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    Jeff Howe
    For the second consecutive week, the Texas Longhorns are the No. 1 team in the country.
    Texas (3-0), which remains atop the AFCA Coaches Poll after Saturday’s 30-6 win over UTSA, is still No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25. With 58 first-place votes, the Longhorns edged out No. 2 Georgia for the program’s 52nd all-time No. 1 appearance in the AP Poll.
    Notre Dame (No. 3), Ole Miss (No. 4) and reigning national champion Indiana (No. 5) round out the latest top five.
    Tennessee, a 42-9 winner over Kennesaw State on Saturday and Texas’ opponent in the SEC opener in Knoxville next Saturday (11 a.m., ABC), is No. 14 in the latest AP Top 25. After a 24-23 comeback win over then-No. 1 Ohio State on Sept. 12, the Longhorns improved to 18-14 against AP Top 25 opponents, with an 8-13 record against top-15 opponents.
    The victory over the Buckeyes was Texas’ fourth in its last six games against top-15 foes. None of those wins, however, happened in a true road game.
    The Longhorns went 2-3 in true road games last season, including losses to No. 3 Ohio State and No. 5 Georgia. Texas' last true road win over a ranked opponent came in a 17-7 victory over Texas A&M at Kyle Field in the 2024 regular-season finale.
    Before falling to the Buckeyes in last year's season opener, the Longhorns had an FBS-leading 11-game winning streak in true road games. Last season's true road victories were overtime wins over Kentucky and Mississippi State, the latter of which saw the Longhorns mount a furious fourth-quarter comeback.
    Returning to top form on the road is easier said than done against the Volunteers, who will welcome Texas to Neyland Stadium for the first time. ESPN's College GameDay will be in Knoxville, marking the second time in three weeks that GameDay will be on location for a Longhorn game.
    Since Darrell Royal's 1969 team took their No. 1 ranking on the road and beat No. 2 Arkansas, Texas has won four of its last six true road games as the No. 1 team in the AP Poll. The Longhorns suffered a 39-33 loss to No. 7 Texas Tech in the program's most recent true road game as the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25.
    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.
    Jeff Howe
    AUSTIN, Texas — Steve Sarkisian couldn’t have been blunter when describing how No. 1 Texas has protected the football and played defense on third down through two games.
    On Monday, two days after the Longhorns rallied for a 24-23 win over then-No. 1 Ohio State and immediately following his team’s first practice ahead of their non-conference finale against UTSA on Saturday (7 p.m., SEC Network+), Sarkisian mentioned ball security and third-down defense as things Texas (2-0) must fix after the team’s film review of the good, bad and ugly plays from the victory over the Buckeyes.
    “I got on the offense's butt this morning about the ball. Our ball security is not good enough. Not to be a championship team,” Sarkisian said. “Our third-down defense right now is not good enough. Not to be a championship team.”
    Only five SEC teams have fumbled the football more than Texas has heading into the Longhorns’ third all-time meeting against Jeff Traylor’s Roadrunners, with three fumbles coming against Ohio State. While heads-up plays by Kade Phillips (to recover a muffed punt by Ryan Niblett late in the third quarter) and Cam Coleman (to recover fumble on the ensuing offensive series by Emmett Mosley V at the end of a 15-yard completion from Arch Manning) helped Texas end the game with Raleek Brown’s fumble on the first play from scrimmage as its only lost fumble, the Longhorns are almost halfway to their 13-game fumble total in 2025 (eight, two of which were lost) and one-third of the way to the nine turnovers they had last season (Brown’s fumble and two interceptions by Manning, one in each game).
    “We take pride in our ability to take care of the ball,” Sarkisian said. “We've got to improve our ball security because it wasn't just about the turnovers; it was the other fumbles.”
    With only eight FBS teams forcing more turnovers heading into Week 3 than UTSA (2-0), this would be a good week to right the ship. The Roadrunners have five takeaways this season (tied for fifth nationally with a plus-2.5 turnover margin per game), three of which came in their 31-26 come-from-behind road win over Texas State last week.
    “We have got to value the football more in the organization than we have through two games,” Sarkisian said.
