Power ranking the SEC after week 1: Texas A&M football falls, UF plummets, UT rises

Power ranking the SEC after week 1: No. 6 - Texas

One more time, I’ll say it: dominant wins over bad opponents won’t do much to move you up in these power rankings—and Colorado State is bad. Texas, like Mizzou and OU, did what they needed to do, but there are still some concerns. They didn’t get knocked down a peg because of those concerns, though; that has to do with a team that moved ahead of them that was previously behind.

The concerns I had with this team coming into the year had to do with the lack of talent to replace Murphy and Sweat leading to an inability to stop the run. That ability to keep offenses in long downs and distances last year was absolutely vital to a lot of the defensive success that the Longhorns had.

Similarly, I was not really buying the hype on how good the offensive line was. I was convinced of Kelvin Banks’s quality, but the rest were all question marks for me.

Both of those concerns reared their heads in this game against the Rams. CSU notched 3.7 YPC against Texas, a mark which only four opponents exceeded all year against that 2023 defense. Meanwhile, the Longhorns only mustered 4.63 YPC, which they exceeded against eight opponents last year.

The receivers looked great (though Ewers was off and on as usual), which most people expected. In a line-of-scrimmage league, though, the Horns will need to be better up front on both sides of the ball.