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Posted
2 hours ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Dude. It’s an existential certainty we are going to beat the shit out of these teams. This roster is way too good not to. It will teach us nothing. 

Nah. We were told the same shit last week. Our roster is too good we were sacking sayin a dozen times. We were gonna hang 30 blsh blsh. Our defense I agree is lights out. But I’m a show me.  Fuck what it looks like on paper. Texas has had the better paper roster for a decade 

Posted
29 minutes ago, Im_smarter_then_you said:

Fucking 9 am out here

I love our 9am west coast games.  Wake up. Gym. Longhorns and now I have the rest of my day to do whatever.  It’s glorious 

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Posted
5 minutes ago, Sgt Hulk said:

Nah. We were told the same shit last week. Our roster is too good we were sacking sayin a dozen times. We were gonna hang 30 blsh blsh. Our defense I agree is lights out. But I’m a show me.  Fuck what it looks like on paper. Texas has had the better paper roster for a decade 

You have no conception of how bad those teams are. Are you surprised every day when you wake up to the sun rising in the east?  

  • Haha 3
Posted
10 minutes ago, Sgt Hulk said:

I love our 9am west coast games.  Wake up. Gym. Longhorns and now I have the rest of my day to do whatever.  It’s glorious 

Feel that way about 10am mountain time games. I can hike and make it back in time for the game or just miss the first Q if I get a late start 

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Posted

Mechanically if Arch looks like he did last year in his 2 starts we will all feel much better about the rest of the season. If he continues the Uncle Rico footwork, spraying the ball around like late career Chuck Knoblauch and we blow out San Jose on some big runs and defensive TDs, concern will linger.

That's why these games matter

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Posted

Sunday - Bobby

Spoiler

Sunday

 

Bobby Burton

By Bobby Burton

  • 22 hours ago
 

Arch Manning is not infallible. For those trying to make negative premature judgements, I’d caution against that.

Strongly.

Manning had a good fourth quarter, sustained four drives in the second half, while working through a difficult day at the office.

Part of the problem was Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia was clearly determined not to let the Texas passing game beat him. The gameplan worked.

Arch also had a couple of nifty runs to keep drives alive earlier in the game and was not taking easy sacks the entire contest.

Those are things Texas can and will build on.

So long as he grows from here, and gains confidence, he’s ultimately going to be as good as expected.

And I say that with a relatively large amount of confidence in spite of what we witnessed against the Buckeyes.

**

The red zone woes are real.

With Patricia taking away the deep passing game, the Buckeyes ceded some of the run game.

So Texas moved the ball between the 20s.

Yet if the only two tweaks to this year’s short-yardage scheme are QB power and the tush push, then Steve Sarkisian may have misgauged the depths of the team’s issues.

As much as anything, Texas needs a red-zone identity and a cohesive plan that emphasizes that identity.

And, at some level, there needs to be more short-yardage run-game focus against the types of fronts that opposing defenses like to deploy.

For instance, the Ohio State offense clearly identified its go-to play against the Horns. The Buckeyes scored their fourth-down rushing TD yesterday on the same exact short-yardage play they hit for a TD in the Cotton Bowl against Texas.

**

Some other brief notes:

- A blitz pick-up by CJ Baxter was outstanding. It was “winning” football.

- The deep ball down the sideline to Jack Endries was best perhaps the best throw and best catch of the day.

- Parker Livingstone’s touchdown catch was terrific. He fought through a lot of hand traffic to make that catch. We are going to need more of that this season from multiple receivers.

- The pass breakup by Graceson Littleton on Jeremiah Smith was about as pretty of a defensive play as you will see. Just outstanding.

**

Overall, I loved what the Texas defense did yesterday.

But I want to issue a slight word of caution.

The Buckeyes did not really test the Longhorn secondary as much as we thought they might. Instead, Ohio State played it really close to the vest, especially after entering halftime with the lead and their own defense clearly flummoxing Manning and Sarkisian.

