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Collecting all the post-game analysis articles, including those behind paywalls, regarding the UTEP game here:

(Gerald Goodridge) No. 7 Texas 27, UTEP 10: Three things we learned

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The No. 7 Texas Longhorns looked lethargic yet again, playing against an outmatched opponent, struggling to get the offense going, and failing to launch both on the ground and through the air. Texas managed to come away with a win, but it has just two weeks left before the start of SEC play, and there are still plenty of questions remaining for the preseason favorite to win the conference.

The offensive issues are more than skin-deep

The offense looked out of rhythm and, frankly, inept in every aspect of its offensive performance, struggling to get any rhythm going at all. Texas leaned into the run in the game, whether that was the original gameplan or required due to the abysmal play of quarterback Arch Manning. After starting the game 3-5 for 58 yards, Manning’s next 10 passes fell incomplete, including a fourth-down interception in the red zone. He finished the game with 114 yards on 25 attempts and a touchdown, 4.56 yards per attempt. Part of the issue is that Texas still doesn’t know who its go-to receiver is in the group, with last week’s star, Parker Livingstone, effectively disappearing against UTEP.

Part of the issue with Texas’s offensive rhythm is that it lacks a standout at the running back position. Quintrevion Wisner missed his second consecutive game due to injury, and CJ Baxter left the game after one carry for six yards, leaving Jerrick Gibson, Christian Clark, and freshman James Simon to carry the load. Simon finished as the game’s leading rusher with 67 yards, while Gibson, who avoided his usual struggles with ball security, added 64 yards of his own. Manning was Texas’s most effective threat on the ground, rushing nine times for 51 yards and the Longhorns’ two touchdowns on the ground.

The defense can carry the team, again

While UTEP was able to put up numbers against Texas, they kept the Miners’ offense in check for most of the contest, surrendering the Miners’ lone touchdown of the game, which came with 1:57 left on the clock. The Miners managed just 2.2 yards per carry on the ground and 5.8 yards per attempt through the air, while turning UTEP quarterback Malachi Nelson over twice. Jelani McDonald and Graceson Littleton took advantage of Nelson’s struggles at quarterback, both securing their first interceptions of the season.

The Longhorns spent a lot of time in the UTEP backfield, with six tackles for loss in the contest, including bringing down Nelson for two sacks and two additional hurries. Hero Kanu’s sack marked the second consecutive week where a Texas defensive tackle brought the QB down, while Zina Umeozulu added the game’s other sack.

Texas’s special teams are growing

Jack Bouwmeester has already emerged as a threat for Texas, but the rest of Jeff Banks’ unit had a lot of questions left after the first three games. Texas fans finally got an extended look at Mason Shipley, who went 2-2 on the day from 30 and 31 yards, keeping the Longhorns comfortably ahead in the game. We also saw Ryan Niblett finally break out as a return threat, specifically on punts, finishing the game with 72 yards on three chances, including a long of 49.

It wasn’t perfect from the unit, with Warren Roberson notching two block-in-the-back penalties in the second quarter, pushing the Texas offense back before they even took the field. Unforced errors continue to plague the Longhorns, with 76 total penalty yards on the defense and special teams alone.

Eric Nahlin: Sarkisian Faces Tough Choices After Arch Manning’s Passing Struggles vs UTEP

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I’m writing this a little too immediately after the game. The absolutists are out in full force making strong declarations about how the whole season is going to go. They might end up being right, but they don’t know with nearly as much certainty as they think they do. I got a text from a buddy—one of our investors, actually:

“Gotta play Arch like Haynes King and mimic Georgia Tech. Protect the defense, ask Arch to make 10 throws a game, always kick field goals, never go for it on 4th down. Figure out how to get to 24 points each game. Best chance moving forward, imo.” Some stuff I agree with. Sounds like K-State in days of yore:

But also, that’s a bit absolutist as well—“always kick field goals” and “never go for it on 4th down.” His point about protecting the defense is well taken, though. My thinking is Steve Sarkisian believes this would be the floor for his team. He’s seeking alpha and upside. He’s an offensive coach and expects much more from his own side of the ball. However, if the offensive line doesn’t start blocking better, he’s going to have to run Arch a lot more than he ever anticipated. Another reason he’s going to have to run Arch more than expected…

He’s struggling mightily as a passer. I had confidence in Sark when he was 5–7. Many of you don’t have confidence in him now after The Rebuild. It’s a bridge too far for me to try to debate those people or to agree that Arch is a bust, but Sark may be a bit too proud in his ways. He also may have misjudged his offense.

