Hurricanes slid to No. 5, while the Fighting Irish jumped to No.
Georgia took over the top spot after hammering Ole Miss 42-7, and undefeated Utah moved up to No. 2 after its thrilling win over BYU.
Ohio State took one of the hardest hits of the day. The Buckeyes, who entered Saturday ranked No. 11, lost 41-28 to Oregon, a team that was unranked in the AP Poll heading into the weekend.
Ohio State tumbled 10 spots to No. 21, while the Ducks climbed to No. 18.
Tennessee also made a big move, rising seven spots to No. 9 after a 34-6 blowout of Kentucky. The Wildcats fell five spots to No. 13.
BYU dropped five spots to No. 12, and Ole Miss slid seven places to No. 19.
LSU, which Texas will face next, also took a major fall. The Tigers dropped nine spots to No. 24 after a 31-13 loss to Alabama, which moved up to No. 7.
For Texas, the weekend’s chaos mostly broke the right way. The Longhorns’ rise in the AP poll comes after the College Football Playoff committee already placed them at No. 7 in its initial rankings on Tuesday, three spots ahead of where they stood in last week’s AP poll.
Now the AP has started to catch up.
With Miami and Kentucky both losing, Texas could be in line for another bump when the committee updates its rankings Tuesday. But there’s a catch: two of Texas’ biggest wins, over Ohio State and Ole Miss, took a hit this weekend, which could soften the value of those results. Tennessee, meanwhile, helped its own case with a convincing win over Kentucky.
The AP voters rewarded Texas for surviving the mess around it. The committee still has to decide whether to do the same.
Either way, the Longhorns have another shot coming soon, with a trip to Baton Rouge to face No. 24 LSU next on the schedule.
In Other News...
Warren Roberson Picked The Perfect Time For His First Texas Start
Warren Roberson had been waiting for his first Texas start, and he made it count in a game the Longhorns needed to control from start to finish. In a 34-20 win over Missouri, the senior cornerback stepped into the lineup and delivered one of the biggest plays of the afternoon late in the game, helping Texas protect a lead that had still felt vulnerable.
Robersons forced fumble flipped the momentum at the right moment, and sophomore Graceson Littleton turned it into even more damage by returning the recovery 44 yards to set up the clinching touchdown. For a defense that needed a timely answer, the sequence was exactly the kind of complementary football Texas wanted, with a first-time starter helping close the door when it mattered most. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Gritted Out A Ranked Win But Two Problems Stood Out
Texas came away with a 34-20 win over Missouri and, on the surface, it was the kind of result that can steady a season. The Longhorns moved to 7-2 overall and 4-2 in SEC play, with Raleek Brown giving the run game a lift by finishing with 85 rushing yards and two touchdowns, while Arch Manning kept the offense moving through the air with nearly 75 percent completions for 297 yards and three scores.
Still, the win did not clean up every concern. Texas had to work through too much pressure up front, and the offensive lines protection was a problem even in a game the Longhorns controlled for stretches. There was also plenty of frustration with the officiating, leaving the kind of lingering irritation that can follow a hard-fought conference win even when the scoreboard says the job got done. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Just Added Fuel To A Ranking Debate Fans Know Well
Week 10 turned the AP Top 25 into another reminder of how unsettled the national picture has been all season, with eight ranked teams falling and the poll getting a new No. 1 for the fifth time this year. Georgia climbed back to the top spot, while Ohio State and Ole Miss slid after losses, and Texas was among the teams to benefit from the reshuffling after a key victory of its own.
For Longhorns fans, the latest update only adds more fuel to a familiar debate about where Texas belongs when the dust settles around the sports weekly chaos. The rankings keep moving, and with Tennessee, Oregon and Alabama also moving up, the conversation around the top of the poll is getting tighter by the week, leaving Texas right in the middle of the national picture with plenty still to be decided. [Read more 🡒]