The boosters believed that Charlie Strong was going to make the Texas Longhorns immediate national powers once again in his first year at the helm in Austin.
Instead, he ruffled a bunch of feathers by kicking player after player off of the team. The Longhorns are tougher now for it, and they should show improvement from last season's 6-7 campaign.
2015 SCHEDULE
9/5: at Notre Dame
9/12: vs. Rice
9/19: vs. California
9/26: vs. Oklahoma State
10/3: at TCU
10/10: vs. Oklahoma (at Cotton Bowl Stadium)
10/24: vs. Kansas State
10/31: at Iowa State
11/7: vs. Kansas
11/14: at West Virginia
11/26: vs. Texas Tech
12/5: at Baylor
Clearly, Strong wanted to put together an awesome non-conference schedule this year, and with games against Cal, Rice and Notre Dame, he did just that. The Big XII schedule is again brutal, but at least this is the year of five home games in conference against four road games. The problem though, is that the road games include duels at TCU and Baylor.
SEASON WIN TOTAL
Texas' season win total is set at just six this year due to the fact that its schedule is brutal. There really are no guaranteed wins for a team which is still thin, albeit tough, and setting the bar at bowl eligibility seems fair.
Bettors though, are leaning towards this being an under team, something which would really anger the UT boosters. The Longhorns are -185 favorites to stay under six wins.
OFFENSIVE OUTLOOK
There are seven returning starters from last year on offense, and we love the fact that five of those men are along the offensive line. There are four seniors and a junior on the O-Line this year, and that should really help this offense out.
Tyrone Swoopes looked like a deer in headlights last season, as he held the ball for far too long and often just looked to escape out of the pocket at the first sign of trouble. He threw for just 2,409 yards and 13 TDs against 11 INTs, and he'll have to improve upon that this season if the Longhorns are going to take steps forward.
Do note that though Malcolm Brown is gone, Johnathan Gray is back, and he was arguably the better of the two Texas runners last season.
DEFENSIVE OUTLOOK
Strong made a huge impact on the defensive side of the ball immediately upon walking through the doors on UT's campus. The team ranked No. 26 in America in total defense at 348.8 yards per game, and it allowed 23.8 points per game, numbers which really weren't bad considering how good Big XII offenses were last season.
The problem though, is that there are only three projected seniors on this defense alongside a ton of sophomores and freshmen who are going to have to fill a lot of roles. The casual bettor isn't going to be familiar with the names quite yet, but Strong did land five different recruits on defense that had at least four-star rankings in this year's recruiting class.
SEASON PREDICTION
We think a lot higher of Texas than the oddsmakers do. Swoopes should be better as a junior than he was as a sophomore, and his offensive line should do wonders for him now that it is back playing together once again.
We're not confusing this team as a National Championship contender at a price of 60 to 1, nor do we really believe that this is a team which can win the Big XII at a price of 10 to 1. However, winning eight games and winning perhaps one of those nasty road games against Notre Dame, Baylor or TCU and maybe one of the games against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State could go a long ways towards restoring faith in this program.
Eight wins isn't out of the question.
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