2018 Texas Longhorns football team

2018 Texas Longhorns football
Sugar Bowl champion
Big 12 Championship Game, L 27–39 vs. Oklahoma
Sugar Bowl, W 28–21 vs. Georgia
Conference	Big 12 Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 9
AP	No. 9
Record	10–4 (7–2 Big 12)
Head coach	Tom Herman (2nd season)
Offensive coordinator	Tim Beck (2nd season)
Co-offensive coordinator	Herb Hand (1st season)
Offensive scheme	Spread
Defensive coordinator	Todd Orlando (2nd season)
Base defense	3–4
Captain	Andrew Beck Breckyn Hager Chris Nelson Elijah Rodriguez Anthony Wheeler
Home stadium	Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium

2018 Big 12 Conference football standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 4 Oklahoma y$^		8	–	1					12	–	2
No. 9 Texas y		7	–	2					10	–	4
Iowa State		6	–	3					8	–	5
No. 20 West Virginia		6	–	3					8	–	4
TCU		4	–	5					7	–	6
Baylor		4	–	5					7	–	6
Oklahoma State		3	–	6					7	–	6
Kansas State		3	–	6					5	–	7
Texas Tech		3	–	6					5	–	7
Kansas		1	–	8					3	–	9
Championship: Oklahoma 39, Texas 27
^ – College Football Playoff participant $ – Conference champion y – Championship game participant Rankings from AP Poll

The 2018 Texas Longhorns football team, known variously as "Texas", "UT", the "Longhorns", or the "Horns”, represented the University of Texas at Austin during the 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Longhorns played their home games at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas, and competed as members of the Big 12 Conference. They were led by second-year head coach Tom Herman.

Texas, coming off a 7–6 season in Herman's first year, began the year ranked 23rd in the preseason AP Poll. In the first game of the year, the Longhorns were upset by Maryland in a game played at FedExField in Landover, Maryland. The team won its next six games, including a dramatic win over No. 7 Oklahoma in the 113th Red River Showdown. The Longhorns rose to as high as No. 6 in the AP Poll, but fell in consecutive weeks to Oklahoma State and West Virginia. At the end of the regular season, Texas had a record of 7–2 in Big 12 play, good for second in the standings and earning them a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game against Oklahoma. The Sooners won the rematch by a score of 39–27. Texas was invited to the Sugar Bowl to play SEC runner-up No. 5 Georgia, which Texas won in an upset by a score of 28–21. They finished with an overall record of 10–4 and were ranked 9th in the final AP Poll, the most wins and highest ranked finish for the school since 2009.

The team was led on offense by sophomore quarterback Sam Ehlinger, who finished with 3,292 passing yards, 25 passing touchdowns, and a Big 12-leading 16 rushing touchdowns. His 41 total touchdowns was third in the conference and seventh nationally.^[1][2] Wide receiver Lil'Jordan Humphrey led the team with 1,176 receiving yards. On defense, the team had three first-team all-conference members in defensive lineman Charles Omenihu and defensive backs Kris Boyd and Caden Sterns.

Preseason

Award watch lists

Listed in the order that they were released

Award	Player	Position	Year
Rimington Trophy[3]	Zach Shackelford	C	JR
Chuck Bednarik Award[4]	Breckyn Hager	DE	SR
	Gary Johnson	LB	SR
Fred Biletnikoff Award[5]	Collin Johnson	WR	JR
John Mackey Award[6]	Andrew Beck	TE	SR
Butkus Award[7]	Gary Johnson	LB	SR
Jim Thorpe Award[8]	Kris Boyd	DB	SR
Bronko Nagurski Trophy[9]	Kris Boyd	DB	SR
Outland Trophy[10]	Patrick Vahe	OL	SR
Wuerffel Trophy[11]	Collin Johnson	WR	JR
Walter Camp Award[12]	Collin Johnson	WR	JR
Ted Hendricks Award[13]	Breckyn Hager	DE	SR
Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award[14]	Collin Johnson	WR	JR

Big 12 media poll

The Big 12 media poll was released on July 12, 2018 with the Longhorns predicted to finish in fourth place.^[15]

Media poll
Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Oklahoma	509 (46)
2	West Virginia	432 (2)
3	TCU	390 (1)
4	Texas	370 (1)
5	Oklahoma State	300
6	Kansas State	283 (2)
7	Iowa State	250
8	Texas Tech	149
9	Baylor	125
10	Kansas	52

