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The offseason begins: 221 days until Texas football

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Arch Manning
Arch Manning (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

As Ohio State locked up the 2024 national championship on Monday night, the countdown to the 2025 season began.

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Texas will play the Buckeyes in Columbus, Ohio in 221 days on August 30. It will be the second consecutive season that Texas plays the defending national champions, as the Longhorns battled 2023 champion Michigan during week two of the 2024 campaign.

The 2025 season will be the 133rd in program history dating back to 1893. It will be Steve Sarkisian‘s fifth season leading the Longhorns, which due to the tumultuous nature of the previous decade of Texas football is a bit of an achievement. Sarkisian will be the first coach since Mack Brown to coach a fifth season in Austin, and Brown left the Texas job in late 2013.

Arch Manning is the assumed starter for the Longhorns, ushering in a new era after the departure of Quinn Ewers for the NFL. The son of Cooper Manning, the nephew of Peyton and Eli, and grandson of Archie, Arch Manning will elevate the hype surrounding the Longhorns throughout the offseason. Texas is already ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in a number of way-too-early rankings and much of that has to do with Manning’s presence on the roster. Texas will have to figure out how to replace four starters along the offensive line, a star tight end, and two starting receivers.

On the other side of the football, Pete Kwiatkowski returns for his fifth season as the Texas defensive play-caller. His linebacking corps may be one of the best in the country, and the defensive ends will be the envy of 120+ teams. He’ll also have Michael Taaffe, the defensive heart-and-soul of the 2024 Longhorns, back on his 2025 defense along with several up-and-coming players from top-ranked recruiting classes.

The 2025 schedule is…

  • 8/30 – at Ohio State – Ohio Stadium – Columbus, Ohio
  • 9/6 – San Jose State – Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium – Austin, Texas
  • 9/13 – UTEP – Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium – Austin, Texas
  • 9/20 – BYE
  • 9/27 – Sam Houston State – Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium – Austin, Texas
  • 10/4 – at Florida – Ben Hill Griffin Stadium – Gainesville, Fla.
  • 10/11 – vs. Oklahoma – Cotton Bowl – Dallas Texas
  • 10/18 – at Kentucky – Kroger Field – Lexington, Ky.
  • 10/25 – at Mississippi State – Davis Wade Stadium – Starkville, Miss.
  • 11/1 – Vanderbilt – Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium – Austin, Texas
  • 11/8 – BYE
  • 11/15 – at Georgia – Sanford Stadium – Athens, Ga.
  • 11/22 – Arkansas – Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium – Austin, Texas
  • 11/29 – Texas A&M – Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium – Austin, Texas

Texas will be making long-awaited road trips to Florida and Georgia along with away games at Mississippi State and Kentucky. The Longhorns’ non-conference schedule features a blockbuster in the Buckeyes then three Group of Five schools.

Texas and Ohio State have played in multiple high-drama affairs, including the most recent Cotton Bowl. The Longhorns notched thrilling wins in 2005 and in the 2009 Fiesta Bowl, while Troy Smith launched his Heisman campaign in Austin in 2006. Their fifth meeting will be almost 20 years after their first, when Vince Young‘s late throw to Limas Sweed earned the Longhorns the rare distinction of a night win in Ohio Stadium.

Texas will look to end a national championship drought that now has reached 19 seasons. The Longhorns are now just one season without a conference title having ended that drought in 2023. Earning either of those championships would likely entail a 10-win season. If Texas can get to double-digit wins, it would be the first time the Longhorns put three seasons like that together since the 2001-09 stretch.

Texas currently has an all-time record of 961-394-33, good for fifth in college football history. The Longhorns could slide ahead of No. 4 Notre Dame, who currently boasts 962 wins.

Much will take place before toe meets leather in August. The Longhorns will go through offseason workouts, spring practices, summer conditioning, player run practices, and training camp. There will be numerous recruiting storylines, portal pursuits, and other issues at play in the sport that have an effect on the Longhorns.

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But when 221 days pass and the ball is teed up in Columbus, the long offseason will seem like a blink of an eye.

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