AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The big expectations at Texas keep growing. And the path is there for the Longhorns to do something special this season.
Texas starts the season ranked No. 1 for the first time in program history and a betting favorite to win the national championship. Arch Manning takes over at quarterback and is just about everyone's early favorite for the Heisman Trophy.
The Longhorns open with a bang at No. 3 Ohio State, a game between SEC and Big Ten powerhouses that could reverberate all the way to the postseason in December.
Of course, none of this will be easy. Texas is hardly the runaway No. 1 choice and there are slivers of doubt they really belong on top. The Longhorns barely edged No. 2 Penn State for the top spot in the preseason rankings. They must navigate a rough SEC schedule and replace 12 players who were drafted after last season's run the College Football Playoff semifinals.
“It’s irrelevant to the way the season is going to go. It’s irrelevant to the way we’re going to play. It’s irrelevant to how our opponents are going to play,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said of the No. 1 ranking. “Maybe it puts a little bigger bullseye on us for our opponents. But the reality is, we have to go do it.”
The Longhorns haven’t won the national championship since 2005.
College football has been waiting for this: the latest prodigy from football's famous quarterback family is finally ready for prime time.
Manning is now THE guy in Austin:, no longer just the promising backup who has teased Texas with flashes of brilliance when pressed into duty because of injuries or used in on situation-specific plays to keep defenses off balance.
He shoulders enormous expectations borne from his name, the Heisman chatter and NFL draft projections, whenever he turns pro. And perhaps no player is cashing in on the name, image and likeness era of college athletics more than Manning. According to On3, which track's college NIL deals, Manning ranks No. 1 in college football at $6.8 million, including contracts with the likes of Red Bull, Uber and Vuori.
Long gone is the kid who twice lost his school-issued ID during his freshman year. Now a 6-foot-4 sophmore, Manning carries a cool confidence on and off the field and seems ready to shine.
“I’m not really sure how they got these opinions because I’ve only played in, what? Two games?” Manning said. “I guess it’s nice of them to say, but it doesn’t mean anything. Talk is cheap, I’ve got to go prove it.”
Manning will play behind a rebuilt offensive line that will have four new starters replacing standouts who are now in the NFL.
Right guard DJ Campbell is the only returning regular starter. Left tackle Trevor Goosby will face the most scrutiny as he takes over for All-American Kelvin Banks to protect Manning's blind side. And overall depth took a blow when right tackle Andre Cojoe was lost for the season with a training camp knee injury.
The Longhorns must rebuild the interior of their defensive line. But they have plenty of speed and power on the edges to punish opposing quarterbacks. Defensive end Colin Simmons had nine sacks as a freshman. Senior Trey Moore had 6.5. All-everything linebacker Anthony Hill, who might be the best sideline-to-sideline defender in the country, had eight.
Quintrevion Wisner is the SEC's top returning rusher after posting 1,064 yards and five touchdowns last season. He also was the team's third leading receiver with 44 catches, making him a versatile weapon. Texas boasts some serious depth in the backfield. C.J. Baxter in 2023 was the first Longhorn freshman tailback to start a season opener in since Ricky Williams in 1995. But he missed last season with a knee injury.
The Longhorns open with that blockbuster matchup at Ohio State on Aug. 30. They spend the entire month of October away from home. The SEC opener is Oct. 4 at No. 15 Florida, before the annual rivalry with No. 18 Oklahoma in Dallas a week later. The November slate includes a trip to No. 5 Georgia (Nov. 15) before Texas closes out the regular season at home against old rivals Arkansas (Nov. 22) and No. 19 Texas A&M (Nov. 28). The Aggies pay their first visit to Austin since 2012.
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FILE - Texas tight end Jordan Washington (84), coach Steve Sarkisian, defensive back Barryn Sorrell (88) and quarterback Quinn Ewers (3) celebrate with their team after defeating Arkansas in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Fayetteville, Ark. (AP Photo/Michael Woods, File)
Federal immigration agents deployed to Minneapolis have used aggressive crowd-control tactics that have become a dominant concern in the aftermath of the deadly shooting of a woman in her car last week.
They have pointed rifles at demonstrators and deployed chemical irritants early in confrontations. They have broken vehicle windows and pulled occupants from cars. They have scuffled with protesters and shoved them to the ground.
The government says the actions are necessary to protect officers from violent attacks. The encounters in turn have riled up protesters even more, especially as videos of the incidents are shared widely on social media.