    Will Muschamp’s defense getting off the field more frequently on third down, however, requires a more nuanced resolution. The Longhorns are tied for 125th nationally in third-down defense, with Texas State and Ohio State moving the chains at a combined 50-percent clip (14-for-28).
    What was most disappointing about the third-down effort against the Buckeyes was the defense’s inability to get off the field on third-and-long. Ohio State, which was faced with an average to-go distance of 7.9 yards on third down, converted three of the five third-and-9 or longer situations it had, including a pair of third-and-10 completions from Julian Sayin to Jeremiah Smith (a 19-yard strike in the first quarter and a 43-yard bomb in the third quarter), which came on two different Buckeye scoring drives (a first-half touchdown drive and a third-quarter field goal).
    After Ohio State went 5-for-8 on third down in the first half, the 43-yard connection between Sayin and Smith was the only third-down conversion Texas allowed in the second half. The Buckeyes went 1-for-6 trying to move the chains, which Sarkisian credited to Muschamp’s defensive adjustments after a rough start, which included turnovers putting the defense in disadvantageous sudden-change situations (31 of Ohio State’s 37 first-half plays from scrimmage occurred in Longhorn territory).
    With Texas’ defensive identity a work in progress, Sarkisian indicated the second-half adjustments against the Buckeyes could be what Muschamp does from the jump against the Roadrunners, who are 6-for-24 on third down this season (25-percent conversion rate is tied for 129th nationally).
    “I thought Ohio State, to their credit, did a lot,” Sarkisian said. “They taxed us mentally with some formations, motion, shifts, alignments that caused a lot of communication, and I didn't think our communication was as good as it could have been. I thought we got better in the second half, but I think we're better defensively right now when we're in your face, when we're aggressive. We tried to play the other way a little bit in the first half and that wasn't, kind of, I think, where our identity is. I thought when we just, kind of, got in your face and played a little bit more aggressive, we played better football. That's probably where our bread and butter is right now, but we need to be more versatile.
    “We've got to continue to work on those other things.”
    OTHER STATS TO TRACK
    — What’s impressive about Texas’ third-down offense goes beyond the 64.5-percent clip at which the Longhorns are converting (No. 5 in FBS). That’s on pace to shatter the Sarkisian-era high of 44.03 percent in 2021.
    The same is true of the offense’s third-down tries based on a two-game sample.
    With 31 third-down attempts through two games, the current pace of 15.5 third-down attempts per game would surpass last season (13.5 third-down attempts per game) for the Sarkisian-era high. Typically, Sarkisian’s offense has relied on big plays to move the chains, ranking among the nation’s leaders in percentage of first downs made on first and second down.
    Instead of trying to avoid third down and score in a hurry, the Longhorns are facing more third downs, converting them at a higher clip and putting together more long drives. After recording 14 scoring drives that amassed 10 or more plays in 2025, Texas has already had six such drives through two games this season, including each of the offense’s last three scoring drives against Ohio State.
    The trend should continue against a UTSA defense that’s 115th nationally on third down (45.7 percent conversion rate allowed) and 133rd against the run (233 yards per game allowed), with the Roadrunners surrendering more than 5.5 yards per carry.
    — With the SEC opener on the road against an explosive Tennessee offense (a top-30 offense in the country with 35 10-plus-yard plays and 14 20-plus-yard plays from scrimmage) looming, the Longhorn defense needs to clamp down on allowing big plays.
    Texas is currently tied for 87th nationally in plays from scrimmage of 10 or more yards allowed (25) and is tied for 96th in FBS with nine 20-plus-yard plays allowed. Most of the damage has been through the air; 18 of the 25 10-yard plays and seven of the nine 20-yard plays have been on passing plays by the opponent.
    This is another statistical category in which Muschamp’s defense can iron things out before jumping into SEC play. In wins over UTRGV and Texas State, UTSA’s offense has completed 17 passes of 10 or more yards (tied for 74th nationally), with only five of 20 or more yards (tied for 92nd in FBS).
