Can Texas beat Bama? Scouts and coaches break it down

Rice head coach Mike Bloomgren has played Texas three times in his tenure at the school. The Owls lost the first two by a combined score of 106-13.

But on Saturday in Austin, Bloomgren saw a Texas program that's upgraded its talent so significantly that he describes the difference as "night and day" to two seasons ago when coach Steve Sarkisian took over.

The biggest difference for Bloomgren in Saturday's 37-10 loss to the Longhorns came on Texas' defensive front. He said the group, led by T'Vondre Sweat, a 6-foot-4, 362-pound dynamo, is a marauding unit befitting of the high-end SEC program Texas needs to quickly become.

"I just think their ability to play on our side of the line of scrimmage…