What is unfolding in Minneapolis reflects a broader shift in how the federal government is asserting its authority during protests, relying on immigration agents and investigators to perform crowd-management roles traditionally handled by local police who often have more training in public order tactics and de-escalating large crowds.
Experts warn the approach runs counter to de-escalation standards and risks turning volatile demonstrations into deadly encounters.
The confrontations come amid a major immigration enforcement surge ordered by the Trump administration in early December, which sent more than 2,000 officers from across the Department of Homeland Security into the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Many of the officers involved are typically tasked with arrests, deportations and criminal investigations, not managing volatile public demonstrations.
Tensions escalated after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman killed by an immigration agent last week, an incident federal officials have defended as self-defense after they say Good weaponized her vehicle.
The killing has intensified protests and scrutiny of the federal response.
On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota asked a federal judge to intervene, filing a lawsuit on behalf of six residents seeking an emergency injunction to limit how federal agents operate during protests, including restrictions on the use of chemical agents, the pointing of firearms at non-threatening individuals and interference with lawful video recording.
“There’s so much about what’s happening now that is not a traditional approach to immigration apprehensions,” said former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldaña.
Saldaña, who left the post at the beginning of 2017 as President Donald Trump's first term began, said she can't speak to how the agency currently trains its officers. When she was director, she said officers received training on how to interact with people who might be observing an apprehension or filming officers, but agents rarely had to deal with crowds or protests.
“This is different. You would hope that the agency would be responsive given the evolution of what’s happening — brought on, mind you, by the aggressive approach that has been taken coming from the top,” she said.
Ian Adams, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, said the majority of crowd-management or protest training in policing happens at the local level — usually at larger police departments that have public order units.
“It’s highly unlikely that your typical ICE agent has a great deal of experience with public order tactics or control,” Adams said.
DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a written statement that ICE officer candidates receive extensive training over eight weeks in courses that include conflict management and de-escalation. She said many of the candidates are military veterans and about 85% have previous law enforcement experience.
“All ICE candidates are subject to months of rigorous training and selection at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, where they are trained in everything from de-escalation tactics to firearms to driving training. Homeland Security Investigations candidates receive more than 100 days of specialized training," she said.
Ed Maguire, a criminology professor at Arizona State University, has written extensively about crowd-management and protest- related law enforcement training. He said while he hasn't seen the current training curriculum for ICE officers, he has reviewed recent training materials for federal officers and called it “horrifying.”
Maguire said what he's seeing in Minneapolis feels like a perfect storm for bad consequences.
“You can't even say this doesn't meet best practices. That's too high a bar. These don't seem to meet generally accepted practices,” he said.
“We’re seeing routinely substandard law enforcement practices that would just never be accepted at the local level,” he added. “Then there seems to be just an absence of standard accountability practices.”
Adams noted that police department practices have "evolved to understand that the sort of 1950s and 1960s instinct to meet every protest with force, has blowback effects that actually make the disorder worse.”
He said police departments now try to open communication with organizers, set boundaries and sometimes even show deference within reason. There's an understanding that inside of a crowd, using unnecessary force can have a domino effect that might cause escalation from protesters and from officers.
Despite training for officers responding to civil unrest dramatically shifting over the last four decades, there is no nationwide standard of best practices. For example, some departments bar officers from spraying pepper spray directly into the face of people exercising Constitutional speech. Others bar the use of tear gas or other chemical agents in residential neighborhoods.
Regardless of the specifics, experts recommend that departments have written policies they review regularly.
“Organizations and agencies aren’t always familiar with what their own policies are,” said Humberto Cardounel, senior director of training and technical assistance at the National Policing Institute.
“They go through it once in basic training then expect (officers) to know how to comport themselves two years later, five years later," he said. "We encourage them to understand and know their training, but also to simulate their training.”
Adams said part of the reason local officers are the best option for performing public order tasks is they have a compact with the community.
“I think at the heart of this is the challenge of calling what ICE is doing even policing,” he said.
"Police agencies have a relationship with their community that extends before and after any incidents. Officers know we will be here no matter what happens, and the community knows regardless of what happens today, these officers will be here tomorrow.”
Saldaña noted that both sides have increased their aggression.
“You cannot put yourself in front of an armed officer, you cannot put your hands on them certainly. That is impeding law enforcement actions,” she said.
“At this point, I’m getting concerned on both sides — the aggression from law enforcement and the increasingly aggressive behavior from protesters.”
Law enforcement officers at the scene of a reported shooting Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
People cover tear gas deployed by federal immigration officers outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A man is pushed to the ground as federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A woman covers her face from tear gas as federal immigration officers confront protesters outside Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
