A two-out, two-run single through the right side of the Roadrunner infield by Jonah Williams and Casey Borba’s RBI double to left field highlighted a five-run, four-hit third inning for the SEC regular-season champions. Leading 6-1 with reliable lefty Luke Harrison toeing the rubber, the Longhorns seemed well on their way to a winner’s bracket victory when they took the field for the top of the fifth.

Unfortunately, Texas (43-13) suffered a catastrophic blowout, derailing what had been a relatively smooth ride. Jim Schlossnagle’s club suddenly looked like the one that had lost seven of its previous 11 games before going down at the hands of UTSA (46-13) for the second time in as many meetings.

A fielding error charged to Adrian Rodriguez (one of two on the night for the Longhorns, who couldn’t overcome a tidal wave of defensive mishaps) and Harrison issuing free passes loaded the bases to open the frame. Jalin Flores didn’t quite catch up to a ground ball up the middle off the bat of second baseman Nathan Hodge.

Hodge scored with one out after his two-run single kickstarted a four-run inning for the Roadrunners, pulling off a double steal while occupying third base with one out. Right fielder James Taussig made it a one-run game by ripping a double to right-center.

"It was just a back-and-forth game from that point on," Schlossnagle said.

Texas failed to get a run back in the home half, which ended on a Max Belyeu strikeout with the bases loaded. Max Grubbs opened the fifth by recording two outs on two pitches, but Flores misread Hodge’s blooper, one of three consecutive singles for the Roadrunners, who grabbed a 7-6 advantage.

UTSA didn't trail the rest of the way. The defensive issues, combined with the Longhorns stranding 13 runners on a woeful 3-for-18 night at the plate with runners in scoring position, and ace right-hander Braylon Owens ending each of his four relief innings for the Roadrunners with one of the seven strikeouts he fired put Texas in a situation where it has to win twice on Sunday to force a winner-take-all regional championship on Monday.

"We lit the fire and they stoked it and ran with it," Schlossnagle said of coach Pat Hallmark's team, which has notched the first two NCAA Tournament wins in program history with two wins in as many days at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. "The message to the team is we can't be thinking about playing anything other than just one pitch at a time. I know it sounds coachy, but that's the fact. If we start thinking about the overall scheme of things, it won't ever happen that way.

What the Longhorns will attempt isn’t unprecedented.

As a regional host in 2005, Texas dropped a winner’s bracket game to Arkansas before beating Miami (Ohio) and dispatching the Razorbacks twice en route to the school’s sixth national championship. The Longhorns made a similar trek to Omaha in 2011, eliminating Texas State and notching two wins over Kent State to survive the regional.

Nevertheless, Schlossnagle’s club must overcome Rodriguez, Williams and Ethan Mendoza continuing to battle injuries and a depleted pitching staff (Ruger Riojas will get the ball in the elimination game, but all bets are off thereafter) to advance to a second elimination game Sunday night.

UTSA has every reason to be confident it will join the 81 percent of regional champions who started 2-0 since the NCAA adopted the Super Regional format in 1999.

"This isn't some jackleg team that's gotten hot," Schlossnagle said of the Roadrunners. "They're really good."

Texas, on the other hand, knows extending the season to Monday is a tall order.

"The goal moving forward is just to win one pitch at a time and not try to look ahead or think about winning two games or trying to win three games," said catcher Rylan Galvan, who did his part in the late innings, crushing his team-leading 15th home run of the season to left field in the bottom of the seventh. "Just win one pitch at a time. If we can do that, we'll put ourselves in the position."

The Longhorns are facing an uphill battle, 27 outs away from the curtain coming down on Schlossnagle’s memorable debut.

The only option Texas has is to start the climb. Whether it has enough gas in the tank to make it to the summit is another story.

"We may have lost this battle, but we didn't lose the war yet," Galvan said. "There's still a lot of baseball to be played."

The Longhorns didn’t win with style points en route to capturing the SEC regular-season championship and the No. 2 overall national seed in the NCAA Tournament. The way Texas (43-12) grounded out wins, surpassing the most optimistic expectations for Jim Schlossnagle’s first season on the Forty Acres, was how it advanced into the winner’s bracket for a Saturday tilt with either UTSA or Kansas State.

Offensively, the Longhorns righted the ship with only four strikeouts after fanning 10 more times in seven of their last 10 games, a stretch in which the Texas bats racked up 128 strikeouts. At the same time, the lone extra-base the Longhorns recorded against the Southland Conference Tournament champion Huskies was Will Gasparino’s fifth-inning RBI double to left field, which capped a five-run, six-hit frame.

