On Texas Football has live coverage of the postgame press conference with coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns.

Texas (4-2, 1-1 SEC) wants its suffocation of the Sooners to be the jumping-off point to a prosperous second half of the regular season. Coming off of his most productive game of the season (five tackles and 2.5 sacks), Simmons, who was named SEC Co-Defensive Lineman of the Week for his performance in the win over Oklahoma, was blunt in his response when asked about the challenge of maintaining the mental approach the Longhorns carried into the Red River Shootout.

“Well, I'll let you know this right now: We're not here for the emotional roller coaster. We're not here to go up and down,” Simmons said. “We're only here to go up and be consistent.”

Simmons, along with the other Texas players who met with the media on Monday, and Sarkisian referred to Saturday’s meeting with the Wildcats as “an SEC Championship Game.” While that might sound disingenuous on the surface, the mantra speaks to the Longhorns' understanding that a loss to Kentucky (2-3, 0-3) would all but put an end to their hopes of returning to Atlanta for the second consecutive season.

A start to Saturday’s game that mirrors what happened when Texas got itself into an early 10-0 hole in Gainesville on Oct. 4 (Florida hung on for a 29-21 win that knocked the Longhorns out of the Associated Press Top 25) is one from which the Longhorns might not recover. Mark Stoops has had better teams than the one he’ll lead onto Kroger Field. Still, the Wildcats’ potential to successfully utilize a ground-and-pound style of offense (Kentucky averages 159.4 yards per game and 4.22 yards per attempt on the ground) is the kind of attack capable of protecting a lead.

According to College Football Data, the Wildcats average 3.2 line yards per carry, which ranks fifth in the SEC. According to the metric, which distributes a percentage of the credit for an offense’s rushing yards to the offensive line, the Kentucky offensive line gets the job done in the running game better than all but four lines in the conference.

For all of the talk about the Texas offense needing to start fast, the defense’s job is just as important in that regard.

“We've got to come out and stop the run,” defensive tackle Hero Kanu said on Monday. “That's, obviously, the mindset we’ve got to have.”

In the loss to the Gators, Florida gained 94 of its 159 rushing yards in the first quarter. If the Longhorns can replicate what it did against the Sooners — the defense allowed only 80 sack-adjusted rushing yards (3.2 yards per attempt) and, once Texas grabbed the lead in the second half, turned up the heat on John Mateer to the tune of five sacks — it will go a long way toward making sure the team returns home with all of its goals intact.

“We've got to force them to have third-and-longs,” Kanu said. “We've got to stop them on first and second down. That's really the mindset we have and we know what we've got to do.”

Specifically, Texas (4-2, 1-1 SEC) would love the manner in which it manhandled the Sooners in the second half to carry over to the back half of the schedule, which begins with Saturday’s road game against Kentucky (6 p.m., ESPN).

After trailing Oklahoma at halftime, 6-3, the Longhorns recorded a 20-0 edge on the scoreboard in the second half. Texas had a 188-88 advantage in total yards, racked up 91 net yards and averaged 3.8 yards per attempt on the ground and got a near-flawless performance from Arch Manning (11-for-13, 97 yards and a touchdown).

Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense held Oklahoma’s offense to a combined 1-for-10 effort on third and fourth down and an average of 2.9 yards per play after halftime. A defense that failed to record a sack in losses to Ohio State and Florida got to John Mateer five times, with constant pressure (according to Pro Football Focus, Mateer was pressured on 17 of his 47 dropbacks), contributing to the quarterback’s three interceptions.

Steve Sarkisian’s club “showed a lot of maturity and mental toughness and resolve and then, ultimately, imposing our will as the game went on,” he said during his press conference on Monday. Now, with Saturday’s trip to Lexington looming, the internal challenge is building on the process that led to the team’s success in Dallas.

“Do we get right back to those same habits that we had last week?” Sarkisian said. “With the intent, with the sense of urgency, making every rep count in practice and then playing the brand and a style of football that we're very proud of, which is a physical one?”

For Texas to continue being a team that can finish strong, the Longhorns must start becoming one that gets off to faster starts. When analyzing the first three drives for Texas and its opponents in the team’s three games against Power Four competition, the Longhorns have made a habit of putting themselves behind the 8-ball.

