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    Jeff Howe
    The Texas offense was bad through the first seven games of the 2025 season.
    After plodding their way to season-low marks for total yards (179), yards per play (3.3) and first downs (eight) in a 16-13 overtime road win over Kentucky, the Longhorns fielded one of the least productive offenses in the SEC.
    The following is what Texas was averaging in a few key statistical categories and where the offense ranked nationally and in the conference (FBS ranking/SEC ranking):
    Points Per Game — 26.7 (79th/11th)
    Total Yards Per Game — 368.1 (82nd/11th)
    Yards Per Play — 5.64 (74th/11th)
    Rushing Yards Per Game — 149.4 (74th/11th)
    Yards Per Rushing Attempt — 4.1 (84th/9th)
    Passing Yards Per Game — 218.7 (78th/13th)
    Third Down Conversions — 38.1% (89th/13th)
    The Longhorns righted the ship in a 45-38 overtime road win over Mississippi State the week after escaping Lexington. Behind Arch Manning’s then-career-high 346 passing yards, Texas rallied from a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter, with Matthew Caldwell’s touchdown pass to Emmett Mosley V in overtime aiding the program’s biggest comeback win in 18 years.
    The victory in Starkville helped Manning start anew. His rise coincided with Cole Hutson’s return from injury and subsequent move to left guard for the Vanderbilt game, which helped the Longhorns find an offensive line combination that worked.
    Those two factors played a significant role in the offense turning things around. A third factor that doesn’t get talked about as much, however, but was just as important in sorting things out was Steve Sarkisian’s decision to move AJ Milwee from the sideline to the press box on game day.
    Milwee, who came to Texas with Sarkisian from Alabama, started his time on the Forty Acres working from the press box. At some point, Sarkisian felt Quinn Ewers needed someone with him on the sideline, which required Milwee to move downstairs.
    Milwee told On Texas Football during the program’s spring media availability for the offensive coaching staff that the 2023 season is when he and Sarkisian felt coaching from the sideline would best benefit Ewers and, in turn, the offense. The offense struggling, combined with the NCAA lifting restrictions on countable coaches allowing Mike Bimonte to be involved on game day, made the conditions ripe to move Milwee back to the booth.
    Sarkisian didn’t give up calling plays. He hasn't indicated that he plans to relinquish that role any time soon.
    So, if he’s not going to turn offensive play-calling over to someone else, then Sarkisian having a pair of eyes in the press box operating as an extension of himself might be the next best thing.
    “When you add Mike — and we’re all in the same room — I think, from Coach Sark’s perspective, it’s like, ‘OK, AJ has been with me now — we’re going on Year 8 together,’” Milwee said. “It allowed me — different from the first time I was up there — I knew what I was looking for and I knew what he was asking for, and I think that made it easy. It made it easy for me to communicate to him what he was looking for and whether it was plays we need to get back to or a certain grouping of plays we need to get to next, it was more or less to help him, when he came back over from the defensive side of the ball, ‘Hey, what do you want here?’ Whether it was Mike and I talking or Coach (Kyle) Flood and I talking — ‘Hey, we’d like these runs and this grouping of plays coming up,’ we can go to that. It gave (Sarkisian) confidence to get into the flow of, ‘Hey, let’s go with these plays. They’re good. Everything looks good on the iPad from what we’re getting.’ I think it was an easy transition, understanding what he’s looking for.”
    Except for the running game, which mustered only 23 yards on 17 official rushing attempts against Georgia (even though the Longhorns ran for a combined 453 yards and averaged 6.7 yards per carry in wins over Texas A&M and Michigan), the Texas offense showed marked improvement over the last six games of the season with Milwee in the press box.
    Points Per Game — 34.8
    Total Yards Per Game — 412.2
    Yards Per Play — 6.32
    Rushing Yards Per Game — 124.2
    Yards Per Rushing Attempt — 4.33
    Passing Yards Per Game — 288
    Third Down Conversions — 40.5%
    Whether it’s evaluating his coaching staff or deciding which players on offense need the ball in critical situations, trust is hugely important to Sarkisian. It’s clear he trusts Milwee, not just for what he’s telling him, but the way he’s relaying information, which is critical for a play-calling head coach who wants to limit distractions in his ear and digest important information as quickly as possible.
    It’s a role and responsibility Milwee doesn’t take lightly.