Texas didn’t mash the ball all over UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Instead, it took advantage of three Houston Christian (32-24) errors and manufactured more than enough runs to put itself one step closer to the program hosting a Super Regional for the first time since 2021.

"You've got to give Parker Edwards credit," Schlossnagle said of the Huskies' starting pitcher. Edwards did his job, holding the Longhorns to one hit before Texas finally created separation in the fifth.

"Any time you look on the roster, and you see a guy is a No. 1 starter for a team that's in a regional, and he's a senior, that just tells you he's been around the block," Schlossnagle said. "He's not going to be spooked. He's running it up there 95 [mph]. He had a good cutter going today.

"Sometimes," he added, "it's OK for the other team to be good."

Gasparino drew a four-pitch walk to lead off the third inning, stole second base, advanced to third on an infield chopper freshman phenom Jonah Williams turned into a single and scored when Ethan Mendoza was retired on a 6-3 groundout. Second baseman Jeremy Rader, who left the game with an undisclosed upper body injury after a violent fifth-inning collision with Williams, couldn’t handle a ground ball off Max Belyeu’s bat, bringing Williams home and putting the Longhorns in front for good.

"Somebody needed to come up with a big hit," said Kimble Schuessler, whose two-run single highlighted the productive Texas fifth. "We were able to get some guys on base, and then were able to come up with that big hit."

Schuessler’s decisive blow brought Williams home and allowed Mendoza to score, even though a play at the plate had to be reviewed before the second run could be officially tallied. After a bullet from right fielder Tevis Payne nailed Mendoza at the plate in the first inning, a second issue sliding into home nearly brought another Texas inning to an abrupt end.

Schlossnagle was visibly upset with Adrian Rodriguez, who contributed to the chaos as the lone man in a home uniform in Mendoza’s line of vision as he tried to cross the plate in both situations.

"If the ball is coming from right field, you've got to tell him to not just slide, but to get to the back side of home plate," Schlossnagle said. "The same thing when the ball is coming from left field.

"That was a pretty inexpensive experience," he added. "It can be expensive real quick this time of year, so we have to be better."

Rodriguez made up for it, though, bringing Schuessler home from second with an RBI single up the middle. Jalin Flores and Casey Borba made it three consecutive Texas singles, the latter bringing Rodriguez home before Gasparino ended the scoring.

Friday’s win felt like a typical midweek game. Thankfully, the Longhorns got a similar result to their 12-2 seven-inning run-rule win over Houston Christian on April 8 by playing an error-free game in the field behind three pitchers — lefty Ethan Walker, Grayson Saunier and hard-throwing righty Hudson Hamilton — who scattered eight hits over nine innings, struck out six and issued only two free passes (a hit batter charged to Saunier and a walk charged to Hamilton).

As for the offense, an unspectacularly solid performance is one Schlossnagle wants the Longhorns to build on as they continue a road they hope takes them to Omaha for an NCAA-record 39th time.

"We got on them pretty good the last five or six days," Schlossnagle said. "We challenged the offense. It wasn't meant to build pressure. It was meant to hold it to a little bit of a higher standard. If you're going to be gritty about anything, have it be the preparation. Then, when the game gets here, you need to do the opposite: you have fun. I think, early on, everybody feels it. You haven't played in a week, and you want to score nine runs, and your coaches have been onto you about being a better offensive team. We put together some good swings, and how we end up with a north wind and Austin, Texas, on May 30, I'll never know.

"I think if we had those balls carry out of the ballpark or something like that, we maybe feel a little bit better," he added. "But, 7-1? We'll take it and keep moving on."

Six of the 12 rookies were signed, sealed and delivered to their respective franchises as of Sunday. Gunnar Helm was the most recent Texas draftee to sign, agreeing to terms with the Tennessee Titans, although the terms of the fourth-round pick’s (No. 120 overall) deal have yet to be made public.

With that said, the following are the reported terms for which the other five former Longhorns have signed.

Kelvin Banks Jr., New Orleans Saints (Round 1, No. 9 overall pick): Banks, Jahdae Barron and Matthew Golden stand to make more money than the reported figures if their fifth-year options are picked up. Banks signed a four-year deal with a signing bonus of more than $6.93 million, but the total value of his contract ($27.7 million) is fully guaranteed.

Barryn Sorrell, Green Bay Packers (Round 4, No. 124 overall pick): Sorrell’s four-year, $5.14 million deal includes a signing bonus of $941,852. The signing bonus is the only portion of Sorrell’s contract guaranteed to be paid out.

