OTF Premium Texas is making strides in areas that matter down the stretch

[Jeff Howe]

What shouldn’t get lost in the shuffle of Texas coming uncomfortably close to squandering a 24-point lead in last Saturday’s 34-31 win over Vanderbilt is the way the Longhorns put the Commodores in a four-score hole through three quarters.

Texas (7-2, 4-1 SEC) won the line of scrimmage battle in a landslide, something it hasn’t done consistently in 2025. Steve Sarkisian might’ve said it best during his weekly news conference on Monday when he pointed out how the Longhorns minimized Vanderbilt’s strength “and made it a strength of ours.”

The remarkable effort by Clark Lea’s organization to turn a perennial SEC doormat into a contender for a berth in the College Football Playoff has centered around winning in the trenches.

The Commodores came into the game with the third-best rushing offense in the SEC (203.4 yards per game, ranked 24th in FBS) while allowing only 26 tackles for loss (3.25 per game, ranked fourth nationally) and seven sacks (0.88 per game was tied for the top spot in the SEC and 11th in the country) through eight games. Vanderbilt was a top-25 defense nationally in tackles for loss (6.8 per game) and sacks (2.63 per game) and boasted a top-20 ranking against the run (101.9 yards per game allowed).

Facing a formidable opponent up front, Texas dominated the game at the point of attack.

“That's why I didn't think the score was indicative of how the game went,” Sarkisian said. We’ve got to play better in the fourth quarter, don't get me wrong, but we're playing better football right now.”

The Longhorns kept Arch Manning upright, preventing the opponent from recording a sack for only the second time this season. The Commodores ended the game with one tackle for loss, tying Ohio State for the fewest tackles for loss allowed by Texas through nine games.

Only four of the Longhorns’ 27 official rushing attempts were stopped for no gain or netting negative yardage. The 15 percent stuff rate allowed is the second-best mark Texas has recorded in 2025, topped only by a five percent stuff rate by the Buckeye defense (just two of 37 official rushing attempts in the season opener failed to get back to the line of scrimmage).

The line of scrimmage play on offense came as close as it has to matching the continued excellence displayed by the defensive front. After sacking Diego Pavia six times (Vanderbilt allowed only seven through eight games) and recording 10 tackles for loss (one shy of a season high 11 notched in a road win over Kentucky on Oct. 18), Texas has racked up 23 sacks and 37 tackles for loss during its four-game SEC winning streak.

The Longhorns currently own the top-ranked run defense in the SEC (78.2 yards per game allowed, No. 2 in FBS) and their 34 sacks lead the conference and the country (No. 2 in FBS with 3.78 sacks per game). Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense is also 18th nationally and fifth in the SEC in tackles for loss per game (6.8).

The team's trench success came on a day in which the offense enjoyed a 7-for-11 performance on third down (tied for the season high with an identical 7-for-11 effort in a 55-0 win over Sam Houston on Sept. 20). Combine those aspects of the win with Mason Shipley’s 39-yard field goal in the first quarter on the heels of a strip sack and fumble recovery by Colin Simmons and Sarkisian is excited about the momentum Texas will look to capitalize on coming out of the bye week. Specifically, Sarkisian wants to see his club build on what he described as "a level of confidence right now with our team of, ‘Man, we're getting better.'"

"We're taking care of the ball better. We're creating turnovers. We're stopping the run. We're starting to run the ball better — we need to
run it better. We're converting third downs. We're doing a lot of things really well," Sarkisian said. "We're playing better at the line of scrimmage now on both sides of the ball.

“There was a lot of things to point to in that game where it's like, ‘OK, we're starting to hit our stride a little bit more,” he added. “There's some things to clean up, we're not a finished product, but we're getting better."

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[nicray0920]

All GREAT points Jeff! We also had 3 of our DB's out and back in at any given point in the second half. Hate to even mention the POOR officiating but it didn't help. This team is making huge strides and being battle tested for a playoff run. Hook Em! 🤘🏈

[Jeff Howe]

1 hour ago, nicray0920 said:

All GREAT points Jeff! We also had 3 of our DB's out and back in at any given point in the second half. Hate to even mention the POOR officiating but it didn't help. This team is making huge strides and being battle tested for a playoff run. Hook Em! 🤘🏈

The way Texas is stopping the run and rushing the passer makes the issues on the back end feel fixable. I think it's more of an issue regarding personnel than scheme.

[MarkInAustin]

7 minutes ago, Jeff Howe said:

The way Texas is stopping the run and rushing the passer makes the issues on the back end feel fixable. I think it's more of an issue regarding personnel than scheme.

The personnel being the return of Taaffe and Jelani, and the potential upgrade over Guilbeau?