19 Days, 19 Questions: #10

With 10 days left until KICKOFF, 'The Forty' is back in business and going to run down the top 19 questions for the upcoming year.


10: Can Texas Win the Big 12 South?


Now, its time for the big questions. Every year Texas' first goal of the season is to win the Big 12 South. Everything else takes care of itself from there. Last year, Texas set itself up for an easy slide into the conference championship game until they were upset by Kansas State and A&M to end the year. This allowed OU to back door itself into the the Big 12 Championship and a Fiesta Bowl birth. It is hard to put in words how disappointing the end to last year was. While Mack has won tons of games at Texas and brought home a National Championship, he has only won a single Big 12 Championship.

Once again, Texas comes into the season as the odds on favorite to take the South title and head to the championship game against the North. As discussed before, the offense is potent and the defense should improve as its young secondary gels before the Big 12 schedule gets going. Barring several upsets, Texas should be in the mix for the title up until the big match-up against A&M. With that in mind, lets look at how this Big 12 year may shake out:

GAME PREDICTIONS
1. Kansas State W - Texas will be able to exact some revenge at home
2. Oklahoma W - As discussed earlier, Texas should eke this out
3. Iowa State W - Texas will over run former coach Chizik
4. Baylor W - Do we really even need to go into this?
5. Nebraska W - Too much defense at home, brings this game in for Texas
6. Oklahoma State W - OSU plays Texas tough. This one might be a shootout
7. Texas Tech W - Thank goodness the game is not in Lubbock
8. Texas A&M W - Hardest, closest game of the year. A small miracle will be needed

So, there it is. A perfect Big 12 year. I know that a certain amount of homer-ism is going into this. The trip up game may be OSU. The Cowboys always play Texas tough (especially in the first half). Texas will have to over come some huge crowd momentum, but in the end they will be able to pull it out.

A&M is the tough one. We will get into it in more detail later, but let just say that the law of averages are working against Texas pulling out 4 straight at Kyle Field. And A&M is always one of those games Texas can lose, even when the aggies are the inferior team (see 2006). But I am not prepared to say A&M will pull this one out just yet.

My prediction: 8-0 Big 12 record and a birth in the Championship Game