On a chilly Saturday morning, the streets of Bevo Boulevard were rocking. After 42 days away from Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, the Longhorns viewed a familiar sight with the turn of Halloween night into a brisk November dawn.
Texas football was back home.
The energy of Bevo’s street shifted into the stadium, where voices echoed from the opening play, a 75-yard touchdown by sophomore wide receiver Ryan Wingo, to the “overrated” chants directed to Heisman-hopeful and Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia. The voices sang loud to the Eyes of Texas, and the happiness of Texas playing football turned into the joy of Texas winning football.
It’s been a long time coming to the 34-31 win against No. 9 Vanderbilt. The No. 20 Longhorns have had a fatiguing away schedule for the entire month of October, playing in some tough games. There were overtime escapes in Starkville, Mississippi, and Lexington, Kentucky, a dominant win in Dallas, and a demeaning loss in Gainesville.
So it was only natural for Texas to come out firing against its third AP top-10 team they have seen this season. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Arch Manning played one of the best games of his career, throwing for 328 yards and three touchdowns. Eight receivers hauled in at least 15 yards behind Manning’s arm, which was the first time that has ever happened in Texas football history in the past 30 years.
“(Manning) just looks so much more mature,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “He looks so much more poised, he looks so much more confident, and he’s got a lot more trust in those guys around him. … He’s been through a lot, and so for him to have some of the success he’s having right now is, you know, he deserves it.”
The defense sacked Pavia six times, led by the efforts of sophomore edge rusher Colin Simmons. On Vanderbilt’s first drive of the game, Simmons would get to Pavia, force and recover a fumble, which set the tone for the game.
The game was over until it wasn’t. In the fourth quarter, Vanderbilt made a resilient effort in a steady rain shower, scoring 21 unanswered points in the final ten minutes. Down 34-31, there were 33 seconds remaining on the clock. The Commodores needed to recover an onside kick to have a chance. Vanderbilt placekicker Brock Taylor drilled a low one into the chest of Texas receiver Parker Livingstone, and it slipped out from underneath him. A Commodore then landed on it — but the ball went out of bounds.
Getting possession, Manning would take a knee and Texas would wrap up the game with a victory.
“We’ve been in this arena, we’ve been in these scenarios, and I think that’s a tribute to our culture of our guys just continuing to believe in what they need to do to perform,” Sarkisian said. “You’ve got to play 60 minutes, and some weeks you’re down by three scores in the fourth quarter. Other weeks, you’re up by three scores.”
As the rain stopped during Manning’s kneel, the fans’ voices of Texas football woke back up. It was a reminder of what it means to play in Austin, to be a fan of Texas football. It was definitely missed; you could see it on the glowing faces of all the men, women and children dressed in burnt orange.
Texas will take on No. 5 Georgia after the bye week in Athens, Georgia.
