MC 9.5: Texas drops to the bottom half of the Big 12 Power Rankings

Welcome to your Wednesday edition of Morning Coffee.

Yes, we know, the Longhorns lost to Maryland on Saturday, which isn’t ideal for a program that’s now 7-7 under Tom Herman. There is some good more positive news elsewhere, though.

ESPN’s latest Big 12 Power Rankings released on Tuesday and surprise, surprise — the Texas Longhorns are near the bottom of the pack. After falling to Maryland for the second time in as many seasons the Longhorns sit at seventh in the 10-team ranking, ahead of only 0-1 Texas Tech, 1-0 Baylor, and 0-1 Kansas.

The Texas women’s volleyball team will make its home debut on Thursday when the Longhorns welcome Texas State as part of the American Campus Classic.

The Longhorns will enter the match ranked No. 6 nationally, which marks a four-spot drop from last week’s placement at No. 2 overall. After opening the season with wins over Oregon an Florida as part of the Vert Challenge, the Longhorns dropped a four-set match to Wisconsin on Saturday, 1-3.

After scoring her first career goal in the 62nd minute of the Longhorns 2-1 win over Long Beach State last Thursday, Texas soccer’s Mackenzie McFarland has been named as the Big 12 Freshman of the Week.

McFarland’s honor marks the second time in as many weeks that a Longhorn has been recognized with a weekly Big 12 award, as junior forward Cyera Hintzen and junior goalkeeper Nicole Curry were named as the Big 12 Offensive and Defensive Players of the week, respectively, for the week of Aug. 28.

Now 4-0-1, the Longhorns will be back on the field on Friday to welcome Texas State. The match will get underway at 6 p.m. CT and will be televised on Longhorn Network.

Lake Travis quarterback Hudson Card became the first — and still only — member of the Longhorns 2020 class in May, an despite the early pledge, the local product is firm to Texas. In an interview with 247Sports’ Mike Roach, Card said, “I’m 100 percent committed, no doubt. I’m staying with Texas.”

Card’s junior campaign got underway last Friday. In a 35-14 win over Arlington Martin, Card completed 20-of-28 attempts for 246 yards and three touchdowns. He’s aiming to attend the Longhorns Week 3 meeting with USC.

Calvin Anderson had high expectations when he committed to Texas over options such as Michigan, but the Rice grad transfer has seen his own high expectations exceeded in short order. On Tuesday, the Longhorns starting left tackle met with the media, in which he said, “It’s better than what I thought it would be. And I thought it would be pretty great.”