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College football 2018 preview: Predicting the first loss for every Top 25 team

By Jeremy Morris

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 01: UCF Golden Knights quarterback McKenzie Milton (10) celebrates a touchdown during the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl between the UCF Knights and the Auburn War Eagles on January 1, 2017 at Mercedes-Benz stadium in Atlanta, GA. (Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 01: UCF Golden Knights quarterback McKenzie Milton (10) celebrates a touchdown during the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl between the UCF Knights and the Auburn War Eagles on January 1, 2017 at Mercedes-Benz stadium in Atlanta, GA. (Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Texas Head Coach Tom Herman leads his team out before a game between the Texas Longhorns and the USC Trojans (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Texas Head Coach Tom Herman leads his team out before a game between the Texas Longhorns and the USC Trojans (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Texas and USC will meet the third week of the 2018 season for a rematch of the 2005 National Title game. Texas fans can look forward to welcoming Vince Young, Mack Brown and company back to Austin for some kind of halftime introduction (I’m guessing).

Texas has to like their chances with USC having to replace a 1,500-yard rusher in Ronald Jones and a 4,000-yard passer in Sam Darnold. But even though losing a running back as talented as Jones to the NFL sounds like it could create a problem for USC, it’s probably going to create more of a problem for Texas.

With Jones gone, sophomore running back Stephen Carr will be the focal point on Clay Helton’s offense. The quarterback situation is still working itself out for the Trojans but as long as the guy under center can hand the ball to Carr, USC is going to do one thing really well on offense, which should open up the rest.

Texas will have a major question to answer at quarterback too. It may sort itself out over the course of the season but the Longhorns didn’t have even a 400-yard rusher last year so they definitely won’t have anyone like Carr coming back to lean on the running game in the meantime.

Texas will improve over the course of the season under Tom Herman and should have several young players contributing which bodes well for the future. They’ll likely lose four or five games in 2018 and the first will be in Week 3 when USC comes to town.