AP voters have not found love for the Texas Longhorns, even after their narrow 17-16 comeback against BYU Saturday night. Texas began the season unranked in the AP poll, while the USA Today Coaches poll ranked them No. 25. An opening win over Rice nudged Texas to the No. 24 spot in the AP, one ahead of TCU who had lost to Baylor.
Texas struggled early against a BYU defense that picked off Garrett Gilbert twice and held Texas to three first downs in the first half . Mack Brown turning to young QBs Case McCoy and David Ash seemed to spark the Horns, as they rallied for a pair of second half touchdowns and held the Cougars to one second half field goal.
The display didn’t do anything for voters, as they held Texas at No. 24 despite Missouri and Penn State dropping out of the poll. Texas will apparently have to prove that their bevy of young skill players can handle the load moving forward before voters buy in. The Longhorns take on UCLA next Saturday, then have an off week to prepare for Big 12 play.