Jaydon Blue, Dallas Cowboys (Round 5, No. 149 overall pick): Blue’s deal is for four years with a total value of $4.63 million. His signing bonus ($427,068) is the only guaranteed portion of the contract.

Hayden Conner, Arizona Cardinals (Round 6, No. 211 overall pick): Conner’s signing bonus ($174,280) is the only guaranteed money headed his way on the four-year, $4.37 million deal he signed.

Quinn Ewers, Miami Dolphins (Round 7, No. 231 overall pick): Ewers signed a four-year deal worth $4.33 million. The only guaranteed money Ewers has coming to him is his signing bonus ($131,576).

The five Texas products have signed NFL rookie contracts worth $46,206,022. Of that money, $27,406,022 is fully guaranteed, with $8,607,588 in signing bonuses.

The projected contract values based on the rookie wage scale, which changes every year based on the salary cap increasing or decreasing, aren’t far off from the money for which the remaining draftees will sign. The biggest issues preventing rookie contracts from getting done include language (some teams will look to put various classes in the contract that protect them from shelling out money they don’t believe they should be on the hook for) and when certain portions of the guaranteed money will be paid out.

According to Spotrac, the following dollar figures are the total value of the contracts that the seven (including Helm) remaining Longhorns are projected to earn:

Jahdae Barron, Denver Broncos (Round 1, No. 20 overall pick): $18,048,198

Matthew Golden, Green Bay Packers (Round 1, No. 23 overall pick): $17,551,274

Alfred Collins, San Francisco 49ers (Round 2, No. 43 overall pick): $10,296,326

Andrew Mukuba Philadelphia Eagles (Round 2, No. 64 overall pick): $7,155,826

Vernon Broughton, New Orleans Saints (Round 3, No. 71 overall pick): $6,634,052

Gunnar Helm, Tennessee Titans (Round 4, No. 120 overall pick): $5,171,100

Cameron Williams, Philadelphia Eagles (Round 6, No. 207 overall pick): $4,401,198

When the remaining unsigned contracts are official, the Texas draft class will be worth an estimated $115,463,996.

Experiencing a whirlwind of emotions after the 2024 season ended with a heartbreaking 28-14 Cotton Bowl loss to Ohio State, Sorrell’s response to a loaded question — if coming to Texas was everything he thought it would be — was detailed and purposeful. It appropriately summed up the four-year odyssey of the Longhorns’ recruiting class from the 2021 cycle.

“It's just been a journey,” Sorrell said from within the bowels of AT&T Stadium. "There's so many great memories that I'll always have and I'm thankful for it. I'm just so blessed and happy to realize that walking away from this, I'm leaving it better than I found it.”

Along with helping Texas improve from a 5-7 record in Steve Sarkisian’s first season to a team that won at a championship-caliber clip, including a Big 12 title, a berth in the SEC Championship and consecutive trips to the CFP semifinals, Sorrell was one of seven draft picks to emerge from a transition class.

Of the 22 signees in the cycle, 20 committed to former coach Tom Herman’s staff. Sorrell was among the 19 recruits who signed with Texas before Herman was fired and replaced by Sarkisian on Jan. 2, 2021.

Unlike his predecessors, Sarkisian didn’t go scorched earth when assessing what he inherited from the previous regime. Sarkisian’s organization carefully examined the cupboard, eventually learning the Longhorns had a group of newcomers long on football character and strong developmental traits.

Sorrell was among the young Texas players who bought into Sarkisian’s vision from the jump, which laid the foundation of the juggernaut the current regime has built.

“We got along from Day 1,” Sorrell said of his relationship with Sarkisian. “He wanted to win. I'd seen that from the first meeting. Throughout the first year, hearing what he was saying and guys not really picking it up, I wanted to put those things in place. I feel like that’s what I’ve done and that’s what we’ve done and it’s why we are where we are.”

One of the first declarations Sarkisian made in his introductory press conference was that he wanted to oversee a program capable of developing talent at an elite level. Xavier Worthy is the first recruit Sarkisian plucked from the high school ranks who went on to become an NFL draft pick.

With that said, the Longhorns won 25 games over the last two seasons because the Sarkisian regime did a magnificent job developing the players they inherited.

A fourth-round selection by the Green Bay Packers in last month’s draft, Sorrell’s recruiting class features two first-rounders (Worthy and Byron Murphy II), one second-round pick (Jonathon Brooks), three fourth-rounders (Sorrell, Ja’Tavion Sanders and Gunnar Helm) and one player drafted in the sixth round (Hayden Conner). While Worthy and Sanders were regarded as top-100 prospects by the recruiting industry, the same can’t be said for the rest of the class: Brooks and Murphy were unranked four-star prospects in the 247Sports Composite, and Conner snuck into the top 300 of the On3 Industry rankings, but 247Sports and On3 had Helm and Sorrell among the five lowest-rated non-specialists in the class.