Texas’ starts against the Power Four: Three games, nine total possessions

Texas

Points: 7

Total Offense: 45 plays, 178 net yards (3.96 yards per play)

Rushing: 23 carries, 68 yards (2.96 yards per attempt)

Passing: 15-for-22, 110 yards

Third Down: 1-for-10

First Downs: 8

Penalties: Nine for 85 yards

Opponents

Points: 20

Total Offense: 68 plays, 344 yards (5.06 yards per play)

Rushing: 36 carries, 152 yards (4.22 yards per attempt)

Passing: 18-for-31, 191 yards, one interception

Third Down: 7-for-13

First Downs: 21

Penalties: One for five yards

The win over the Sooners was a microcosm of the Longhorns' early-game struggles.

For starters, penalties and negative plays plagued their first three possessions. When the dust settled on those drives, Texas mustered only 40 total yards (3.1 yards per play) and was 0-for-3 on third down while facing a minus-6 play differential (19 snaps for Oklahoma to 13 for the Longhorns).

When the offense took the field facing a 6-0 deficit with 9:09 remaining on the clock, Texas got it together.

A 12-play, 75-yard drive took 4:40 off the clock and ended with a 39-yard Mason Shipley field goal, allowing the Longhorns to break through on the scoreboard. On that series, Texas wasn’t assessed a penalty and, although Quintrevion Wisner was dropped for a 1-yard loss one play after he burned the Sooner defense for 37 yards, Manning’s third-and-10 completion to DeAndre Moore Jr. for 14 yards on third-and-10 was the first of two third-down conversions on the drive.

In short, the Longhorns proved that they’re capable of playing complementary football against a formidable opponent.

“It's like, 'Guys, can we just execute a little bit and move forward?’ Third-and-6 is a heck of a lot better than third-and-12 or third-and-23 or third-and-whatever. Just give ourselves a chance,” Sarkisian said. “Then, when they start to figure out, 'Hey, this is a lot easier,' Arch is like, 'Wait, this is a lot easier.'

"Then what happened? The penalties, all of a sudden, went away," he added. "We're more productive. We have a 12-play drive, a 14-play drive, a 10-play drive — we're controlling the ball. The defense is getting their rest. They're playing with a little bit more energy on defense. That's where the complimentary football piece comes into play.”

To build on the win over Oklahoma, and for Texas to avoid getting into a hole against the Wildcats, Sarkisian needs his squad to get into a rhythm and play successfully off each other a lot earlier than it’s taken them to get settled.

“We have to be able to take things throughout the week — and then on Friday — that we say, 'Hey, these are going to be things we're going to open the game with, and we've got to execute those things with confidence.' We did it better later in the game than we actually did earlier in the game, so we've got to do a better job as a staff to instill that in them, for them to understand that this is what's going to get called — we don't need to have any anxiety. We had too many breakdowns early in the game, for my liking. That's an area where we have to improve. We should be starting games better than we have been and we need to do that. We've got to — as a staff — find a better way to instill that in those guys.”

When asked what went into their respective decisions, Sarkisian didn’t elaborate beyond the facts of the situation.

“They wanted to redshirt and transfer,” Sarkisian said.

According to Pro Football Focus, the two snaps Gibson logged in last Saturday’s 23-6 win over Oklahoma marked the fourth game in which he’s played this season. The same is true for Stone, who missed the team’s non-conference wins over UTEP and Sam Houston with what Sarkisian indicated was a back ailment.

Gibson, the team’s de facto short-yardage back, rushed for 152 yards and a touchdown on 37 carries. Even with C.J. Baxter Jr. on the mend after suffering a hamstring injury in the team’s 27-10 win over UTEP on Sept. 13, Sarkisian expressed confidence in the other running backs on the roster picking up the slack.

“Who will take those carries is everybody,” Sarkisian said. “Whether that's Tre [Wisner], whether that's Christian [Clark], whether that's James [Simon], whether that's Cedric when he gets back, we've got ample bodies. We should be OK in that aspect of it all.”

