logo
CBS Sports' Josh Pate ranks Texas Longhorns as fourth best football program in the nation

CBS Sports' Josh Pate ranks Texas Longhorns as fourth best football program in the nation

Yahoo24-02-2025

Josh Pate of CBS Sports and Late Kick fame has ranked his Top 12 college football programs in the nation. Last week on the Josh Pate College Football Show, he ranked the programs in the SEC. Texas came in second after No. 1 Georgia.
Pate ranks the teams based on a four-year rolling blend of criteria:
Talent acquisition (recruiting focused)
On Field results with more weight to recent success
Resource pool of program/university
Organizational stability from coaches to administration
So where does Texas fit in? Pate ranks Texas No. 4 in the country. The Longhorns are behind the Bulldogs, Ohio State and Michigan. He credits Texas for 25 wins over the past two seasons, which certainly checks the recent success box.
But Pate says Texas gets knocked down some in the four-year view. "If you go back over the four years, there's a losing season baked into there because Sark (Texas coach Steve Sarkisian) had just gotten there." Pate says he puts even more weight on UT's recent success because it is Sark is responsible for the upturn.
Talent acquisition is an area Texas is thriving at right now according to the CBS analyst. "They're stacking talent. They've got four top six classes in a row," he says. "If you notice the names they keep adding there, organizationally, top notch. They're loaded, but yet they haven't won anything. And so they keep loading up."
⚠️PATE STATE PROGRAM RANKINGS ALERT⚠️ pic.twitter.com/C5jtDkQudk
— Josh Pate (@JoshPateCFB) February 24, 2025
That lack of an SEC or national title might give Texas an advantage. "There's this different hunger and energy and kind of even a starvation, not just hunger, for tasting what Georgia has tasted, Alabama tasted, Ohio State just tasted, Michigan tasted recently,"
Overall, Pate thinks a lot of the overall Texas Longhorns program. "I am high on Texas, man," he said. "They're as high as you can be without having won any of they conference or playoff hardware that these other teams have won ahead of them."
This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: CBS Sports' Josh Pate ranks Texas as 4th best program in nation

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

LSU women's basketball adds game vs ACC power to 2025-26 schedule
LSU women's basketball adds game vs ACC power to 2025-26 schedule

USA Today

timean hour ago

  • USA Today

LSU women's basketball adds game vs ACC power to 2025-26 schedule

LSU women's basketball adds game vs ACC power to 2025-26 schedule Bright Lights. Big Stage. The Tigers are headed to Cameron Indoor for the SEC/ACC Challenge! — LSU Women's Basketball (@LSUwbkb) June 12, 2025 LSU women's basketball added a big time tournament appearance in one of the country's most famous venues to its schedule for the 2025-26 season. As part of the SEC/ACC Challenge, the Tigers head to Cameron Indoor Stadium to face Duke on December 6. Both teams are coming off runs to the Elite Eight in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Head coach Kim Mulley's team is 2-0 in the ACC/SEC Challenge as it enters its third year. Inside the PMAC, LSU defeated Stanford last year and Virginia Tech in 2023. Both the men's and women's games for this season will be televised across all ABC and ESPN channels. The Blue Devils lead the all-time series over the Tigers 3-2. In the most recent matchup, during the 2010 NCAA Tournament Second Round, Duke won to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. LSU's most recent win against Duke came in the 2005 Elite Eight as it advanced to the Final Four.

Final look at College World Series betting odds before tournament begins on Friday
Final look at College World Series betting odds before tournament begins on Friday

USA Today

time2 hours ago

  • USA Today

Final look at College World Series betting odds before tournament begins on Friday

Final look at College World Series betting odds before tournament begins on Friday LSU baseball continues its quest for a national championship on Saturday as it opens the College World Series against Arkansas. The atmosphere of game one will feel like the championship between arguably the two best teams in the country. Two of the SEC's best will face off in Omaha in the nightcap of first-round action. The Tigers took the regular season series inside Alex Box Stadium, winning the first two contests of a three game set. Arkansas and LSU finished first and second, respectively, in the conference's regular season standings behind Texas. Fans from across the country are pulling into Omaha to cheer on their teams. From west coast clubs such as Oregon State and UCLA to the Cinderella story of the year in Murray State and regular contenders Coastal Carolina and Arizona. Here is where every team stands on the odds board to win the national championship ahead of the first games in Omaha.

Braves trade deadline primer: 3 early storylines to watch
Braves trade deadline primer: 3 early storylines to watch