    Jeff Howe
    AUSTIN, Texas — It’s time to revisit On Texas Football's “One Burning Question,” where we ask a question about the Texas Longhorns heading into a game.
    Entering Saturday’s 24-23 win over No. 1 Ohio State, our burning question was:
    Can the Longhorns win the line-of-scrimmage battle against the Buckeyes?
    They did. In emphatic fashion.
    Winning in the trenches played, arguably, the most significant role in the program’s first home victory over the Associated Press’ No. 1-ranked team since a 23-20 win over SMU on Nov. 4, 1950.
    From the time Texas took possession after an Ohio State punt with 5:47 to go in the third quarter, the Longhorns had a plus-28 play differential over the Buckeyes. Forty of the Texas offense’s 83 snaps came on the unit’s last three possessions: touchdown drives of 15, 13 and 12 plays, respectively.
    Even though Arch Manning sparked the first two scoring marches with a pair of fourth-down conversions (a desperation throw while on the move to Emaree Winston and a dart to Emmett Mosley V), Steve Sarkisian put the 20-point comeback on the shoulders of Kyle Flood’s much-maligned offensive line. Including the 34 yards Manning picked up on the five times he called his own number, the Longhorns toted the rock 22 times for 96 yards on their last three drives, including Hollywood Smothers’ over-the-top, game-winning 1-yard touchdown with 25 seconds left on the clock.
    The 22 late-game carries accounted for more than half of Texas' 41 official rushing attempts. After rushing for 140 net yards (3.4 yards per attempt), the Longhorns improved to 23-2 in 40-carry games under Sarkisian.
    Texas’ only two games with 40 or more official carries last season came against UTEP (56) and Sam Houston (41). The Ohio State game was the Longhorns' first with 40 or more official rushing attempts against a Power Four opponent since a 48-carry, 292-yard outing in a 2024 College Football Playoff first-round win over Clemson.
    Whether it’s been a lack of trust in the position groups responsible for making the running game go (the offensive line, running backs or both) or a desire to hunt big plays through the air, Sarkisian has, more often than not, abandoned the run in big games.
    That wasn’t the case against the Buckeyes. The belief in the ground attack can be linked to Sarkisian’s trust in the offensive line and running backs after both groups underwent massive offseason overhauls.
    The line is playing well together, Sarkisian said Monday while recapping the win over Ohio State and looking ahead to No. 1 Texas’ non-conference finale against UTSA on Saturday (7 p.m., SEC Network+), because of Connor Robertson’s veteran presence at center. While acknowledging that Robertson’s experience helps communication flow better on game day, Brandon Baker and Trevor Goosby have a full season as starters under their belts and seasoned transfer portal acquisitions Melvin Siani (859 snaps at Wake Forest last season, according to Pro Football Focus) and Dylan Sikorski (444 snaps as a sophomore at Oregon State) have exceeded expectations since joining the program.
    “I think there's a lot of experience and I think they're just working cohesively well together, but what I liked was the physicality that they played the game with,” Sarkisian said. “They moved the line of scrimmage and they created running lanes.”
    For their part, Smothers (74 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries) and Raleek Brown (10 carries for 54 yards), “didn’t go down on contact," Sarkisian said.
    According to PFF, Smothers and Brown combined for 80 rushing yards after contact, with nine missed tackles forced. between them.
    “We made guys miss; we ran through safeties,” Sarkisian said. “They were physical.”
    The running back group’s toughness translated to much-needed pass protection for Manning, who was pressured on just 11 of his 44 dropbacks, according to PFF. Manning was the sixth-most-pressured quarterback in FBS last season (165 total pressures, on 35.6 percent of his dropbacks), with Ohio State pressuring him on 14 of 34 dropbacks (41.2 percent) in last season’s 14-7 loss in Columbus.
    The Longhorns flipped the script in Austin.