It’s one thing for Arch to have jitters against Ohio State—entirely something else to miss layups against UTEP at home. It’s one thing to replace four starters on the offensive line, but another to apply the same context Sark did in saying he still had experience returning. That experience isn’t showing up. I love the defense. I love the program culture. There were many other positives today that I’ll get into tomorrow, but Sark may need to rethink his approach based on team strengths and weaknesses.

 

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Posted

These guys are mouth breathing idiots. Best Texas team ever, arch looks great all the camp talk was so dumb they aren’t coaches, they don’t know shit. Waste of space on the internet if you ask me.

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Posted

In fairness, the offensive off season reports weren't exactly glowing.   There was just hope that the reason was because the defense was so elite and we were breaking in a new OL and skill players.  But in reality, shit is fucked.  This looks like late era Mack Brown ineptitude on offense.  

Posted
15 hours ago, RabidM said:

In fairness, the offensive off season reports weren't exactly glowing.   There was just hope that the reason was because the defense was so elite and we were breaking in a new OL and skill players.  But in reality, shit is fucked.  This looks like late era Mack Brown ineptitude on offense.  

That's what I remember.  The 9.95 stuff I read about fall camp said the offense looked like shit.  

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Posted
16 hours ago, satyanash said:

Collecting all the post-game analysis articles, including those behind paywalls, regarding the UTEP game here:

(Gerald Goodridge) No. 7 Texas 27, UTEP 10: Three things we learned

Eric Nahlin: Sarkisian Faces Tough Choices After Arch Manning’s Passing Struggles vs UTEP

 

Any Scipio postmortem nuggets? 

Posted (edited)
17 hours ago, troph said:

These guys are mouth breathing idiots. Best Texas team ever, arch looks great all the camp talk was so dumb they aren’t coaches, they don’t know shit. Waste of space on the internet if you ask me.

Well, really no more so than this board and these thread.  If you give them that much credibility.  Some have some good thoughts, others don't, or don't often, but no one has any real answers.

Arch was anointed based on essentially $9.95ers, the actual ones and the national ones, and some of us bought into it hard.  And that's not to say the "2A Lousiana" naysayer crew were right, either.

Edited by TwiceHorn
Posted
58 minutes ago, surlyujest said:

Any Scipio postmortem nuggets? 


If he analyzes the offensive line his post game write up might not be suitable for children. I watched a lot of football yesterday and I did not see a single game that featured an offensive line worse than ours. That included multiple G5 and Big 12 games. 

Posted

(Scipio Tex) 2025 UTEP Postmortem: Offense

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A moribund offensive effort against a weak Group of Five team in Austin overshadowed another strong defensive performance. Unless something dramatically changes in the play of the offense or its personnel, Longhorn ceiling is being set and the floor is starting to show a few spots where you wouldn’t want to stand against any opponent with a pulse and a game plan.

Texas managed only 340 yards at a grinding 4.2 yards per play, going only 7 of 21 on money downs against a Miners defense that consistently handled the Longhorn offensive line, while Arch Manning never found the strike zone. The Longhorns were more or less dominated by a poor defense.

For comparative purposes, UTEP’s offense averaged 4.4 yards per play against the Longhorn defense. So on a per play basis, we’re to believe that the relationship between the units facing each other is more or less the same? I’m not buying that. That’s massive underachievement, even when you consider that I think the Longhorn offense isn’t all that talented.

Texas played a lot of two tight end sets against UTEP. The idea was to simplify some blocking schemes against a moving and sometimes irregular front, get the run game worked out, and then hit the Miners over the top in single coverage from max protection.

The problem is that our tight ends can’t really move anyone, our offensive line isn’t getting more physical or technical anytime soon, and Arch missed all of the wide open touchdown throws. Texas was 3 of 7 in the red zone converting touchdowns and experienced goal line stuffs where the Horns were bullied at the point of attack. By the end of the game, Texas was in spread formations running zone read with #16.

Offensive Line

Since Ohio State, I’ve pointed out the fundamental issues on the offensive line here and on the Inside Texas Youtube channels. They’re not very strong, some of them have absolutely terrible bases, and they’re not technical. Sporadic lack of effort is also troubling. That criticism was so well received!

I’ve written for the public long enough to know that being early never has any reward, and you’re left managing the emotions of upset fans who would prefer to be lied to, as they employ the box score the way a drunk uses a lamp post: for support rather than illumination. Eventually, reality catches up. The Iron Laws of OL play are eternal and immutable. So, are we all caught up now? We good? Then let’s move on…

Texas shifted from a 2:1 gap/zone blocking bias in their first two contests to nearly 60% zone running against UTEP. That was partly due to UTEP’s irregular fronts giving us problems by alignment and some free runners making plays, but also because they’re just looking for anything right now, and zone seems to better suit young James Simon who got a significant second half workload.

