Governor Greg Abbott Predicts Longhorns Win vs. Alabama

The Crimson Tide narrowly escaped Austin this season with a win. Can the Longhorns get revenge in Tuscaloosa? Governor Greg Abbott believes they just might.

Matt Galatzan | Mar 10, 2023

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Texas Longhorns

Last September at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, the Texas Longhorns nearly pulled off the upset of the 2022 college football season, narrowly falling to the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide 20-19.

And according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the Longhorns probably should have won that game outright.

"Texas was ahead until like the last 15 seconds of the game and Texas would have won had it not been for what was then the reigning Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young being able to evade a tackle that would have led to a sack, that would have prevented Alabama from getting within field goal range to win the game," Abbott said, per the Austin American Statesman. "That's how close the game was."

However, Abbott took it a step further from there, predicting that the Longhorns will march into Tuscaloosa and take down the Crimson Tide at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Why? In large part due to the fact that Alabama will be without Young, who was the hero for the Tide in 2022.

"Now some more analysis. Texas has more returning starters than Alabama does. The quarterback that was literally running all over Alabama, Quinn Ewers, was injured early in the game. And he'll be starting again, doing a great job. If he gets hurt he's got a pretty good backup in Manning. I have seen what appears to be Alabama's starting quarterback, and he's no Bryce Young. So I'm gonna say it’s gonna be 27-21 Texas Longhorns."

The Tide and the Horns are set to kick off in Tuscaloosa next September, with the Tide sitting, as per usual, in a high position in most way-too-early top 25 polls.

Meanwhile, the Longhorns will be playing the role of underdogs yet again.

At least for now.

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Published Mar 10, 2023

MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writer’s Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014 covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually being taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.