A 28-Point Win and Nowhere to Go: Texas Stays at No. 11 in the Coaches Poll After Routing Mississippi State 31-3
The Longhorns finally dominated an SEC opponent. The voters shrugged - Miami holds No. 1, and Texas still sits behind two other two-loss teams with Missouri next.
The Texas Longhorns hammered Mississippi State 31-3 on Saturday night at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, and the voters in the US LBM Coaches Poll did not move them at all. Texas remains No. 11 in the poll published Sunday, at 6-2 with 1,057 points, unchanged from the week before - behind two other 6-2 teams, No. 9 Alabama (1,131 points) and No. 10 Ohio State (1,101), which fell eight places after losing at USC.
The top of the poll belongs to the unbeaten. Miami is No. 1 at 8-0 with 1,818 points and 68 first-place votes, one of three undefeated teams in the ranking alongside 8-0 Utah at No. 4 and 8-0 UCLA at No. 5. Georgia (7-1) moved up to No. 2 after Ohio State's loss, Indiana (8-1) rose to No. 3, and Notre Dame, Kentucky and BYU round out the top ten. Ole Miss, also 6-2, sits one place behind Texas at No. 12 with 1,034 points, and Texas Tech (7-1) is No. 13. The SEC placed eight teams in the poll; Florida dropped out after losing to Georgia.
On the field, Saturday was the comfortable win Texas had been missing. Arch Manning threw for 220 yards and three touchdowns, linebacker Rasheem Biles posted eight tackles, four tackles for loss and three sacks, and the defense held Mississippi State scoreless in the first half - the Bulldogs' only field goal came after a Manning fumble handed them the ball at the Texas 28. It was the Longhorns' first double-digit win over a power-conference opponent this season, and it still did not buy them a single place in the poll.
What it buys them is position, if they can keep it. Houston (6-2) climbed to No. 18, and Missouri (6-2) rose four places to No. 19 - and Missouri is where Texas goes next, on the road, in the middle of a closing stretch of eight games in eight weeks. A win there, against a ranked team in its own building, is the kind of result that has moved voters all season. Standing still at No. 11, the Longhorns' playoff case now runs through Columbia.
