BATON ROUGE, La. — Desmond Howard picked Texas to win the national championship Saturday on ESPN’s College GameDay. The former Michigan receiver and 1991 Heisman Trophy winner made the pick during the show’s season-opening broadcast from the LSU campus in Baton Rouge, La., when the desk was asked which two teams would play for the title and who would win.
“I got my SEC champ, Texas, versus independent Notre Dame,” Howard said. “And the Longhorns will prevail. Texas wins the national championship.”
Howard’s pick has Texas winning the SEC and beating Notre Dame in the title game. Notre Dame, which plays as an independent, opens its season Sunday against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. Texas beat Michigan, Howard’s alma mater, 41-27 in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31.
Saturday’s broadcast was GameDay’s 500th show on the road and its 15th from LSU. Rece Davis hosted, with Howard, Kirk Herbstreit, Pat McAfee, and Nick Saban at the desk and country singer Lainey Wilson as the guest picker. Later Saturday, Lane Kiffin coaches his first game at LSU against Clemson at 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC.
Texas hosts Texas State at 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. The Longhorns open the season No. 5 in the Associated Press poll and No. 4 in the coaches poll.
Kirk Herbstreit Has Notre Dame Over Texas In The Quarterfinals
Herbstreit went the other way on Notre Dame and Texas. On Friday night’s Herbie Awards preseason special on ESPN, Herbstreit laid out a 12-team College Football Playoff bracket with Notre Dame as the No. 3 seed and Texas as the No. 6 seed, meeting in the quarterfinals. He picked Notre Dame in that game, calling it a coin flip, and picked the Irish to beat No. 2 Georgia in the semifinals and defending champion Indiana in the title game in Las Vegas.
Herbstreit had already named Notre Dame his national champion more than a month earlier on The Pat McAfee Show. In a compilation of 57 expert picks by On3, Notre Dame drew 16 selections to win the title, the most of any program. Davis also picked Notre Dame. Texas, LSU, Georgia, Miami, Indiana, Ohio State, and Oregon each drew multiple picks.
Nick Saban On Texas’ Roster A Year After A 10-3 Season
Earlier in Saturday’s show, Saban said he expects Texas to have better leadership this season than it had in 2025. The comments were posted by the College GameDay account on X.
“Texas had a really young team a year ago,” Saban said. “I think this year’s team will be more mature, have better leadership, and be able to sustain the grind of the season.”
On July 23, Saban named Georgia and Texas the two best teams in college football during an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up.
A year ago, Texas opened the season No. 1 in the AP poll and lost 14-7 at Ohio State in the opener. The Longhorns finished 10-3, missed the College Football Playoff, and finished 12th in the final AP poll. In his first season as the full-time starter, Arch Manning completed 248 of 404 passes for 3,163 yards with 26 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. He ran for 399 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian was Saban’s offensive coordinator at Alabama in 2019 and 2020 before taking the Texas job in 2021. He is 48-20 in five seasons in Austin. On Aug. 24, Sarkisian said Manning had a great fall camp after January foot surgery limited him in the spring.
GameDay travels to Austin next Saturday for No. 1 Ohio State at Texas, a 6:30 p.m. CT kickoff on ABC. The show airs from 8 to 11 a.m. CT from the Texas campus. Ohio State beat Texas 14-7 in Columbus in last season’s opener and 28-14 in the College Football Playoff semifinal at AT&T Stadium in January 2025. Texas plays UTSA on Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. CT on SEC Network+ and opens SEC play at Tennessee on Sept. 26 at 11 a.m. CT.
