Last season Taylor McHargue started in his first game, as a freshman, against Texas. Although the Owls lost 34-17, they put up a strong fight. A lot of that has to do with McHargue.

Coming off a disastrous 5-7 campaign in 2010 that saw no semblance of a legitimate ground attack, the onus is on the running game to restore the program to national prominence.

Espinosa has been a nice surprise for the Longhorns coming out of fall camp, and the redshirt freshman impressed the coaches enough to earn the starting nod at center.

A game against cupcakes obviously doesn’t provide the same oomph as Saturday’s LSU-Oregon game would. But television ratings take a back seat when either LSU or Oregon will enter Week 2 with a 0-1 record.