Texas Longhorns Football Predictions Thread

On August 30, at a little after 7 PM CDT, the Texas Longhorns football season will begin. That is less than two weeks away. It is time to find out where we stand.

I did an informal survey of Burnt Orange Nation authors, asking them to predict how many wins that the Longhorns would finish the regular season with this year. The projections spanned a wide range of potential outcomes. I will reprint some of these author comments below, but first, I want to hear from you.

I have created a survey that you can complete by following this link. Please fill it in it; it will be fun, and will only take a couple of minutes.

In the survey, I am asking you to go through the Texas football schedule game by game, and forecast the outcome of each. Rather than asking you if you think Texas will win or lose each game, I am asking for you to assign a probability of a Texas win or loss from a selection of a few choices. That way, if you are pretty confident in a particular result, you can select a higher probability, and if you are less certain, you can waffle a bit.

In a week, I will publish the results of this survey, which will give us an interesting look at the confidence level of our readers going into the season. So please fill it out.

In addition to completing the survey, I invite you to dive into the comments section and tell us how many regular season wins the Texas Longhorns will compile. Even better, tell us why you think the way you do.

But just before we get to those comments, I wanted to capture some of the thoughts of different BON authors.

The Pessimists

My expectations are that this is a six or seven win team... I will do cartwheels if we win 8, which is kind of a terrifying thought. (Not winning 8, but me doing cartwheels. I will do them outside so that I don't break anything in the house.)

The more I look at the data the less optimistic I'm getting...  7 wins sounds about right; anything more than that is overachieving.

It's going to be a long season.

Oh man, I wonder what the reaction is going to be like if we come out of the gate and lose to UNT.  I'd avoid BON for a week.

Editorial disclaimer: We would never encourage you to avoid BON for a week.

Even with a likely win against UNT, we could easily start the season 2-4.

The Optimists

So I take it no one is going with "14"?

OK, so that wasn't real optimism. But this is:

Charlie Strong could be utilizing these guys in a completely different way.

What if Steve Edmond thrives in his new role as a LB. what if Joe Wickline has perfected this group of OL.

These guys are still all high level recruits. it's hard to say where they will finish under Strong. So I am just going to say 10 and eat crow later.

The first six games are the season. Former stats will not be indicators of future performance. It's a new era...I can appreciate the reference they will make but they really don't mean anything to me concerning the coming season.

Many of you have Texas losing two of three from BU, OU and UCLA.  The advantage we have with OU is that they must play TCU before us and will get a bit beat up. I personally think BU is more hype than strength, that is, their defense is suspect and they can be beat...they are really pushing the crap to sell tickets but they aren't elite yet. Period.

UCLA at Arlington will be tough...best D in Pac 12 and a fine QB. At the best, we may be in an overmatched heavy weight fight where all you can do is stay close in a clinch and not let the Joe Frasers beat your guts to mush. We will learn a vast amount from that game.

We will beat the shit out of BYU. Write it down now. You should know why.

Without a rash of serious injuries, we should take all the rest, with KSU being close. The Horns still have the advantage of depth late in the season.

Charlie wants to win now. Put me down for 10.

The Middle Ground

Fresh out of wisdom and running dangerously low on sage advice. Got plenty of crazy for ya though.

Like most of us, I can't see us besting 7-5 or 8-4. There are at least 4 and maybe 5 programs on our schedule that are just better overall than us right now and more often than not, the best team wins. It's that simple for me.

What gives me hope...

• I feel like whatever was weighing Mack's program down the last four years has been lifted and now there's nothing left to do but play football. Free minds play fast, loose and confident because they're not worried about anything else but what's in front of them.
  
• Ash doesn't have to look over his shoulder anymore; he can push all his chips to the middle; there's no tomorrow for him; everyone knows he's damaged goods and if his body fails him again, it is what it is; so he might as well say, "f it and let it all hang out"
• We will have a defense that plays balls out because they have no choice
• Accountability
• Expectations are relatively low going into a season (see 7-5 above); we'll be too busy getting pissed off reading about how all the other teams are better than us to read our own press clippings
• I believe Charlie Strong is the right Coach for UT right now and his assistants won't hesitate to tell the Emperor when he's naked

9-4, Alamo Bowl Champions. Book it.

Where do you stand?

Enough of our yapping. We want to know how you feel. Make sure you have filled out the survey. And then take a stand in the comments section.