TEXAS FBS FOOTBALL RANKINGS
Where does your team rank among Texas schools heading into the 2018 college football season?
Aug 29, 2018, 7:00 am
Texas has 12 FBS teams. Each week we will rank them based on season-long performance, the prior game, and success relative to their competition. These are the rankings headed into week 1 of the 2018 college football season.
UTEP brings up the back of pack after failing to gain a single victory in 2017. They have a favorable matchup in week 1 vs. Northern Arizona, but I wouldn’t count on their success in this game to carry much significance towards the rest of the season.
Not much changed in 2017 for a Texas State program that can never seem to make any significant improvements. The Bobcats go against a difficult opponent in Rutgers to begin their 2018 campaign.
The wheels fell off the wagon for Rice in 2017 after finishing with an abysmal record of 1-11. Anything should be an improvement in 2018, but Rice will have a difficult task vs. the University of Houston this week after barely beating Prairie View last week.
After an offseason full of controversy and change before the 2017 season, the Bears felt the impact on the field. Baylor fought hard but only came out with a single victory in 2017. With that said, their team relied on a large collection of young and inexperienced players that now have a year’s worth of playing time under their belts. The Bears will look to start 2018 off right and gain some momentum before they face off against the gauntlet of daunting Big 12 opponents.
UTSA will return in 2018 with the hopes of redeeming themselves from their 2017 season which seemed to fall apart. The Roadrunners started off strong in 2017 with three consecutive wins but struggled to remain consistent from that point on. Things do not seem like they will be much easier in 2018 as they kick the season off with a difficult matchup against Arizona State and their new head coach Herm Edwards.
After a mediocre season finishing with a below .500 record in 2017, the Red Raiders start off 2018 as the seventh best team in Texas. The popular belief is that Head coach Kliff Kingsbury will have one last chance in 2018 to improve this Tech squad and cement himself as the head coach for the foreseeable future. Kingsbury will have his work cut out for him in Week 1 as his team will face off against an always dangerous Ole Miss team. To add to the pressure, there are still many questions and doubts surrounding the starting quarterback position, and unless someone steps up to take the reigns, all signs point to a recipe for disaster.
SMU grabs the No. 6 overall spot on this list headed into Week 1. The Mustangs had a solid year in 2017 with the help of a high flying passing attack led by quarterback Ben Hicks and WR Courtland Sutton, who was taken in the first round of the 2017 NFL draft by the Denver Broncos. SMU will look for another prolific season on the offensive side of the ball with Hicks returning for his junior season along with one of his most dangerous weapons from 2017, RB Xavier Jones. SMU will have a difficult matchup against UNT in week 1 who landed in the No.3 spot on this list.
The Cougars did not make much noise in 2017 but they performed well for their circumstances. UH suffered two major losses with the departures of head coach Tom Herman to the University of Texas and superstar quarterback Greg Ward to the NFL. With that said new head coach Major Applewhite did an impressive job keeping the Cougars competitive, while also bringing along his new, young QB D’Eriq King. 2018 will be an opportunity for Applewhite and King to continue their maturation and maintain the winning culture left behind by coach Herman. Houston will face off against their city counterparts at Rice University in week 1, and are expected to pass their first test of the season with flying colors.
The Aggies had a rocky season in 2017 with their fair share of highs and lows, but looking forward, excitement around the program is on the rise. A&M made headlines this offseason after hiring former Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher. Not only will A&M have the benefit of taking the field re-energized by their new leadership, they will also have an abundance of talented returning players from 2017 that may just make them one of this seasons dark horses in college football. Not much will be made of their week 1 game vs Northwestern State, but it will give coach Fisher a chance to become more familiar with his new team.
UNT sneaks into the No.3 spot on this list to begin the 2017 season. North Texas caught fire in 2017 behind a dangerous passing attack led by quarterback Mason Fine. Not only will the exciting, young QB be returning for North Texas, but so will four of his top five leading receivers from 2017. UNT will kickoff 2018 with a tough matchup against a very formidable SMU team, but a victory could set them on the right path for another spectacular season.
The University of Texas falls into the No. 2 spot as they are the only other team from Texas to make the nation’s Top 25 rankings to begin the 2018 season. Securing the 23rd spot in the nation is a compliment to coach Tom Herman and the excitement he has created around the Texas program that is attempting to return prominence. Texas performed well in 2017 and showed flashes of hope and potential on their way to finishing with a record of 7-6. Although they will not be walking into a guaranteed win in Week 1 vs. the University of Maryland, they will have an opportunity to show the offseason progress they have made and take one more step towards re-establishing themselves as championship contenders.