Mason Shipley, who handled kickoff duties in the two games Stone missed, will resume those responsibilities, Sarkisian said.

While the Longhorns have enough scholarship bodies at most positions to avoid in-season departures crippling depth at a particular spot, Sarkisian isn’t a fan of players who feel forced to make decisions like the ones Gibson and Stone deemed best for themselves. The NCAA appears to be on the verge of granting student-athletes five years to complete five seasons of eligibility, a model dubbed the “5 in 5” plan, which Sarkisian believes would curb situations like the one Texas (4-2, 1-1 SEC) is dealing with while competing for a berth in the SEC Championship Game and a third consecutive trip to the College Football Playoff.

“I think it's a terrible position to put these players in to make these decisions right now, but there's money involved, there's revenue sharing, there's NIL — there's different factors,” Sarkisian said. “I think it's putting agents and family members and student-athletes in a difficult position to make business decisions in the middle of the season, but that's where we're at. I'm not really here to complain about it; that's just the reality of the situation we're in. When a player asks to do that, I thank him for their time and I wish them the best of luck. I mean, what else are we supposed to do at that juncture? These are the rules that we've put in place. We've got to operate within the parameters of the rules.”

Behind an efficient, methodical offense and a defense that feasted on No. 5 Oklahoma’s one-dimensional offense, Texas claimed the Golden Hat for the third time in four years by winning a slugfest with the Sooners, 23-6.

The conditions weren’t ripe for an aesthetically pleasing performance. Nevertheless, the Longhorns won the Red River Shootout by winning the battles they needed to win.

Quintrevion Wisner churned out a game-high 94 yards on 22 carries, helping Texas (4-2, 1-1 SEC) finish with 136 yards (3.9 yards per carry) on the ground. Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense held Oklahoma (5-1, 1-1) to 48 net yards (1.6 yards per attempt); in the last 29 series meetings, the team that wins the rushing yardage battle is 26-2 (the 2006 game ended with both teams rushing for 124 yards).

The Longhorns intercepted three John Mateer passes, part of a rocky return from thumb surgery in his first Red River Shootout. Mateer went 20-for-38 through the air for 202 yards, and after completing seven of his first 11 attempts, only 13 of Mateer’s last 28 passes found the hands of one of his teammates.

While the Longhorns failed to score on their three takeaways (although Michael Taaffe came painfully close to a scoop-and-score touchdown on a botched lateral in the fourth quarter), Ryan Niblett’s 75-yard punt return is the kind of non-offensive score a team needs when it’s looking for a spark.

Saturday’s win wasn’t a fluke. With its back against the wall, Texas played with a necessary sense of urgency and dominated the Sooners in every phase of the game.

***

Brent Venables has nobody to blame but himself for Oklahoma leaving points on the field at the end of the first half.

There were 32 seconds on the clock when Jelani McDonald and Zina Umeozulu tackled Isaiah Sategna at the end of a catch-and-run completion for eight yards. The Sooners let 12 seconds tick off the clock before calling a timeout, facing third-and-2 at the Texas 38 with 10 seconds on the clock.

Coming out of the timeout, instead of kicking the field goal, Mateer rolled to his right before throwing against the grain. Malik Muhammad’s second interception of the half ensured Mason Shipley’s 22-yard field goal at the end of a 12-play, 75-yard drive would be the last score for either side before halftime.

For the first time all season, the Longhorns executed better than their opponent at the end of the half.

***

Capitalizing on the momentum, Arch Manning (21-for-27, 166 yards and one touchdown; 34 yards rushing on four carries) and the offense opened the third quarter with their best drive of the season.

The 14-play, 75-yard march took 7:11 off the clock and ended when Manning converted on third down for the fourth time on the scoring march, finding DeAndre Moore Jr. (50 yards on three receptions) in the back of the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown.

How clutch was Manning on Saturday? He was 11-for-12 for 117 yards with a passing touchdown on third down, also sprinting for a 29-yard run in the fourth quarter to help seal the win.

Behind Manning, Texas finished the game 10-for-17 on third down, a tremendous finish after going 2-for-6 on third down with an average to-go distance of 13.2 yards in the first half.

***

Wisner was a warrior on Saturday.

