Three of the four College Football Playoff contenders remaining in the Lone Star State won in Week 10. Texas Tech beat a Big 12 foe by three scores for the fifth time in six tries. North Texas played a complete game against Navy to steal the driver’s seat in the American Conference. And the Texas Longhorns returned to the national scene with a sometimes-dominant victory over Vanderbilt. The other – Texas A&M – was idle. 

Elsewhere, SMU beat a Top 10 team for the first time since the 1980s in the upset over Miami and UTSA remained perfect at home in conference games under Jeff Traylor. The other G5 programs in Texas continue to struggle as Texas State remains winless in the Sun Belt and Sam Houston still hasn’t won a game under Phil Longo. 

Here are 10 thoughts from Week 10 across Texas. 

Bobcats Defensive Woes 

The Texas State defense is holding the Bobcats back. They allowed a season-high 52 points in the most recent loss to James Madison. It was the third straight game allowing at least 40 and the sixth time allowing over 30 in seven tries against FBS opponents. How can a team with an offense averaging 34.1 points per game – 36th in the country and third in the Sun Belt – go 0-4 in October? With a defense allowing 42.8 points per game against conference competition. 

The Bobcats rank 125th in scoring defense while allowing 33.9 points per game. In the five losses, that number balloons to 41 per game. The unit is 103rd in rush defense, 105th in pass defense, 116th in total defense, and tied for last in turnovers forced with three. Texas State hasn’t recovered a single fumble in 2025. Opponents convert nearly 40 percent of their third downs and are scoring touchdowns on 62.5 percent of their trips into the red zone. 

Dexter McCoil’s defense is built on creating negative plays and defensive backs winning one-on-one battles. The Bobcats are 19th in tackles for loss with 54 and 33rd in sacks while averaging 2.5 per game. But the defensive backs aren’t winning their battles and that’s caused a ripple effect that’s wrecking the Bobcats defense. They rank in the 100s in 30-yard, 40-yard, and 50-yard plays allowed. They’re one of only nine defenses that have allowed three or more 70-yard plays. 

Head coach G.J. Kinne elevated Dexter McCoil to defensive coordinator in 2024 after serving as safeties coach at Texas State and UIW for Kinne since 2022. A former professional football player, McCoil has only been coaching for four full seasons. Right now, he’s getting exposed by the better offensive minds in the Sun Belt. Texas State is now 9-11 in the Sun Belt over the last three years and this level of defensive play won’t cut it in the Pac-12. 

Kinne needs to make a change or risk undermining his program’s trajectory. Eric Morris made a change at defensive coordinator after Year 2 and his Mean Green are now 7-1 and in the CFP hunt. Texas State is at a similar crossroads. 

Dome Sweet Dome 

UTSA entered the Thursday night matchup against Tulane as 5.5-point underdogs. The Roadrunner fan base was frustrated due to a 3-4 start in 2025 and a 10-10 record since the beginning of 2024. Calls for change at offensive and defensive coordinator, as well as quarterback, were amplified during an angsty open date in Week 9. Conversely, Tulane entered the Week 10 slate with an undefeated record in the AC and a coach destined for an SEC job. Surely, UTSA would fall to 3-5 and get thumped by the Green Wave. 

Not so fast. The Alamodome is a magical place for UTSA under Jeff Traylor. The Roadrunners entered the Tulane game 23-0 against conference opponents at home in the Traylor era. They left 24-0 after an emphatic 48-26 victory over Tulane. The offense gained 523 yards, led a flawless performance from Owen McCown, who completed 32-of-34 pass attempts for 391 yards and five touchdowns. One of those incompletions was a drop. The UTSA defense created four turnovers. 

A similar win last year against a ranked Memphis squad propelled the Roadrunners to a strong finish which included a bowl win over Coastal Carolina. Now at 4-4, they have a chance to salvage the season and play spoiler in the AC race with an upcoming game at South Florida. Traylor has never experienced a losing record as a head coach in college or high school. More performances like the one against Tulane will ensure he won’t start in 2025. 

Walden Watch 

The Miners were 8-16 in Dana Dimel’s final two seasons. They’re 5-15 through one and two-thirds season under Scotty Walden. The honeymoon phase is over in El Paso and Walden will enter 2026 with a microscope on him as the Miners transition into the Mountain West. The Sun City wants a winner and patience won’t last as long for Walden as it did for Dimel. Dimel inherited a mess, taking over a program that went winless in 2017. Walden inherited a program that was better than his predecessor found it. Dimel raised the floor. Walden was supposed to raise the ceiling. 

Instead, Walden’s Miners are producing the same type of underwhelming results that cost Dimel his job. It might cost Walden’s his if 2026 doesn’t end with a bowl bid. Making matters worse, new FBS programs like Kennesaw State and Jax State are already in CUSA contention and headed to a bowl game. Building momentum for that type of season starts now and Walden needs to use the final four games of 2025 to figure out who he can and can’t roll with into next year, including at quarterback. 