The truth is that this is a (poorly) zone trained OL and they’re much more comfortable just trying to get a hat on someone for a second and a half and calling it a block, even if moving and passing off defenders reveals athletic deficits. Connor Stroh had some doozies in this game, I’ve seen newborn giraffes negotiate I-10 traffic with more surety. It’s a hard watch at times. 

DJ Campbell contributed another pair of penalties. He’s now at five in three games. On a zone play, Texas had a 3 on 3 playside and Campbell managed to not block a single man, but did help the RB off of the ground after the untouched linebacker nailed him. Your 33 game starting senior. I’m told our issues stem from inexperience. By start 40 or 41, I'm sure he’ll be dialed in.

Goosby played well, but tried an ill-advised cut block on an edge where he completely whiffed and got Manning destroyed. When I say completely whiffed, I mean he jumped out sideways into a ball and no part of his body touched the defender. Like, why? Brandon Baker pass blocked well, but he got manhandled in goal line and he has a obvious strength deficit. Good feet and he tries though, and we can work with that.

Connor Robertson got 19 snaps. He did OK. Like much of the OL, he’s not game strong. Right now, the OL is a bit of a mishmash of skill sets and deficits that don’t play well together. There is no lineup that will yield a high level offensive line, but the coaches may want to think about what combination they can live and die with. Maybe just start the best athletes, simplify if necessary, and try to win with feet and motor?

Quarterback

I didn’t see a worse QB performance on Saturday if you control for opponent quality, though DJ Lagway’s five interceptions against LSU may belong in its own special category. Manning didn’t actively throw away the game with pick sixes, so that’s good. 

A smattering from my notebook:

  1.     Arch behind wide open Wingo.
  2.     Arch misses Wingo for easy TD.
  3.     Arch terrible interception throwing across his body in the red zone.
  4.     Arch misses a wide open Livingstone for a TD in single coverage, play action.
  5.     Arch misses an easy out to Wingo.
  6.     Arch misses tight end on a scramble. Difficult throw.
  7.     Arch throws behind wide open Niblett on the move, in-breaking route.
  8.     Arch throws behind Townsend in the flat.
  9.     Arch throws completion from his waist from a clean pocket. Why?

He finished 11 of 25 for 114 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He’s objectively bad right now. I don’t know why. Everything has degraded. He left an easy 21 points out on the field and the troubling thing is that even when #16 is struggling, he’s our touchdown scorer. He accounted for every score against Ohio State, San Jose State and UTEP, rushing or passing. He did fine as a runner from zone read and as a scrambler with 9 carries for 51 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Maybe the absolute floor of this offense is Manning throwing it 15-20 times, running it 10-12 from zone read and scrambles, limiting turnovers, and hoping the defense sets Texas up with short fields. The Longhorn offense will need to fail more for Sark to concede that though.

Running Back

CJ Baxter went out after his first run of the game. Clark, Gibson and Simon held it down, with each getting their respective time to ply their trade. Clark ran it into the hole more. He didn’t add much at contact. We tried to employ him in the passing game, to mixed results.

Gibson runs hard where he’s supposed to and there were no fumbles, but he didn’t push many piles. Simon maximized most of his runs, many of them zone runs, and he was the only Texas running back who consistently broke tackles.

All other Texas runners averaged around 1.6 yards after contact. Simon averaged 4.2. When you consider that Simon averaged less than 4 yards per carry, I’ll let you figure out where he experienced average first contact.

This room is about what I expected. One of the highest paid rooms in college football, but not remotely elite or even that good. It should have been re-hauled back in January, but now the goal is to see if Simon can help us. We could see a switch back to more zone running. I think we’re flailing around a bit.

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends

The tight ends got a lot of run. No pun intended. I don’t think any of them added much to the running game and they accounted for two drops. For the season, Texas #1 WR Ryan Wingo has 23 targets with 9 catches for 97 yards. That’s remarkably bad. I can’t name a less efficient SEC #1 target. There are some very bad routes there, yes, but Arch has flat missed an open Wingo about 8-10 times.

Not much to write when the WR position totaled 5 catches for 55 yards on 10 targets.

Final

The waves of preseason hype are starting to shatter on the walls of actual game play. Right now, this is a bad offense. It will get better or worse, but it won’t stay the same. This unit makes a half dozen SEC games potentially losable. Typically, I can find trends or simple mistakes in a struggling offense that presage better days ahead when they’re cleaned up, but the issues here are myriad; some are fundamental. Some of them can’t be cleaned up on Tuesday and Wednesday. They’re baked in the cake. 

 

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