Texas falls outside preseason college football rankings despite first-place vote in coaches poll

Texas Longhorns football is always intriguing to watch and the 2022 season will be no different.

Notably, Texas received one first-place vote in the AFCA Coaches Poll released last week. The coaches ranked Texas No. 18 in the nation just ahead of Wake Forest and Wisconsin and just below Pittsburgh and Miami.

On Monday, the Associated Press released its preseason top 25 poll and the Longhorns were curiously left off it. Texas received 164 points in the voting, but that was good enough for 27th place when it came to the rankings. The Longhorns finished behind Tennessee, No. 25 BYU and No. 24 Houston.

Texas opens the season against UL Monroe on Sept. 3. The team then has the biggest challenge of the season when they face No. 1 Alabama on Sept. 10.

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Quinn Ewers may become the full-time starting quarterback with Hudson Card fighting for the job as well. Bijan Robinson will be back leading the charge in the backfield as head coach Steve Sarkisian enters his second season. 

The team took a hit Monday when they lost top wide receiver Isaiah Neyor and offensive lineman Junior Angilau for the season due to ACL injuries.

“I hate it for them,” Sarkisian said, via ESPN. “I feel for those guys who both had really good offseasons to get ready for the season. … For us now, it’s next man up. I think we’ve done a good job in recruiting to ensure that we can do that. We’ve got plenty of time. We’ll be OK.”

The Longhorns finished 5-7 in 2021 and 3-6 in Big 12 Conference play.