A stunning overtime comeback propelled Texas up the AP Poll. Now, the Longhorns face a brutal SEC schedule, testing their College Football Playoff aspirations.
Early in the fourth quarter, it seemed that Texas would find itself outside the top 25 on Sunday afternoon, trailing Mississippi State 38-21. But after a miraculous comeback win in overtime, the Longhorns found themselves two spots higher at No. 20 in the nation.
The two teams Texas jumped were LSU, which lost to Texas A&M in an embarrassing fashion, and South Florida, which lost to Memphis on Saturday. Both teams dropped outside of the rankings after their losses.
There's also a good argument that the Longhorns deserve to be a bit higher. Specifically, higher than their arch rivals, the No. 18 Oklahoma Sooners, who they thumped 23-6 in the Cotton Bowl a few weeks back.
Oklahoma is coming off a home loss to No. 7 Ole Miss, which dropped it five spots down in the poll from 13. Now, both Texas and the Sooners have two losses and a head-to-head matchup. Yet, the Longhorns still find themselves two spots behind Oklahoma in the rankings. Not to mention, Oklahoma's best win is at home against No. 21 Michigan, another team that's probably ranked too high, given its best win is against Nebraska.
However, it shouldn't be much of a concern to Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian and Texas fans because ultimately, the AP Poll holds little weight in comparison to the College Football Playoff rankings, which will be released on Nov. 4. The CFP committee has shown how much it values head-to-head matchups, and it'd be safe to assume it would be no different if the rankings came out today.
What should concern the coaching staff and Longhorns fans is the gauntlet of a finish the Horns have to close Southeastern Conference play. It starts this Saturday when the No. 9 Vanderbilt Commodores(who would've thought) roll into Austin, Texas, riding off the high of back-to-back victories against ranked opponents.
The Longhorns then go on a bye before traveling to Athens, Georgia, to face off against the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs. After that, Texas has an easier game at home against Arkansas, but as we've seen the last two weeks, there are no easy games in this conference.
And then, of course, in the final game of the season, the Longhorns will face off against No. 3 and undefeated Texas A&M in the Aggies' first visit to Austin since 2010.
While Texas was able to survive against SEC bottom feeders, Kentucky and Mississippi State, those performances won't cut it against any of the ranked opponents left on its schedule. The Longhorns have their eyes set on making the CFP, but that will be a difficult task to achieve with the remaining games on the schedule.