OTF Premium Snap Judgments: No. 1 Texas ends non-conference play with a sloppy win over UTSA

[Jeff Howe]

Through the 11:26 mark of the second quarter in Saturday’s 30-6 win over UTSA, No. 1 Texas picked up where it left off in the fourth quarter of last week’s 24-23 comeback win over Ohio State.

The Longhorns led 17-3 after Arch Manning’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Cam Coleman capped a seven-play, 57-yard drive. Steve Sarkisian’s offense averaged 5.5 yards per play, with Manning’s 9-for-12, 102-yard effort and two touchdowns balancing a rushing attack that churned out 57 yards on 11 carries.

Unfortunately, it was downhill from there. The offense lacked cohesiveness, consistency and flow until Derrek Cooper ended an eight-play, 66-yard drive in the fourth quarter with his first career touchdown (a 1-yard run over the right side of the line).

Manning completed seven of his final 20 pass attempts. Texas (3-0) went 4-for-13 on third down the rest of the way and failed to move the chains twice on fourth down (0-for-2).

Obviously, if the Longhorns execute at a similarly forgettable level against Tennessee in their SEC opener next Saturday (11 a.m., ABC), it’ll be a different story on the scoreboard. While Saturday’s clunker came in a lopsided win, Monday’s film session will show a lot of meat on the bone against Jeff Traylor’s scrappy Roadrunners.

***

Manning wasn’t good on Saturday. There’s no sugarcoating his struggles.

He's still unable to hit the crossing routes in Sarkisian’s offense. While the Longhorn receivers either couldn't get open against man coverage or dropped his on-target throws, Manning either misfired or didn’t pull the trigger on plays that could’ve gone for big yardage.

For now, it’s fair to put Manning’s performance (16-for-32 for 161 yards and two touchdowns, with 50 yards rushing on nine official attempts) in the column of a bad night. It’s too early in the season (and too soon after his late second-half outing against the Buckeyes) to hit the panic button. Nevertheless, Manning looked more like he did when he struggled throughout the first half of the 2025 season on Saturday, not like the guy who played as well as any quarterback in the country down the stretch.

***

UTSA deserves credit for crossing up the Texas offensive line with various blitzes, games and stunts and making the Longhorns play behind the chains. That led to Manning bailing out of the pocket more than anybody wanted him to, which exposed him to too many hits in a game Texas won comfortably.

***

Late, hard-charging runs by Cooper (44 yards on 11 carries), Hollywood Smothers (10 carries for 54 yards) and Michael Terry III (seven carries for 39 yards) helped Texas finish with a season-high 228 rushing yards (4.8 yards per attempt). Still, the Longhorns did a solid job running the football; only seven of the 39 carries by the running backs were stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage and seven of the team’s 47 non-sack rushing attempts went for 10 or more yards.

***

Sarkisian doesn’t need to call a jump ball in the red zone for the rest of the season unless it’s going to Cam Coleman.

***

The most disappointing aspect of the offense’s performance was that they wasted outstanding field position. Five drives that started at their own 43, 45, 48 and 49 and the UTSA 39-yard line resulted in Texas only scoring 13 points.

***

Maybe Saturday’s offensive performance will be in 2026 what the Wyoming game was in 2023.

After the Longhorns went on the road and handed Nick Saban his largest margin of defeat in Tuscaloosa, Texas was tied with the Cowboys, 10-10, going into the fourth quarter; a 44-yard touchdown pass from Quinn Ewers to Xavier Worthy kickstarted a 21-point surge, leading to a 31-10 victory.

Time will tell. Still, if we’re judging this offense against the offseason expectations of it potentially being Sarkisian’s best on the Forty Acres, Saturday’s effort fell woefully short.

***

I’ve dissected the offense long enough. The Longhorns’ overall margin for error was significant because Will Muschamp’s defense put the clamps on UTSA (2-1).

After the Roadrunners kicked a field goal at the end of a 13-play, 59-yard drive, one on which Will Henderson III had success running off-tackle, Muschamp’s adjustments suffocated Henderson, Owen McCown and the rest of the Roadrunners’ offense. From the 7:05 mark of the first quarter, UTSA had 146 yards of total offense (3.04 yards per play), three first downs and went 0-for-9 on third down.

Although the offense looked as unappealing as possible, Texas played championship-caliber defense.

***

The game was so tightly officiated (both teams combined for 20 penalties) that I don’t know what to make of the Longhorns finishing the game with eight penalties for 88 yards. It was a sloppy performance, but the SEC officiating crew contributed to the clunky flow.

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[SB21]

Agree with ya there. That was sloppy and hard to watch. Hopefully that was the only poor offensive  performance for us cause we can’t afford to have those in conference play at all

[HudGar1922]

so your saying our qb isn’t consistent and our head football coach/offensive genius aren’t firing on all cylinders.  