I know people think the Texas defense is outstanding. And the signs are there that they likely will be. But my suggestion is don’t overreact to the positive on the defense (or to the negative on offense).

IMO what we really learned about the defense yesterday is three-fold.

1. First and foremost, Texas stopped the run with a lighter box. That is HUGE. That will pay dividends down the road.

2. They are a sure tackling team. I don’t recall a single, obvious missed tackle. Poor tackling usually either signals a lack of athleticism or a lack of physicality. Texas displayed neither.

3. They play with a lot of fight. Ohio State tried to lean on Texas in the 3rd and 4th quarter and Texas was just having none of it.

Overall, it was an impressive defensive performance. But we need to see Texas play an offense that attempts more than just 20 passes in a game to really tell IMO.

**

- Alex January and Maraad Watson were the starters at defensive tackle.

- Connor Stroh started and played all but a couple of series over Neto Umeozulu.

- Graceson Littleton did not “officially” start but he played on the very first series of the game.

- Texas deployed a lot of 12 personnel and used Jack Endries and Spencer Shannon almost exclusively.

**

Cedric Baxter’s return was very welcome. Baxter ran hard, even if he didn’t quite have the same explosiveness out of a cut in the first quarter.

His hands out of the backfield, his willingness to pass protect and his outright strength in the run game are all outstanding traits.

I want to add this:

I’m told Baxter, playing without a brace, was completely healthy after the game. That alone is a great sign for his continued recovery.

**

Now that camp is over, I can finally explain why I had such consternation over Trevor Goosby’s injury.

Goosby had a medical procedure two weeks ago, inserting a plate into his hand. That’s why there was obvious concern over the healing process.

Had it been merely taping fingers together or a ligament tear, the prognosis would have been much clearer.

The end result is that Goosby played and looked good on Saturday.

There was rarely any pressure coming from Arch’s blindside. Additionally, the combo of Goosby and Stroh opened up some nice holes on the left side.

**

It was the very first thing I noticed in fall camp and it proved true on Saturday.

The punting game is miles different from a year ago (or at least a good 10 yards).

**

Play this game again in January of 2026, at a neutral site, and let’s see who wins.

Hook’Em

Monday - Still Working: Bobby

Spoiler

Monday - Still Working

 

Bobby Burton

By Bobby Burton

  • 2 hours ago
 

While it’s Labor Day, the team is not off today. They’ll be on the practice field here momentarily.

Coach Steve Sarkisian is then set to speak with the media around 10:30am this morning.

Sark will almost assuredly be asked about the team’s red zone woes, the inconsistent play of his quarterback and his offense as a whole, and whether or not any player sustained serious injury.

**

There are a lot of micro issues that can be discussed about the Ohio State game (many of which we’ve already written and spoken about).

But the macro issue is this:

Texas came up short again.

Even though Texas matched or even bested the physicality of Ohio State on Saturday while out-gaining them on the ground, the Horns could not break through and win the game.

What is it going to take for Texas to break through and win games against teams with equal talent? Against teams like Georgia or Ohio State.

Some thought the issue might be the former Texas quarterback, some thought it might be a lack of team physicality on the offensive line, some thought it might be a variety of factors. But it turns out many of the faces have changed but the results remain the same.

Therefore, the question remains unanswered.

What is it going to take to win those games?

My response: better execution, better play-calling, more experience for some of those new faces, and a couple of players stepping up to become true difference makers, not just regulars or starters.

If all of those things don’t happen, Texas will not be a championship team this year; they won’t break through.

As I wrote in the pre-season, Texas has all of the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle on the table. Now it’s truly about putting all of those pieces together.

That’s where this Texas team is at post-Ohio State. They’re very much a work in progress as of Labor Day, 2025.

 

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Posted
3 hours ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Dude. It’s an existential certainty we are going to beat the shit out of these teams. This roster is way too good not to. It will teach us nothing. 