Along with the seven draft picks, two 2021 signees (Morice Blackwell Jr. and Juan Davis) completed their eligibility at Texas without entering the NCAA transfer portal. Charles Wright and Max Merril stayed in the program for multiple seasons and Casey Cain was a contributor on offense before transferring to UNLV.

Sarkisian and company just assembled the No. 1 recruiting class in the country in the 2025 cycle, the most recent roster additions poised to help the Longhorns remain championship contenders for the foreseeable future. Texas will continue to recruit at an elite level and has a lot of unfinished business under Sarkisian, meaning the accomplishments of the 2021 class could eventually pale in comparison to future hauls.

Nevertheless, there might not be a recruiting class more important to Sarkisian’s recent and future success than the group that’s been there every step of the way.

“I came here and the culture was different,” said Sorrell, who added that there were “a lot of ups and downs” throughout his four seasons in the program. “I just focused on, 'How can I get better? How can I impact this team?' I feel like I've done that at a good level to get us to this point. Now, it's [time] for the guys behind me to take my lessons and things that I tried to teach the guys in my room and throughout this team, and, hopefully, they can exceed the standard that we set.”

Monday’s Touchdown Club of Houston luncheon wasn’t the first time Steve Sarkisian has been asked about Manning’s future on the Forty Acres. Still, the question wasn’t about Manning handling being the Longhorns’ backup quarterback.

Instead, Sarkisian was asked during a fan Q&A at the Bayou City Event Center if he had “a sense whether” Manning would be at Texas one year or two years, since he’s eligible to enter next year’s draft.

“Here’s what I hope,” Sarkisian said as nervous laughter broke out throughout the room. “I hope he's got a really hard decision to make on — about Jan. 21. That means he played a long time, that means he probably had a really good season, and that means that he's trying to figure out, 'Do I want one more year in the burnt orange? Or is it time to go to the NFL?'

“I hope it's a really, really hard decision,” he added. “I hope it's not a no-brainer to come back to school.”

The discussion of Manning becoming the third No. 1 overall pick in his family (Peyton Manning in 1998 and Eli Manning in 2004) after one season as QB1 for the Longhorns is acceptable post-spring practice fodder. Any prolonged draft speculation falls somewhere on a relevance spectrum between writers, reporters, and publishers openly pining for Manning to be the quarterback of the future for the team they cover and content mills farming for clicks.

The expectation has long been for Manning to spend at least two seasons at the wheel of Sarkisian’s offense. Regardless, it would be a surprise if Sarkisian isn’t asked about the length of Manning’s stay in Austin several times before Texas opens the 2025 season on the road in a Cotton Bowl rematch with reigning national champion Ohio State on Aug. 30.

Longhorn fans are fortunate to follow a football program covered by media outlets (OTF among them) wise enough to avoid giving in to the temptation to drive pointless narratives involving the 6-foot-4-inch, 222-pound quarterback with the potential to help Texas secure the program’s first national title since 2005. The same goes for ESPN’s Matt Miller and NFL.com's Lance Zierlein, who did their respective parts to stamp out the idea that Manning is destined to headline the 2026 draft.

“I won’t be doing any draft work on Arch for 2026,” Miller wrote. “He’s probably a 2027 player. He could be a 2028 player.”

Zierlein pointed out two notable facts: Peyton and Eli Manning "both played four years of college ball,” he wrote, and Arch Manning has the earning potential through NIL deals to put off the NFL until he and his family decide it's time to go.

“Why do people think Arch is going to be in the 2026 draft?” he wrote.

The circus might slow down, but it won’t stop. For Texas fans already tired of opposing fans and the football media anxiously awaiting Manning’s departure, heeding Sarkisian’s advice should help maintain everyone’s sanity and enjoy what could be an unprecedented era of Longhorn football.

“Let’s let this guy go play this year,” Sarkisian said. “Let's let him have fun, finally getting his opportunity to be the starting quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. It's been a lifelong dream for this guy to do this.

“It's finally his time,” he added. “I hope he can just have an opportunity to enjoy it and enjoy it the right way because, like a lot of guys from our team, he's been dreaming about this his whole life, and now he gets an opportunity to go do it.

“I just want to make sure that we all support him in this journey.”

