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What's the toughest four-game stretch on Texas' 2024 schedule?

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook12/15/23josephcook89
SEC logos on the chains before the game between the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Memphis Tigers on September 3, 2022 at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, MS.
Chris McDill | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Longhorns’ 2024 SEC opponents were previously known, but Texas didn’t learn the dates of individual contests as part of the program’s first season in its new league until Wednesday.

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Now that we know the schedule, what’s the toughest four-game stretch for the Longhorns?

DATEOPPONENT
Aug. 31Colorado State
Sep. 7at Michigan
Sep. 14UT-San Antonio
Sep. 21Louisiana-Monroe
Sep. 28Mississippi State
Oct. 5OPEN WEEK
Oct. 12vs. Oklahoma (Dallas, TX)
Oct. 19Georgia
Oct. 26Vanderbilt
Nov. 2OPEN WEEK
Nov. 9Florida
Nov. 16at Arkansas
Nov. 23Kentucky
Nov. 30at Texas A&M

The candidates are clear…

The Longhorns will enjoy two scheduled byes in a season for the first time since 2019, but for the purposes of this exercise their timing will not be a factor. Only the quality of opponent opposite the Longhorns in four consecutive contests will determine the toughest stretch.

It’s certainly not the opening slate. Although it features a fellow College Football Playoff team in Michigan, the Longhorns should net three easy wins against a mediocre Colorado State team, a UTSA squad losing star quarterback Frank Harris, and a ULM team braking in a first-year head coach.

That leaves the last eight games, and four-game combinations within it, as where the Longhorns will find their toughest stretch. And the combinations that feature the back-to-back against Oklahoma and Georgia on in mid-October have to be included.

This will be the first season the two Red River rivals meet with SEC logos on the Cotton Bowl field. The Longhorns lost to the Sooners in 2023, 34-30, which so far stands as their only blemish of the season. This will be a landmark event for the conference, which has tried to further and further extend its footprint into the state of Texas.

The Bulldogs and the Longhorns have met five times, with the Longhorns holding a 4-1 lead. Texas won the most recent meeting in the 2019 Sugar Bowl and the only other occasion the Dawgs visited Austin in 1958. Georgia won two national titles in recent years and was a few points away from yet another Playoff bid.

With those two games versus the Bulldogs and Sooners as shoo-ins, what other contests have to be involved?

Essentially, it’s a matchup between a home game versus Florida and a home game — and SEC opener — versus Mississippi State. The toughest stretch has to include the road trip to Nashville to face Vanderbilt, who holds an 8-3-1 all-time record versus the Longhorns.

So between the (other) Bulldogs and the Gators, who’s tougher? Is it Billy Napier entering Austin in year three after two disappointing seasons and possibly with true freshman DJ Lagway at quarterback? Or is it Jeff Lebby and a new-look Mississippi State to start off the SEC slate?

Nothing about Napier so far in his Florida tenure is threatening, especially looking at the talent that has left Gainesville in recent weeks. Plus, even if Lebby is dealing with a roster as talented as ones typical to Starkville, his offensive system is designed to make up for disparities with tempo and extreme alignments. It’s a system that’s posed problems to the Longhorn defense in recent years.

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That all in mind, the Longhorns’ toughest stretch — right now — on their 2024 schedule is the one that includes Texas’ first four games as members of the SEC: Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Vanderbilt.

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