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    Jeff Howe
    Texas entering into Steve Sarkisian’s fifth season on the Forty Acres as the No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 doesn’t guarantee anything.
    Still, the history of preseason No. 1 teams since 1998 — the first season in which the Bowl Championship Series decided college football’s national champion — is a sign that the Longhorns can almost bank on a prosperous season.
    The proof will be in the pudding, whether Texas is destined for a third consecutive trip to the College Football Playoff under Sarkisian. Regardless, there’s a baseline level of success that the previous 27 clubs voted No. 1 in the preseason by AP Top 25 voters has reached.
    — Only one of the 27 previous preseason No. 1 teams failed to win 10 or more games. USC opened the 2012 season ranked No. 1 by the AP (LSU was No. 1 in the Coaches Poll) and went 7-6 with a loss to Georgia Tech in the Sun Bowl. Lane Kiffin’s last full season as coach of the Trojans saw USC join Ole Miss (1964) as the only preseason No. 1 teams in history to not appear in the final poll.
    — Texas will attempt to join Florida State (1999), USC (2004) and Alabama (2017) as the only preseason No. 1 teams in the BCS/CFP era to win a national championship.
    — In the BCS era (1998-2013), four preseason No. 1 teams — Miami (2002), Oklahoma (2003), USC (2005) and Ohio State (2006) — reached the national championship game. The Hurricanes, Trojans and Buckeyes won their respective conference championships; the Sooners lost to Kansas State in the Big 12 title game.
    — While Alabama (2017) is the only preseason No. 1 to win a national championship in the CFP era (since 2014), nine other No. 1 teams made it to the CFP: Florida State (2014), Alabama (2016, 2018 and 2021), Clemson (2019 and 2020) and Georgia (2023 and 2024). Of those eight teams, four (Alabama three times and Clemson in 2019) reached the national championship game.
    — Nick Saban’s 2017 Crimson Tide won the national championship with a walk-off victory over Georgia, but the Bulldogs won the SEC title with a win over Auburn. Of the 27 previous preseason No. 1 teams, 14 won at least a share of a conference championship, while Oklahoma (2003), Florida (2009) and Georgia (2023) lost their respective conference title games.
    — Eleven preseason No. 1 teams since 1998 didn’t win a conference championship, reach the BCS title game or make the CFP: Nebraska (2000), Florida (2001), Georgia (2008 and 2023), Florida (2009), Alabama (2010, 2013 and 2022), Oklahoma (2011), USC (2012) and Ohio State (2015). The 2015 Buckeyes, the 2022 Crimson Tide and the 2023 Bulldogs are the only AP preseason No. 1 teams since 2014 to not qualify for the CFP in the four-team format.
    — Georgia was No. 1 to open the 2024 season, the first in the 12-team CFP format. The Bulldogs went 11-3 and won the SEC championship with an overtime win over Texas before falling to Notre Dame at the Sugar Bowl in the CFP quarterfinals. 
    Final results for preseason AP Top 25 No. 1 teams since 1998
    2024: Georgia (11-3, SEC champions, lost in the CFP quarterfinals to Notre Dame)
    2023: Georgia (13-1, lost the SEC championship game to Alabama, Orange Bowl champions)
    2022: Alabama (11-2, didn’t make it to SEC championship game, Sugar Bowl champions)
    2021: Alabama (13-2, SEC champions, Cotton Bowl champions, lost the CFP national championship to Georgia)
    2020: Clemson (10-2, ACC champions, lost in the CFP semifinals to Ohio State)
    2019: Clemson (14-1, ACC champions, Fiesta Bowl champions, lost the CFP national championship to LSU)
    2018: Alabama (14-1, SEC champions, Orange Bowl champions, lost the CFP national championship to Clemson)
    *2017: Alabama (13-1, didn’t make it to the SEC championship game, Sugar Bowl champions, CFP national champions)
    2016: Alabama (14-1, SEC champions, Peach Bowl champions, lost the CFP national championship to Clemson)
    2015: Ohio State (12-1, didn’t make Big Ten championship game, Fiesta Bowl champions)
    2014: Florida State (13-1, ACC champions, lost in the CFP semifinals to Oregon)
    2013: Alabama (11-2, didn’t make SEC championship game, lost the Sugar Bowl to Oklahoma)
    2012: USC (7-6, didn't make the Pac-12 championship game, lost the Sun Bowl to Georgia Tech)
    2011: Oklahoma (10-3, Insight Bowl champions)
    2010: Alabama (10-3, didn’t make the SEC championship game, Citrus Bowl champions)
