Longhorn Republic

The season rapidly approaches as we continue through the Texas Longhorns’ upcoming schedule week by week. This week, we land on the Kentucky Wildcats, who are looking to rebound from their worst season under head coach Mark Stoops. They were hit hard during the Transfer Portal window, but also tried to rebuild through it as well — reshaping their roster from a team that won just won SEC game.

For the first time in three seasons, the Texas Longhorns are breaking in a new quarterback. The former top player in the country, Arch Manning, is officially set to take the field as QB1 for the Texas Longhorns after two seasons of ill-informed questions and transfer rumors. Expectations are already sky high for the Longhorns’ quarterback as they try to reach their third consecutive College Football Playoffs.

We continue our march through the Texas Longhorns’ season with the Longhorns’ first trip to Starkville as a member of the SEC. A year ago, the Mississippi State Bulldogs managed to move the ball on Texas, but the Longhorns managed to do enough to get the job done. In the offseason, MSU added more than 50 players through the portal, allowing second-year coach Jeff Lebby to reload and try to improve on their last-place finish in the conference.

The Texas Longhorns played one of their tightest games of the year in 2024 against Diego Pavia and the Vanderbilt Commodores. The dynamic playmaker is back for another year, with coach Clark Lea hoping to build on the most successful Vanderbilt season since Jame Franklin was the coach. What can we expect from Pavia Year Two and can the defense improve enough to help him?

The summer visit window is closed, and the Texas Longhorns have secured four elite defensive linemen: three interior and one pass rusher. It’s clear that Texas has a focus on the trenches for 2026, prioritizing several key pieces on both sides of the ball. How does this class set Texas up for the future, both near and far-term?