No one will go into the first snap at Florida confident in what we'll see. 

But this offense desperately needs this next month to go back to the drawing board and get their shit together. It's like a 2nd chance at a fall camp after another top tier program just exposed your offense. 

Sark needs to look in the mirror and realize defenses are sitting on all of his stuff. Most don't have the talent level to completely stuff it, but people we have to beat to get a title like Georgia and OSU do.  

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Posted
47 minutes ago, cmontexas said:

Mechanically if Arch looks like he did last year in his 2 starts we will all feel much better about the rest of the season. If he continues the Uncle Rico footwork, spraying the ball around like late career Chuck Knoblauch and we blow out San Jose on some big runs and defensive TDs, concern will linger.

That's why these games matter

Bad mechanics didn't show up last year when he was playing shitty competition; they did show up versus Georgia. On one play versus Georgia, he had time, yet he missed a wide-open receiver in that game. What if his bad mechanics only show up when he's overwhelmed and anxious about playing a talented roster? These games will tell us nothing, but I hope he gets over whatever it is in big games and gets more help from Sark next time when we play Florida.

Posted (edited)

One of the most interesting articles I come across every week. Alex Dunlap's defensive deep dig on OB 

Spoiler

DEFENSE

As always, we'll give some quick analysis along with the tiered rankings (Now through Game 1 of 2025) and are derived via a proprietary scoring formula, and based on the following advanced charting statistics (please note the distinctions in how tackles, etc. are counted and why these stats will almost always differ from the official university stats and cockamamie PFF):

DEEP-DIG-2016-OFFICIAL-Texas-Longhorns-Football-Def-DIS-LEGEND.jpg


***Also, Please note: -1 point was added starting in 2019 for any defensive penalty outside of defensive pass interference which is always considered a coverage burn and is not double-counted. Also, please note that missed tackles that result in blown contains are counted as blown contains (-1) and are not double-counted as both a blown contain and a missed tackle.

Also, please note that exact snap-count numbers may differ from other sources at times, as the Deep Dig does not count plays as defensive player snaps that are blown dead due to penalty, punts, opponent victory formations, opponent kneel downs, opponent spiked balls, extra points or other plays where the player is not technically playing on defense***

Defensive Snap Counts By Week and Percentage of Total Defensive Snaps Played - Through Game 1

Deep-Dig-2025-Defensive-Player-Participation.jpg

Defensive Productivity Market-Share Percentages and Snaps per Production Caused Metrics *Through Game 1* (snaps per disruption caused is colored coded from blue/best to white/median to red/worst; movement up or down the rankings from last week in parentheses after player's name)
Deep-Dig-2025-OSU-PROD.jpg


Quick Hits and Thoughts

- First off, as we always say to start the season in Week 1 of the Deep Dig, this sample of plays is extremely small and the productivity leaderboard will change drastically throughout the couse of the season. What makes this particular week even less predictive is that the number of plays was so small. The Deep Dig doesn't chart defensive plays when the offense is in victory formation and also doesn't count plays that were nullified via penalties, it doesn't count punt returns or field goal block team as defensive plays, etc. So, while cockamamie PFF will tell you Texas ran 59 defensive plays in this one (still not very many at all), the Deep Dig only recorded 49. Seeing a guy like Anthony Hill Jr. in Tier three of the production rankings doesn't tell us a thing about the season he's about to have, it only tells us that, in this game, well... he was not his usual productive self. A lack of big plays from Texas' best defensive players was a bit of a hallmark of this defensive performance. No sacks, very few pressures, only one TFL for one yard. The guys who were uber-productive in this game did so in more under-the-radar ways. Colin Simmons didn't get his sacks, but he had two QB hits and a separate pressure that many people likely don't remember. It was just that kind of game.