    2009: Florida (13-1, lost the SEC championship game to Alabama, Sugar Bowl champions)
    2008: Georgia (10-3, didn’t make SEC championship game, Citrus Bowl champions)
    2007: USC (11-2, Pac-10 co-champions, Rose Bowl champions)
    2006: Ohio State (12-1, Big Ten champions, lost BCS national championship game to Florida)
    2005: USC (12-1, Pac-10 champions, lost Rose Bowl/BCS championship game to Texas)
    *2004: USC (11-0, Pac-10 champions, BCS national champions)
    2003: Oklahoma (12-2, lost the Big 12 championship game to Kansas State, lost the Sugar Bowl/BCS championship game to LSU)
    2002: Miami (12-1, Big East champions, lost the Fiesta Bowl/BCS championship game to Ohio State)
    2001: Florida (10-2, didn’t make the SEC championship game, Orange Bowl champions)
    2000: Nebraska (10-2, didn’t make Big 12 championship game, Alamo Bowl champions)
    *1999: Florida State (12-0, ACC champions, BCS national champions)
    1998: Ohio State (11-1, Big Ten co-champions, Sugar Bowl champions)
    Jeff Howe
    Steve Sarkisian is scheduled to meet with reporters after Texas concludes practice on Monday. He’s probably going to be asked about the Longhorns being the No. 1-ranked team in the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in school history.
    History suggests Sarkisian will step in front of the cameras with his response ready to go.
    “I don't really care about the rankings, truth be told,” he said last month in San Antonio at the Texas High School Coaches Association Coaching School and Convention.
    Sarkisian was answering a question regarding SEC Media Days, which ended with the media picking Texas as the preseason favorite to win the conference championship. Still, Sarkisian didn’t wax poetic on the Longhorns' chances of getting to Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the second year in a row and taking care of unfinished business on Dec. 6.
    “I've sat up here and said the rankings don't matter when we weren't ranked very highly,” he said. “I don't think that's going to change if we're ranked higher.”
    No matter what anyone thinks of preseason rankings, the Longhorns (1,552 total points based on poll votes, including 25 first-place votes) edging out fellow College Football Playoff semifinalist Penn State (1,547 points and 23 first-place votes) and reigning national champion Ohio State (1,472 points and 11 first-place votes) should be taken as a two-fold sign of respect from the college football world.
    First, it’s a sign of respect for what the current regime has achieved since the 2023 recruiting class, one headlined by Anthony Hill Jr. and Arch Manning, arrived on campus. Over the last two seasons, Sarkisian’s program has made back-to-back CFP semifinal trips, ended the longest drought in program history without a conference championship (14 years) and racked up 25 victories.
    Furthermore, it’s respect for a roster chock-full of former blue-chip recruits with arguably more talent, fewer holes and a higher number of future NFL draft picks than any in the country.
    Even though ESPN’s Bill Connelly ranked Texas No. 103 when he unveiled his returning production percentage rankings in February, the Longhorns’ (No. 5 in Connelly’s post-spring SP+ rankings, of which returning production is a piece of the formula) inexperience could be minimized. Almost all of the players with extra eligibility stemming from the pandemic-impacted 2020 season have cycled through college football, which should result in younger, less-experienced rosters across the board.
    If there were a season in which a lack of experience at key positions might not be a detriment, it could be this one. That, along with Manning’s first season to be QB1 from the jump, might best explain Texas coming out on top of the closest preseason AP vote since 1998, when five points separated No. 1 Ohio State (1,668 points and 30 first-place votes) and No. 2 Florida State (1,663 points and 22 first-place votes).
    “They're great for the fans and they're great for the popularity of our sport,” Sarkisian said of preseason rankings last month. “It keeps the conversation of college football [at] the forefront of people's minds and the media and things of that nature.
    "I think that's awesome for our sport, and the fact that we're talking about Week 1 matchups and all of those things, but, in reality, they don't matter," he added. "What we do on the field, the way we perform, is going to be, ultimately, what dictates how our season goes."
