Only a few more weeks until the first kick-off. It seems a long time since the Horns played Alabama last January. A 13-1 season is not too bad, although another championship trophy would have been nice.

Once again, the Longhorns are rated high in the pre-season polls. Not a big surprise considering they lost only two games the last two years. McCoy, Shipley, Thomas, Kindle and Houston are now in the NFL and left some big shoes to fill. Much of the optimism is centered on Garrett Gilbert. Garrett grew up dreaming of being the QB at Texas. He had a great high school career and showed in the national championship game in January that he has great potential. Many believe he will take over where McCoy left off. However, one game does not make him a star.

The two quarterbacks that preceded him were nothing short of spectacular. From 2003-2009, McCoy and Young combined for a 75-10 record as starters and led Texas to a 5-2 bowl record that included three BCS bowl game victories, the 2005 National Championship and an appearance in the 2010 BCS Championship Game.

McCoy and Young combined for 19,293 passing yards, 156 passing TDs, 4,698 rushing yards and 57 rushing TDs. In all, they totaled 23,991 yards of total offense and were responsible for 213 total TDs.

Is Garrett good enough to be mentioned in the same breath with McCoy and Young? I'm sure he will be first to tell you he has to earn it. No one thought McCoy would be a star until midway through his freshman season. All he did was rewrite the record books.

There are other question marks. How good is the offensive line? Will one of our running backs step up to be a star? We need a receiver to assume the leadership that Shipley demonstrated his senior year.

Mack has recruited extremely well and we should once again dominate defensively.

I hope we go undefeated, but 11-2 seems more realistic......and that's not too bad.