Although it has only been three games, it feels as if the Texas Longhorns have lived through an entire season before they entered conference play.

This season has not looked the way many had expected, despite riding on top of a 2–1 record heading into Saturday. LSU head coach Brian Kelly would probably call us spoiled, as he did to that reporter last week when he pressed on about the Tigers’ lackluster offensive performance against Florida.

Let’s state the elephant in the room: the Longhorns’ offense is not at the level where it should be at this point in the season. The loss to Ohio State was excusable, and the slow start against San José State was understandable, but the performance against UTEP — pitiful.

That series of 10 straight incompletions by sophomore quarterback Arch Manning sure is making me eat my words from my first column, where I stated he did not sit for two seasons and not learn anything.

We can be overzealous in assessments sometimes.

Here’s the thing — I do not think we should call the fire department just yet. The season has not yet engulfed into a flurry of flames. After all, we are just three games in. We should just keep them on standby.

There is a reason why an injured quarterback Quinn Ewers started over a healthy Arch Manning late last season despite fans pleading with the coaching staff for the newest member of football’s famous quarterback family to come into games.

Manning, for whatever reason, has lost his moxie in his play, and it’s been tough to watch it unfold every weekend. I get it — putting on a sloppy performance against a system school is not what most expected this season, but is it really that surprising?

We can spend countless hours dissecting his sidearm delivery that only quarterback Philip Rivers could really excel at, or how the playcalling could probably use an adjustment to play to his strengths, or one USAToday writer even suggesting benching him for senior quarterback Matthew Caldwell.

At the end of the day, it’s not up to us; it’s up to the men on the field. Either this offense learns from its mistakes that they have mentioned after every game, or they must sink and fall and end up in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in December.

This is the last gimmie game for head coach Steve Sarkisian and co. to get everything right before the start of the über long conference parade across the south. Luckily for the Longhorns’ offense, Sam Houston State is one of the worst teams in the country.

Texas should enter Southeastern Conference play 3-1, easily routing the Bearkats this weekend. I expect nothing but a six-touchdown blowout by the offense, with a dominant defensive performance with many footballs stacked onto Texcalibur’s blade.

If Manning and the rest of the offense struggle once again against the 123rd-ranked defense in college football, then it might be time for the fire department to come, even though I believe this will be the game to put them back on track.

But here’s my solution, given the possibility — even if it’s silly — run the wishbone offense once again if Texas struggles in the passing game. If this season is going to be weird and unexpected, let’s get strange with it.