Way too early power ranking for 2025 SEC football: 7 - Texas
Passing offense and defense can make teams elite on either side of the ball, but if you get beat up in the trenches, that really caps your ability to be elite. Texas loses nearly all of their offensive and defensive lines, which is one of the biggest ways to measure whether a team will progress or regress on one side of the ball or the other.
It’s not just that, though. The Horns lose two top targets in Isaiah Bond and Matthew Golden, as well as the Thorpe award winner in Jahdae Barron. Andrew Mukuba was a one and done in Austin at safety as well.
Then, you have the Quinn Ewers of it all. Arch Manning is the flavor of the day, but something needs to be said for just how disappointing the Texas offense was relative to expectations last year, and Manning could still not displace Ewers at QB. That doesn’t scream to me that they’ll take a step forward with Manning under center next year.
Cedric Baxter’s return will help Texas, but a lack of skill at RB was not the problem on offense last year. I’m coming into this year pretty skeptical about Texas.