There’s not a lot of silver lining to Texas football’s loss to Florida yesterday.
The one and only positive facet of this game was the way that redshirt sophomore quarterback Arch Manning played. After seemingly suffering a case of the yips for much of this season so far, Manning seemed to pick up some stride despite every other thing within the Longhorns’ efforts going wrong.
The run game was inept, with just 52 total yards on the ground, 37 of which were from Manning. Despite having junior running back Quintrevion Wisner back, Manning’s partners in the backfield racked up a measly 15 yards and made almost no progress into Gator territory during all four quarters.
“We couldn’t run it tonight when they didn’t know we were going to run it — regardless of when they knew we were going to run it,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said postgame. “We’ve got to improve that. We just cannot be a one-dimensional team. When guys can just start rushing the passer and not worrying about the run, the game gets really difficult.”
Manning was still far from perfect, but the most worrying area of play for the Longhorns is in the trenches. Both offensively and defensively, the front line was completely dominated by the Gators.
There’s still hope defensively — after all, this is the team that kept No. 1 Ohio State to just 14 points and 203 total yards, with just 77 rushing.
But the offensive line looked abysmal. Some blame may lie on Manning and the running backs for mistakes in the backfield, but with 35 quarterback pressures and six sacks, it’s not a blanket statement to say that the offensive line completely fell apart.
Florida took full advantage of the inexperience of this line. After it became clear that the run game was unable to take off, Manning faced insane pressure to get the vertical threat going. In fact, David Eckert reported on X that Manning faced a pressure rate of 59.5% — the second-highest for a starting Power-4 quarterback this season and the highest in the Southeastern Conference.
The offensive line also had several false start flags that tucked the Longhorns away at a safe distance from the endzone. Sarkisian chalks it up to the inexperience of this line that can’t seem to click just yet.
“It goes back to finding rhythm of play with one another and trusting one another,” Sarkisian said. “And then, ultimately, it’s experience. Right now, we’re just not an experienced group … we’ve got to keep pushing those guys to be the best that they can be. I know there’s more in there.”
Texas is still switching guys around, trying to figure out what seems to work the best. After making his collegiate debut against Sam Houston, true freshman lineman Nick Brooks moved around before ending up as right guard during the second half.
But that should’ve been a preseason issue, not a conference play dilemma.
Either way, this line is currently a huge liability. Teams just don’t win unless they have at least semi-decent offensive lines, and any other quarterback would have made the same mistakes under the kind of pressure that Manning faced Saturday. Even so, he managed to come out with 263 passing yards and two touchdowns despite his two picks.
“(The) learning lesson for him is the situations of the game … but he’ll learn that stuff and that’s part of the process of growing and developing as a young quarterback,” Sarkisian said. “But I’m proud of his competitive spirit, made some big-time plays for us. I’m sure there’s going to be a few other plays he’d love to have back, but don’t question his heart at all. He battled tonight.”