    “There’s a guy I worked with before and he used to always say that it’s the economy of words,” Milwee said. “I don’t need to give a dissertation. Get to the point. Give him what he needs to know and then he’s going to go from there. He’s the best play-caller in the country. Give him the few things he needs to know and he’s going to make the adjustments and the calls the way he knows how to. Just give him the information he needs and he’ll go apply it.”
    Jeff Howe
    For this week’s OTF Sideline Debate, we asked the staff: If Texas had to pick a sponsor jersey patch, who would you go with and why?
    — I spent my first year at Texas in Dobie Dormitory. It was in that same exact dorm where Dell Technologies was born just a couple of years prior. I like and appreciate the university’s relationship with Humann, because it started at UT, for much the same reason. No company is more UT than Dell. Any Texas team should be proud to be associated with it because of what it represents. — Bobby Burton
    — The sponsor I could see on the Texas Longhorns’ football jersey is a tough one. It would likely be an extremely successful alumnus, and one of those has already been used by an OTF team member. One could be a big grocery store chain, which has also been used by an OTF team member. So, you get down to whether Texas put a Google or similar type patch on a football jersey? Or could it be a SpaceX or Tesla or something similar? I’m not sure I actually have the answer on this one. I feel like the OTF team has come up with a number of the companies that I would have used for this story. I know which one it won’t be: Double Eagle. — Gerry Hamilton
    — The most fantastical pick for this question would be Tesla. In an attempt to complete Tesla’s move from Silicon Valley to the ATX, Elon Musk (the world’s first trillionaire) is ready to invest heavily to rehabilitate, associate and identify his brand with the most recognizable brand in Austin. Tesla is currently Austin’s second highest-ranking Fortune 500 company, behind Dell Technologies, and this would be a great way to let the world know that Tesla is now undeniably a Texas company. Tesla wants to be more mainstream and expand their demo to the American middle class; this move could help them do both. — Rod Babers
    — I didn’t want to double up and I also wanted to pick a hypothetical sponsor that was started by Longhorn grads. So, I went with Pluckers, which was unofficially established on the Forty Acres in the early 1990s before the brick-and-mortar store was opened on West Campus in 1995. As someone who grew up in Austin, I never realized how spoiled I was, with dozens of Pluckers locations around me until I moved to DFW and had to make much further drives. Pluckers is already ingrained in the athletic department and supplies fans with handfuls of coupons for five free wings after Texas wins at home. Even though those usually end up in the junk drawer for a few years and are rarely used, it’s a good gesture. Pluckers will often cater junior days and recruiting events. Hank and I have hit the Pluckers on Rio Grande during on-campus events a few times, too. While I don’t think a restaurant will ever be under consideration for a jersey sponsor, a Pluckers one would check two important boxes as an Austin-based restaurant started by Longhorn grads. — Jordan Scruggs
    — It would have to be a company that, like the Texas football program, is steeped in tradition, is recognizable to the public and synonymous enough with the Longhorns that such a transition to putting the company’s logo on a jersey wouldn’t look too out of place. AT&T is headquartered in Texas and, for starters, is already a major corporate partner with the university and the athletic department. AT&T was previously sponsored the Red River Shootout and the Longhorns have played in the Cotton Bowl 23 times (more than any bowl game in program history), with three of those appearances coming under companies that are now under the AT&T umbrella (two trips with Southwestern Bell as the title sponsor and one under the SBC banner). While seeing a corporate logo on a Texas football jersey would be a shock to the system, a Fortune 500 sponsor would ease the transition. — Jeff Howe
    — Yeti was born in Austin in 2006, built by two brothers who wanted a cooler that could survive a Texas tailgate. Now it’s a billion-dollar brand and the unofficial equipment of every hunter, fisherman, and Friday night (and Saturday) parking lot in the state. Even better: Yeti’s already on the sideline. Those coolers behind the bench? Yeti. The tumblers in every coach’s hand? Yeti. Rugged, premium, homegrown, and burnt orange looks great on that logo. They don’t need Texas football only for exposure. They’d do it because it fits. That’s the sponsor you want. — Marcus Myers
    — Lamborghini! Why not? It’s become synonymous with Texas Recruiting already across a couple of sports. Plus, there is something about The University of Texas, the city of Austin and the history of the athletics department that exudes luxury, power and identity. To which Lamborghini does just as well. With one of the most iconic logos in the world, it already looks like a Longhorn if you squint hard enough. The luxury supercar brand would immediately tower over the Lumber Liquidators or Woodside Energy’s of the world and continue Texas’ pursuit of becoming the ultimate ‘it’ school in all of America. — CJ Vogel
    — For me, it's H-E-B. I think it's one of very few companies that would limit complaints about having a patch on a Texas jersey at all (for the record, I’m anti-patch on jerseys). Everybody loves H-E-B and H-E-B is a good representation of Texas as a whole. I don't know about adding red to burnt orange, though. — Hank South
    Jeff Howe
    Each of the On Texas Football staff members ranked our Top 40 players on the Texas football roster for our inaugural Top 40 on the 40. All of our selections were compiled and averaged out to produce an overall Top 40.