Steve Sarkisian recap of NFL Draft:

 “There’s nothing like seeing our players achieve their lifelong dreams of being drafted to the NFL, and that goes for the ones that will sign as free agents, too. When you look at last year’s draft with a school-record 11 guys, and this year breaking that with 12, that’s 23 players in two years drafted off a team that in year one (in 2021) we didn’t have any. That says a lot about the work these guys have poured into building our program and the trajectory of where we’re headed because of these guys. This group of guys went to back-to-back college football playoff semifinals, led us to top-five rankings the last two years, won the Big 12, were in the SEC Championship game in overtime – things that hadn’t been done at Texas for a long time. They set a standard and there’s a lot of be proud of with this group because of what they’ve meant to our program. To think, when we got here there were 32 players total from Texas on rosters in the NFL and when you add this group in, we’ve nearly equaled that number in the last three drafts (28) – 23 in the last two alone – which is pretty incredible. I couldn’t be prouder of every one of these guys and the future they have ahead of them. It’s not really when you get drafted, it’s what you do with the opportunity, and I’m confident all these guys – along with the ones signing as free agents –understand that and will maximize the opportunity in front of them.”

 “These guys are one of the groups that helped change the culture of our program. We were excited to see their names called on draft day, but more importantly, want to let the teams that picked them know that they’ll not only give it their all on the field, but be great teammates, tremendous representatives of their franchises and outstanding members of the community. We are incredibly proud of each and every one of them and so happy for them and their families.”

 “They really put in the work, bought in, committed to being great, and it says a lot about our staff and all they poured into them, as well. Their explosiveness and power, football IQ, ability to do a great job interviewing with teams, the way they conduct themselves, those are all things we take great pride in here, and these guys are a great reflection of that. It’s a great moment for them and their families, but it’s also definitely motivating for the guys that are on our roster now. The message to them is if you follow the recipe for success here and focus on team success, the individual accolades, awards and honors will come. We’ve got a hungry group that wants to help the team be successful. It’s a roster full of ‘want to’ guys and not ‘have to’ guys, and I credit a lot of the players before them for creating that ‘want to’ mentality that our team has right now.”

A new leadership nucleus is forming during spring practice. Based on the early returns and what Sarkisian, Arch Manning and Quintrevion Wisner have said in their recent post-practice press scrums, the current Texas squad oozes intensity and swagger, which are rubbing off of a robust group of new faces in the locker room.

“We come with just a tad bit more juice. Just a tad,” Wisner said on Thursday. “No offense to older guys, but the younger guys, we definitely have more energy.

“We've got a bunch of freshmen new to the playing lifestyle,” he added. “For them to come in and match our energy and juice is good.”

With Manning, Wisner and DJ Campbell setting the tone on offense, and Anthony Hill, Colin Simmons and Michael Taaffe leading the defense, these leaders have what it takes to end the program’s 20-year national championship drought.

That’s saying a lot. It’s an incredibly high bar to clear.

Nevertheless, these Longhorns give off vibes similar to the 2008 team, one that was more than deserving of a chance to play for the national title.

Quan Cosby, Colt McCoy, Roy Miller and Brian Orakpo led a club that was arguably college football’s best. The young, inexperienced members of the roster — Sam Acho, Keenan Robinson, Earl Thomas and Fozzy Whittaker among them — got in line, helping Texas win 25 of 27 games over two seasons, including the program’s most recent conference championship before the Longhorns won the Big 12 on their way out of the league in 2023.

Sarkisian now knows the quality depth it takes to play upwards of 17 games to be the last team standing when the curtain falls on the CFP at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium on Jan. 19, 2026. That’s why the positive early returns on the likes of James Simon, the young wide receivers (Parker Livingstone and four newcomers: Jaime Ffrench, Kaliq Lockett and Daylan McCutcheon and Michael Terry III), Brandon Baker, Nick Brooks, Nate Kibble, Graceson Littleton, Kade Phillips and Santana Wilson are significant developments to monitor as the overall outlook on depth clears up.

“This is the most young players we've ever had at one time in spring practice,” Sarkisian said during his press conference on Tuesday. “It's been a little bit different for us.”

According to ESPN.com’s Bill Connelly, Texas enters Sarkisian’s fifth season ranked No. 103 nationally in returning production. Of the 136 FBS programs, the Longhorns are 126th in returning offensive production.

Still, that shouldn’t keep the Longhorns from competing for the SEC title and getting over the CFP semifinal hump.