Along with what he did on the ground, he tallied 34 yards on five receptions, including third-down catches of 13 and 19 yards in the second half. The junior running back put his body on the line in his third Red River Shootout, maximizing runs and making critical plays when the offense needed someone to come through.

***

Even on a day when Oklahoma recorded 12 tackles for loss, the Texas offensive line rebounded nicely from last week’s debacle against Florida. The Longhorns ran for 94 yards on 21 carries in the second half, with Nick Brooks and D.J. Campbell getting a push between the tackles at a level the line hasn’t generated against a defense with a pulse.

The Sooner defensive line might be the best in the SEC, possibly the country. Still, there was a point in the second half when Texas started leaning on Oklahoma, keeping the offense ahead of the chains; 68 percent of the offense’s snaps occurred on non-passing downs.

***

After being docked 25 yards on three penalties in the first quarter, the offense went without an accepted penalty the rest of the way.

***

In winning back-to-back games in the series for the first time since 2008 and 2009, Texas has held Oklahoma to 137 net rushing yards (1.98 yards per attempt) in a span of eight quarters.

***

You have to earn the right to rush the quarterback. The Longhorns did on Saturday, sacking Mateer five times with Colin Simmons (2.5) and Brad Spence (two) leading the way.

With the Sooners unable to run the ball, Texas got to tee off on Mateer. When the Longhorns could utilize their pass rushers, Kwiatkowski let the dogs off the leash and let them attack.

***

Texas held the Sooners to a 1-for-7 effort on third down in the second half on a 6-for-17 day. Other than a few early big plays by Oklahoma (3-for-5 on third down in the first quarter), the Longhorns got off the field on schedule en route to the win.

***

Before worrying about next week’s trip to Kentucky or how the second half of the season might unfold, the Texas faithful needs to savor this one.

It’s been tough to find silver linings in a largely uninspiring five-game stretch to open the season. In the wake of the Florida loss, the outlook was bleak.

Saturday’s win is a reminder that a victory over the Sooners can give everyone with skin in the game an emphatic shot in the arm. It can be a tremendous springboard into the remainder of the schedule, providing hope for the rest of the way.

In the big picture, Venables has a 1-3 record against Texas, with Sarkisian winning those three games by an average of 32 points. Additionally, in Sarkisian’s three wins over the Sooners (3-2 record), Oklahoma hasn’t scored an offensive touchdown.

It was a huge win for Sarkisian, who picked up his fourth victory over a top-10 opponent while leading the Longhorns. Winning Saturday’s game means everything the Longhorns hoped to accomplish in 2025 is still on the table.

The bottom line is that Texas responded in a must-win game. As a result, the Longhorns are alive to fight another Saturday in the SEC with a chance to have their goals in front of them when they get back to Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium at the end of the month.

Couple of rules:

- Only one entry per person.

- Only one winner. If there's a tie, the person who registered their pick first wins.

**

Texas 20- Oklahoma 17

When asked on Wednesday’s SEC coaches teleconference about how the No. 6 Sooners planned to list Mateer’s status on the conference’s official injury report, Venables indicated he won’t release anything other than what the league requires coaches to divulge.

“That’ll come out tonight and everybody will get it at the same time,” Venables said.

Whether it’s Mateer or Michael Hawkins Jr. behind center at the Cotton Bowl, the Texas defense should hit the field hellbent on proving its run-stopping capabilities are greater than how the Longhorns held up in last Saturday’s 29-21 loss to Florida.

While the Gators’ final line on the ground (159 yards on 37 carries) isn’t a glaring sign of a leaky run defense on its own, the way Texas (3-2, 0-1 SEC) was gashed in the first half was alarming. After six consecutive games (dating back to last season’s Cotton Bowl loss to Ohio State) in which Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense held its opponents to under 100 net rushing yards, Florida ran roughshod over the Longhorns in the first quarter, tallying 94 yards on an average of 6.7 yards per attempt.

“No reason,” linebacker Liona Lefau said on Monday when asked why the Texas defense stumbled out of the blocks in Gainesville. “We just need to do a better job of coming out and playing the best defense that we know we're capable of doing.”

