The Texas Longhorns are on a mission to bounce back stronger in 2022 following the 2021 college football season wherein they only won five games total and just three in conference play. As always, there are big questions for a program like Texas heading into a new season. Here are three of those burning questions for Texas football.

3 Longhorns burning questions ahead of 2022 college football season

3. Can Quinn Ewers live up to the hype?

The Longhorns are still in the waiting phase when it comes to Arch Manning, who arrives in Austin in 2023. For now, much of the hype surrounding the Longhorns' quarterback position is tied to shiny new transfer Quinn Ewers, a redshirt freshman who moved to Texas after staying with the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2021. Ewers hasn't even been named the starter yet, but he is already getting significant Heisman Trophy buzz, which speaks a lot about who actually between him and Hudson Card has the lead in winning the QB1 role for Texas. Ewers is a prized Longhorns acquisition of the still-young Steve Sarkisian era that is only entering its second year.

Having secured Ewers, the Longhorns must have had an easier time convincing four-star wide receiver Brenen Thompson to choose Austin as well as three other three-star wideouts in Tarique Milton, Agiye Hall, and Isaiah Neyor to transfer to Texas. About the quarterback battle between Ewers and Card, Sarkisian said that he already has an idea who will it be, it’s just that he’s not yet ready to say who, though Ewers must and should be the favorite to win that competition. The Longhorns can’t waste the talents of the highest-rated recruit in the nation in 2021, but without a snap played in college to date, the question remains:  how good can Ewers really be in Texas?

With all the hype around Ewers, Longhorns fans are understandably expecting him to put together a huge 2022 season. He’ll have some big shoes to fill, since the Longhorns, with Casey Thompson as the no. 1 quarterback in 2021, was 17th in the nation with 35.3 points per game, though, it was mostly because of the tremendous work of running back Bijan Robinson on the ground. Nevertheless, Ewers must be feeling the pressure to deliver for a Big 12 title-starved Texas football. 

2. Can the defense hold up better for Texas football?

Defense was a huge issue for the Longhorns in the 2021 college football season, as it operated at times like a broken turnstile. Texas' stop unit allowed 31.1 points per game that season, good for just 93rd overall in the nation. With an entire offseason to fix the problems on the team's defense, Longhorns defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski is hoping that by the time Texas squares off with the UL Monroe Warhawks for the team's first assignment in the upcoming season, his group will be well-equipped with the tools it needs to finally take flight after a letdown campaign.

That game against the Warhawks could also be treated as a warmup for Texas' first real test of the 2022 season, as just a week later, the Longhorns will be going toe to toe with Nick Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide at home. If the Longhorns are to make louder noises in 2022, their defense has to be stout, as obvious as that may sound. It's not expected to be among the best in the nation, but big improvements from the secondary and the pass-rushing unit have to start showing in Year 2 of the Steve Sarkisian era in Austin. Speaking of the pass rush, the Longhorns only had 20 sacks in 2021, tied with the Texas Tech Red Raiders for second-fewest in the Big 12, so the pressure to pressure opposing quarterbacks in the pocket are mostly on the shoulders again of the pair of fifth-year senior DeMarvion Overshown and former Notre Dame Fighting Irish linebacker Ovie Oghoufo.

1. Is this the season Texas finally gets back on top of the Big 12?

It's been a while since the last time the Texas Longhorns stood on top of everyone in the Big 12 conference. In fact, an entire decade has gone by without the Longhorns winning a football title in the Big 12. Since being crowned league champions in 2009, the Longhorns have run across an assortment of disappointments in the program's pursuit of a Big 12 championship. It will be quite a leap for the Longhorns if they win it all in the Big 12 this year, considering that just last season, they are coming off a losing campaign in 2021 and did not make an appearance in a bowl game for the first time since 2016. That's not to mention that among their losses was a 57-56 overtime setback at the hands of the Kansas Jayhawks. Still, Texas demands considerable hype. With Ewers providing so much promise for the offense together with running back Bijan Robinson, who's one of the biggest offensive weapons in the FBS, plus a defense that is expected to show improvement, Texas should be among the top contenders for the conference's championship.