As we look ahead to the 2018 college football season, TCU tops the rankings. The Horned Frogs had a strong showing in 2017 after finishing second in the Big 12 with a 11-3 record. They will enter into 2018 ranked 16th in the nation, as coach Gary Patterson is always expected to put together a strong squad that always has a chance to win every time they step on the field. TCU should be able to maintain its place on this list through Week 1 as they have a very favorable matchup against the Southern University Jaguars.
While holding one’s breath that for a change the Astros aren’t publicly grossly underestimating an injury’s severity with Jose Altuve having missed the last game and a half with “right side discomfort…”
The Astros averting a sweep vs. Oakland Thursday was in no way a must-win, but getting the win allowed a mini sigh of relief. The Astros are NOT in the process of choking. Could they collapse? Sure that’s possible. Also possible is that they’ve just been in one more ebb phase in a season of ebb and flow. They certainly have left the door ajar for the Seattle Mariners to swipe the American League West, but with the M's simply not looking good enough to walk through that door the Astros remain in commanding position. The Astros made a spectacular charge from 10 games behind to grab the division lead. But there was a lot of runway left when the Astros awoke June 19th 10 games in arrears. September 3 the Astros arose with a comfy six game lead over the M’s. With Seattle blowing a 4-1 eighth inning lead in a 5-4 loss to the Texas Rangers Thursday night, heading into Friday night the Astros' advantage is back up to four and a half games despite the Astros having lost six of their last nine games and having gone just 10-12 over their last 22 games. Not a good stretch but nothing freefalling about it.
While the Mariners have the remainder of their four-game series vs. the dead in the water Rangers this weekend, the Astros play three at the lousy Los Angeles Angels. The Astros should take advantage of the Halos, with whom they also have a four-game series at Minute Maid Park next weekend. Since the All-Star break, only the White Sox have a worse record than the Angels 19-31 mark (the White Sox are 6-43 post-break!). Two of the three starting pitchers the Angels will throw this weekend will be making their third big league starts. To begin next week the Astros are in San Diego for a three-game-set against a Padres club which is flat better than the Astros right now. That does not mean the Astros can’t take that series. The Mariners meanwhile will be still at home, for three vs. the Yankees.
There are some brutal Astros’ statistics that largely explain why this is merely a pretty good team and not more. As I have noted before, it is a fallacy that the best teams are usually superior in close games. But the Astros have been pathetic in close games. There used to be a joke made about Sammy Sosa that he could blow you out, but he couldn’t beat you. Meaning being that when the score was 6-1, 8-3 or the like Sammy would pad his stats with home runs and runs batted in galore. But in a tight game, don’t count on Sammy to come through very often. In one-run games the Astros are 15-26, in two-run games they are 10-14. In games that were tied after seven innings they are 3-12. In extra innings they are 5-10. The good news is, all those realities mean nothing when the postseason starts. So long as you’re in the postseason. In games decided by three or more runs the Astros have pummeled the opposition to the tune of 53 wins and 28 losses.
General Manager Dana Brown isn’t an Executive of the Year candidate, but overall he’s been fine this season. Without the Yusei Kikuchi trade deadline acquisition the Astros would likely barely lead the AL West. Brown’s biggest offseason get, Victor Caratini, has done very solid work in his part-time role. Though he has tapered off notably the last month and change, relief pitcher Tayler Scott was a fabulous signing. Scrap heap pickups Ben Gamel, Jason Heyward, and Kaleb Ort have all made contributions. However…
Dana. Dana! You made yourself look very silly with comments this week somewhat scoffing at people being concerned with or dismissive of Justin Verlander’s ability to be a meaningful playoff contributor. Brown re-sang a ridiculous past tune, the “check the back of his baseball card” baloney. Dana, did you mean like the back of Jose Abreu’s baseball card? Perhaps Brown has never seen those brokerage ads in which at the end in fine print and/or in rapidly spoken words “past performance is no guarantee of future results” always must be included. Past (overall career) performance as indicative of future results for a 41-year-old pitcher who has frequently looked terrible and has twice missed chunks of this season to two different injuries is absurd. That Verlander could find it in time is plausible. That of course he’ll find it? Absolutely not. His next two starts are slotted to be against the feeble Angels, so even if the results are better, it won’t mean “JV IS BACK!”
Presuming they hold on to win the division, the Astros’ recent sub-middling play means they have only very faint hope of avoiding having to play the best-of-three Wild Card Series. Barring a dramatic turn over the regular season’s final fortnight, Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown are the obvious choices to start games one and two. If there is a game three, it is one game do or die. Only a fool would think Verlander the right man for that assignment. No one should expect Brown to say “Yeah, JV is likely finished as a frontline starter.” But going to the “back of the baseball card” line was laughable. Father Time gets us all eventually. Verlander has an uphill climb extricating himself from Father Time’s grasp.
*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.