With four months and change before the start of the season and a week removed from the end of spring football drills, I keep coming back to the same thing over and over again when I'm considering the final prognostication for the 2026 Texas Longhorns ... Georgia and Ohio State.
Specifically, I'm wondering if the Longhorns are finally able to climb the final quest to climb over the Georgia/Ohio State bar that has seen Texas fall short a combined five times against these two teams in the last two seasons. Otherwise, the Longhorns have won 23 of their last 24 games and 35 of their last 38 games.
At some point, this season is going to be defined by the games the Longhorns will probably play against these two giants, whether in September or January.
It got me to thinking about how many players I believe the Longhorns have on the 2026 roster that are ready to help this team beat the Dawgs or Buckeyes. Then, I wondered if the list of players that I believed would be ready right now to help the Longhorns beat Oklahoma would be significantly smaller.
I called it the Kobe Black test. The junior cornerback was good enough last season to be one of the program's best players against Texas A&M, but wasn't consistently good enough that you could feel confident about him in a match-up against you know who with the Arch Manning Era on the line.
Basically, I created a game called "Ohio State, Oklahoma or Texas State", which is a lot like "Marry, &^%$ or Kill” but different. With each player in the Texas program, I slotted them into one of 3 tiers ...
1. Good enough to help Texas Beat Ohio State
2. Good enough to help Texas Beat Oklahoma
3. Good enough to help Texas Beat Texas State
It tells a story about the roster and what needs to happen before the Longhorns play the Buckeyes in September.
