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    CJ Vogel
    Decisions Looming in December
    ***
    December is for decisions. 
    That article was written last week. While little has changed since then, I wanted to provide a Sunday update with another round of decisions and announcements expected in the coming week.
    ***
    NFL Decisions
    A couple of Longhorns we are monitoring who will have NFL decisions to make.
    RB Tre Wisner I have heard both ways for Wisner – pro or returning to Austin. I ever so slightly believe Wisner will return, but we will have to wait for a formal announcement.
    WR DeAndre Moore It is either the NFL Draft or the transfer portal for DeAndre Moore based off of everything I have gathered over the last month. Right now, the NFL is the likely destination.
    LT Trevor Goosby Our @Gerry Hamilton had a great update on Goosby late last week, and I have no reason to think differently. 
    C Connor Robertson Not as much of a true NFL decision, but one will need to be made for Texas and Robertson. I think Texas would like have Robertson back for 2026, but as of now I can't handicap the likelihood of that possibility.
    DL Hero Kanu A very under the radar decision that could end up having massive implications for the construction and performance of the 2026 roster. With where things sit currently, I would have Kanu returning at a 70–30 clip.
    DB Jelani McDonald The belief around McDonald's camp is that a strong 2026 season could leave him in a position to be selected in the top 50 of the 2027 NFL Draft. I feel very confident about McDonald returning for next fall as of typing this.
    CB Malik Muhammad The pros are calling Muhammad's name! The South Oak Cliff product will successfully depart as a 3-and-done player at Texas.
    ***
    Staff Decisions
    Steve Sarkisian has already made a move at one position coach spot, with the quick hiring of Jabbar Juluke out of Florida.
    That will not be the final coaching change. In fact, I believe a couple of changes are still to come, though the timing of those changes or movements will come following the bowl game against Michigan.
     
     
     
