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    Jeff Howe
    It’s time to tackle “One Burning Question,” an On Texas Football in-season feature where we’ll examine a question facing the Texas Longhorns as they enter a game.
    On Sunday, we’ll revisit the question to see whether Steve Sarkisian’s team answered it successfully.
    This week, with No. 1 Texas traveling to No. 14 Tennessee on Saturday (11 a.m., ABC), the question is:
    Will the Longhorns start to form an identity on offense against the Vols?
    It’s easy to identify the symptoms currently plaguing Sarkisian’s attack. The Longhorns can’t rely on big plays; the passing game hasn’t clicked as expected; and while the offensive line has met or exceeded early-season expectations, Texas doesn't have what could be described as a dominant running game.
    Remedies include Arch Manning’s decision-making and Sarkisian’s willingness to establish and stick with a capable ground attack.
    However, a lack of identity could be the root cause of what’s ailing the Longhorn offense.
    The 2023 offense was rounding into a unit capable of producing Sarkisian’s ideal version of balance when Jonathon Brooks suffered a season-ending knee injury in November. Still, Texas rode an offense that was a top-25 unit nationally on the ground (25th with 188.4 rushing yards per game), through the air (17th with 289.1 passing yards per game) and on the scoreboard (15th with 35.8 points per game) to within one play of playing for a national championship.
    The 2024 Longhorns tied a school record with 13 wins thanks to an explosive offense. No offense in FBS had more plays from scrimmage of 20 yards or more than Texas, which racked up 108 in a 16-game season en route to a second consecutive College Football Playoff semifinal berth (the Longhorns tied Ohio State for the fourth-most plays from scrimmage with 244 that went at least 10 yards, tied for fifth in the country in 30-plus-yard plays and ranked seventh in 40-plus-yard plays).
    Last season, the offense’s identity could be best described as snap the ball to Manning and hope for something good.
    When Manning was dialed in and dealing (wins over Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M and Michigan), the offense put a winning product on the field. When Manning struggled or didn’t get enough help from the pieces around him (losses to Ohio State, Florida and Georgia), the offense played a significant role in the team coming up short.
    Even if Hollywood Smothers (lower leg) is limited or misses Saturday’s game in Knoxville, Sarkisian’s organization acquired enough pieces around Manning to lighten the load. While the Texas offenses in 2024 and 2025 threw the football to set up the run, the 2026 group showed in a 24-23 comeback win over the Buckeyes that they can win being a run-first unit.
    Until the big plays become something the Longhorns can rely on, Sarkisian might be better served leaning into the running game, which could limit possessions for an explosive offense like Tennessee's. While it’s unrealistic to expect any offense to execute as well as Texas did down the stretch of the Ohio State game, ending regulation with 15, 13 and 12-play touchdown drives, entering Saturday’s game ranked No. 10 nationally in third-down conversion rate (56.3 percent) is proof that the current offense has the potential to be arguably Sarkisian’s best at executing in critical situations.
    Running the football downhill with a fast, physical mentality is a sure-fire way to attack the structural integrity of the three-safety defense Jim Knowles took from Oklahoma State, Ohio State and Penn State to the Vols as Josh Heupel’s defensive coordinator.
    Establishing a consistent, productive running game will go a long way toward the Longhorns leaving Neyland Stadium with a win. Texas is 24-2 under Sarkisian when recording 40 or more official rushing attempts in a game, which it didn’t do the last two times Sarkisian’s offense went up against a Knowles-coached defense (a 2021 loss to Oklahoma State and a 2024 loss to Ohio State), averaging 2.7 yards per attempt.
    At the same time, Sarkisian's offense executing in critical situations against Knowles’ defense would be a significant step in the right direction for the Longhorn offense. In Sarkisian’s two head-to-head losses to Knowles, his offenses combined to go 10-for-33 on money downs (9-for-30 on third down and 1-for-3 on fourth down), turned the ball over four times and went 4-for-6 in the red zone, scoring three touchdowns on six chances inside the 20.
    Sarkisian's goal is to call the game however he needs if it ends with Texas staying unbeaten heading into the upcoming bye week. Beyond that, however, boarding the return flight to Austin with something to hang their hat on offensively would ease concerns about the Longhorns' offensive trajectory.
    Jeff Howe
    AUSTIN, Texas — Steve Sarkisian knows the Texas offense must create more explosive plays than it did in the non-conference portion of the 2026 schedule.
    The No. 1-ranked Longhorns enter their SEC opener against No. 14 Tennessee on Saturday (11 a.m., ABC) with nine 20-plus-yard plays from scrimmage. Texas A&M has generated only seven 20-plus-yard plays from scrimmage, the only SEC offense that’s been less explosive than Texas (3-0).
    The issues have been most noticeable when going to the air. Things just haven’t clicked when Arch Manning has pushed the ball down the field. 
    The Longhorns have completed six passes of 20 or more yards this season, which also ranks 15th in the conference. According to Pro Football Focus, Manning is 3-for-11 on pass attempts of 20 yards or more beyond the line of scrimmage through three games.