Hopeless in Huntsville 

There aren’t many examples of Year 1 going worse than it is for Phil Longo and his Sam Houston Bearkats. The group fell to 0-8 in 2025 after a 55-14 loss to La Tech on Halloween. Sam Houston started the 2023 season 0-8, as well, but there were clear signs of life from that team. This group is lifeless. What makes the latest performance so disappointing is that the Bearkats were coming off a 16-day bye that should’ve had them refreshed and rejuvenated. It should’ve also given the staff time to fix some issues and come out firing. 

Instead, Sam Houston trailed 14-0 after the first quarter and 27-0 at halftime. This team is awful. If not for UMass, they’d clearly be the worst team in the FBS. Longo & Co. faced some obvious roadblocks heading into 2025, but there aren’t any excuses for it to be this bad. Longo will get 2026 to fix it, but he shouldn’t get any longer than that if the product remains this unwatchable. 

Texas is Back…in the CFP Race

Nobody without burnt orange-colored sunglasses pegged Texas as a College Football Playoff team. They were lucky to have a winning record entering the home game against No. 9 Vanderbilt and the Fightin’ Diego Pavia’s on Saturday in DKR – Texas’ first game in Austin since Sept. 20 against Sam Houston. But for the second time this season, Sark & Co. headed into a matchup with a Top 10 opponent nearly left for dead and emerged with a win and renewed hope. 

The Longhorns are firmly back into the CFP discussion. They’re 7-2 entering the final open date of the season before facing Georgia on the road and Arkansas and Texas A&M at home. Win out and the Horns are undoubtedly in the field. But where it gets interesting is that they can reach the CFP with nine wins. 

Hear me out: Let’s say the Longhorns lose to Georgia on the road on Nov. 15 and then close it out with wins over Arkansas and Texas A&M. Would the committee leave out a Horns squad that has wins over Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, and Texas A&M? Especially if the group’s only losses are on the road to Ohio State, Florida, and Georgia. The same is true if we swap the Georgia and Texas A&M results. 

End the year 2-1 and Texas is headed to the CFP for the third straight season.

Ponies Payoff 

SMU famously bet on itself by passing on $100 million dollars in potential media rights money to receive the necessary votes to enter the ACC. People in and around college football doubted the move, and if the Mustangs could make the bet pay off. Two years later, it is clear that the Ponies made the exact right move. In 2024, they reached the ACC Championship game and the College Football Playoff. In 2025, they’ve now knocked off Clemson and Miami – routinely the standard bearers in the conference and the programs others in the ACC are measured against. 

The upset over No. 10-ranked Miami took place hours after SMU announced a two-year extension for head coach Rhett Lashlee that makes him one of the 10-highest paid in college football. SMU is 11-1 in conference play since joining the ACC and 27-9 since the start of 2023. Turns out, the folks on the Hilltop didn’t need that $100 million. They simply needed a seat at the table. 

Table Set for North Texas 

The Mean Green passed their toughest remaining test with a 31-17 win over Navy to push their record to 8-1 overall and 4-1 in the American Conference, tied for first place with a handful of teams. But as the other contenders duke it out against each other over the last few weeks of the season, North Texas, at least on paper, has smooth sailing ahead. Eric Morris & Co. have an open date in Week 11 and then close out the regular season with road trips to UAB and Rice before ending at home against Temple. Run the table and the Mean Green won’t just be playing for an AC title, they’ll be playing for a CFP spot this December. 

Turnover Trip Up Coogs 

Houston entered the Week 10 home game against West Virginia with four turnovers in eight games, three of which happened in the loss to Texas Tech. The +5 turnover margin was one of the reasons the Coogs started 7-1 and were in Big 12 contention to start November. But that came crashing down in the loss to West Virginia when Willie Fritz’s boys turned the ball over four times in the 10-point loss. That’s seven of the team’s eight turnovers in the two losses. The other turnover was in a sloppy win at Oregon State in non-conference play. Houston is good, but not good enough to overcome unforced errors. 

Bears Save Aranda…for Now 

Baylor might’ve moved on from head coach Dave Aranda had the Bears lost to UCF on Saturday considering they’ll be idle in Week 11. That’s no longer a concern after Baylor, in its best performance of the season, throttled UCF and kept bowl hopes alive in 2025. They’ll need to win at least one down the stretch against Utah, Arizona, or Houston to reach the postseason. But would that be enough to keep Aranda for Year 6? We doubt it. 

Texas Tech is the Monstars 

The Red Raiders’ talent advantage over the average Big 12 team was on full display in the 23-point win over Kansas State. All five of their wins in the Big 12 were by at least three scores. The only loss was by four points on the road against Arizona State with a backup quarterback in Sam Leavitt’s last stand of 2025. For the most part, Texas Tech is dog walking the conference thanks to superior talent. Tech spent big in the portal, and James Blanchard & Co. hit on most of the adds. 

That defensive line is on another level, starting with the edge combo of David Bailey and Romello Height. The Red Raiders added to their FBS lead in sacks with two, and it would’ve been more against most quarterbacks. The defense accounted for 12 tackles for loss and forced five turnovers. Tech scored 20 points off those five turnovers and won by 23. 

Money spent doesn’t always end with results. A talent advantage doesn’t mean Texas Tech will roll next week against BYU and storm into the Big 12 championship and the CFB. But it does give the Red Raiders the highest ceiling in the conference and the opportunity to separate themselves in a conference known for coin flips.