    Jeff Howe
    What Bruce Feldman said in one social media post encapsulated the growing angst toward the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.
    Upon the release of the committee’s penultimate rankings on Tuesday, the path to a third consecutive trip to the CFP for No. 13 Texas is, for all intents and purposes, a dead end. To get into the 12-team field, the Longhorns need Texas Tech to win the Big 12, Georgia to notch a landslide revenge victory over Alabama in the SEC title game and then hope the committee values the body of work Texas has put together throughout one of the toughest 12-game schedules any Power Four team had to navigate (LSU is the only bowl-eligible team ranked above the Longhorns in ESPN’s strength of schedule metric, which says Steve Sarkisian’s team played the eighth-toughest schedule in the country).
    That’s unlikely to happen because the committee, based on what committee chair Hunter Yurachek said on Tuesday’s post-reveal conference call with reporters, believes Texas’ 29-21 road loss to Florida on Oct. 4 is too big a blemish to overlook.
    “You’re spot on,” the Arkansas athletic director said when he was asked if the loss to the Gators is “the thing hurting Texas the most.”
    “The committee has a great deal of respect for Texas and they've played an incredible schedule,” he added. “They've got four teams they played in our top 10. They beat OU on a neutral field. They just beat Texas A&M at home this past weekend. They lost to No. 1, Ohio State, and lost to No. 3, Georgia.
    “But one key stat this week in the teams ranked in our top 15, there's 17 total losses for those teams. Sixteen of those losses came against teams that are currently ranked or have been ranked in our top 25 this year. The only loss to an unranked team was Texas' loss to Florida at Florida, and really Florida dominated that game — held Texas to 50 yards rushing, two interceptions. So, it's not that Texas played Ohio State. It is Texas' loss to Florida that's holding them back now.”
    We don’t need to read the tea leaves when the committee is shoving them down our throats. When it comes to Texas, the committee has decided that an objectively bad loss supercedes three wins over teams currently ranked in the committee’s top 15.
    That would be understandable had Yurachek’s words and the committee's actions done anything other than validate Feldman’s rant. The committee ranks teams as it wants, then works backward to make it make sense.
    How is Texas dinged for the Florida loss, but Alabama’s two-touchdown loss to a Florida State team that finished 5-7 after getting blown out by the Gators last Saturday doesn’t matter?
    Head-to-head results appear to matter for Oklahoma and Alabama (No. 8 and No. 9, respectively) and Texas and Vanderbilt (the Longhorns passed the 10-2 Commodores in the rankings). That's the case for No. 12 Miami, which opened the season with a win over No. 10 Notre Dame.
    Two weeks ago, Yuracheck said Oregon was still getting credit for a road win over Penn State. The same appears to apply to Oklahoma's road win over Tennessee and road wins over Missouri for Alabama and Texas A&M, the Aggies going into Baton Rouge and manhandling LSU and the Crimson Tide's Iron Bowl win over Auburn.
    Still, Yuracheck said on Tuesday that Vanderbilt lacks a signature win because LSU, Missouri and Tennessee aren’t currently ranked by the committee, even though Josh Heupel’s team fell out of the rankings after the Commodores’ 45-24 rout of the Volunteers in Neyland Stadium.
    The CFP selection process isn’t broken. It would’ve needed to be a well-oiled machine first, which was never the case. And although no system will ever be perfect, a transparent process that leaves more questions than answers isn't working.
    Bill Hancock was the executive director of the CFP from its inception through last season, when he helped Rich Clark transition into the role. In 2023, when a late-season injury to quarterback Jordan Travis put Florida State’s CFP hopes in doubt, Hancock clarified the selection committee’s criteria for setting the then-four-team field.
    “It is ‘best,’” Hancock said. “‘Most deserving’ is not anything in the committee's lexicon. They are to rank the best teams in order, and that's what they do. Just keep that word in mind, ‘best’ teams.”
    Therein lies the problem.
    Three wins over Associated Press top-five opponents and nine wins against one of the toughest schedules in the country should be a strong enough résumé for the Longhorns to be considered one of the seven best at-large teams. The committee clinging to the Florida loss to justify why Texas should be on the outside looking in is a prime example of how the selection process doesn't end with a bracket of the best teams.
    Don’t say you’re picking the best teams when Miami’s head-to-head win over Notre Dame, as of now, doesn’t matter.
    Don’t say you’re picking the best teams when Texas and Vanderbilt, both of whom went 6-2 in the toughest conference in the country, are likely headed to meaningless bowl games. At the same time, Sun Belt favorite James Madison and the winner of the AAC title game between North Texas and Tulane could be among the 12 teams left standing for a chance to win the national championship. Everyone loves the Cinderella story, but how (aside from the money that would go to the AAC and Sun Belt, respectively) is college football better for Group of Five teams getting sacrificed to a legit title contender from the Power Four?
    Don’t say you’re picking the best teams when the Longhorns, who played a tougher schedule than any of the other current CFP candidates, appear to be disqualified from consideration solely based on accruing three losses.
    Until the goalposts stop moving or the moment comes when the Big Ten and the SEC decide, by force, to dictate the terms of the CFP to the rest of college football (like it or not, it’s coming), we won’t get a field of the best teams deciding a national champion. We'll get whatever the committee decides it wants, criteria or guidelines be dammed.
    CJ Vogel
    Another flip!!
    A fourth flip in the last week goes the way of the Texas Longhorns!
    This time, it is Temple EDGE/DL Jamarion Carlton, who had committed to Baylor over the summer.
    The Longhorns had hosted Carlton on campus three different times in the last month and sure enough, those efforts were enough to flip the 6-foot-5inch defensive lineman to the Horns.
    Carlton was heavily recruited by LaAllen Clark in the spring, got on campus for an official visit and after a brief stint being committed to Baylor, he ends up joining the Texas class.
    Big time addition for the Horns on the defensive side of the ball here.
     
    Jeff Howe
    Facing a 10-3 deficit at halftime of Friday’s showdown with No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 16 Texas headed into the locker room at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium needing its best second-half performance of the season under Steve Sarkisian to emerge victorious.
    Over the final two quarters of a 27-17 win, Sarkisian schemed up ways to move the football on the ground, Arch Manning kept extending plays with legs and the defense ended the Aggie offense’s last two possessions by intercepting Marcel Reed. The Longhorns dominated their counterparts from College Station, picking up a win that Sarkisian and the program desperately needed.
    Texas (9-3, 6-2 SEC) is the first team since LSU in 2019 to win three regular-season games against top-10 teams in the Associated Press Top 25. Two of those wins came over Texas A&M (11-1, 7-1) and Oklahoma, moving the Longhorns to 6-0 against their three rivals (the Aggies, the Sooners and Arkansas) since joining the SEC.
    Sarkisian has his third career win over a top-five opponent and his second (2-7) at Texas. Sarkisian’s second consecutive double-digit win over the Aggies marked Mike Elko’s first loss when his team entered halftime with a lead (was previously 15-0).
    Most importantly, the Longhorns left the College Football Playoff selection committee with an emphatic closing argument for why they’re worthy of a third consecutive CFP bid.
    Texas dominated Texas A&M on the scoreboard (24-7), on the ground (157-74), on offense (285-160 edge in total yards gained) and in the turnover battle (2-0) en route to keeping the Aggies from reaching the SEC Championship Game for the second year in a row.
    Friday’s win wasn’t a fluke. Texas suffocated Texas A&M over the last 30 minutes of regulation, looking like the team everyone in the country expected to see from the jump in 2025.
    The Longhorns can’t do anything except wait for the selection committee’s final verdict next Sunday. Regardless, an unforgettable second-half effort has them in the mix with the regular season in the books.
     
