2024 Texas football predictions: Ranked No. 3 by RJ Young

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College Football

Updated Aug. 12, 2024 10:18 a.m. ET

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RJ Young

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

Texas Longhorns ranking: 3/134

[Check out RJ Young’s ultimate 134 college football rankings here]

Conference ranking: 2nd in SEC (+320 to win conference)

Teams ahead of them: Georgia (2), Ohio State (1)

Teams behind them: Oregon (4), Florida State (5), Ole Miss (6), LSU (7), Michigan (8)

[Texas 2024 schedule]

RJ’s take: The 2024 Longhorns are on the precipice of becoming the kind of national power Georgia has shown itself to be over the last half-decade. Like Georgia, the flagship university in Texas has a local talent advantage over nearly all of its rivals, a coach who won a national title as a coordinator at dynastic Alabama and a talent advantage on its two-deep roster that makes it one of the best in the country.

Under Steve Sarkisian, the Longhorns have gone from five wins in 2021, to eight wins in 2022, to 12 wins last year. Isaiah Bond transferred from Alabama after 668 receiving yards and four TDs on 48 catches, including the “He Is Risen Catch” in the 2023 Iron Bowl on fourth-and-we-almost-died.

But the best portal pickup the Longhorns made is former Texas-San Antonio All-Slept-On, All-Edgelord outside linebacker Trey Moore, who notched 17.5 tackles for loss and 14 sacks last year, surpassing former first-round NFL draft pick Marcus Davenport’s best season as a Roadrunner with 17 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks in 2017.

Now, peep game.

Below is total revenue brought in by the five highest grossing schools in 2023, according to USA Today: 1. Ohio State, $251,615,345. 2. Texas, $239,290,648. 3. Alabama, $214,365,357. 4. Michigan, $210,652,287. 5. Georgia, $203,048,566. Texas is the only school here without a national title in the CFP era.

In 2024, the Longhorns need to follow through on their 2023 breakthrough. That starts with making the SEC Championship Game in their first year as members. A total of 16 members from that 2023 CFP team returned to Austin this season.

Texas’ schedule features just three true road games in SEC play: Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Texas A&M. The Longhorns have won their last seven true road games, including at Alabama last year, and they’re bringing all of that to Ann Arbor for the first time in 155 years of the sport.

And then there’s this: Texas and Oklahoma are the newest members to the SEC. The conference hasn’t seen a new member win the conference championship in 32 years of playing the SEC Championship Game. Not Mizzou. Not A&M. Not Arkansas. Not South Carolina. No one.

Texas’ Win Total Odds: Over 10.5 (+150) Under 10.5 (-180)

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