- The Deep Dig only recorded one missed tackle in this game (Ty'Anthony Smith), which is clearly a wonderful stat and something that the defense, despite a lack of turnovers and big-time flash plays, can hang its hat on. In a totally workman-like performance with little flash and sizzle from the usual suspects, Texas still held the defending national champions and Jeremiah Smith to 14 total points and kept an anemic offense in the football game to the bitter end. Imagine what things are going to look like once the fireworks start, because they will. It's a simple matter of regression to the mean.

- Cole Brevard looked, by far, to be the best run-stopping presence of the current defensive line. He's like an anvil in the middle of the defense. In contrast to Maraad Watson, who we'll talk about next, it doesn't matter if you double-team him, you can't move him. He had four run-stuffs against Ohio State which was one more than the rest of the defense combined. (Travis Shaw, 1; Liona Lefau, 1; Trey Moore, 1.) Brevard will almost surely not be able to keep up his 3.33 snaps/production-caused efficiency score, as that would be the best on record dating back to the Deep Dig's inception in 2013, but it's quite an impressive debut even if the production might not have been so plain to see by the naked eye in real-time.

- Maraad Watson got completely washed away in the first series of the game on the second snap and it was a small harbinger of things to come throughout the game as a run defender. He was totally put on skates by an Ohio State double-team. He obviously needs to do a better job of moving his feet coming into engagement. Ohio State went back to the well with this on Watson for CJ Donaldson's TD, the first of the game for Ohio State. Watson shows nice flashes, but there were definite play-strength, initial positioning and disengagement issues that he'll surely be encouraged to work on through the next three games before Texas gets into SEC play.



- When Texas went to its first short yardage package, Derek Williams came out of the game while Jelani McDonald moved from nickel to safety opposite Michael Taaffe as Trey Moore entered as the OLB. Also, Hero Kanu's first snap at Texas was not at interior defensive line, but rather as a short-yardage DE who subbed in for Ethan Burke in the package. Kanu actually played the most snaps of any interior DL in this game, mainly because he moonlighted at the SDE in these spots while also being one of the five rotational pieces who played on the interior DL (Watson, Kanu, January, Brevard and Shaw). Handling 61% of the snaps versus Ohio State, he outpaced 2024's snap-percentage leaders Alfred Collins (56%) and Vernon Broughton (53%).

- Lance Jackson starts the year as Ethan Burke's direct backup while Brad Spence starts the season as Colin Simmons' direct backup but Zina Umeozulu actually played one more snap in the game than Spence did, and neither of Burke's backups (Lance Jackson or Colton Vasek) created any production on very small samples. It makes you wonder where Justus Terry is in the pecking order and if he gets a chance to make some waves here in the next three games. A prospect of his level should certainly be a player who gets a chance to ascend through his freshman season in order to come into Year 2 with a head of steam

 

Edited by Hookem2147
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Posted
2 hours ago, Hermanator said:

No one will go into the first snap at Florida confident in what we'll see. 

But this offense desperately needs this next month to go back to the drawing board and get their shit together. It's like a 2nd chance at a fall camp after another top tier program just exposed your offense. 

Sark needs to look in the mirror and realize defenses are sitting on all of his stuff. Most don't have the talent level to completely stuff it, but people we have to beat to get a title like Georgia and OSU do.  

The sequencing of our schedule is fucking horrible this year and I'm still pissed off about it. At Ohio State in Week 1. Three cupcakes at home and a bye in September, not a single home game in October. Ridiculous. 

 

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Posted
16 hours ago, gmr548 said:

SJSU lost to a Central Michigan team that threw 11 passes and outrushed them by more than 3x (236-75). Offensively, they did throw for 308 but it took them 45 attempts at 53% completion.

This is a bad team that should not score on the Texas first team defense. Hopefully they will rotate lots of young guys and get out of there healthy. I'm sure everyone will be stoked about a bounceback game from Arch but I doubt there will be anything to take from the next three games on that front. Of course he'll feel more comfortable and play cleaner.

 

Then last year they were just a one hit wonder.   Back to their regularly scheduled suckage.  