    Sarkisian likes that his squad has shown signs of playing more efficient situational football than it did last season. The Longhorns are second in the SEC with a 56.3-percent conversion rate on third down and were 10-for-11 in the red zone with nine touchdowns and 4-for-5 on fourth down before last Saturday’s 30-6 win over UTSA (4-for-5 in the red zone with two touchdowns and 0-for-2 on fourth down).
    Still, Sarkisian knows he and the Texas staff can’t throw in the towel on trying to hit big plays down the field.
    “If we're not going to get the explosives because people are deploying people in a way to try to minimize those, you have to be efficient on third down and in the red area to maximize those opportunities,” Sarkisian said during his weekly news conference on Monday. “On the flip side of that, we have got to continue to exhaust ourselves as a staff to find those explosives, to create opportunities for explosives and then, hopefully, the players — put them in position to trust why and when we're calling those explosive-type plays to take advantage of them.”
    Thankfully, while big plays have been hard to come by on offense, Will Muschamp’s defense has helped the Longhorns win the explosive-play margin in each of the team’s first three games.
    Texas’ official in-game statistics feed tracks big plays, which are running plays from scrimmage that gain at least 10 yards and pass completions of 15 yards or more. The Longhorns were plus-7 against Texas State, plus-2 against Ohio State and plus-9 against UTSA.
    Muschamp’s defense is tied for 38th in FBS in 10-plus-yard plays (29) and 20-plus-yard plays allowed (nine) from scrimmage and is coming off a performance in which none of the Roadrunners’ 14 pass completions went for more than eight yards. After surrendering two 12-yard runs on UTSA’s second possession (a 13-play, 59-yard drive that ended with a field goal), the Longhorns didn’t allow another 10-plus-yard gain on the ground for the rest of the game.
    The irresistible force meets the immovable object in Knoxville on Saturday, with Muschamp’s defense trying to stymie the Volunteers’ rushing attack, which is currently the best in the SEC (298.7 yards per game). Tennessee (3-0) leads FBS with 29 10-plus-yard runs from scrimmage, while the Vols’ nine 20-plus-yard runs are tied for ninth-most in the country.
    A quarterback who ran Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense at Oklahoma in 1999, Josh Heupel’s veer-and-shoot offense has the trademarks of the system Art Briles made famous (Kendal Briles and Jeff Lebby run their versions of the veer-and-shoot at South Carolina and Mississippi State, respectively). Heupel, who coached alongside Kevin Wilson with the Sooners for five seasons (2006-10), has developed one of the top rushing offenses in the SEC in Knoxville; the Vols led the league in rushing offense in 2023 and 2024, finishing no worse than eighth in the conference since Heupel took over the program after the 2021 season.
    The struggles Texas has had trying to hit big plays through the air might continue on Saturday against Jim Knowles’ three-safety defense, which is designed to take away the deep ball. Tennessee is tied for 29th in FBS in 10-plus-yard pass completions allowed (18); only Penn State has allowed fewer 20-plus-yard completions than the Vols (two).
    On the flip side, there isn’t enough evidence to show Tennessee can lean on freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon’s ability to connect on deep balls. The Vols have 18 pass completions of 10-plus yards this season, the fewest in the SEC; only Texas and Texas A&M have fewer 20-plus-yard completions than Tennessee’s eight.
    Ultimately, Sarkisian’s commitment to running the football and the Longhorn offensive line winning at the point of attack could determine which side wins the explosive-play battle. Although Texas is in the middle of the pack of SEC offenses in rushing attempts that have gained at least 10 (17) and 20 (three) yards, the Volunteers have allowed the most 10-plus-yard (17) and 20-plus-yard (six) runs in the SEC (tied for 116th and 121st in FBS, respectively).
    The Longhorns’ willingness and ability to sustain a ground attack could come down to the health of key cogs who appeared on Wednesday’s SEC availability report.
    Jordan Coleman's absence means Sarkisian and Kyle Flood must find someone else for the six-offensive lineman package Texas rolled out for the Ohio State game. If Nick Townsend misses his second game in a row, the Longhorns will be without their top lead blocker and tone setter when they want to pound the rock.
    According to PFF, only six SEC players have forced more missed tackles than Hollywood Smothers (11), whose 140 rushing yards after contact rank 11th in the conference. If Smothers can’t go or is limited, Sarkisian will look to Raleek Brown and Derrek Cooper to carry the load.
    Even if Smothers is cleared for Saturday’s game, Sarkisian could turn to Manning as a threat on designed quarterback runs.
    Sarkisian wants Manning to be smart when he’s on the move. He's also “fearful of making a living going down that road."
    Nevertheless, Manning’s running ability can benefit the quarterback and the offense as a whole if he's unleashed.
    “There will be designed runs and we've had designed runs in previous weeks; we just haven't called them,” Sarkisian said. “You use them when you think you need them most.”
    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).
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