Bruce Feldman claims Texas is 'a year away,' predicts 9-3 record

Bruce Feldman isn’t convinced Texas football is back. On Thursday, the Fox Sports columnist gave his expectations for the Longhorns’ upcoming season.

“I think that they will get close to expectations,” Feldman said during halftime of the UCF–Kent State broadcast. “I don’t think they are a top 10 team. I do think they’re a top 20 team.”

While Longhorns fans will hate to hear Feldman’s bold claim, the AP Preseason Top 25 backs him. Texas came in at No. 11 in the poll. History isn’t on the Longhorns’ side, either. Since 2009, Texas has only twice finished with a higher ranking than where it started in the AP Top 25 Poll.

Nonetheless, one of those incidents was last season when UT began the season unranked and finished the season in the No. 25 spot. Feldman believes the fate of Texas’ season will heavily rely on the man behind center.

“I spent some time around Quinn Ewers, very hyped quarterback there,” Feldman said. “He’s got a lot of arm talent, he is in much better shape physically. He told me not only has it helped in terms of how quick he feels, but also he feels a clear in his head, he changed his diet, feels like it’s made a big impact on him.

“He’s got a lot of big-time receivers and a lot of speed. Now, he doesn’t have Bijan Robinson anymore and that guy was awesome. But the offensive line is better than it has been in years at Texas.”

Texas did lose Bijan Robinson, but not much else. The Longhorns returned nine starters on offense, including all five offensive linemen. The unit will be led by left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., a freshman All-American in 2022.

“It was a young group, they’re really talented, they’re starting to come together,” Feldman said. “They’re still probably a year away from being what people are hyping them to be. But I think this would be a really good 9-3 kind of team.”

After going 8-4 in the regular season in 2022, a 9-4 campaign would be an improvement. However, Texas fans are hungry for more. Despite any outside noise, head coach Steve Sarkisian is taking it one day at a time.

“For sure. I think our guys are really excited. I just got done talking to them,” Sarkisian said. “As much as we’re excited to play on Saturday, we need to do a great job this week in being present today, and we need to focus on today. Saturday will come soon enough. We need to be present today, and we need to be taking in all the information today. And then go out and try to do it tomorrow.”

Texas will kick off its 2023 campaign against Rice on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on FOX.