We should be able to get plenty of people reps then.  Even if they are against blah opponents, it helps.

Posted
1 hour ago, Hank Kingsley said:

The sequencing of our schedule is fucking horrible this year and I'm still pissed off about it. At Ohio State in Week 1. Three cupcakes at home and a bye in September, not a single home game in October. Ridiculous. 

 

I’m not disagreeing but from the schedule making perspective OU is a “home” game so it wouldn’t look so out of whack if that game was in Austin 

Posted
1 hour ago, HtownHorn said:

Outside of TOs and/or mass subs, I'd be shocked if any on the next 3 teams score.

They'll score in garbage time against the 2nd and 3rd teamers. Keep the starters healthy, get the young 'uns PT.

Posted
6 hours ago, Sgt Hulk said:

Nah. We were told the same shit last week. Our roster is too good we were sacking sayin a dozen times. We were gonna hang 30 blsh blsh. 

Nobody that knew WTF they were talking about said that.  I said early last week reading that nonsense that half of this board was smoking crack with ridiculous expectations.  Vegas told you the game was a low scoring coin flip just like it was.

Posted
6 hours ago, Js1 said:

Feel that way about 10am mountain time games. I can hike and make it back in time for the game or just miss the first Q if I get a late start 

Off topic, but any signs of the elk rut yet?  Heading to Estes P. last week of September

Posted

Bobby:

I’m told Stanford transfer wide receiver Emmett Mosley V is “expected” back prior to conference play. No further info or timeline was provided, so it could be even sooner than that.

The Texas receiver room, while talented, is relatively thin. The addition of Mosley, who had 48 receptions a year ago, would be welcome.

Freshman safety Jonah Williams is also expected to return to action relatively soon.

Be that this week or in the coming weeks, the injury is not one that should sideline him much longer.

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Posted

I really want to see improved timing and accuracy from Arch. The entire game vs OSU (well until 2H of 4th qtr) he seemed indecisive and a beat slow.

Then because he was late on his throws he either pegged them (reminded me of a P fielding a ground ball and screaming it at the 1B) at the receiver or bounced them in front of them.

Use these three games to get mind right, take pressure off self and then hit SEC play

Posted

The good news is that Arch probably faced his toughest test of the regular season out of the gate and everything will look easier from here. There were really no tendencies to look for, no idea even what kind of defense they were going to run, they had guys who were awesome at disguising coverages like Caleb Downs, and Patricia has multiple super bowl rings as a high quality DC. Sark will never say this publicly, but that gameplan seemed to me to be somewhat tactically vanilla. I don't think he wanted to roll out a bunch of stuff when he didn't really know what he was facing. I am not making excuses, but that is how I would have approached it. Especially if there is a chance I will see them again at the end of the season. 

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Vertigo said:

Sark will never say this publicly, but that gameplan seemed to me to be somewhat tactically vanilla. I don't think he wanted to roll out a bunch of stuff when he didn't really know what he was facing. I am not making excuses, but that is how I would have approached it. Especially if there is a chance I will see them again at the end of the season. 

Upon rewatch, I tend to agree.  Sark didn't seem to want to waste putting anything new on film in this game.  Sometimes it felt like he was calling certain plays to figure out how Patricia would react more than to move the ball.    

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Posted
13 minutes ago, bejezuz said:

Upon rewatch, I tend to agree.  Sark didn't seem to want to waste putting anything new on film in this game.  Sometimes it felt like he was calling certain plays to figure out how Patricia would react more than to move the ball.    

I know this has probably already been posted in multiple threads, but I avoided the boards all weekend/Monday. This was such an enlightening breakdown of Arch's mechanical issues, Sark's struggles, how Patricia disguised coverage, and just how good (Downs is definitely the best defensive player in CFB) so many of the OSU defenders are. They were excellently prepared and knew what we were doing so much of the time. Also touches on how vanilla we were.