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 1	11:00 a.m.	vs. Maryland*	No. 23	FedExField Landover, MD	FS1	L 29–34	47,641
September 8	7:00 p.m.	Tulsa*		Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium Austin, TX	LHN	W 28–21	90,563
September 15	7:00 p.m.	No. 22 USC*		Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium Austin, TX	FOX	W 37–14	103,507^‡
September 22	3:30 p.m.	No. 17 TCU		Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium Austin, TX (rivalry)	FOX	W 31–16	95,124
September 29	2:30 p.m.	at Kansas State	No. 18	Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium Manhattan, KS	FS1	W 19–14	49,916
October 6	11:00 a.m.	vs. No. 7 Oklahoma	No. 19	Cotton Bowl Dallas, TX (Red River Showdown, College GameDay)	FOX	W 48–45	92,300
October 13	2:30 p.m.	Baylor	No. 9	Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium Austin, TX (rivalry)	ESPN	W 23–17	93,882
October 27	7:00 p.m.	at Oklahoma State	No. 6	Boone Pickens Stadium Stillwater, OK	ABC	L 35–38	56,790
November 3	2:30 p.m.	No. 13 West Virginia	No. 17	Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium Austin, TX	FOX	L 41–42	100,703
November 10	6:30 p.m.	at Texas Tech	No. 19	Jones AT&T Stadium Lubbock, TX (rivalry)	FOX	W 41–34	60,454
November 17	7:00 p.m.	No. 16 Iowa State	No. 15	Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium Austin, TX	LHN	W 24–10	102,498
November 23	11:00 a.m.	at Kansas	No. 14	David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium Lawrence, KS	FS1	W 24–17	15,219
December 1	11:00 a.m.	vs. No. 5 Oklahoma	No. 14	AT&T Stadium Arlington, TX (Big 12 Championship Game)	ABC	L 27–39	83,114
January 1, 2019	7:30 p.m.	vs. No. 5 Georgia*	No. 15	Mercedes-Benz Superdome New Orleans, LA (Sugar Bowl)	ESPN	W 28–21	71,449
*Non-conference game Rankings from AP Poll and CFP Rankings after October 30 released prior to game All times are in Central time

^[16]

• ^‡ At the time, largest attendance recorded at Darrell K. Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium^[17]

Personnel

Roster

2018 Texas Longhorns football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class WR 1 John Burt Sr RB 5 Tre Watson GS WR 6 Devin Duvernay Jr QB 7 Shane Buechele Jr OL 69 Austin Allsup  Sr OL 66 Calvin Anderson GS OL 75 Junior Angilau Fr TE 47 Andrew Beck  Sr TE 80 Cade Brewer So RB 30 Toneil Carter So OL 52 Sam Cosmi  Fr WR 82 Brennan Eagles Fr QB 11 Sam Ehlinger So TE 85 Malcolm Epps Fr TE 89 Chris Fehr  Sr OL 74 Rafiti Ghirmai Fr OL 58 Mikey Grandy So WR 13 Jerrod Heard  Sr RB 41 Tristian Houston  Jr OL 73 Patrick Hudson  So WR 84 Lil'Jordan Humphrey Jr OL 67 Tope Imade  So RB 26 Keaontay Ingram Fr WR 9 Collin Johnson Jr RB 28 Kirk Johnson Jr OL 70 Christian Jones Fr OL 68 Derek Kerstetter So TE 81 Reese Leitao  Fr WR 85 Philipp Moeller  Sr WR 14 Joshua Moore Fr OL 76 Reese Moore Fr OL 78 Denzel Okafor Jr RB 21 Kyle Porter Jr WR 86 Jordan Pouncey  Fr QB 3 Cameron Rising Fr OL 72 Elijah Rodriguez  Sr OL 56 Zach Shackelford Jr QB 8 Casey Thompson Fr OL 71 J.P. Urquidez  So OL 77 Patrick Vahe Sr WR 83 Al'Vonte Woodard Fr RB 30 Tim Yoder  Sr RB 32 Daniel Young So	Defense Pos. # Name Class LB 40 Ayodele Adeoye Fr LB 42 Marquez Bimage So DB 38 Kobe Boyce  Fr LB 36 Demarco Boyd  So DB 2 Kris Boyd Sr DB 15 Chris Brown  So DL 88 Daniel Carson Fr DL 91 Jamari Chisholm Sr DL 98 D'Andre Christmas Jr DL 99 Keondre Coburn Jr DB 4 Anthony Cook Fr DL 92 Max Cummins  Fr DB 18 Davante Davis Sr DB 24 Jamarquis Durst  Sr DB 27 Donovan Duvernay  So DB 39 Montrell Estell  Fr DL 48 Andrew Fitzgerald  So DB 25 B.J. Foster Fr LB 35 Edwin Freeman  Sr DL 49 Ta'Quon Graham So DB 3 Jalen Green Fr DL 44 Breckyn Hager Sr LB 50 Byron Vaughns Sr LB 31 Kyle Hrncir Jr DB 17 D'Shawn Jamison Fr LB 33 Gary Johnson Sr DB 19 Brandon Jones Jr DB 11 P. J. Locke Sr LB 23 Jeffrey McCulloch Jr DL 97 Chris Nelson  Sr DL 98 Moro Ojomo Fr DL 90 Charles Omenihu Sr LB 46 Joseph Ossai Fr DB 31 DeMarvion Overshown Fr LB 39 Edward Pequeno Jr DL 32 Malcolm Roach Jr DB 7 Caden Sterns Fr DB 29 Josh Thompson So LB 43 Cameron Townsend  Jr LB 45 Anthony Wheeler Sr DL 94 Gerald Wilbon Jr DL 37 Mike Williams Fr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class P 8 Ryan Bujcevski Fr K 17 Cameron Dicker Fr P 37 Jack Geiger  Fr LS 53 Jak Holbrook  Sr K 45 Chris Maggar  So K 49 Joshua Rowland Sr LS 54 Justin Mader Fr LS 83 Michael David Poujol  So	Head coach Tom Herman Coordinators/assistant coaches Tim Beck – Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks Stan Drayton – Associate head coach/Run Game Coordinator/running backs Oscar Giles – Defensive line Herb Hand – Co-offensive coordinator/offensive line Corby Meekins – Wide receivers Drew Mehringer – Pass Game Coordinator/wide receivers Craig Naivar – Co-defensive coordinator/safeties Todd Orlando – Defensive coordinator/linebackers Darek Warehime – Special teams coordinator/tight ends Jason Washington – Recruiting coordinator/cornerbacks Yancy McKnight – Strength and Conditioning Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster Last update: April 8, 2019

