US LBM Coaches Poll: Texas Longhorns No. 1
The US LBM Coaches Poll is back for another season and Paul Myerberg breaks down the storylines to know in the preseason.
Sports Pulse
This is uncharted territory for the Texas Longhorns.
Twenty years after the program’s last national championship, the Longhorns will begin the 2025 college football season ranked No. 1 in the US LBM Coaches Poll, earning 28 of 67 first-place votes thanks in large part to a potentially unmatched collection of talent paced by third-year sophomore quarterback Arch Manning.
This is a first: Texas had never been ranked No. 1 in the preseason in the history of the Coaches Poll, which debuted in the 1950 season.
“This is a new year, new faces, new team, and obviously expectations are high for our program,” coach Steve Sarkisian said at SEC media days. “I’m not naive to that. I don’t put my head in the sand, and expectations are very high.”
The preseason ranking can be seen as the latest source of validation for the program constructed by Sarkisian, now entering his fifth season. Helped by an NIL-driven landscape of personnel management that has been a boon for many deep-pocketed programs, Texas looks on paper to be nearly flawless.
Given their ability even in the deep SEC to simply out-talent most teams on the upcoming schedule, the Longhorns’ quest to go wire-to-wire atop the Coaches Poll could come down to how they manage intense hype that has coalesced around one all-or-nothing goal: to deliver a national championship.
“I do think we have a very hungry football team, one that is talented,” Sarkisian said. “I think this is a championship roster. Now we’ve got to play like a championship team, but I do think it’s a championship roster.”
How Texas got to No. 1
Before climbing to the top of the preseason poll, Texas had to experience the…
Source link : https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/sec/2025/08/05/texas-college-football-preseason-poll-rankings/85441310007/
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Publish date : 2025-08-05 10:03:00
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