    ***
     
    Sarkisian’s play-calling and game management changed after a forgettable end to the first half.
    He put the game in Quintrevion Wisner’s hands and the junior delivered with 155 yards on 19 carries. Wisner’s 48-yard burst over the left side of the line on the offense’s first snap of the third quarter set the tone for the second half.
    Texas didn’t overpower the Aggies up front. Instead, the Longhorns used Texas A&M’s aggression and tendency to attack the line of scrimmage to their advantage, utilizing a mix of misdirection runs and pull schemes.
    The approach allowed Wisner and Manning (53 yards and a touchdown on seven official attempts) to exploit gaping holes at the line of scrimmage. 
    The best example of how potent the Longhorn rushing attack was on Friday was the explosive runs. Texas, which entered the game with 14 10-plus-yard runs in SEC play, had nine against Texas A&M, including six in the second half.
     
    ***
     
    Whether it was run blocking or pass protection, Friday’s second half might’ve been the best job Sarkisian has done this season of helping the offensive line and not asking Kyle Flood’s group to do things it couldn’t pull off. Manning's 35-yard touchdown run up the gut with 7:04 left in the game closed out the scoring and answered a 6-play, 59-yard touchdown drive by the Aggies.
    Manning (14-for-29, 179 yards and a 29-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Wingo) had times where he had to work around pressure from an A&M defense that finished the game with two sacks and 10 tackles for loss. Still, Texas wouldn’t have won the game without the offensive line (led by DJ Campbell and Cole Hutson, who took the field at DKR for the last time) winning their battle against one of the most productive defensive fronts in the country.
     
    ***
     
    Similar to how Sarkisian and Pete Kwiatkowski won their chess match against Brent Venables and the Oklahoma staff in October, the Longhorn coaches got the best of Elko and Collin Klein on Friday.
    Elko’s defense surrendered 218 rushing yards (the most by Texas against a Power Four opponent this season) to an offense that came into Friday's game averaging 75.3 rushing yards per game in SEC play. Along with leaning on the ground attack, Sarkisian called a tendency-breaking jet sweep for Nick Townsend on the goal line, resulting in a 3-yard touchdown run (after Manning and Jack Endries connected for a 54-yard gain) to highlight how his staff befuddled the Aggies after halftime.
    The Longhorns won the explosive play battle (13-9) thanks in part to Kwiatkowski’s defense, which held Texas A&M to 17 points on five red-zone possessions. Texas also limited the Aggies to season lows in yards per play (4.6) and rushing yards (157) and total offense (337 yards). After allowing a late first-half touchdown on a short field, the Longhorns held the Aggies to 44 net yards on 15 plays (2.9 yards per play) and one first down while forcing four punts (three three-and-outs) on Texas A&M’s first four possessions of the second half to help the Longhorns pull ahead for good.
     
    ***
     
    One of the most raucous home crowds for a Texas football game helped the defense during the unit’s stretch of dominance.
    Two false starts on fourth-and-1 forced two of the Aggies’ four consecutive punts in the second half. In a game pitting two of the nation’s most penalized teams against each other, the DKR crowd played a big role in the Longhorns winning the penalty battle (seven accepted penalties to Texas A&M’s eight) for just the third time this season (also had fewer penalties than Oklahoma and Arkansas in those rivalry wins).
     
    ***
     
    Instead of trying to digest the merits of a nine-win regular season in the face of national championship expectations, I’d encourage Longhorn fans to savor the flavor of their team notching a well-earned victory over the Aggies.
    It’s been a tough year at times and nobody knows what's next for Texas. Nevertheless, there's nothing wrong with celebrating the Longhorns ending the regular season with nine wins, an undefeated home record and a résumé worthy of a trip to the CFP is nothing to belittle.
    CJ Vogel
    2026 Georgetown OL Kaden Scherer Flips to Texas
    ***
    Bang!
    Two days, two commits for the Texas Longhorns, both of which coming out of Georgetown High!
    Kaden Scherer becomes the latest to join the Texas 2026 class and it comes on the heels of an official visit over the weekend with the Horns.
    Scherer, a 6-foot-7, 285-pound offensive line, said he grew up rooting and watching the Longhorns as a kid in Georgetown and when the offer came in, it was a very big deal for him.
    Texas adds another offensive lineman to the class. Scherer told me last week Texas was pitching both tackle and guard to him, wanting to see how he would develop and progress physically.
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