Texas Opponent Bellwethers
The Longhorns play a hell of a 2024 schedule and will face a major non-conference challenge early (September 7th, @Michigan) without a great deal of scouting information, but several Longhorn opponents will have their own bellwether games before they play the Horns that should offer the Texas staff plenty of information regarding scheme and personnel.
What are those games and what might they tell us?
OKLAHOMA
Tennessee
@ Auburn
The Sooner non-con is soft (Tulane’s fun little run looks to be over and I’m not putting much stock in Houston) but they’ll face Tennessee at home and Auburn on the road in the consecutive weeks leading up to Texas. That should minimize Brent Venables stealing extra weeks of prep directly before the Red River Shootout and both Sooner opponents represent a potentially interesting challenge.
Josh Heupel’s Volunteer offense led by former 5 star Nico Iamaleava could stress what should be a very good Sooner defense, but the most interesting matchup will be a piecemeal Sooner offensive line and a young QB battling a high pressure Tennessee defense that values hits on the quarterback, negative play infliction and turnover creation over conventional down to down success.
The Vols could establish a game plan for the Texas defense to emulate. Or offer a cautionary tale. That’s useful given that the Sooners caught PK wrong-footed last year.
Auburn doesn’t look to be very good, but they host and Hugh Freeze is all about circling a key home game and breaking tendencies to win. See a bad Auburn having excellent performances against Bama and Georgia last year. If you examine the Tiger 2024 schedule, Oklahoma fits the profile of that game. How do the Sooners adjust to novelty with a young QB under center on the road?
GEORGIA
Clemson (Neutral)
@ Alabama
The Dawgs project to be the best team in the country and coming into Austin the week after Texas plays Oklahoma is useful for them. However, in the weeks prior to this game, Georgia will need to show its stuff, beginning in Week 1 against Clemson and then later with a huge road game in late September against Bama.
Alabama’s offense against Georgia will be most instructive for Steve Sarkisian and Texas. Kalen DeBoer will certainly try to set up kill shots in the passing game, but I expect a creative running game to drive the Tide’s down-to-down success on offense. How do they attack Georgia’s desire to defend the run with the least amount of bodies possible? Has Georgia’s interior DL hardened up? Might Texas learn that the way to solve Georgia is to RTDB until they’re forced to drop down safeties?
TEXAS A&M
Notre Dame
Missouri
LSU
The Aggies have an incredibly favorable SEC schedule (they host every big game) and no one should be surprised if hosting Texas on November 30th has much bigger implications than just state of Texas bragging rights. The Longhorn staff will have a more fully formed view of the Aggies than any other quality Longhorn opponent given that they’ll have played eleven games prior, but Notre Dame in the season opener and Mizzou and LSU in October might be particularly informative.
Notre Dame will feature a Top 10 defense. Quite possibly Top 5. The question here is straightforward: does A&M’s offense fall off of a cliff facing elite talent due to potentially questionable OL play and the absence of a single go-to receiver? The recipe for A&M playing solid offense against regular defenses is evident, but will they underperform dramatically against high end athletes that can cover and get after Weigman?
Missouri will answer the question whether Mike Elko’s smart schemes that prioritize the red zone and money downs will have enough juice in the secondary to cover Luther Burden when the pass rush can’t get there. If Elko is forced to play off and minimize single score big plays when confronted with higher end passing games, Sarkisian will have very useful information for crafting a high completion percentage ball control passing game plan in College Station that can dominate clock, tempo and move the sticks on 3rd down.
LSU’s defense once again profiles to be anywhere from mediocre to wretched, but the Tiger offense will return more big play punch than is perceived even with the loss of their Heisman winning QB and an elite receiving duo. The Tigers should have an elite pass protecting OL, QB Garrett Nussmeier has a cannon arm and LSU’s track record of replacing athletes at the skill positions isn’t advisable to short.
We’ll find out about A&M’s big play susceptibility. Elko will have to show his hand on how he intends to stop deep shots and that’s a good scout for Sark and staff.
The post Texas Opponent Bellwethers appeared first on On3.
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