Game summaries

vs Maryland

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 23 Longhorns	7	15	7	0	29
Terrapins	14	10	0	10	34

See also: 2018 Maryland Terrapins football team

Tulsa

	1	2	3	4	Total
Golden Hurricane	0	0	7	14	21
Longhorns	14	7	0	7	28

See also: 2018 Tulsa Golden Hurricane football team

USC

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 22 Trojans	14	0	0	0	14
Longhorns	3	13	21	0	37

See also: 2018 USC Trojans football team

900th Program Win

TCU

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 17 Horned Frogs	6	7	3	0	16
Longhorns	7	3	14	7	31

See also: 2018 TCU Horned Frogs football team and TCU–Texas football rivalry

At Kansas State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 18 Longhorns	7	12	0	0	19
Wildcats	0	0	7	7	14

See also: 2018 Kansas State Wildcats football team

Texas lost their first game on the road at Maryland and then won their next three games at home, and their last two victories came against ranked teams—No. 22 Southern California and No. 17 TCU. But the travel games (especially in this series) have not been in the Longhorn's favor. The home team has won last six games between the two teams and Texas has not won in Manhattan since 2002.^[18]

Texas was the only team to score in the first half of play, with two touchdowns, a field goal, and a safety. Kansas State had a chance to score a touchdown on the final play of the first half when Alex Delton threw a pass to Adam Harter that was dropped in the end zone. The score at the half was Texas 19, Kansas State 0.^[19]

Kansas State fared better in the second half, holding Texas scoreless and replacing Alex Delton with Skylar Thompson. Thompson led Kansas State to score two touchdowns in the second half with 14 points. In the end, Texas held the lead with a final score of 19-14.^[20] For the next week Texas plays Oklahoma after stopping the second-half comeback by Kansas State.^[21]

vs Oklahoma

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 7 Sooners	7	10	7	21	45
No. 19 Longhorns	10	14	21	3	48

See also: 2018 Oklahoma Sooners football team and Red River Showdown

The 2018 edition of this classic rivalry matchup was pivotal for both the Longhorns and the Sooners, as both had something to prove; OU was playing its first ranked opponent of the season, and Texas was trying to show that it could once again compete with the elite of the NCAA after years of very average performances. This year's game, which ended in a Longhorn victory, was the highest-scoring Red River Showdown game in history, with a combined score of 93. A memorable aspect of this game was Texas' dominance until midway through the fourth quarter, only to eventually surrender a 21-point lead to the Sooners late in the game; Heisman candidate Kyler Murray put on an incredible performance, showcasing his superior speed and accuracy. This comeback, however, did not come to fruition, as Texas kicker Cameron Dicker made a 40-yard field goal with approximately 9 seconds remaining on the clock to win the game for Texas.