    Nevertheless, the rubber will meet the road in 19 days, when the Longhorns travel to the Horseshoe to meet the Buckeyes in a rematch of last season’s heartbreaking Cotton Bowl loss. To Sarkisian’s point about marquee Week 1 battles, Ohio State’s No. 3 ranking means the Aug. 30 showdown in Columbus is tied with a clash between No. 1 Alabama and No. 3 Florida State on Sept. 2, 2017, for pitting the highest-ranked teams against each other in a season opener since the first preseason poll was released in 1950.
    Anyone invested in Longhorn football should take pride in Texas, which went into the 2024 campaign ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25, garnering a top-five preseason ranking for the second consecutive season. Sarkisian joining Darrell Royal (1960-65 and 1967-71) and Mack Brown (2001-03, 2005-07 and 2009-10) as the only coaches in program history to do so is another sign that the Longhorns are on the cusp of a historic run.
    That should be celebrated by the burnt orange faithful, even if it doesn’t resonate within the walls of the Moncrief Complex.
    Internally, nobody takes for granted what Texas has accomplished over the last two seasons. Still, the Longhorns are focused on doing whatever it takes to get over the hump and claim the program's first national championship in 20 years.
    "The coaches do a great job reminding us that this is our main goal, but we have to do the work every single day to reach the goal," linebacker Liona Lefau said after a recent camp practice. "We can't skip any steps. We can't skip any days. We've got to stack days.
    "[Sarkisian] called it 'the summit,'" he added. "Right now, we're at the bottom, trying to work our way up to the national championship."
    Bobby Burton
    Hey folks,
    This is something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time and finally gotten things in place.
    We’re joining together with the guys at 3rd & Longhorn to do a three-city tour of Texas prior to the season opener.
    The event is free. We’ll both be taping or recording a live show at the event. There will also be a meet-and-greet section where folks can take pictures with DJ, Fozzy, Rod, and other special guests, and get autographs, etc.
    Please put it on your calendar if you can make it out. Should be fun!
    Also: the Dallas event is in conjunction with the annual Texas Exes get together, so that should be a lot of fun.
     
     
     

    Jeff Howe
    Here are some quick hitters from Thursday's practice, the second of training camp for the Texas Longhorns:
    — Wide receiver Ryan Wingo and offensive lineman DJ Campbell weren't at practice. There was no official word on the status of either Longhorn immediately after the window.
    With Wingo out, there was more work available for Emmett Mosley V and Jaime Ffrench, who caught the eyes of the OTF staff today. With that said, Parker Livingstone made his presence felt without Wingo on the field, catching a few deep balls from Arch Manning late in the viewing window. Steve Sarkisian was vocal in his approval of Livingstone's performance on Thursday.
    Along the offensive line, Connor Robertson was elevated to the No. 1 center with Campbell's absence forcing Cole Hutson to right guard. Trevor Goosby, Neto Umeozulu and Brandon Baker rounded out the first-team line. Jaydon Chatman (left tackle), Nate Kibble (left guard), Daniel Cruz (center), Connor Stroh (right guard) and Andre Cojoe (right tackle) made up the second group.
    — Cornerback Kade Phillips and safety Jonah Williams were held out again today. Sarkisian said after Wednesday's practice that both true freshmen are dealing with hamstring issues.
    — Lavon Johnson is still limited and had his left ankle heavily taped for the second consecutive practice. Hero Kanu and Alex January led the interior defensive linemen through drills, but Travis Shaw was noticeable on Thursday. The North Carolina transfer was limited in the spring while recovering from a knee injury. Shaw, Cole Brevard and Maraad Watson had solid days among the guys in Kenny Baker's group.
    — UPDATE: According to a university spokesperson, Campbell and Wingo were absent from practice for personal reasons and it’s “nothing serious,” we’re told.
    Jeff Howe
    AUSTIN, Texas — The biscuit that was the Texas running game last season was buttered with the outside zone.
    Considering how Georgia and Ohio State stymied a Longhorn ground attack lacking diversity in the team’s three losses, the offense might’ve been better served by Steve Sarkisian not pulling so many stretch plays from the well. Regardless, the body of work put together by the offensive line and running backs over a 16-game season revealed that wider was better for Texas in 2024.
