Texas Longhorns 2008 Preview

Coach: Mack Brown (103-25) Eleventh Year
Last Year: 10-3, 5-3 Big 12 South, second of six 
Returning Starters : Offense 6*, Line 3 | Defense 4, Line 2

Three Things You Should Know
1) Phil Steele hates Texas. He picked them to finish third in the south and has no UT player listed on his All-Big Twelve first team. Is that possible?
2) The Longhorns will face nine bowl teams on this year's schedule.
3) Texas is trying out another new defensive coordinator. His name is Will Muschamp and unfortunately, they may have it right this time. He just spent two years at Auburn. Before that he hung around with Nick "Money" Saban, so he endured a year with the NFL Dolphins in 2005 after running the D for Saban at LSU. I think that went pretty well (the LSU part).

Trends
Texas has never finished lower than second in the Big 12 south under Mack Brown ... Colt McCoy is 20-6 as a starting QB ... KU's last win versus Texas was in 1938! ... Mark Mangino is 4-2 on Senior Day at KU, but one of those losses was the 2004 "BCS" game against UT ... The Jayhawks are 8-3 in the last 11 Senior Day games.

The Game
Every single intangible in this matchup favors KU. Home game, Senior Day, the ultimate revenge game, possible cold weather, Todd Reesing overlooked by his favorite school, KU trying to match KSU, UT not taking KU seriously and it probably goes on. Still, even with all of that, the Horns will always bring in a team with top-level talent. They certainly aren't going to lay down for the Hawks and with Muschamp running the D, expect a more aggresive front line. Fortunately, their secondary is inexperienced, so Reesing should be able to find targets. On the other side of the ball, UT loses a lot of skill but has most of the O-line intact. It may be tough to get to Colt McCoy, but the reality is after facing Oklahoma and Texas Tech the defense should feel a little more comfortable against the Horns. We've seen it before -- the Jayhawks go to war on Senior Day.

2008 Texas Schedule
Aug. 30, 2008 Florida Atlantic
Sept. 6, 2008 at Texas-El Paso 
Sept. 13, 2008 Arkansas 
Sept. 20, 2008 Rice 
Oct. 4, 2008 at Colorado 
Oct. 11, 2008 at Oklahoma
Oct. 18, 2008 Missouri
Oct. 25, 2008 Oklahoma State 
Nov. 1, 2008 at Texas Tech 
Nov. 8, 2008 Baylor  
Nov. 15, 2008 at Kansas 
Nov. 27, 2008 Texas A&M  

2007 Results
W Arkansas St. 21-13
W TCU 34-13
W at UCF 35-32
W Rice 58-14
L Kansas State 41-21
L Oklahoma 28-21
W at Iowa State 56-3
W at Baylor 31-10
W Nebraska 28-25
W at OK State 38-35
W Texas Tech 59-43
L at Texas A&M 38-30
W Arizona State 52-34