    Each Thursday in July, we’re releasing the list, 10 players at a time, along with a video breaking down the selections. Last week, we started with Nos. 40-31.
    This week, we’re breaking down Nos. 30-21.
    No. 30 — Laurence Seymore
    Seymore’s addition to the roster filled a glaring hole after Texas failed to solidify one of the two open guard spots with a transfer. The second-team All-American (Football Writers Association of America) from Western Kentucky reportedly hit the ground running in summer conditioning. Still, the offensive line will be better if Seymore wins the job by the Sept. 5 season opener against Texas State, rather than getting the nod by default.
    No. 29 — Derek Williams Jr.
    Williams showed flashes in spring practice of being the player he was before he injured his knee in a win over Oklahoma midway through the 2024 season. After flirting with the transfer portal, Williams has the inside track to be a starting safety in Will Muschamp’s defense, which highlights the position if he’s got the versatile pieces to do so.
    No. 28 — Derrek Cooper
    Should a true freshman RB3 be this close to a spot among the top 25 players on the roster? That speaks to the impact Cooper made in the spring, when he reportedly showed surprisingly sharp pass-protection skills. Cooper also brought a much-needed physical edge to the running game.
    No. 27 — Brad Spence
    One of the Longhorns’ best natural pass rushers, Spence could be a true chess piece for Muschamp around the line of scrimmage. With Anthony Hill Jr. off to the NFL, Spence is one of several players who will be counted on to take some of the pass-rushing burden off Colin Simmons.
    No. 26 — Nick Townsend
    Townsend is said to be closing in on 260 pounds while remaining one of the top pound-for-pound athletes in the program. The challenge for Townsend is how soon he can channel his physicality, athleticism and ability to make things happen with the ball in his hands into becoming a consistent playmaker on offense.
    No. 25 — Justus Terry
    In a limited role as a true freshman, Terry flashed the potential to be the kind of interior disruptor the defense missed after back-to-back seasons with Byron Murphy and Alfred Collins in that role. After undergoing surgery to address an upper-body injury that kept him out of the Citrus Bowl, Terry has a big preseason ahead as he looks to crack a deep, talented defensive line rotation.
    No. 24 — Zina Umeozulu
    The Texas staff fought hard to keep Umeozulu out of the portal. Voted as high as No. 12 on OTF staff members’ ballot, Umeozulu should be in for a heck of a battle with Lance Jackson for the snaps made available with Ethan Burke’s eligibility expiring after the 2025 season.
    No. 23 — Michael Masunas
    The Longhorns need guys on offense like Masunas, who don’t need to touch the ball to impact the game? Can the Michigan State transfer be the same kind of blocking presence Geoff Swaim and Andrew Beck were on the Forty Acres? Whether he’s that level of blocker or not, Masunas should allow Steve Sarkisian to get back to a running game that can rely on a tight end getting a consistent push as an in-line blocker or on the move in Sarkisian’s split-zone concepts.
    No. 22 — Kade Phillips
    After a tremendous true freshman season, it felt like the coaches challenged Phillips in spring practice (Kobe Black was working ahead of him in the spring game). Phillips has the tools to be everything Muschamp would want in a No. 1 cornerback. The change to more aggressive, man-to-man coverage could be what the doctor ordered to unlock Phillips’ immense talent.
    No. 21 — Brandon Baker
    Not only did Baker turn heads with his performance after moving inside to guard ahead of spring practice, but his attitude and his embracing the move set the tone for the spring and summer in Kyle Flood’s room. If Baker has the kind of season he and the coaches believe he’s capable of, he’ll have a stay-or-go decision after the season regarding his NFL future.
    Jeff Howe
    There’s an argument to be made that the 2000s under Mack Brown, not the 1960s under Darrell Royal, are the best decade in the history of the Texas football program.