While Steve Sarkisian searches for ways to get the Longhorn rushing attack untracked after a forgettable SEC opener (52 net yards on 26 official attempts, including just 16 yards on 11 carries by the running backs), the defense must do its part to help Texas win the line of scrimmage battle against Oklahoma (5-0, 1-0).

In the Red River Shootout, winning in the trenches is the best way to ensure a win on the scoreboard when the dust settles. The team that won the rushing yardage battle has won all but three of the last 28 meetings between the Longhorns and Sooners, including Sarkisian’s four Red River games.

Texas won the rushing yardage battle decisively en route to a 49-0 rout in 2022 (296-156) and in last season’s 34-3 victory (177-89). On the flip side, Oklahoma’s 55-48 comeback win in 2021 saw the Sooners finish with a plus-211-yard advantage on the ground, while Venables’ team out-rushed Sarkisian's squad by 45 yards (201-156) in a 34-30 Longhorn loss in 2023.

Although the Texas running game is reeling, Oklahoma heads into Saturday’s bout with one of the least productive rushing attacks in the SEC. The Sooners are 12th in the conference in rushing yards per game (137.2), 14th in yards per attempt (3.79) and 11th in runs that have gained at least 10 yards (23).

With that said, rushing yards from the quarterback position have arguably been the difference in Sarkisian’s two losses to Oklahoma. A 66-yard touchdown run by Caleb Williams ignited his team’s furious rally in 2021, and two years later, Dillion Gabriel’s 113 yards rushing (especially his pulling the ball down and running for big yardage on the Sooners’ game-winning drive) played one of the biggest roles in the outcomes.

Whether Mateer is back or Hawkins is called upon to start in Dallas for the second consecutive season, the Longhorn defense knows the path to victory includes minimizing the damage that the quarterback runs (designed runs and scrambles) in Ben Arbuckle’s offense can cause.

“We’ve played Hawkins, we haven’t played Mateer, but we kind of have the same scheme for both of them,” linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. said on Monday. “It's going to be interesting to see what plays out throughout the week and get ready for the game.”

A win over the Sooners would position Steve Sarkisian’s squad for a strong finish to the October portion of the schedule, played entirely away from Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. A loss would be the second in conference play for Texas (3-2, 0-1 SEC) and, with three opponents currently ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 left on the schedule other than Oklahoma (5-0, 1-0), it likely wouldn’t be the Longhorns’ last.

Amid the preseason hype that engulfed the program, along with Brent Venables coming off his second losing season among the three in which he’s led the Sooners, Sarkisian’s fifth Texas-OU game seemed like an ideal time for the Longhorns to enjoy a long-overdue run of success against Oklahoma. Sarkisian’s 2-2 record against the Sooners includes two of the most lopsided Texas wins in the history of the series (a 49-0 rout in 2022 and last season’s 34-3 romp) and a pair of last-second losses that were there for the taking.

Oklahoma’s current run of dominance over the Longhorns is one of the longest in the history of the series. The Sooners have won 11 of the last 16, including 10 of 15 with the Golden Hat on the line.

Beyond how a win over Oklahoma would boost Texas going into the second half of the regular season, changing their Red River fortunes is key to the Longhorns getting over the hump and closer to winning a national championship under Sarkisian.

Since Darrell Royal took over the program in 1957, no Texas coach has won a national championship or led the Longhorns to a championship game without simultaneously rattling off a series of wins over the Sooners.

A win on Saturday would be the program’s third over Oklahoma in four years. That would be the best stretch of success against the Sooners since Mack Brown’s teams won four of five meetings (2005-09).

Brown’s run, which came on the heels of a five-game losing streak to Bob Stoops, included wins in 2005 and 2009. Texas bookended the four seasons with a national championship and a trip to the BCS title game, along with a memorable series win during the 2008 season, one in which the Longhorns were arguably the best team in the country.

While leading Texas to undefeated regular seasons in 1977 and 1983, Fred Akers won five of his first seven head-to-head meetings against Barry Switzer’s Oklahoma program.