    While Texas kept Manning relatively clean, Will Muschamp’s in-game adjustment to play man coverage against Jeremiah Smith and put another defender in the box to bolster the run defense paid off with a winning effort against the run (94 yards and three yards per attempt by the Buckeyes, who didn’t have a run from scrimmage longer than 11 yards) and more consistent, effective pressure on Julian Sayin. After the Longhorns only pressured Sayin on five of his 20 dropbacks last season, Muschamp’s defense pressured the 2025 Heisman Trophy finalist on 15 of his 36 dropbacks (41.7 percent), mirroring what Indiana (pressured Sayin on 12 of 34 dropbacks in the Big Ten championship game) and Miami (pressured Sayin on 17 of 40 dropbacks in the Cotton Bowl) did last season in wins over the Buckeyes.
    When Texas faced critical downs and needed a defensive player to step up and make a play, Alex January, Hero Kanu, Maraad Watson and Ian Geffrard won must-win battles at the point of attack. Muschamp went with heavier fronts featuring three and sometimes four tackles on the field, the latter being the case when January led the charge to stuff Ja’Kobi Jackson on fourth-and-2 from the Longhorns’ 13-yard line early in the second quarter.
    Winning the rushing yardage battle, providing adequate protection for Manning and bringing the heat on Sayin more than Ryan Day and Arthur Smith wanted (Sayin overthrew Devin McCuin on a potential game-clinching touchdown in the third quarter, with Justin Cryer forcing a hurried throw as an unblocked rusher coming off the edge) added up to the Longhorns winning the trench battle and the game. They won the way Sarkisian hoped they could against elite opponents after spending the offseason trying to get Texas to play with more of a physical edge by putting the fulcrums of the running game through competitive, intense inside-run periods in practice.
    With the trench battles sharpening both lines of scrimmage, Texas delivered when and where it mattered against the No. 1 team in the country.
    “As a coach, you get what you emphasize, right? And we've been emphasizing being a more physical football team, being a more physical offensive team and running the football when they know you're going to run the football and having the ability to do that and having the ability to have confidence to call it that way,” Sarkisian said. “At the end of that game, when we were down there first-and-goal, it was like, 'We're running it, man.' And they knew we were running it. There wasn't a secret. We weren't going to call a bootleg or a tight end corner route or something. The ability to get that ball in the end zone is gratifying as a coach that your players have bought into what you're asking of them to get accomplished."
    Jeff Howe
    After Saturday’s 24-23 comeback win over Ohio State, Texas has replaced the Buckeyes atop the Associated Press Top 25 as the new No. 1-ranked team in the country.
    It’s the third consecutive season the Longhorns have been No. 1 in the AP Top 25. Previously ranked No. 4, Texas (2-0) received 56 first-place votes, topping No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 4 Indiana and No. 5 Miami in Sunday's poll (the Buckeyes fell to No. 6 after losing to the Longhorns).
    After spending four weeks in the AP’s top spot in 2024, Texas entered the 2025 season as college football’s No. 1-ranked club. Before Steve Sarkisian’s squad rose to No. 1 following a 31-12 dismantling of reigning national champion Michigan at the Big House on Sept. 7, 2024, the 2008 season was the last time the Longhorns earned an in-season No. 1 ranking.
    Mack Brown’s team, which vaulted to the top of the AP Top 25 after a 45-35 win over then-No. 1 Oklahoma on Oct. 11, 2008, was the first Texas squad to be tabbed No. 1 by AP Poll voters since 1984 (excluding the 2005 season, when the Longhorns won the program’s most recent national championship and were ranked No. 1 in the final poll). The current No. 1 ranking marks the 51st time the Longhorns (also No. 1 in the AFCA Coaches Poll) have been the nation’s top team in the AP Poll, which ranks 10th all-time.
    ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25: SEPT. 13 (FIRST-PLACE VOTES)
    1. TEXAS (56)
    2. Georgia (3)
    3. Notre Dame (1)
    4. Indiana (3)
    5. Miami (4)
    6. Ohio State
    7. LSU (1)
    8. Ole Miss
    9. Texas A&M
    10. Alabama
    11. BYU
    12. USC
    13. Texas Tech
    14. Penn State
    15. Tennessee
    16. SMU
    17. Utah
    18. Iowa
    19. Michigan
    20. Missouri
    21. Oregon
    22. Houston
    23. Louisville
    24. Oklahoma
    25. Virginia
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