For starters, what Texas lacks in experience it makes up for in talent. Furthermore, the exodus of players with COVID-19 eligibility waivers coinciding with the neverending roster volatility created by the transfer portal has the Longhorns facing the same reality Ohio State (No. 101 in returning production), Georgia (No. 105), Oregon (No. 109), Ole Miss (No. 113 and other SEC and/or national title contenders.

“These young guys want to be good and they bring good energy,” Manning said on Thursday. “That's what makes practice more fun.”

With half of spring practice over, Manning has laid the foundation needed to make that vision a reality.

“He's got a very infectious personality and I think people gravitate to him,” Sarkisian said of Manning on Tuesday. “One of the things I see right now is, naturally, he's leading a group of some younger players, especially the skill spots, like at the wideout spot. His confidence, I think, helps them. His understanding, his ability to connect to those guys in between series and talk to him has been helpful.

“I also see a competitive spirit affecting the defensive side of the ball,” he added. “I think they like competing against Arch. I think they know he's going to talk a little smack to them. He's going to have fun with it, and I think that's bringing out some personality in an Anthony Hill or a [Malik] Muhammad or a Michael Taaffe.

“Every day is competitive because they know 16 is going to bring it and if he gets them, he's going to let them know about it.”

Sarkisian has hammered growth home leading up to spring practice, and he mentioned it several times on Tuesday.

If Manning starts to trend upward, and the team’s growth mirrors his, Texas can head into the postseason as a team nobody wants to face.

Still, Jalin Flores and Will Gasparino highlighted a five-run seventh inning with two-run doubles and righty Max Grubbs held the Bulldogs scoreless during 3.1 scoreless innings of relief, propelling the Longhorns to their 11th come-from-behind win of the season. Pulling off such an effort — ignited when Texas (25-4, 10-1 SEC) trailed Georgia (29-4, 8-3) in the fifth inning, 4-0, and Jaquae Stewart drilled a 409-foot laser to right field for a two-run home run — against one of the nation’s hottest clubs (the Bulldogs had won 26 of their last 27 games coming into the series with three series wins in a row over ranked opponents) — is a credit to the championship culture coach Jim Schlossnagle has established in his first season on the Forty Acres.

If the Longhorns hadn’t bought into Schlossnagle’s mantra of playing to a standard instead of the scoreboard when he accepted the job last summer, they wouldn’t be the first SEC squad to reach the 10-win mark in conference play.

“We pitch well enough to where, when we're down, we're not normally down by a ton,” Schlossnagle said. “We've set a culture where you just keep playing and try to keep your eyes off the scoreboard.”

That’s an apropos description of starting pitcher Luke Harrison’s day.

The southpaw allowed three RBI doubles among six hits during a 5.2-inning outing (96 total pitches). Nevertheless, Harrison minimized his mistakes (one walk, a balk, and two hit batters) and fired a career-high nine strikeouts before passing the baton to Grubbs, who gave up just two hits and struck out two without allowing any free passes.

“He kept us in the ballgame,” Schlossnagle said of Harrison. “He kept us close enough.”

Stewart’s home run was one of the few mistakes Brian Curley made while limiting Texas to three hits and striking out nine over five innings. The Longhorns didn’t panic or press. Instead, they stuck to their process of taking pitches and working counts while looking for an opportune time to strike.

“An at-bat in the seventh inning needs to be the same as an at-bat in the third,” Schlossnagle said. “It should be at least. We see pitches and try to use the whole field and don't panic. Make the pitcher bring it over the plate.”

One of the key statistics Schlossnagle tracks in the free pass battle. Texas finished the game with a plus-4 edge in free passes, 7-3. Walks preceding the big extra-base blows by Stewart, Flores and Gasparino helped the Longhorns make the most of their clutch hits.

“I think we've played really good team offense for two days, and then we try to get the timely hit,” Schlossnagle said regarding what worked at the plate through the first two games of the series. Saturday's win improved the team's record to 3-1 when trailing after six innings.

“Just sticking with how we like to play offense,” he added. “We don't have as many marquee players — nationally known marquee players — in there, but Flores came up big today with his best at-bat. Obviously, Gasparino has been swinging the bat really well for a while.”

The same approach that led to a series-clinching win over Georgia positioned Texas for a ninth-inning rally in Tuesday’s 5-3 loss to Texas State. Whereas Kimble Schuessler’s two-out line drive in the bottom of the ninth lacked the lift to get over Dawson Park’s head at second base, Ethan Mendoza’s seventh-inning fly ball got caught in a stiff breeze blowing out to right field, causing outfielder Dan Jackson to misplay it, resulting in an error.

