Texas is back to familiar spot in the US LBM preseason college football poll but is it ready for SEC?

Texas is back.

Just to clarify: Texas is back in the top five of the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll. The No. 4 ranking is the program’s highest since 2010, when the Longhorns were fresh off a loss to Alabama in the national championship game.

That Texas has returned to the national stage after nearly a generation of missed expectations was hammered home last season. The Longhorns beat the Crimson Tide in September, won the Big 12 and reached the College Football Playoff before losing to Washington in the Sugar Bowl.

The question heading into the 2024 season asks whether Texas is here to stay. The Longhorns’ swoon began in 2010 with the program’s first losing season since 1997 and continued, with all-too-brief bursts of success under three previous coaches - Mack Brown, Charlie Strong and Tom Herman. Things were bumpy through coach Steve Sarkisian’s first two years before the program's breakout campaign in 2023.

“As you continue to stay committed to who you are and you stay committed to your course of action, you stay committed to what you believe in, over time you start to reap the benefits of that,” Sarkisian said at SEC media days last month.

But there are a number of reasons why Texas isn’t going anywhere, including top-level recruiting and development, an elite offensive scheme and one of the deepest rosters in the Bowl Subdivision.

On the other hand, there’s one big factor that might cause the Longhorns to fall short of the playoff and championship contention.

While the Big 12 had six teams with nine or more wins and all six land in the final Top 25 of last season, the conference doesn’t stack up with an SEC that has expanded to 16 teams with the additions of the Longhorns and rival Oklahoma. The level of competition for Texas will rise dramatically, especially when considering how many SEC teams could be in contention for at-large spots in the new playoff format.

“Now we have to really do it on a much more consistent level,” said junior quarterback Quinn Ewers. “Because week in, week out, we're playing a tough opponent.”

The SEC has a record nine teams in the preseason Coaches Poll, all ranked inside the top 20. The conference occupies four of the top six spots in the Top 25: No. 1 Georgia, the Longhorns, No. 5 Alabama and No. 6 Mississippi. At least two SEC teams will make the 12-team playoff but three times as many teams could be contention for the postseason field heading into late November.

“I wish they maybe would have informed me before I took the job that this was what we were going to do,” meaning the switch in conference affiliation, “but I didn't get informed that until afterwards,” Sarkisian said.

“But I said, ‘Hey, we already had to build a team that was going to beat the best team in the SEC if we wanted to win a national championship.’ Not much had to change there for us on that front.”

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Yet when it comes to the 2024 season, Texas benefits from an SEC schedule that’s relatively easy, all things considered.

The Longhorns play the No. 16 Sooners and Georgia in back-to-back weeks beginning Oct. 12, with the Red River Rivalry on a neutral field in Dallas and the Bulldogs coming to Austin. Texas also finishes the regular season at No. 20 Texas A&M, renewing a rivalry that hasn’t been held since 2011.

Other than that, though, it’s a cakewalk by SEC standards. The other home games come against Mississippi State, Florida and Kentucky. On the road, the Longhorns also face Vanderbilt and Arkansas. They do go to defending national champion Michigan on Sept. 7 in one of the marquee non-conference games of the year, but the No. 8 Wolverines are expected to take a step back in 2024. And all four non-conference games come right out of the gate, giving the Longhorns time to gather momentum before kicking off league play on the last Saturday of September.

“I feel like that's the biggest thing for us, coming into a new conference, gaining respect and understanding that we respect them but we want them to respect us as well,” said junior offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., a preseason All-America favorite.

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Texas will strut into the season opener against Colorado State on Aug. 31 with the talent, coaching and confidence to handle their transition to the SEC.

From the very start of Sarkisian’s tenure, the program has recruited at a level nearly unmatched in the FBS — even if the results were missing until last season. According to the composite rankings from 247Sports.com, the Longhorns’ past three classes have ranked fifth, third and sixth in the nation, respectively.

Texas has also been adept at using the transfer portal. Ewers, a preseason Heisman Trophy favorite, arrived from Ohio State. This year’s transfer class, ranked sixth-best in the FBS, helps Texas fill big needs at positions such as wide receiver with Alabama transfer Isaiah Bond among those joining the program.

The Longhorns head into the regular season with a “blue-chip” percentage — players on the roster who earned four or five stars as recruits — of 72%, good for seventh in the FBS. Texas had 13 players earn preseason SEC all-conference honors, third in the league behind Georgia (20) and Alabama (15).

Picked second to the Bulldogs in the preseason poll, Texas is set to make a splash as first-year members; three years ago, when the Longhorns and Sooners made their move to the SEC official, the prevailing thought was that Texas would need several years to get acclimated to existence in the nation’s toughest conference.

Instead, the Longhorns might immediately be the best team in the SEC — and by extension the best team in college football.

“There's an idea of obsession going on in our locker room right now,” said Sarkisian. “They got a taste of what it can taste like, of being a Big 12 champion, playing in a College Football Playoff, and we fell short. This idea of obsession, the obsession that our players have is one that really came from them. They couldn't wait to get back to work.”