Sunday - Well Past Time
By Bobby Burton
Part of me remains in shock this morning, surprised by the QB play we all witnessed Saturday afternoon.
I did not see it coming, not this level of struggle.
It reached a level of complete ineptness. There were 10 straight incompletions, some that were true misfires, others that were ill-timed, rushed and three or four yards off the mark, one where he didn’t see what should have been his very first read for a first down on a fourth-down play in the red zone and another fourth down play to a wide open Parker Livingston downfield.
The performance left me with so many questions
Is Sark not helping him out enough with play-calling?
Are the offensive line and the run game too inconsistent?
Is Arch being his own worst enemy and getting down on himself after a bad play instead of forgetting about it and moving to the next one? Is his current level of confidence that fragile instead of growing?
Is Arch just this naturally inconsistent? Is the offense as a whole and its players - with eight new starters - too inconsistent?
Or, are the weapons around him just not all that good? After all, Texas was missing its top two RBs and two of its top four WRs.
Three games into the 2025 season, the list above includes far too many questions. And way too few, if any, answers.
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Texas can survive certain shortcomings at the QB position. Errant throws, happy feet, too few weapons, those are things that almost every QB deals with. Texas has a defense that can win and win big in support of a less-than-ideal offense.
But the sheer lack of self-confidence - or at least the display of it - is probably the most surprising riddle to me of the current Texas quarterback situation.
That lack of confidence compounds itself and causes entire dysfunction on offense.
We’re three games into the year and I still couldn’t tell you what the identity of this Texas offense is or should be.
How does a team overcome a player - the team leader of the offense - who is clearly struggling mentally?
The answer is surprisingly simple.
All Arch Manning and the Longhorns can do from here is get back to work. That’s the grind of the college football season.
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Arch made some good throws in the second half. The touchdown to Ryan Wingo and the dig route over the middle to Wingo were authoritative and well-delivered.
But Texas needs that level of play on a consistent level.
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On defense, there are some small issues that could develop into bigger ones down the road.
Jaylon Guilbeau is getting picked on quite a bit. Guilbeau gave up a big catch and run and was beat deep another time and was called for pass interference.
But the defense was clearly dominant overall. Again, this Texas defense can take the team far.
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Add James Simon as a possible solution at running back if the injury to Cedric Baxter is a prolonged one.
Simon looked significantly better than both Jerrick Gibson and Christian Clark to me.
Yet Texas opted to take Simon out of the game in most passing situations. That tells me the freshman may not be quite ready for pass protection duties.
But it looks to me his timeline needs to be sped up in that regard.
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We’ve said all along these three non-conference games in the month of September were opportunities to work out the kinks.
Well, it’s well past time that that starts to happen. There needs to be a sense of urgency.
Again, all Texas can do is get back to work.
Hook’Em!