CBS Sports analyst predicts who will win SEC, ‘make a run at’ national championship
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Texas made it to the SEC Championship Game in 2024, its first year in the conference. Despite losing to Georgia, the Longhorns came a win shy of a College Football Playoff National Championship Game appearance.
After missing out on the CFP in 2025, Beanie Wells feels that Texas is headed for bigger things in 2026.
“This is gonna be a dominant football team. Watch out for Texas not only winning the SEC, but potentially making a run at the national championship,” the CBS Sports college football analyst said on the CBS Sports Network on Tuesday.
That will be partially due to Arch Manning, who shook off a slow start in his first full season as the Longhorns’ starting quarterback and eventually turned things around. Part of that, though, was Texas putting “too much on the shoulders” of Manning, who was still developing.
Wells likened it to a pony just being born before eventually becoming full-grown.
“When the pony’s being born, they gotta find their footing. Well, we watched him turn into a stallion by the back end of the season,” Wells said.
And Texas’s stable will be filled with playmakers, many of them coming from the transfer portal. The Longhorns signed 22 players from the portal in the offseason, the most in the Steve Sarkisian era.
“The SEC starts and stops in Austin, Texas,” Wells said. “[Look at] Steve Sarkisian, what he’s been able to do in terms of going out and adding firepower to this football team [like] Cam Coleman, another dynamic receiver to tie to Ryan Wingo …
“Let’s not forget he went out and added some running backs, some very good running backs at that, in Hollywood Smothers and (Raleek) Brown. I think when you look at Texas, their inability to be able to run the ball consistently last year is what got them into some bad positions.”
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