Royal, a Sooner standout for Bud Wilkinson, took over the Longhorns at a time when his mentor had won nine Red River Shootouts over 10 seasons (1948-57), including a victory in Royal’s Red River coaching debut. After the 1957 loss, however, Royal won 12 of the next 13 games against Oklahoma, including wins over the Sooners in each of his three national championship-winning seasons (1963, 1969 and 1970).

Given the state of where Texas is coming off the humbling loss to the Gators, and considering the decade-plus of dominance the Sooners have enjoyed against the Longhorns, there would be no better time than Saturday to take a big step toward rectifying an Oklahoma problem that’s existed for far too long.

Some of those issues can be fixed over the seven remaining games on the regular-season schedule, but others will require changes after the season. Still, Saturday’s loss to the Gators came down to the Longhorns losing the line of scrimmage battle in a landslide.

From the jump, Florida (2-3, 1-2 SEC) punched Texas (3-2, 0-1) in the mouth up front and never let up.

The Gators finished the game with six sacks and seven tackles for loss. While the Longhorn offensive line might not be solely responsible for each of those negative plays, the fact that the Texas running backs ran for 15 yards on 11 carries on a day when the running game tallied 52 net yards on 26 official attempts is a direct reflection of how the offense was soundly defeated at the point of attack.

***

Nick Brooks briefly replaced Connor Stroh at left guard in the first half. The true freshman started the second half next to Trevor Goosby, with Steve Sarkisian and Kyle Flood searching for an answer to help generate a push.

Although he was flagged for consecutive false starts on a fourth-quarter drive, I could see Sarkisian and Flood giving Brooks another shot.

Whether Brooks is in the starting lineup against Oklahoma or not, Saturday’s performance made it clear that the starting offensive line mix — as it was through the first five games of the season — isn’t the answer to getting the offense untracked.

***

Offensively, everything Texas couldn’t afford to have happen did.

Unable to establish the run, the Longhorns had to put the fate of the offense on Arch Manning’s shoulders. The result was a mixed bag, with Manning (16-for-29, 263 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions; 37 net yards on 15 official rushing attempts) making his share of plays to keep Texas in the game, along with a few turnovers and a final possession of regulation he’d like to have back.

Operating a one-dimensional offense, moving the ball came down to Manning’s ability to make a play. It’ll require a more nuanced evaluation to determine if the mistakes down the stretch were things to worry about or a case of a quarterback trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Manning did enough positive things to believe he can truly trend upward in the not-too-distant future. Still, he’s not at a point of elevating everyone around him to the point where he can mask the offense’s deficiencies.

***

It doesn’t seem right that I’ve gotten this far into writing my postgame thoughts without talking about the defense.

It was disappointing that things played out for the offense the way they did, but it wasn’t a total surprise. I, however, was flabbergasted at how Florida gashed Texas on the ground (159 yards, 4.3 yards per attempt), negated the Longhorn pass rush and gave DJ Lagway (21-for-28, 298 yards, two touchdowns and one interception) enough time to hit six explosive plays (15 or more yards gained through the air).

Coming into the game, Texas allowed five rushing attempts to gain 10 or more yards. The Gators had five double-digit-yard runs in the first half (only 13 through their first four games).

Only Auburn had fewer 20-yard gains through the air than Florida (10) before Saturday’s game. Lagway connected on four such plays against a Longhorn defense that allowed only six through four games.

Jadan Baugh (107 yards and a rushing touchdown on 28 carries) and Dallas Wilson (111 yards and two touchdowns on six catches) made the kinds of plays the Longhorn skill players didn't or couldn't come up with on Saturday.

***

The 2021 Iowa State game (a 30-7 loss) is the last loss I can remember Texas suffering in which it lost the line-of-scrimmage battle as it did in the Swamp.

You’d have to go back to the Arkansas game that same season to find the last time a Sarkisian-coached Longhorn squad was bullied to the extent the Gators pushed Texas around from start to finish.

***

There’s a lot more to digest from the loss than these time-constrained thoughts.

Still, the following must be said: Talk of the SEC Championship Game or the College Football Playoff, at this point, is pointless. This is beyond a play-calling issue or a few personnel fixes for this team to become what it hoped to grow into by season's end.

