Texas football has four names on the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award watch list this year, and the group gives the Longhorns a little of everything: quarterback Arch Manning, wide receiver Cam Coleman, edge rusher Colin Simmons, and linebacker Rasheem Biles.
The announcement came earlier this week from the award committee. The Walter Camp Player of the Year is handed out annually to the top player in college football.
Texas Athletics noted that the award has gone to a Longhorn three times, with Ricky Williams winning it in 1998 and Colt McCoy taking it in both 2008 and 2009. The program also pointed out that Texas has had back-to-back semifinalists recently, with former quarterback Quinn Ewers earning that distinction in 2024 after defensive lineman T’Vondre Sweat did so in 2023.
Around the Longhorns, the buzz keeps building. The Austin American-Statesman took a look at how Arch Manning can win the Heisman Trophy for Texas football.
247Sports reported that Ty’Anthony Smith was among a group of Texas players back at practice Monday after illness, and also had updates on how Texas’ 2026 NFL Draft picks and undrafted free agents are performing in training camp. Another 247Sports piece gathered insider notes and everything Steve Sarkisian said after Texas’ first scrimmage of camp.
Inside Texas highlighted the biggest risers through two weeks of fall camp and identified three key areas to watch as Week 3 begins for the Texas offense.
Elsewhere in Burnt Orange Nation, Texas checked in at No. 5 in the preseason AP Top 25, and there was also a Texas football hype video making the rounds.
On the recruiting side, 247Sports reported that Geraci Carson, Mississippi’s top 2028 prospect, has seven programs standing out as he looks toward game-day visits. Inside Texas had two RPMs projecting Texas to land a pair of four-star offensive and defensive priorities, plus a look at new Texas football targets from 2028 and beyond who are set to visit Austin in September.
In the SEC spotlight, Inside Texas previewed Mississippi State with a look at questions facing the Bulldogs in fall camp. Around the league, Texas A&M landed at No. 8 in the preseason AP Top 25, LSU came in at No.
11, Ole Miss cracked the top 10, and Tennessee picked up a commitment from 2028 four-star quarterback Kaden Craft. Rock M Nation also posted observations from Missouri’s Aug. 17 practice, while Red Cup Rebellion and And The Valley Shook weighed in on the preseason rankings.
In Other News...
Texas Just Lost Another Dallas Area Defensive Line Prospect
Another Dallas-area defensive line prospect is on the move, and Texas fans have seen this pattern before. George Toia, a four-star UCLA commit and nationally ranked lineman, is transferring from Byron Nelson High School in Texas to Westminster Academy in Florida, continuing a high school career that has already taken him through three different states.
Toia is expected to join Westminster Academys football team for the upcoming season, and his move only adds to the growing sense that elite prospects in the Dallas area are becoming harder to keep close to home. For Texas, it is another reminder that the recruiting map around one of the states richest talent pools is getting more complicated by the year. [Read more 🡒]
Vince Young Just Made Texas Fans Love That USC Win Even More
A week before the 2006 BCS National Championship game, Vince Young says a run-in with USC fans at a T.G.I. Friday's in Los Angeles gave Texas an extra jolt heading into one of the biggest games in program history. On his podcast, Young recalled the negative encounter and how it stuck with him and his teammates as they prepared to face the Trojans for the title.
The memory adds another layer to what Longhorns fans already remember as one of the defining wins in school history. Young went on to put together one of the great championship performances, throwing for 267 yards and adding 200 more on the ground with three rushing touchdowns, and the story of what happened in that restaurant makes the payoff feel even sweeter in hindsight. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Is Carrying The Kind Of Hype Title Contenders Need
The preseason spotlight on Texas is getting brighter in a hurry, and the latest proof came with four Longhorns landing on the AP All-America first team. Offensive tackle Trevor Goosby, wide receiver Cam Coleman, linebacker Rasheem Biles and edge rusher Colin Simmons have all been showing up on preseason watch lists, and now theyve pushed Texas into the kind of early national conversation that usually follows the sports true title hopefuls.
For a program already expected to carry major weight in the race ahead, that kind of recognition matters because it signals depth at premium spots on both sides of the ball. It also raises the standard inside the building, where preseason praise is nice only if it turns into regular-season production, and Texas will spend the next few months trying to prove the hype is more than just August noise. [Read more 🡒]