 

Posted

Tuesday - Team Health: Bobby

Spoiler

Tuesday - Team Health

 

Bobby Burton

By Bobby Burton

  • 3 hours ago
 

Some encouraging health news:

I’m told Stanford transfer wide receiver Emmett Mosley V is “expected” back prior to conference play. No further info or timeline was provided, so it could be even sooner than that.

The Texas receiver room, while talented, is relatively thin. The addition of Mosley, who had 48 receptions a year ago, would be welcome.

**

Sark said in yesterday’s press conference that the next receiver off the bench would have been Ryan Niblett. That caught some folks by surprise, many thinking that another true freshman other than Daylan McCutcheon was prepared to enter the circle of trust.

But it shows just how far ahead McCutcheon has been in fall practice and camp.

(These camp reports we provide are not for nothing.)

**

A camp standout that we expect to see significant action in the coming three weeks is offensive lineman Nick Brooks.

Brooks has Connor Stroh-size with a higher level of athleticism.

Brooks has worked at both left and right tackle in camp.

With Trevor Goosby still nursing a sore hand and perhaps needing some level of recuperation for the long season ahead, we expect Brooks to play at right tackle with Brandon Baker getting some work at left tackle.

Speaking of Stroh, I’m told his performance against Ohio State was viewed positively inside the building.

We’ll see if that continues, especially in pass protection. Texas might consider a rotation that includes Neto Umeozulu against different types of defenses.

**

Freshman safety Jonah Williams is also expected to return to action relatively soon.

Be that this week or in the coming weeks, the injury is not one that should sideline him much longer.

**

The Texas DT rotation went five deep on Saturday.

Hero Kanu, Alex January, Maraad Watson, Cole Brevard, and Travis Shaw.

As we get deeper into the season, we expect to see some of Maryland transfer Lavon Johnson. Johnson has been hampered by a nagging ankle injury.

While he is also the no. 6 DT, he is expected to add more quality depth to the room.

**

Knock on wood.

We’re out of training camp and just played the first major contest of the season, yet the Horns have lost just one player for the season (back-up tackle Andre Cojoe).

So the Horns are extraordinarily healthy as a team right now.

 

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Posted (edited)

1. Get Arch some confidence/rhythm

2. Let the OL gel

3. Figure out a different punt return plan than sticking Ryan Niblett back there

4. Get Christian Clark 30 carries

Those are my priorities, in order, for the next 3 weeks. I don't even care that we are about to go 15/15 in the red zone either. The next time I'll care about that is Florida.

Edited by Hookem2147
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Posted
3 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

1. Get Arch some confidence/rhythm

2. Let the OL gel

3. Figure out a different punt return plan than sticking Ryan Niblett back there

4. Get Christian Clark 30 carries

Those are my priorities, in order, for the next 3 weeks. I don't even care that we are about to go 15/15 in the red zone either. The next time I'll care about that is Florida.

Agreed with what you posted.

1. Arch definitely needs to get some more in-game reps with putting touch on his passes and not locking on his front leg because every pass is a 100% rocket.

2. I was very happy with the OL, especially Stroh. Definitely could be a strength were there was concern heading into the season.

3. Please put Littleton back there after he gets more practice reps. He was a great return man in HS.

4. Yep. Let Baxter heal and protect Wisner for later in the season. 

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Posted
On 9/1/2025 at 5:24 AM, Wulaw Horn said:

Dude. It’s an existential certainty we are going to beat the shit out of these teams. This roster is way too good not to. It will teach us nothing. 

But it will be fun to see.

Posted
23 hours ago, Nueces River Rat said:

Then last year they were just a one hit wonder.   Back to their regularly scheduled suckage.  

We should be able to get plenty of people reps then.  Even if they are against blah opponents, it helps.

 

21 hours ago, ztejas said:

These guys knocked off Stanford last year - Texas needs to come out sharp.

They had one of the top WRs in the whole G5 last year. He's on the Falcons now.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id/4570242/nick-nash

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