With runners in scoring position, the next batter up was Flores, who laced the game-tying double to the wall in center field.

While Schlossnagle would prefer the Longhorns play from ahead, the mindset required to string together come-from-behind wins should benefit Texas over the long haul. Maintaining pitch-by-pitch, inning-by-inning, game-by-game mentality is the only way Texas can make the most of a red-hot start while facing some of the best teams in the SEC.

“When you have some comeback wins then you don't panic and you just keep playing,” Schlossnagle said. “It doesn't spook you when you get behind.”

What Spencer did in Friday’s 5-1 win over No. 3 Georgia provided further evidence that their hunch was correct. The work Spencer has done under Weiner’s tutelage helped him win the job heading up the weekend rotation in the Longhorns’ first season in the SEC, playing the role of staff ace to perfection in front of 7,246 fans at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.

“Max felt like we could get him some extra pitches,” Schlossnagle said regarding Spencer's recruitment. With Weiner’s help, Spencer developed a changeup to go along with the fastball and slider he relied on heavily during his time with the Sycamores.

“He can really pitch,” Schlossnagle said. “I think he’s showing professional baseball he’s capable of being a starting pitcher.”

Spencer once again showed the SEC he’s worthy of being the ace of the pitching staff for No. 5 Texas (24-4, 9-1 SEC), setting the tone for a critical three-game conference series against the Bulldogs. Running his fastball up to 97 mph and mixing it with a slider he used to ring up eight of the 11 Georgia (29-3, 8-2) batters he struck out, Spencer shut the Bulldogs down to the tune of a season-low one run on two hits while throwing a career-high 111 pitches in 7.2 brilliant innings on the bump.

When asked how he’d describe the win, which allowed the Longhorns to keep pace with No. 1 Tennessee (the reigning national champions no-hit Texas A&M in a 10-0 run-rule victory in Knoxville on Friday) atop the SEC standings, Schlossnagle said it was because Texas had “a great pitcher.”

“To me, the game begins and ends with starting pitching, even though it’s not as prevalent these days to see guys go deep in games,” said Schlossnagle, who mentioned the two-hit, complete-game shutout with 14 strikeouts No. 7 LSU got from Kade Anderson in a 2-0 win over No. 10 Oklahoma on Thursday. Spencer, Schlossnagle said, “is right up there” with the Tigers' dominant lefty, especially after what he did to a Georgia lineup that entered the game leading Division I home runs per game (2.71) and slugging percentage (.629) while ranking second in hits (339), runs per game (10.5) and on-base percentage (.466) with a .324 team batting average that was No. 14 nationally before Spencer befuddled the Bulldog bats.

“The story is Spencer,” Schlossnagle said. “You’re holding down that offense. The wind was blowing in early, but the balls we hit went out, and the one ball they hit went out. They're certainly capable of changing the game with one swing.”

Georgia left fielder Nolan McCarthy’s seventh home run of the season was a 391-foot blast to left field in the top of the seventh inning. Thankfully, the Longhorns had a 5-0 lead at the time, with an RBI double by Kimble Schuessler and two-run home runs by Casey Borba and Will Gasparino (his seventh in the team’s last six games) doing the damage in the middle innings.

It’s a lot to toe the rubber as the Friday starter for a program that’s won six national championships and whose tradition of starting pitching is second to none. Still, whether it’s embracing the role as the staff ace, shaking off a home run that broke up a shutout or laughing after firing a pitch over the head of Rylan Galvan to the backstop in the eighth inning, Spencer’s mental makeup is helping him climb the ranks of starting pitchers in the SEC as much or more than his electric array of pitches.

“He's a big, strong guy from Michigan that doesn't get phased by things,” Schlossnagle said. “What's really awesome about Spence is he had to go through a lot of summer school stuff to get enough credits to transfer into Texas after three years of college. It's really hard to do. He could've said 'screw that' at any time and signed because he got drafted. It tells you a lot about him that he went through that because he wanted to be here.

“He and Max together are a great combination.”

After getting the Longhorns started on the right foot against the Bulldogs, Spencer ranks among the SEC leaders in innings pitched (tied for fourth) and strikeouts (sixth). Spencer is the face of a Texas pitching staff that came into the series ranked No. 3 nationally in ERA (3.13), sixth in hits allowed per nine innings (6.99) and ninth in walks and hits allowed per nine innings pitched (a 1.19 WHIP).

Even with Spencer surrendering the home run to McCarthy, the Longhorns have allowed an SEC-low 15 long balls through 28 games. Texas has given up the third-fewest hits in the SEC (186), while a .212 batting average for the Longhorns’ opponents is tied for the third-best in the conference.

