The Right Time: What I'm Most Excited About For The 2025 Season

Reality struck my six-year-old son last night. We went out to dinner, and drag racing was the sport the restaurant was playing on television. “Is football only in the fall?” he asked. “Yes, sadly,” I replied.

[Sign up for Inside Texas TODAY and get the BEST Longhorns scoop!]

It also clicked for him that we’re in the dog days of summer, sports-wise. It made me realize a Weekend in Sports article this Monday morning would fall pretty flat. No offense to the Inside Texas threads on the MLB or Tour de France.

What’s more, each year, June is the last month where I feel cynical about college football—the climate of it and the way last season ended. But July is when you can start to feel the fall approaching.

Here are the things I am looking forward to the most about the Longhorns’ 2025 season:

5) Revenge

In 2025, Texas has the unique opportunity to avenge all of its losses from 2024. The Longhorns open the season in Columbus at Ohio State, and a win can immediately wash out the bitter taste left from the Cotton Bowl. The CFP Semifinal and the SEC Championship are losses that still hurt—the type where fans replay the things that went wrong in their minds again and again.

An early win in Ohio can also set the tone for what Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns will need to do in Athens, Georgia, on November 15.

4) Old rivals at home

The Longhorns’ home schedule is the worst it has ever been: three cupcakes in the melting Austin heat of September, no home games in October, and all the marquee opponents on the road. The SEC needs to go to nine conference games for my sanity and to justify this yearly expense to my wallet.

But thankfully, despite the putrid home schedule, familiar foes will take the field at DKR in November for the last two weeks of the season. The Arkansas Razorbacks will be in Austin for the first time since 2008, and Texas A&M will return for the first time since 2010. Texas went 3–0 against its historic rivals last season. Hopefully, they do it again.

3) The Pass Rush

One way the Longhorns desperately needed to level up in 2024 was to improve upon a pass rush that had been wildly inconsistent throughout Sark and Pete Kwiatkowski’s tenures. I noted last offseason the Texas defense needed to eclipse the 40-sack mark threshold to take a leap—something they hadn’t sniffed in over a decade. The Longhorns smashed through that barrier with 47 sacks.

Now Texas must do it again. With Colin Simmons, Anthony Hill, and Trey Moore returning, the Longhorns should. On 3rd and Longhorn, Sark scoffed at the idea that Moore wouldn’t rush the passer in 2025. It was a rare tipping of the coaches hand. The statement showed the Texas coaches know what a luxury they have this year and it would be foolish not to lean fully into it.

And what’s different about 2025 is that the pressure should be the biggest strength of the Texas team. The Longhorns will be able to pursue the opposing quarterback from multiple positions and out of a variety of fronts. It will be frenetic and a frenzy.

What are the two things a team can possess in football which can make them feel like they’re 200 feet tall, have steel ligaments, and fire coursing through their veins? A dominant pass rush and a great quarterback.

2) Arch

I’ve written about Arch plenty. I’ve said he’ll be an icon like Texas fans have rarely seen, a national sensation, and threw out a hot take he’ll get 50 total touchdowns. He’ll unlock Sarkisian’s offense and make household names out of Ryan Wingo and DeAndre Moore Jr. Not since 2005 and Vince Young has Texas had a season filled with this much anticipation from the quarterback position.

1) The Memories

Every Fall on The 40 Acres is Special. The people and tradition makes it so. If it wasn’t, most of us wouldn’t still be here after the 2010s.

But 20 years after winning their last championship, Texas has the best chance to put their hands on the crown again. I was 15 when the Longhorns won their last title, and I still have vivid memories of all those games—who I watched them with, the celebrations afterward, the marveling at Young’s superhuman nature. Those are moments that last a lifetime.

[Order THE LONGHORN ALPHABET for 15% off today and get your family ready to make memories around Texas Football this fall!]

I can’t wait to have a year like that again.

Now seems like the right time.