Against a desperate team, coming off a bye and knowing the kind of road environment they’d be going into, the Longhorns lost a game in which they were soundly defeated in all three phases.

Considering the circumstances, and with Texas still unable to play disciplined (10 penalties for 70 yards) and/or complementary football, an argument can be made that this was the worst loss of Sarkisian’s tenure. While I have recently given Sarkisian credit for not suffering a head-scratching loss, my trust in the staff to avoid an unnecessary toe stub the rest of the way must be rebuilt after Saturday.

The Longhorns can still be a good team. But Saturday’s performance didn’t inspire any confidence that Texas can turn the corner any time soon.

If Mosley and Wilson are on the field, the wide receivers might do more than beef up the Texas (3-1) and Florida (1-3, 0-1 SEC) passing games. Stressing the opposing defense enough to give the running game a boost could be the difference between winning and losing, especially if the weather gets sloppy and the ground attacks become more of a factor.

Neither running game has set the world on fire through four games. Based on the raw yardage output, the Longhorns have been good, ranking 37th nationally and seventh in the SEC in rushing yards per game (202.8).

Still, the team’s average yards per rushing attempt (4.89) is behind last season’s pace (5.01) with one quarter of the regular season in the books.

Getting Quintrevion Wisner and potentially C.J. Baxter Jr. back will give Texas two proven commodities in the backfield. The return of either runner will take some of the running game burden away from Arch Manning, although his legs will likely continue to be a major part of Steve Sarkisian's game plan.

Where Wisner and Baxter need to make an impact is their ability to maximize runs. That’s one way to bring some juice to a running game lacking explosiveness.

Texas has 24 rushing attempts that have gone for 10 or more yards this season, which ranks ninth in the SEC. Alabama and Oklahoma are the only SEC clubs with fewer rushing attempts that have gained 20 or more yards than the Longhorns (three), none of which have come from running backs.

Manning’s 20-yard touchdown run on a scramble against San Jose State and two big gains in the Sam Houston game by Ryan Wingo (32 yards on an end-around) and Matthew Caldwell (an option keeper for 50 yards) account for the offense’s three longest rushing attempts from scrimmage. Baxter had an 18-yard run against San Jose State, which is the longest by a Texas running back this season.

With running backs Jaden Baugh and Ja’Kobi Jackson back from last season, along with four starting offensive linemen (preseason All-American Jake Slaughter and preseason All-SEC pick Austin Barber among them), Florida’s running game has the pieces to be arguably the best in the SEC.

Instead, the Gators are averaging 123 yards per game, which is the third-worst in the conference and No. 106 in FBS.

Florida averages less than four yards per rushing attempt (3.94) and, like Texas, hasn’t been able to lean on big plays on the ground. Alabama’s offense is the only SEC attack with fewer rushing attempts that have gained 10 or more yards than the Gators (13), who’ve matched the Longhorns’ three gains from scrimmage of 20 or more yards (a 27-yard run by Jackson in a road loss to Miami is the longest gain on the ground for Florida through four games).

Whether either running game gets untracked on Saturday will be easier said than done.

Texas is No. 3 nationally against the run (59.8 yards per game allowed), leads the SEC in yards per rushing attempt allowed (2.13), has held five consecutive opponents to under 100 yards rushing and has allowed only five rushing attempts to go for 10 or more yards. The Gators are a top-40 defense nationally against the run (111.3 yards per game and 3.37 yards per attempt allowed) with a Pro Football Focus team tackling grade of 85.7, which is the second-best in the SEC and ranks No. 6 in the country.

While the Longhorns cruised to a win in last year’s meeting with Florida, with a 49-17 drubbing in Austin, Anthony Hill Jr. remembers the Gators rushing for 197 yards. Florida’s output was second to Arizona State’s 214-yard effort in the Peach Bowl for the most rushing yards allowed by the Texas defense in 2024.

With Billy Napier’s offense returning a lot of the pieces the Longhorns saw last season, they're preparing for a fierce trench battle on Saturday.

“We know the type of athletes they have,” Hill said on Monday. “We know who they recruit — we've probably lost some recruits to them — so we know they have the athletes. We're just going to go out there and play the best football we can.”