Greatest Longhorn Football Teams of All Time - No. 3, 1970

The Longhorns were national champs in 1970, though it comes with some controversy

The defending-champion Texas Longhorns entered the 1970 season as winners of their last 20 games. They didn’t miss a beat that season, as they went on to win ten straight games, ultimately extending their winning streak to a historic 30 games.

Most of the games weren’t even close, as Texas rolled through eight of them with 20+ point victories. Including an impressive 41-9 win over Oklahoma and a 52-14 win over Texas A&M. Then the “Game of the Century” came around against the No.4 Arkansas Razorbacks, where Texas easily won the game 42-7. The closest games Texas played were a 20-17 win over UCLA at home and then a 21-14 win over Baylor.

The 1970 season appeared to have less talent than the previous year as James Street was no longer the starting quarterback for Texas and the rushing attack wasn’t quite as explosive. During the 1960’s, a national champion was often chosen before the bowl game, so in late December, Texas was crowned as national champions once again.

All Texas had to do to go undefeated was beat No. 6 Notre Dame, as they did the year before. Texas had a brief 3-0 lead in the first, then everything seemed to go downhill. Notre Dame quarterback Joe Theisman rushed for two touchdowns and threw another one to lead the Irish to a 24-11 win.

While Texas won the title on paper, many people also put Nebraska and the Ohio State Buckeyes in the conversation.

A whopping nine Longhorns were drafted in the 1971 NFL Draft, including receiver Charles “Cotton” Speyrer, who was selected 38th overall by the Washington Redskins.