2007 Texas Longhorns Football Team - Before The 2007 Season

Before The 2007 Season

Mack Brown became the head coach of the Texas Longhorns for the 1998 season. Through 2006, he had a win/loss record of 93–22 and the best winning percentage (80.9%) of any football coach in Longhorn history. The 2004 team had the first Bowl Championship Series win for any Texas team and the 2005 team won the National Championship (the fourth for the UT football program).

The 2006 team had 9 wins and 1 loss through November 4, 2006 but starting quarterback Colt McCoy was injured in the 11th game and Texas lost the final two regular season games in 2006, including a 12–7 home loss to division rivals Texas A&M. This took the team out of contention for the conference championship, as well as the national championship.

Between the 2006 regular season and the bowl season, back-up quarterback Jevan Snead transferred to another school, and Longhorn defensive coordinator Gene Chizik accepted the head-coaching job at Iowa State University. The Longhorns ended up accepting a bowl invitation to the Alamo Bowl against the unranked University of Iowa Hawkeyes, who had finished in eighth place in the Big Ten Conference. Colt McCoy was cleared to play for the Horns and led Texas through a back-and-forth affair to a 26–24 win. The Longhorns finished the season with a record of 10 wins and 3 losses and received a final ranking of 13th in the nation by both the Associated Press AP Poll and the USA Today Coaches Poll

Texas entered the 2007 season ranked third in the all-time list of both total wins and winning percentage. They were ranked in the Top 10 by numerous pre-season polls. For instance, a pre-season ranking by ESPN writer Mark Schlabach had the Longhorns ranked eighth; Rivals.com ranked them ninth; College Football News and Real Football 365 both ranked Texas third. The Longhorns came into the season ranked fourth in both the Coaches Poll and AP Poll.