    Only Boise State tallied more wins than the Longhorns’ 110 victories from 2000-09 among FBS clubs. Texas only won two conference championships during the decade. But the Longhorns suffered an upset loss in the Big 12 title game in 2001 and were denied rightful entry to the 2008 game (it’s hard to explain to someone who wasn’t around or didn’t follow college football at the time that a system of computer rankings rendered Texas’ 45-35 win over Oklahoma in arguably the best in the history of the series moot).
    The Longhorns won at least nine games in each of those 10 seasons, including nine consecutive seasons (2001-09) with at least 10 wins. Texas was a legitimate national championship contender in three of those seasons (2001, 2004 and 2008) and finished no worse than 12th in any final Associated Press Top 25.
    The 2005 national championship team is one of the best in college football history. The argument for Vince Young as the greatest college football player of his era (or any other, for that matter) is strong. Young, Brown, Derrick Johnson and Michael Huff are in the College Football Hall of Fame. The likes of Cedric Benson, Justin Blalock, Quentin Jammer, Casey Hampton, Colt McCoy, Brian Orakpo, Jordan Shipley and Rod Wright helped the program gain and maintain national relevance for those 10 seasons.
    If the 2008 squad had its date with destiny against Florida, or if McCoy played the entirety of the title game against Alabama the following season, a second national championship in the decade might be enough for the 2000s to unseat the 1960s as the golden age of Longhorn football. Still, in this discussion, second place isn’t a bad place to be, if that's where one chooses to rank those 10 seasons.
    ***
    The No. 60 is chock-full of Longhorn legends, especially with Derrick Johnson wearing it in his last game at DKR (a 26-13 win over Texas A&M, which helped secure a Rose Bowl berth against Michigan at the end of the 2004 season).
    With that said, the discussion on the greatest No. 60 in school history starts and stops with Tommy Nobis. Recognizing Nobis on Tuesday, which coincides with the 60-day mark until Texas kicks off the 2026 season, puts into perspective how special the No. 60 has been on the Forty Acres and caps off an incredible run of Longhorn legends who wore a jersey number in the 60s.
    For starters, the 60s are bookended with Nobis and Dan Neil, a College Football Hall of Fame nominee and two-time first-team All-American (1995 and 1996) who wore No. 69 during his four seasons (1992-96), is impressive. What’s even more eye-opening is that if Neil is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame (he’s been on the ballot three times, most recently in 2025), he’d be the fourth Longhorn offensive linemen in the Hall of Fame who wore a jersey number in the 60s, joining Bud McFadin (No. 61), Bob McKay (No. 62) and Harley Sewell (No. 66).
    ***
    If you’re trying to assemble the Mount Rushmore of Texas offensive linemen, you could do it entirely of guys who wore jersey numbers from 60 through 69.
    Along with the three College Football Hall of Fame inductees and Neil, Blalock was a two-time All-American who started all 51 games in his Longhorn career. Blalock’s primary competition to be considered the best No. 63 in school history is Mike Williams, a consensus All-American in 2001 (like Doug Dawson was in 1983, when he wore No. 66 and was a captain for a team that came painfully close to winning a national championship) who was the fourth overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft.
    Jake Majors' (No. 65) school record 57 starts over parts of his five seasons (2020-24) could be in jeopardy with five-for-five eligibility looming. Although Majors and Lyle Sendlein (No. 62) wouldn’t be considered for the Mount Rushmore, their names would be up for discussion when picking a center for an all-time Texas offensive line.
    ***
    There was more debate than I anticipated over which all-time No. 64 the OTF community preferred: Casey Hampton (1996-2000) or Kasey Studdard (2002-06)?
    While I’m a Studdard fan then, now and forever, it’s hard to put Hampton’s dominance into its proper context for those who were too young to remember the two-time first-team All-American’s career or didn’t see one of the best defensive line products the state of Texas has ever produced.
    Hampton led the Longhorns in total tackles with 101 in 1999 and 78 in 2000 (tied D.D. Lewis for the team lead), making him the first Texas defensive lineman to lead the team in tackles in consecutive seasons. A nose tackle who was constantly facing double- and triple-teams, Hampton recorded 39 of his 54 career tackles for loss over his last seasons and was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2000.
    The best example of what Hampton meant to the Longhorns (and later the Pittsburgh Steelers, the franchise with which Hampton won two Super Bowls, was named to Pro Bowls and was voted to their all-time team in 2007 after he was picked in the first round of the 2001 draft) came in the wake of a 64-13 loss to Oklahoma in 2000. A flustered Brown told Royal that he felt the team quit in the loss to the Sooners, while singling out how hard Hampton played, Royal let Brown know that his assumption wasn’t correct.
