Pregame notes for No. 9 Texas football’s matchup against No. 6 Louisiana State

Complied by Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer

AUSTIN, Texas — Here are some notes and info about the No. 9 Longhorns’ preparation to square off against No. 6 Louisiana State Saturday in Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium:

• The last time Texas and the Tigers played, in the[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] 2003 SBC Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas, current Alabama coach Nick Saban was the LSU head coach, Jimbo Fisher (now the head coach at Texas A&M) was his offensive coordinator and Will Muschamp, now at the helm at South Carolina, was LSU’s defensive coordinator. Texas, which had current North Carolina coach Mack Brown as its head coach, won the game, 35-20.

• ESPN’s College GameDay will be in Austin Saturday for the first time since 2009. It will be the 17th time that College GameDay has been on hand for a Longhorn football game, and the seventh time the hit morning show has been hosted on the Forty Acres.

• Texas holds a 9-7-1 advantage in the all-time series and has won six of its last eight meetings with LSU. UT is 7-1-1 all-time against LSU in Austin.

• The Longhorns are 30-8-2 all-time against teams from the state of Louisiana. Texas previously has faced Tulane (17-1-1), LSU (9-7-1), Louisiana-Lafayette (2-0), Louisiana-Monroe (1-0) and Louisiana Tech (1-0).

• Ten of UT’s 12 regular-season games will be contested inside the state of Texas, including Saturday’s matchup against the Tigers. The Longhorns only will leave the Lone Star State to face West Virginia Oct. 5 and Iowa State Nov. 16.

• Eight 2019 opponents played in a bowl game in 2018, with five of those teams winning their postseason matchups. LSU defeated UCF, 40-32, in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl last season.

• The Longhorns are scheduled to play 10 Power Five Conference opponents during the 2019 regular season, with Saturday marking the Horns’ first game of the year against a team from a Power Five conference. Texas was the only program in college football to play 11 Power Five conference opponents in each regular season from 2015-18.

• Saturday’s matchup with LSU marks the first time a top-10 Texas squad has faced a top-10 opponent at home since 2012, when the ninth-ranked Horns squared off with No. 7 West Virginia. The Longhorns are 40-32-1 all-time in matchups between two top-10 opponents and are 10-6 all-time in top-10 matchups at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

• Junior quarterback Sam Ehlinger has a 9-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio (27 touchdowns, 3 interceptions) over his past 14 games, during which Texas is has gone 11-3. Ehlinger tied his career high with four touchdown passes against Louisiana Tech in the 2019 season opener. He also completed 15 of his first 18 passes to eight different receivers during UT’s first four drives.

• Ehlinger’s four-touchdown effort made him the sixth quarterback in school history to throw at least 40 career touchdowns, and the first to do so since Colt McCoy (2006-09).

• Sophomore safety Caden Sterns didn’t miss a beat to start the 2019 season, as he matched his career high and led the Longhorns with eight tackles, including six solo stops, against Louisiana Tech.
[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [habeabk] [/s2If]