Baylor

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	7	3	7	0	17
No. 9 Longhorns	3	20	0	0	23

See also: 2018 Baylor Bears football team

At Oklahoma State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 6 Longhorns	7	7	7	14	35
Cowboys	17	14	0	7	38

See also: 2018 Oklahoma State Cowboys football team

West Virginia

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 12 Mountaineers	10	17	0	15	42
No. 15 Longhorns	14	14	3	10	41

See also: 2018 West Virginia Mountaineers football team

At Texas Tech

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 15 Longhorns	0	17	10	14	41
Red Raiders	7	3	0	24	34

See also: 2018 Texas Tech Red Raiders football team and Texas–Texas Tech football rivalry

Iowa State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 16 Cyclones	3	0	0	7	10
No. 15 Longhorns	7	10	7	0	24

See also: 2018 Iowa State Cyclones football team

At Kansas

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 15 Longhorns	7	0	14	3	24
Jayhawks	0	0	0	17	17

See also: 2018 Kansas Jayhawks football team

vs Oklahoma (2018 Big 12 Championship)

See also: 2018 Oklahoma Sooners football team, Red River Showdown, and 2018 Big 12 Championship Game

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 15 Longhorns	7	7	13	0	27
No. 4 Sooners	3	17	7	12	39

vs Georgia (2019 Sugar Bowl)

See also: 2018 Georgia Bulldogs football team and 2019 Sugar Bowl

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 15 Longhorns	10	10	0	8	28
No. 5 Bulldogs	0	7	0	14	21

Rankings

Further information: 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
— = Not ranked RV = Received votes

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Final
AP	23	—	—	RV	18	19	9	7	6	15	15	13	11	9	14	9
Coaches	21	—	RV	RV	22	20	14	8	7	15	19	14	11	9	14	9
CFP	Not released									17	19	15	14	14	15	Not released

Players drafted into the NFL

See also: 2019 NFL draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	NFL club
5	161	Charles Omenihu	DE	Houston Texans
7	217	Kris Boyd	CB	Minnesota Vikings

References

1. "2018 Big 12 Conference Year Summary". Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
2. "2018 College Football Year Summary". Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
3. "Rimington Trophy Press Release". May 30, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
4. "2018 Bednarik Award Watch List - Maxwell Football Club". Maxwell Football Club. July 16, 2018. Archived from the original on July 16, 2018. Retrieved July 17, 2018.
5. "2018 Biletnikoff Award Watch List". July 19, 2018. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
6. "2018 John Mackey Award Preseason Watch List Released" (PDF). July 20, 2018. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
7. "Butkus Award - 2018 Collegiate Watchlist". The Butkus Award. July 23, 2018. Archived from the original on August 20, 2010. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
8. "Paycom Jim Thorpe Award Names 2018 Preseason Watchlist". July 23, 2018. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
9. "2018 Bronko Nagurski Trophy Preseason Watch List". July 24, 2018. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
10. "22018 OUTLAND TROPHY WATCH LIST UNVEILED". July 24, 2018. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
11. "Wuerffel Trophy Unveils 2018 Watch List". July 26, 2018. Archived from the original on July 26, 2018. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
12. Carbone, Al (July 27, 2018). "Walter Camp Football Foundation Announces 2018 Player of the Year Preseason "Watch List"". Retrieved July 30, 2018.
13. "Preseason Watch List - 2018 edition of the Ted Hendricks Award" (PDF). August 14, 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 14, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
14. "2018 Nominations The Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award" (PDF). August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
15. "Sooners Picked to Repeat in Big 12 Preseason Football Poll".
16. "2018 Texas Football Schedule".
17. "Texas football sets attendance record at Royal-Memorial Stadium". hookem.com. September 15, 2018. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
18. "Something has to change for No. 18 Texas, Kansas State". ESPN. September 25, 2018. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
19. Robinett, Kellis (September 29, 2018). "Skylar Thompson's comeback attempt falls short as Texas beats K-State 19-14". Wichita Eagle. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
20. Woods, Greg (September 29, 2018). "Thompson gets offense going in second half in loss to No. 18 Texas". Manhattan Mercury. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
21. Daeschner, Trenton (September 29, 2018). "National reaction from Texas' win over K-State: Longhorns get all they can handle from Wildcats in gritty win". Dallas Morning News. Retrieved September 30, 2018.