    "Teams don't quit,” Royal said. “Some players may have given up, and it may look like that. But some of your guys may have gone out and played the best games of their careers."
    Jeff Howe
    Darrell Royal, who would’ve celebrated his 102nd birthday on Monday, led Texas through what, to this point, is the golden age of football on the Forty Acres.
    The 1960s were so good to Texas that the Longhorns, not Alabama, should’ve been CBS Sports' pick for college football’s best program during Royal’s first full decade on the job.
    The sport was a different animal when Royal led the Longhorns to an 86-19-3 record, winning the Southwest Conference five times and claiming national championships at the conclusion of undefeated seasons in 1963 and 1969 than it was in the 2000s when Mack Brown won 110 games (the second-most FBS wins in the decade) and a national championship. It’s on a different planet today, with Steve Sarkisian (whose squad kicks off the 2026 season in 60 days) looking to break through after guiding Texas to a 35-8 record during a three-season run that included two trips to the College Football Playoff and a conference title.
    Still, what Royal’s program accomplished during the 1960s goes beyond the record book. That includes a few painfully close calls that would’ve added more hardware to the trophy case had things broken a different way.
    The 1961 Longhorns were ranked No. 1 and in the midst of an undefeated season when a controversial hit on All-American running back Jimmy Saxton in a 6-0 loss to TCU derailed what could’ve easily been a run to Royal’s first national title. Texas settled for a 10-1 record and a No. 3 ranking in the final Associated Press poll, scoring a 12-7 win over Ole Miss in the Cotton Bowl. It was one of four seasons during the decade in which the Longhorns recorded a top-five finish without claiming a piece of the national title.
    Bear Bryant’s Crimson Tide benefited from the misfortune of Royal’s Texas teams more than anyone, splitting the 1961 national championship with Ohio State and sharing the crown with Arkansas in 1964. Although the Razorbacks snapped the Longhorns’ 15-game winning streak with a 14-13 win in Austin en route to an undefeated season, the AP and UPI ranked Alabama No. 1 at the end of the regular season, making the Crimson Tide national champions.
    Texas made its case to be considered the nation’s best on New Year’s Day, when Tommy Nobis led the defensive charge that denied Alabama’s Joe Namath the end zone on fourth-and-goal late in a 21-17 victory in the Orange Bowl, which was college football's first-ever prime-time telecast. Again, the Longhorns settled for a 10-1 record and a No. 5 final ranking from the AP voters.
    But it’s what Royal and Emory Bellard did in 1968 that makes Texas the team of the decade. Implementing the Wishbone after an underwhelming three-year stretch during the 1965 (6-4), 1966 (7-4) and 1967 (6-4) seasons, the decision to put James Street under center during what would eventually be a 31-22 loss to Texas Tech (and an 0-1-1 start to the 1968 season) kickstarted one of the most memorable runs in college football history.
    Texas went 9-0 with Street in the driver’s seat of the Wishbone, including a 36-13 rout of Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl to finish with a 9-1-1 record and a No. 5 finish in the final AP rankings, the first year in which the poll conducted a vote after bowl games were played (the UPI followed suit in 1974). Ending the decade with 20 consecutive wins (part of a school-record 30-game winning streak), having President Richard Nixon proclaim the Longhorns as national champions after the historic 15-14 win in Fayetteville over No. 2 Arkansas and handing Notre Dame a loss in a Cotton Bowl game that marked the end of the Fighting Irish’s 45-year self-imposed bowl ban should be more than enough for Texas to secure the “Team of the Decade” label.
    The way Bellard and Royal changed offensive football forever with the birth of the Wishbone, however, is what puts the Longhorns over the top as the sport’s top dog in the 1960s. Long after Bryant and Oklahoma’s Barry Switzer adopted the offense to revive their respective programs, Mike Leach and Hal Mumme studied the Wishbone while developing what would eventually become the Air Raid offense.
    "One thing with the Air Raid that's very important is to make sure all the skill positions touch the ball," Leach told ESPN's Jake Trotter in 2018. "In the Wishbone, all the skill positions touch the ball. All the skill positions contribute to the offensive effort. From the Wishbone, we drew the concept of distribution."
    Almost 60 years after the Wishbone took the game by storm, its influence on modern-day football adds further credence to the idea that from the start of Royal's fourth season through the end of his 13th, Austin, Texas, was home to the best program in college football.
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