New York Times

time3 hours ago

  • New York Times

Braves trade deadline primer: 3 early storylines to watch

ATLANTA — If the Atlanta Braves had been swept for a third consecutive series this week at Milwaukee, we might be leaning toward their being sellers at the trade deadline for the first time since 2017. That was when they traded away pitcher Jaime García and catcher Anthony Recker. The Braves pursued controllable starting pitchers at that deadline, including Sonny Gray and José Quintana, but weren't willing to part with their No. 1 prospect, a kid named Acuña. Advertisement Yes, it's been a while. And it'll probably be a while longer before the Braves are trade-deadline sellers. Because as disappointing and frustrating as this season has been for the Braves and their fans, one of the worst stretches of baseball this team has had in decades wasn't bad enough to make them move to likely seller mode. At least not yet. There are nearly seven weeks until the July 31 trade deadline, and only five teams have double-digit deficits in the wild-card standings: the Pirates, Marlins and Rockies in the NL, and the Athletics and White Sox in the AL. The Braves were nine games behind the third-place team in the NL wild-card standings before Thursday. That's an undeniably large deficit, and what makes it even more difficult is that five other teams were closer than Atlanta to the third and final wild-card spot — the Cardinals, Brewers, Reds and Diamondbacks all were five or fewer games behind the Phillies and Padres, the second- and third-place teams in the NL wild-card standings. Still, the Braves are in a unique position in that they have a lineup featuring several former All-Stars who are in their primes led by the aforementioned Ronald Acuña Jr., who has only been back from a yearlong knee surgery rehab for three weeks and has looked terrific, giving the Braves another reason to believe their offense is going to improve. They are a team with position players signed to long-term extensions (including club options) through at least 2027 at every spot except shortstop. It's not a team in any position to consider rebuilding. The Braves want to win another ring or two while they have the likes of Acuña, who's under contract through 2028, including two club options, Austin Riley, Matt Olson and Michael Harris II, all under control through at least 2030. What they do at this year's July 31 trade deadline could depend on how things transpire between now and then, but here are a few scenarios. Advertisement Though it's unlikely the Braves will become sellers barring a continued slide further behind the wild-card leaders, trading veteran catcher Murphy could be a possibility. As good as the strong-armed 2023 All-Star is behind the plate with blocking, framing and game calling, and as much of a power threat as Murphy can be — he's rebounded from a career-worst .636 OPS and 76 OPS+ in 2024 to post a .784 OPS and 118 OPS+ — the Braves have a potential star emerging at catcher in rookie Drake Baldwin and might be a better offensive team with Baldwin catching four of five games. LOVE the Drake#BravesCountry — Atlanta Braves (@Braves) June 5, 2025 There'd be risk in going with a rookie as the main catcher, and if Baldwin were to get hurt, it'd be an obvious problem after trading Murphy. But the Braves have veteran James McCann at Triple A who could be a solid second catcher, and they could trade for another in an emergency. Baldwin is one of the better hitting catchers in the NL already, and the Braves could occasionally DH him if Marcell Ozuna needs a day off for his balky hip, or after this season when Ozuna exits as a free agent. Trading Murphy would also clear up cash and $15 million annually over each of the next three seasons. The Tampa Bay Rays and San Francisco Giants are contenders getting woeful offense from catchers who could use Murphy, who has the intellect and personality that teams know he could step in at midseason and immediately gain the confidence of pitchers. The Braves were two games under .500 and five games out of first place at the 2021 trade deadline, when president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos finished remaking the outfield with trades for Jorge Soler, Adam Duvall and Eddie Rosario, after trading for Joc Pederson on July 15. Advertisement Beginning Aug. 3, they won 16 of 18 to go from third place and five games back in the NL East to first place and 4 1/2 games ahead. Those outfielders played major parts in getting the Braves' turnaround and World Series title that year. Granted, this year's deficits and record are a lot worse than in 2021. But again, the Braves have Acuña now and believe the likes of Olson, Riley and Ozuna can get hot and carry an offense that's underperformed. There's an additional unknown element: Jurickson Profar, the left fielder who was their only significant free-agent addition last season and then got slapped with an 80-game performance-enhancing drug suspension in the first week of the season. He's eligible to return June 29 but can't play in the postseason. The Braves don't know what he'll provide after missing three months and coming off a steroid suspension that cast doubt over his career-best 2024 statistics with San Diego, but Profar should be able to give them better production than the platoon of Alex Verdugo and Eli White. And if they could add a decent middle-infield bat, to provide more offense than they're getting from all-glove shortstop Nick Allen and protect in case of another injury to second baseman Ozzie Albies, the Braves' offense could reasonably be expected to perform at a higher level the rest of the way. The Braves lost 14 of 17 before taking two of three from the Brewers. The way they see it, eight of those 14 losses were by one run, and four others were by two, meaning they might've won many of those games with just a big hit here or a shutdown inning there. They outscored the Brewers 14-7 in the series that ended Wednesday, when the Braves flexed considerable power, the kind that carried them to a historic-level offense in 2023 but has been erratic ever since. It's still there, if sometimes dormant. Advertisement Now, they need to add a back-of-the-bullpen arm. Braves relievers have a league-high 15 losses and a league-low 10 saves, making them the only NL team with more blown saves (12) than saves. They can't wait for closer Raisel Iglesias, at age 35, to start pitching as he did the past two seasons (2.30 ERA, 89 hits, 11 homers in 125 total innings) rather than in 2025 (6.48 ERA, 31 hits, seven homers in 25 innings). They also don't know whether setup man Daysbel Hernández, out with forearm inflammation, will miss much longer or whether that'll be a lingering issue. They need to add a closer, or at least someone who fits the profile and could step into the role. Potential target: Félix Bautista of the Baltimore Orioles. What could make him particularly attractive to the Braves is the fact he's under team control through 2027 and could take over at closer for the rest of this season and the next two after Iglesias exits as a free agent. Bautista had converted 12 of 13 saves and has a 3.32 ERA in 22 appearances in his first season back from Tommy John surgery, with 28 strikeouts and 16 walks in 21 2/3 innings. The walk rate is high but not unusual for a post-TJ season, and lately he's been dominant, with a 1.29 ERA in his past seven appearances. Problem is, a bunch of other teams are also looking for bullpen help, including contenders with better prospects to dangle, including Philadelphia, Arizona, Seattle and Milwaukee. (Photo of Sean Murphy: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store