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Back in April, Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt told The Audible podcast that he could envision the Texas Longhorns competing for the Big 12 championship this season, but on Thursday, he went a step further by predicting that the Horns will win the title for the first time since 2009:
way too early predictions for each Power 5 conference champ
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) June 7, 2018
SEC: @AlabamaFTBL
ACC: @ClemsonFB
B1G: @OhioStateFB / @MSU_Football / @BadgerFootball (can't decide yet)
Big 12: @TexasFootball
Pac 12: @StanfordFball
What do you think? 40% right?
Since Klatt’s impressions from Texas spring practice, not much has changed — running back Tre Watson chose the Longhorns over the Red Raiders and offensive lineman Junior Angilau enrolled on Thursday.
But it’s clear that what Klatt saw from head coach Tom Herman’s team this spring made him a believer.
“Listen, it all has to do with health and clearly that team in week three, it’s as a big one against USC in terms of the momentum and so on and so forth, but this is a really good football team,” Klatt said. “They kept all of their assistant coaches. They paid them a lot of money, including Todd Orlando. I think they could legitimately take the next step. I came out of there very bullish on Texas.”
BetOnline.ag believes that Oklahoma still has a better chance of accomplishing that feat for the fourth straight season at +150, but Texas is in the mix at +300, the second-best odds in the conference.