With Spencer leading the charge and Weiner working his magic behind the scenes, a pitching revival is afoot on the Forty Acres. For his part, Spencer isn’t thinking too far into the future.

Instead, he's living by Weiner's advice, taking a one-pitch-at-a-time approach to his final college baseball season. That's helping him embrace his role and have fun while doing his best to put Texas in the win column whenever he's given the ball.

“I'm taking it day by day, enjoying it while I'm there,” Spencer said. “[I’m] grateful for the opportunity that I have. I’ll enjoy it and have fun while I can.”

The Longhorns are turning the page to a new era inside Moody Center, and I’ve got three thoughts on the 56-year-old Miller taking over on the Forty Acres.

1. We’ve discussed this on our YouTube channel and the OTF Forum, but I love Miller’s potential to get more juice out of international recruiting than Texas has before.

Scott Drew made me believe in international recruiting during his early years at Baylor. Due to scholarship restrictions and the stigma attached to the program, Drew and his staff went far and wide to fill out the roster; guard Aaron Bruce (Australia) and center Mamadou Diene (Senegal) were a part of Drew’s first recruiting class, helping the Bears go from the Big 12 basement to the NCAA Tournament in four years.

Kenny Cherry (Canada), Brady Heslip (Canada), Manu Lecomte (Belgium), Jo Lual-Acuil (Sudan), Yves Missi (Belgium), Jeremy Sochan (England), Flo Thamba (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua (Cameroon) are among the international players who’ve made their way to Waco in Drew’s tenure. International recruiting has been a critical part of talent acquisition for a program four years removed from winning a national championship; it should be good enough for one striving to get back to the Final Four for the first time since 2003.

Deandre Ayton (Bahamas), Josh Green (Australia), Christian Koloko (Cameroon) and Lauri Markkanen (Finland) are among the international NBA draft picks Miller recruited during his 12 seasons at Arizona. Texas needs all the firepower it can muster to compete in the SEC and Miller shouldn’t leave any stones unturned in his quest to build a competitive roster, especially in areas where he’s found success.

2. When it comes to competing in the SEC, offense is the name of the game.

Led by Alabama, which leads Division I with 91.1 points per game, the SEC boasts five of the top 11 scoring teams in the country. The word I’ve received in recent years from folks tied into the NBA scouting community is that the league holds the SEC in high regard as the conference best preparing players for the next level because the SEC has dynamic offensive coaches and big-time scorers; Tre Johnson will join Dalton Knecht (2024), Brandon Miller (2023) and Cameron Thomas (2021) as recent SEC scoring leaders to be selected in the first round of the draft.

Miller is regarded as a top offensive coach, and there are plenty of numbers to back up the claim.

Miller’s 2022-23 squad at Xavier, which lost to Texas in the Sweet 16, finished 10th nationally in points per game (80.9). The Musketeers also ranked eighth in adjusted offensive efficiency and No. 33 in adjusted tempo, according to KenPom.com.

When Miller’s Arizona teams participated in March Madness, the offense was the catalyst. The Wildcats finished 12th, 13th, 20th, seventh, 20th, 15th, and 15th in adjusted offensive efficiency during their seven NCAA Tournament trips under Miller.

Miller coached two of the 28 teams in Arizona history to average 80 or more points per game (80.5 in 2017-18 and 80.4 in 2015-16). The Wildcats ranked in the top 60 nationally in points per game during seven of Miller’s 12 seasons in Tucson, three of which saw Arizona finish as a top-25 team in scoring.

3. Strong guard play has been a hallmark of Miller’s teams, which bodes well for Texas if he can put together top-notch backcourts.

Since T.J. Ford led the Longhorns to the Final Four 22 years ago, three Texas teams have advanced to the Elite Eight. Whether it was Daniel Gibson (2005-06), D.J. Augustin (2007-08) or the three-headed monster of Marcus Carr, Tyrese Hunter and Sir’Jabari Rice (2022-23), the best Longhorn squads since the high point of the Rick Barnes era have featured elite guards.

The 2010-11 team won 28 games with a future first-round pick and NBA champion (Cory Joseph) leading a deep backcourt. Isaiah Taylor (2013-14) led Texas to the program’s last NCAA Tournament win under Barnes before bowing out to Michigan in the round of 32.

With the transfer portal opening Monday, Miller’s first order of business is to figure out what he's got with Jordan Pope and Chendall Weaver while looking for reinforcements to account for the impending departures of Johnson and Tramon Mark.