Rain drizzled down in Darrell K Royal Texas-Memorial Stadium. The sidewalks on Bevo Boulevard were slippery and the sun was invisible behind the overcast of gloomy, grey clouds.
Yet it didn’t stop the flood of burnt orange from filling the stands and staying until the final seconds as the Texas Longhorns sealed a victory over the San Jose State Spartans, bouncing back from last week’s loss with the scoreboard announcing the 38-7 win.
“For (the fans) to show up today the way that they did, for our student section, to stay until the end, to sing The Eyes with us, I thought was really, really cool,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said in the postgame press conference.
It was hard not to be optimistic as “The Eyes of Texas” rang through the stadium. After a devastating loss against this week’s No. 1 team, Ohio State, a solid win was desperately needed.
But there is no ignoring the fact that there’s still a lot of work to do.
The Longhorns, like last week, collected way too many penalties this game on both offense and defense. Sending them back a total of 115 yards throughout the game, Texas accumulated 12 total penalties while San Jose had just three for 15 yards.
While four of the penalties happened on the defensive side, with some roughing the passer calls and one roughing the kicker penalty that cost Texas a possession, the rest were entirely offensive, with calls, such as illegal blocking and holding, which moved the Spartans up the field.
“We’ve got to clean those up. And that starts with discipline, enforcing it in practice and not letting people get away with whatever’s going on,” senior edge Ethan Burke said after the game.
The run game also had more trouble this game, due in part to the absence of junior running back Quintrevion Wisner, who sat out as a precaution due to a minor leg injury. Sophomore running backs CJ Baxter Jr. and Jerrick Gibson were the main guys in the backfield, running for just 64 and 38 yards, respectively, with no touchdowns.
That’s just one item in a list of several other positives that came with this game.
Another ticked-off box is that redshirt sophomore quarterback Arch Manning seems to have found his groove in both passing and using his legs. Manning totaled 295 yards, four touchdowns and one interception, throwing in three touchdown passes and running in another himself for 20 yards after scrambling past the Spartans’ defense.
Of the other three, two were thrown to redshirt freshman wide receiver Parker Livingstone and one fell into the hands of junior tight end Jack Endries. Livingstone’s first trip to the endzone was a distance of 83 yards, while Endries’ touchdown of the day was a 16-yard catch straight up the middle.
The defense also showed some more energy, attacking the ball instead of just holding the Spartans’ offense. The Longhorns forced three fumbles and one interception, a marked improvement after losing their 24-game turnover streak in last week’s game.
“That’s the whole premise of the game, right?” Burke said. “It’s for us to create turnovers and for them to capitalize off our turnovers and score points off it. So it does feel good. We had a good string of turnovers in a row … so that’s just the ball we’ve got to play.”
Next week, Texas plays again at DKR in a 3:15 p.m. game against the University of Texas at El Paso, hoping to improve on some mistakes from this game as the team makes its way through its non-conference schedule.
