August 30 is the grand opening of the 2025 college football season (all due respect to Week 0). The Texas Longhorns travel to Columbus, Ohio to take on the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes.

The Longhorns are the ninth-ranked team in the projections and are being predicted to finish with a record of 9-3. Two SEC teams — Georgia and Alabama — are ranked ahead of Texas, and the Longhorns are only being given a 64 percent chance of making the College Football Playoff.

Texas ranks 103rd in terms of returning production, with just 29 percent of its offensive players back on the roster. As a result, the team sits at 126th for returning offensive production, which highlights the inexperience Finebaum is referring to.

The sport of football has become well-known for entertaining commercials. Even those that know nothing about the two teams that play in the Super Bowl every yea

Texas at Risk of Losing Nation's No. 1 DL as Three Historic College Football Programs Push for Flip originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The Texas Longhorns put together the No. 1 recruiting class in college football in the 2025 cycle, and are looking to do so again in 2026.

Helm finished with the sixth-most receiving yards among tight ends last season. The only players with more yards were Ball State Cardinals’ Tanner Koziol (839), MTSU Blue Raiders Holden Willis (871), Syracuse Orange’s Oronde Gadsen II (934), Penn State Nittany Lions’ Tyler Warren (1,233) and Bowling Green Falcons’ Harold Fannin Jr. (1,554).

The Texas Longhorns landed six players in a recent ESPN ranking of the top 100 players in college football for the 2025 season.

Five of the six national champions from the 2018-23 seasons went undefeated, marking an era filled with dominant teams. Last year’s debut of the 12-team College Football Playoff featured a two-loss Ohio State team as national champion, which could signal that being a dominant champion is now more difficult.