If you can’t win your get-right game, then you’re the get-right game.
That’s what No. 7 Texas was for Florida in Saturday’s 27-24 loss, a defeat that drove home a few realities about where the Longhorns are halfway through the 2026 season:
— The offense is broken and I don’t think Steve Sarkisian can fix it.
It’s beyond sticking with the running game or dialing up high-percentage throws to get Arch Manning into a rhythm. Outside of the opening script and a late touchdown drive highlighted by Manning’s desperation fourth-and-7 heave to Emmett Mosley V, Texas (4-2, 1-2 SEC) was abysmal offensively against one of the worst defenses in the SEC.
There’s no identity. There’s no flow or rhythm.
The only thing the Longhorns do consistently is fail to execute in critical situations and put the defense in bad spots.
The whole operation is a disaster and was every bit of one on Saturday.
Almost half of the 272 yards the offense gained were on the first two drives. After that, nothing went right.
When Sarkisian made calls that could've worked, Manning either missed open receivers, missed reads, misdiagnosed blitzes or put the offense behind the chains.
— Sarkisian’s game management has regressed.
Saturday’s loss looked a lot like the losses the Longhorns suffered in 2021 (which, by the way, is the last time Texas lost back-to-back regular-season games). According to Chris Hummer of CBS Sports, the Longhorns are the top-10 team in the Associated Press Top 25 since 2003 to blow a double-digit lead in back-to-back games.
When Texas got up 17-3, the Longhorns put it in neutral. The offense lacked urgency until the Gators took a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter and the defense (a unit that's not without blame) was gassed
The game flipped when Sarkisian went for it on fourth-and-1 from midfield with 3:23 left in the first half. A defense that had held its own finally cracked when asked to defend a short field (two of Florida’s three touchdown drives started in Longhorn territory).
Florida (5-2, 2-2) ran 81 plays against Will Muschamp’s defense. Buster Faulkner followed the same plan that worked for Oklahoma, with Tramell Jones Jr. making his first career start: short, high-percentage passes to set up manageable third downs, which activated the play-action passing game thanks to Jadan Baugh being a threat in short-yardage situations (all eight of the Gators’ third-down conversions came with a to-go distance of seven or less).
Jon Sumrall’s team kept chopping wood, just like Sooners did in the Red River Shootout last Saturday. The tougher team found a way to win, and for the second week in a row, it wasn't Sarkisian's squad.
— It’s seriously time to look at moving on from Manning.
I’ve been hesitant to buy into the Longhorns changing quarterbacks. But Manning isn’t making enough plays to offset catastrophic mistakes.
Either Manning doesn’t have a feel for when to make a pull read on RPOs or read options or Sarkisian doesn’t trust him to make the read and the pull read isn’t a part of the play. Beyond that, Manning looked gun-shy, held onto the ball too long and for the second week in a row, turned the ball over on the offense’s last possession of regulation.
The main question regarding Manning isn’t whether he’s regressed. It’s whether Manning can get to a point where he can be trusted to manage the game. If that can’t happen, Sarkisian has to look long and hard about what's best for the Longhorns.
— The defense will have issues if Colin Simmons, who was carted back to the locker room in the fourth quarter with an apparent lower leg injury, is out for an extended period of time.
Right now, Muschamp doesn’t have another defender who can take over a game like Simmons can. Whether Simmons was on the field or not, it’s hard to know how much of the defense’s issues are because of the lopsided play differential or Faulkner out-scheming Muschamp with an inexperienced quarterback and an offense that won the line-of-scrimmage battle.
— We can stop talking about the College Football Playoff. We need to start talking about whether this team can pull the nose up offensively to qualify for a bowl game.
Yes, it’s that bad right now.
Saturday was a chance to get right. Instead, the loss reinforced everything that’s wrong with Texas.
That there are too many questions and concerns to count at the halfway point is disturbing, especially since Sarkisian doesn’t have any obvious answers.
-
21
-
3
Recommended Comments
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.