LSUDad Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 When will Texas get an opportunity for a return game with LSU? ByJEFF HOWE Jul 30, 4:54 PM Share20 Comments A 45-38 loss to LSU last season at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium will have to sit with head coach Tom Herman and the Longhorns for a while unless the two teams meet in the postseason down the road. The SEC going to a 10-game, conference-only schedule for the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the return bout set for Sept. 12 in Baton Rouge. With no chance at the revenge in the immediate future, will there be an opportunity in the near future for Texas to get its pound of flesh? There certainly is, but chances are none of the Longhorns on the current roster will be around when it happens. LSU technically has a schedule opening in 2024. With that said, the Tigers are set to open the season by welcoming UCLA into Tiger Stadium, and with the current College Football Playoff format set to go through the following year, there doesn’t seem to be an incentive for LSU to add another Power Foe to the schedule. Beyond the series with the Bruins, LSU’s future schedules include home-and-home series with Clemson (2025 and 2026), Oklahoma (2027 and 2028), Arizona State (2029 and 2030) and Utah (2031 and 2032). Complicating matters further would be if the COVID-19 pandemic scheduling changes act as the agent of change regarding the SEC (and the ACC) going to a nine-game conference schedule moving forward to fall in line with the Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12. The bottom line is the Tigers would need a change in the CFP selection process to even entertain the idea of adding Texas to a schedule that already features one Power Five non-conference and an additional SEC opponent in the next few seasons. Texas, on the other hand, has a similar case for why adding LSU to the schedule in the foreseeable future likely isn’t feasible. Under the Big 12’s current format of a nine-game conference schedule, the Longhorns are completely booked with non-conference games through 2026, a run of contests that includes meetings with Alabama (2022 and 2023), Michigan (2024) and Ohio State (2025 and 2026). Texas finishes off the two-game series with the Wolverines in 2027 with a trip to Ann Arbor before getting back to SEC competition in non-conference action. The Longhorns are scheduled to finish out the current decade by taking on Georgia (2028 and 2029) before opening the next decade by facing Florida (2030 and 2031) and then finishing the program’s currently-scheduled, non-conference games with Power Five opponents with a series against Arizona State (2032 and 2033). Line all of those dates up next to each other and the next feasible date Texas could travel to LSU for what would likely be a one-off game would be 2034. If that doesn’t sound promising, look no further than next season’s schedule for the Longhorns to see that a scheduled return game — even though the can might get kicked incredibly far down the road — can happen. Before Texas A&M moved the SEC and began playing Arkansas as a conference opponent, the Aggies and Razorbacks reached a scheduling agreement to face each other AT&T Stadium beginning in 2009. That meant the back end of a home-and-home series between Texas and Arkansas was pushed back such that the return game from a 52-10 victory the Longhorns scored over the Razorbacks in Austin in 2008 is scheduled to take place in Fayetteville on Sept. 11, 2021. Considering the 12-year wait for the return game that will end next season, Texas and LSU potentially waiting 14 years to complete what the Longhorns likely feel is unfinished business doesn’t seem so bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houtiger Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Kinda sad, I liked playing the Longhorns. Two big time programs, next door. I don't know what the TV ratings were for that game, but I bet they were good. It was a good matchup and an exciting good game. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSUDad Posted August 1, 2020 Author Share Posted August 1, 2020 (edited) 18 hours ago, houtiger said: Kinda sad, I liked playing the Longhorns. Two big time programs, next door. I don't know what the TV ratings were for that game, but I bet they were good. It was a good matchup and an exciting good game. I was in Charleston, Sc, we went out to tour Fort Sumter, on the tour, a guy was wearing a UTx shorthorn shirt. He was making excuses, but this year was going to be different. He rattled on and on. How were returning so many, true freshmen coming in, etc. After he had his spill, I just said, lucky y’all played us early. Wouldn’t have been a game, later in the season. But they did replace coaches, coordinations on both offense and defense. So, you can’t fire the players, you can’t fire yourself, so Tom did what he had to do. The last Tx team that pulled BS, aTm, an we beat them 50-7. Could have been more, we took our foot off the gas. Edited August 1, 2020 by LSUDad 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houtiger Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 It will be interesting to see how we reload. But, O has been pulling in the kids. Sometime last season, before the SEC Championship game, someone asked O how the success LSU was having had affected recruiting. O laughed and said "when I used to call a 5* recruit, they used to not call me back, but now they do!". O was already a good recruiter, but his natty ring gives him more credibility, especially if he has to go up against the short one out east, even Kirby Smart and Dan Mullen. If we have to put a freshman on the field, from the 2020 signing class, he's probably a very good player, just needs experience and another year with Moffitt would be good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSUDad Posted August 1, 2020 Author Share Posted August 1, 2020 O wanted to return the favor to UTx. LSU's Ed Orgeron laments not playing Texas, non-conference games, talks prep for new schedule Advocate file image of Death Valley. STAFF PHOTO BY HILARY SCHEINUK▲ Staff report Jul 31, 2020 - 6:36 am The day it was announced Southeastern Conference football teams would only play in-league games in 2020, LSU head coach Ed Orgeron commented on his team's new schedule while speaking on WWL-FM, 105.3. Orgeron said he was looking forward to non-conference games against Texas, Nicholls State and Rice. The Longhorns game would have been a marquee match up nationally, the Colonels game was a chance to boost the athletic department of an in state opponent and the game against Rice at Houston's NRG stadium was a strong recruiting opportunity. "We'll get back to that next year," Orgeron said during Thursday night's broadcast. "This is the schedule we're gonna have so we're gonna give it our best shot at this schedule." Show host Bobby Hebert noted that with the removal of the Nicholls State game, LSU now has bye weeks before facing Florida and Alabama, two of the Tigers' presumed highest ranked opponents. "That was really going to be our first hard road game, a big test for (quarterback) Myles Brennan," Orgeron said about the Florida game. Orgeron said because of coronavirus, LSU's staff has already prepared game plans for each of the Tigers' upcoming opponents. LSU's previously scheduled eight opponents will remain as is, and the league will presumably add two more teams from the east division to the Tigers' schedule, Orgeron said. "Now we've got to make two more game plans for two more teams," he said. You can listen to the full interview here. View on theadvocate.com 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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