Texas Football: Realistic Expectations for Longhorns in Big 12 Play

For the Texas Longhorns, expectations are almost always unreachable unless the season ends with a national championship.

Head coach Charlie Strong is finding this out early in his first season even though he tried to temper fans' unrealistic hopes during his 12-city bus tour, according to Brian Davis of the Austin American-Statesman: 

"

We have everything available, and I don't know why we can't be successful. There's no reason for us not to be. Now, I can't tell you how soon it's going to be. Don't hold me to that. Don't say, 'Ooh, coach said next year we'll be in the national...' We will not be in the national championship game.

"

His statement may have upset people, but he was being honest. Those who did not listen to the coach only have themselves to blame.

Now the Longhorns are 1-2 heading into Big 12 play.

It's doubtful many people predicted Texas would have a losing record prior to its conference schedule. But then again, nobody anticipated the Longhorns would have an entirely new, inexperienced offensive line protecting a first-year starting quarterback either.

But that's where Texas is, and whining about it will not change the outcome of the current situation.

It's difficult to assess the talent level of college football teams after only three games because many schools schedule easy non-conference opponents.

But Texas has the toughest strength of schedule of all Big 12 teams and is ranked No. 15 of 128 in strength of schedule in the nation, according to Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com.

The first six games of the season prove this.

The Longhorns have their first true road game Sept. 27 against Kansas. They will then face No. 7 Baylor at home and No. 4 Oklahoma at Cotton Bowl Stadium.

The Bears are averaging 50-point victories over the first three opponents of the season. The Sooners have scored an average of 45 points compared to the 11 points they have given up to competitors.

Texas has yet to put up anything close to those numbers.

To be fair, Baylor has faced an FCS team, Buffalo and SMU. One could argue the SMU Mustangs are the worst team in Division I college football this season. The Mustangs are averaging three points per game compared to the average 44 points they have surrendered to their opponents.

Does this mean the Bears are not as good as they appear? Absolutely not. Will Texas be the favorite to beat Baylor or Oklahoma? Not a chance.

There is a good possibility the Longhorns will be 2-4 following the Red River Shootout, but the uphill battle does not end in Dallas.

Date	Opponent	Location	Time
Sept. 27	Kansas	Lawrence, Kan.	4 p.m. ET
Oct. 4	No. 7 Baylor	Austin, Texas	TBA
Oct. 10	No. 4 Oklahoma	Dallas, Texas	TBA
Oct. 18	Iowa State	Austin, Texas	8 p.m. ET
Oct. 25	No. 20 Kansas State	Manhattan, Kan.	TBA
Nov. 1	Texas Tech	Lubbock, Texas	TBA
Nov. 8	West Virginia	Austin, Texas	TBA
Nov. 15	No. 25 Oklahoma State	Stillwater, Okla.	TBA
Nov. 27	TCU	Austin, Texas	7:30 p.m. ET

Texas will hit the road to face No. 20 Kansas State, Texas Tech and No. 25 Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State gave No. 1 Florida State a run for its money in Week 1.

The trio of road games will feature tough opponents in some of the most difficult environments in the conference. Whoever put together the Longhorns' schedule did not do Strong any favors. It also doesn't help that the Big 12 is shaping up to be a much better league than last year.

But entirely dismissing Texas is premature.

The Longhorns loss to BYU was inexcusable. Texas was unprepared and embarrassed by the Cougars for the second consecutive season. Strong referred to the loss as an "embarrassment to the university and an embarrassment to the football program," taking full responsibility for not having his team ready to face BYU.

The team rebounded and battled against UCLA, which almost ended in an upset. Unfortunately for Texas fans, almost isn't good enough.

The difference between Week 2 and Week 3 was apparent. The Longhorns went from giving up 41 points and only seeing the end zone once against then-unranked BYU (now No. 21) to holding No. 12 UCLA to 20 points and moving the chains on offense to put 17 points on the board.

The progress is evident.

Can it continue against Big 12 opponents?

Yes, but it will be an arduous task.

The Longhorns have to gain momentum in the few games where the team will likely be favored to win and put together an extraordinary game plan poised to upset at minimum one ranked opponent.

"Now everything counts," Strong said. "It's only three games, so we just have to pick ourselves back up and know how to handle adversity. There's going to be some tough losses. So we'll see what type of team we are and how we bounce back."

It's too early to dismiss Strong's Longhorns, but expecting a 10-win regular season with what Texas has shown thus far is not wise.

Team rankings via The Associated Press Top 25 Poll.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.

Taylor Gaspar is Bleacher Report's featured columnist covering the Texas Longhorns. Follow Taylor on Twitter: @Taylor_Gaspar.