After seven games, Texas has spent most of this season looking nothing like a title favorite. The Longhorns have only put together three quarters that looked close to championship football, and the list of disappointments keeps piling up: inconsistency, Arch Manning’s underwhelming play, Steve Sarkisian’s curious risk-reward play-calling, Oklahoma and Florida. Still, Paul Finebaum believes the door to the playoff is open.
“I think Texas is one of the 12 best teams in the country,” noted SEC analyst Paul Finebaum said this week, “whether they lose two games or three games.”
That kind of praise would have sounded impossible after Texas’ second-half collapse against the unranked Gators. But college football has a way of changing the picture fast, and that is exactly what happened. Since that loss, Georgia, Indiana, Notre Dame, Texas Tech and BYU have all taken their first defeat, while Alabama and Tennessee have each dropped their second.
The result: the postseason race is still wide open, and it is not even Halloween yet. Seven SEC teams already have two losses, which means the Longhorns are still very much in the mix for a 12-team playoff spot.
For Texas, the path starts with business at home. The Longhorns have to beat Mississippi State on Saturday in Austin, then follow that by handling Missouri the next week.
They will have to do it without star left tackle Trevor Goosby, who suffered a season-ending knee injury against Ole Miss last weekend. If Texas takes care of those two games, it will be 7-2 heading into the Nov. 14 matchup at LSU.
“That LSU game, though, is really where it’s going to come to a head,” Finebaum said. “And right now, I would pick LSU to win that game.
That’s why I’m using the nine-and-three metric. But you have to measure that against what is going on around college football.”
The history of the sport explains why Texas is still alive. More than half of the last 20 national champions finished with one loss or fewer, and only three teams in the 156-year history of college football - Minnesota in 1960, LSU in 2007 and Ohio State in 2024 - have won it all with two losses.
Texas has still shown flashes of what it can become. The fourth quarter against Ohio State, when it was outscored 21-0, and the first half against Ole Miss, when it fell behind 21-3, are reminders that the Longhorns have the talent to look like the best team in the country. Whether they get the chance to prove it now depends on what happens next.
In Other News...
Texas Pass Rush Just Took Another Hit Before Mississippi State
Texas is heading into its meeting with Mississippi State with more questions on the edge than it would have liked. Colin Simmons, the Longhorns standout pass rusher, was downgraded to doubtful because of an ankle sprain, and Richard Wesley is already out, leaving the front seven thinner than usual at a spot where Texas normally likes to create disruption.
There is some relief on the other side of the availability report, with running back Hollywood Smothers and wide receiver Cam Coleman removed from the injury list and expected to play. Mississippi State, meanwhile, will be missing starting quarterback Kamario Taylor and wide receiver Ayden Williams, so the matchup still comes with some notable absences for both teams as kickoff approaches. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Must Avoid One Trap As Mississippi State Changes The Equation
Mississippi States quarterback situation has changed the shape of this matchup in a way Texas has to respect, even if the Longhorns still look like the more complete team on paper. With the Bulldogs dealing with that injury at the most important position, the focus shifts to how Texas handles the trenches, where the offensive line will be tested by Mississippi States front seven and the Longhorns need to stay steady enough to let the rest of the offense settle in.
There is also plenty for Texas to attack through the air if it protects the football and keeps the penalties in check, two areas that can turn a manageable road game into something messier than it should be. On defense, the Longhorns will need clean work from the linebackers in particular against Fluff Bothwell, because Mississippi State may look for ways to stay balanced and make Texas earn every stop while the game plan adjusts around its quarterback issue. [Read more 🡒]
Texas Playoff Push Now Hinges On An Unlikely Offensive Lifeline
Texas kept its College Football Playoff push alive with a 34-27 win over Ole Miss, but the bigger story inside that victory was how the offense held together after starting left tackle Trevor Goosby went down with a season-ending knee injury. The line had to adjust on the fly, and Andre Cojoe was the one who stepped in to help stabilize things, giving the Longhorns a fighting chance to keep their quarterback upright and the run game moving.
Raleek Browns 157 rushing yards gave Texas the kind of ground production it needed in a tight SEC-style game, while Michael Terry added 41 yards and a touchdown to keep the pressure on Ole Miss. Even with the win, the Longhorns now have to figure out how much of this offensive success can travel forward if Goosby is out for good and Cojoe remains the answer on the edge. [Read more 🡒]