After the week one loss to Ohio State, Texas was set to work out the kinks. Figure out the wrong, and dial in on the right. Instead, after the 27-10 win against the University of Texas at El Paso, Texas seems to be further from a polished product than what most expected.
UTEP was 1-1 heading into Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, falling to Utah State 28-16 in week one, but bounced back with a 42-17 victory in the following week.
Led by redshirt sophomore quarterback Malachi Nelson, once the best recruit in his class according to ESPN, the Miners hung around for most of the game. It wasn’t until 1:41 left in the third quarter that Texas was comfortably ahead.
Sophomore quarterback Arch Manning had a slow first half, throwing for just 69 yards on 5-16 completions. Once 4-5, Manning threw ten straight incompletions before finding Jordan Washington open in the middle of the field. He would run the ball in on the very next play. His two rushing touchdowns had Texas jogging back into the tunnel up 14-3.
Overall, Manning played poorly to his standards, throwing 25 balls on just 11 completions. He also had an interception to go along with a touchdown pass.
“I’m just frustrated,” Manning said. “I’m better than this, so it’s a little frustrating. It’s going to be hard to sleep tonight, but I’ll be back rolling.”
Texas scored two off the legs of Manning in the first half, two field goals from the boot of senior kicker Mason Shipley in the third quarter, and finally, another touchdown from the hands of sophomore wide receiver Ryan Wingo in the fourth. Even though the offense looked shaky, the Longhorns were able to control Nelson and have plenty of opportunities to score. The Miner offense averaged just 4.4 yards per play.
The Texas defense has been the shining light of Longhorn football through 12 quarters played this season, only allowing 31 points in all. When asked to describe their mentality, junior linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. kept it simple.
“Relentless,” Hill said. “Just looking back at some of the tape, I feel like everybody’s playing physical, and we’re making some big plays.”
With junior running back Quintrevion Wisner out and sophomore running back CJ Baxter Jr. going down on the first play, the window of opportunity opened wide for James Simon, and he ran right through it. The true freshman running back showed out in his debut game, leading the Longhorn rushing attack in yards. Simon had 67 of them on 17 attempts.
Now, Texas looks forward to hosting Sam Houston State back at DKR, the last game before conference play begins. But before that, head coach Steve Sarkisian is ready to get back to practice.
“I want us to play our best football, like Monday at practice, and take off from there,” Sarkisian said. “You know, we’ll see how realistic that looks. I don’t think we’re very far off.”
Texas will play at 7 p.m. next Saturday in its first night game of the season.