 

yes sark can recruit but we honestly can have a lot of head football coaches with our payroll potential.  sark simply cannot seem to produce an overpowering offense, which he was hired to do.  defense has been much better in his time on the 40 acres. 

[ZmoneyJD14]

The lack of basic development from arch is VERY concerning 

[NTX_Horn]

Manning will improve as the season goes on.  How much, we don’t know.  I know it’s still early, but given the small sample size so far of 3 games, I don’t think he has improved significantly enough from last year.  Still early, but for this team to go where they want to go, he needs to improve a whole lot more.  Crossing routes are there, and still holds the ball too much.  Overthrows and indecision on his reads.  If he only improves slightly, does he come back another year?

[TheContractor12]

I dont mind a let down, it happens but this was more than a let down. There are multiple flaws there were shown by UTSA. Last week, i thought Safety in coverage was a huge flaw. Arch, does not throw certain passes well. He just does not have the touch. He is 1/2 step too slow to progress to another target. The OL showed it has issues with slants and delayed blitzes. They had trouble with numbers in the run and pass game. Arch has to make them pay the the numbers in the box are higher. Arch will have to make plays in the run game himself and get down and not take a big hit. 

Tenn is a must win game. Ole Miss(chambliss) and Lsu both look great. I really hope we are ranked 3-5 tomorrow and not 1. 

[OTFBrandon]

Sloppy game after a sloppy week for Texas football. IMO teams of years past would’ve won by 7 at most no matter the ranking.

[SuperDave0805]

Offense was as ugly as a Rosie O'Donnell swimsuit calendar 

[kren]

Think they just need to hit the reset button and move on. Too many distractions this week, seemed like they weren’t mentally there

[theportal]

I know this might be a hot take but Arch Manning just isn’t a great QB.  He is what he is at this point. And Sark still hasn’t developed a great Texas QB up to this point. 

[Horn365]

At this point we should run Arch more. Might actual help with the pass.

[RH123]

Just wish they could have establish a basic rhythm on offense. No consistency at all. Arch also scrambling when the pocket was just fine. 

[BurntOrangeMD]

Vanilla Hangover. 

[Neil Leininger]

Vanilla hangover or not, Manning needs to be much better. His effort today was the worst of his career at Texas, starting with his 1st pass he was never locked in.

[TheRoJoShow]

Watching Lacey come in and drill a simple layup pass was a nice change of pace 

[Joe D Villasenor]

What is concerning is Sark is on his second 5 ⭐️ qb at Texas and both seem to never take the next step in development. 

[Thanos72]

1 good quarter in the last 8. 
Oline awful and as always, we just keep the same people in. 
Sark was pissed all game as he knew how flat the offense played. 
He needs to consider pulling Arch for a series during games when he’s consistently floundering to help him see the field. Different sport but Pop was a master of the quick time out or quick pull. Otherwise, Arch seems to overwhelm himself trying to get out of the rut.

UTSA is used to the heat…

 

[AusMOJO]

I expected a hangover but that felt like stumbling home at 6am after pub crawling all night long. My goodness. Inexcusable play by this O. Thankfully UTSA isn't very good and what's even worse is their D isn't good either. All our touted WR's and they were struggling to get open. 

If Sark's main focus in on the O, should we not expect a better product? WHy is Arch Manning 4 years into his tenure at Texas (2nd year starting) and he at times looks completely lost in the O? I'm also not a fan of him taking so many shots, gotta learn to get down or out of bounds. 

I love what the guys did last week and like I said I expected a hangover but this level of play is just no acceptable. Hoping for a better performance next week. It being the first road game does not bode well for us. Hoping to see the guys firing on all cylinders next week. 

Another thing was the penalties. Boy were they bad tonight. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. 

[AusMOJO]

7 minutes ago, Joe D Villasenor said:

What is concerning is Sark is on his second 5 ⭐️ qb at Texas and both seem to never take the next step in development. 

That is a concern, too. Not just on Sark either, also on Milwee. 

[AusMOJO]

1 hour ago, HudGar1922 said:

so your saying our qb isn’t consistent and our head football coach/offensive genius aren’t firing on all cylinders.  

 

yes sark can recruit but we honestly can have a lot of head football coaches with our payroll potential.  sark simply cannot seem to produce an overpowering offense, which he was hired to do.  defense has been much better in his time on the 40 acres. 

Considering the talk about firing PK because he was "babysitting" the D too much and not able to focus on the O as much. Definitely need to see better from the O. Not sure it's all on Sark either. He's drawing the plays up but he has to get his players to execute better. 

[Neil Leininger]

Thank goodness for the defense tonight, Arch was crap the entire night. I think his eyes need to be checked. It was really bad, easily the worst performance of his career at Texas. If he can't take 2 more steps forward, we are losing 2-3 games.