Urban Meyer is all-in on one polarizing college football team in 2023

All eyes will be on Texas this year for Urban Meyer, as he is all aboard the Longhorns' hype train.

Few teams face a greater level of expectations this season than Steve Sarkisian's Texas Longhorns.

This will be the Longhorns' final year in the Big 12 before they join the SEC next season alongside arch rival Oklahoma. While this is Sarkisian's third season at the helm in Austin, it is somewhat of a make-or-break campaign for him when it comes to shattering his perceived coaching glass ceiling of an 8-4 mark. Texas is good enough to not only win the Big 12, but make the College Football Playoff.

Former Florida and Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer is all about Texas this season. He believes that had quarterback Quinn Ewers not gotten hurt in the Alabama game that the Longhorns would have beaten the Crimson Tide. Ewers' early-season injury prevented Texas from being back. Although people really like Sarkisian, he is at too good of a program to only be leading a top-25 team annually.

Here is Meyer gassing up Texas when speaking to Tim May of Letterman Row about the Longhorns.

The big question is if we should be as bullish as Meyer is about the Longhorns, or just wait and see...

Urban Meyer is gassing up Steve Sarkisian's Texas Longhorns big time

When you look at Texas' final Big 12 schedule for 2023, you see a slate compelling enough to afford them a real opportunity of making the final four-team playoff as a one-loss conference champion. The Longhorns draw Alabama in the non-conference, as well as Kansas State, Oklahoma, TCU and Texas Tech in conference play. So this could be one of the four best teams in all of college football.

Texas enters the year as the highest ranked Big 12 team in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll. Unfortunately, the Longhorns come in at only No. 11. The four other Power Five conferences all have at least two teams ranked inside of the top 10. In short, the Associated Press thinks the Big 12 will be a strong conference, but the AP voters don't see much separation at the top of this 14-team league.

For better or worse, I am buying into Texas and whatever Meyer is selling. The Longhorns are one of my four College Football Playoff teams after No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Michigan and No. 3 Florida State. No, Texas is not beating the Dawgs in the Sugar Bowl this time around, but the Longhorns will finish the year 12-2 (8-1) with a conference championship victory and a trip to the College Football Playoff.

By this time next season, there will no doubts over how much Sarkisian's Texas program will be back.