    According to Pro Football Focus, 243 — more than 45 percent — of the offense’s non-sack rushing attempts were from the C gap (between the tackle and the tight end) to the sideline. It was that portion of the line of scrimmage where the Longhorns racked up more than 51 percent of their non-sack rushing yardage (1,415 yards and 5.82 yards per attempt), 64 percent of their rushing touchdowns (16), more than half of their total yards after contact (924 yards and 3.81 yards after contact per attempt) and more than 48 percent of their rushing attempts that gained at least 10 yards (33).
    The 75 missed tackles Texas ball carriers forced on wide runs accounted for more than 67 percent of the missed tackles forced by the Longhorns on their non-sack rushing attempts.
    Furthermore, Quintrevion Wisner is the returning leading rusher in the SEC (1,064 yards, 4.7 yards per attempt and five rushing touchdowns) and was most effective on wide runs as a sophomore. The data collected by PFF shows Wisner gained 448 yards, scored all of his rushing touchdowns, recorded 10 of his 27 gains that went for 10 or more yards and forced 27 missed tackles on C-gap-to-sideline rushing attempts, even though those runs accounted for only 45 percent of his total carries (226).
    So, which concept will be the focal point of the Texas running game in 2025?
    According to offensive line coach Kyle Flood, who met with reporters on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s first training camp practice, the Longhorns haven’t settled on one.
    This will be the ninth consecutive season Flood has worked alongside Sarkisian, which dates back to their time together in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons. Flood said the go-to scheme is subject to change from year to year, pointing out that, in 2024, the outside zone "was very productive for us over the course of the season.”
    “I don’t know what that’s going to look like this year yet,” Flood said. “I think we’ll have a much better vision of that as we go through training camp and we allow these linemen and tight ends to work together.”
    Based on how the Texas running game has evolved since Sarkisian’s first season on the Forty Acres, Flood isn’t being coy when discussing what the running game will hang its hat on in the current regime’s fifth season.
    The Longhorns relied heavily on inside zone runs in 2021 (according to PFF, Bijan Robinson had 138 rushing attempts on zone-based plays and just 57 carries on gap-based runs), preferring zone concepts 66 percent of the time. The percentage of zone runs dropped to 57 in 2022, with Roschon Johnson splitting his carries almost equally between zone (47 attempts) and gap-based runs (44).
    In 2023, with the addition of CJ Baxter, who had more attempted gap runs (69) than zone runs, the 2023 running game, and Jonathon Brooks closing the margin between his zone (101) and gap (86) runs, Texas won the Big 12 and reached the College Football Playoff behind a running game operating on a 54/46 percentage split between zone and gap runs. Last season, even with outside zone being the dominant concept, the Longhorns had a 52/48 percentage split favoring zone runs, their most balanced running game under Sarkisian.
    What must the coaches consider when establishing which concepts could best help Texas reach the national championship game for the first time since the Longhorns played for the BCS title in 2009?
    It starts with Flood replacing four starters along the offensive line.
    And the strongest parts of the line are just as important as determining the schemes in which the retooled group might be most proficient.
    Last season, the A gap between Jake Majors and Hayden Conner (89 attempts) and the C gap between Kelvin Banks Jr. (87 attempts) and the tight end were the most popular gaps for running plays according to PFF. Those three players are gone. Still, Trevor Goosby was the left tackle for Wisner’s 186-yard performance in the regular-season finale against Texas A&M, and Neto Umeozulu could offer a better, more consistent push in the running game as he takes over for Conner at left guard.
    Baxter was back on the practice field Wednesday, less than a year after a preseason knee injury wiped out his sophomore season. With Christian Clark showing no signs of slowing down while going through his remarkable recovery from an Achilles injury, and Jerrick Gibson trying to prove he’s worthy of carries after an up-and-down debut, the running back room is a lot more crowded than it was when Baxter was leading the way last summer.
    “Ultimately, as coaches, we’ll figure out what schemes are going to allow us to utilize that personnel in the best way,” Flood said. “It may be outside the zone again, but I don’t go into it saying, ‘This is what we’re going to be exclusively,’ or, ‘This is what we’re going to do more than anything else.’ I think I want to see that in training camp to really be sure what we feel like is the best thing for this football team, and assume that just because outside zone might’ve been best last year, that it’s going to be best for us again.”
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