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    Jeff Howe
    For all of the talk regarding strategy, keys to victory and other games within the game that will determine a winner in Saturday’s blockbuster season opener between No. 1 Texas and No. 3 Ohio State (11 a.m., Fox), Ryan Day’s response to a question during his Tuesday press conference reinforced what makes the difference when push comes to shove in a high-stakes battle.
    “If we don’t stop the run and run the ball,” the Buckeyes’ coach said when asked about the importance of success in the trenches, “we’re not going to win the game.”
    Under Steve Sarkisian, the Longhorns are 33-4 when winning the rushing yardage battle. Since the start of the 2021 season, Texas has held an opponent under 100 net rushing yards in 19 games, winning 18 of them (last season’s College Football Playoff semifinal loss to Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl is the only loss).
    While using a variety of formations and pre-snap movements to create mismatches in the passing game separates Sarkisian’s offense from other attacks, it’s much more potent when the Longhorns can run the football.
    If the defense remains stout against the run, the offense doesn’t need to pile up rushing yards to be successful (only four of the team’s 13 wins last season saw Texas rush for 200 or more yards). Still, the ground attack can’t falter the way it did in the Longhorns’ losses last season, three games in which Texas averaged a paltry 39.3 yards per game and a forgettable 1.4 yards per attempt.
    When adjusting the yardage totals to exclude sacks, Texas still only rushed for 231 yards on 61 attempts in its losses. Averaging 77 yards per game and 3.4 yards per attempt didn’t cut the mustard for an offense that netted 186.3 rushing yards per game and ran the football at a 4.8-yard-per-game clip in 13 victories (even with a 30-carry, 53-yard outing in the Peach Bowl win over Arizona State counting toward the production).
    The Longhorns failed to reach 30 official rushing attempts in last season’s losses, including the loss to the Buckeyes (58 yards on 29 carries). Still, a sack-adjusted 85-yard effort on 25 carries (3.4 yards per attempt) positioned Texas to reach the national championship game.
    Such production (as long as the re-tooled offensive line can create enough room for C.J. Baxter, Quintrevion Wisner and the other running backs to operate, Sarkisian stays patient, content to let his offense work over the Ohio State defense with a series of body blows throughout the bout) can get it off on the right foot in the first step of the 2025 squad’s quest to ascend to the top of the mountain.
    Jeff Howe
    Steve Sarkisian participated in today’s SEC Football Coaches Weekly Media Teleconference.
    The teleconference is a much tighter window than Sarkisian’s Monday press conference or his Thursday Zoom call (his portion of the call lasted less than six minutes). Still, Sarkisian’s comments on Wednesday addressed a few key topics ahead of No. 1 Texas opening the 2025 season on Saturday against No. 3 Ohio State (11 a.m., Fox).
    — When asked if Emmett Mosley V will be available for Saturday’s game, Sarkisian said the Stanford wide receiver transfer is “limited this week.” He didn’t elaborate further.
    Presumably, the first three wideouts to see the field against the Buckeyes will be DeAndre Moore Jr., Ryan Wingo and Parker Livingstone. If Mosley doesn’t play, the wide receiver rotation will be filled out by players the staff trusts.
    “At the end of the day, it's not about ability; it's what you're able to do,” Sarkisian said. “What you're able to do is what ultimately you show us, and then if you can do it consistently, that earns our trust. When you have our trust, we're going to play you."
    — What is Sarkisian hoping to learn about his team inside the Horseshoe against the Buckeyes?
    “Everything,” he said. “It's a new team. New people doing new things. New roles, new responsibilities. Everybody's had to elevate their game from last year to the next, whether it's a third-year player to a senior player, a second-year player to a third-year player, from a special teams guy playing more on offense or defense, from kids who were in high school now playing for us in college. I'm curious about it all. It's going to be fun to get answers to a lot of things that we have questions about, which, quite frankly, is just about everything.”
    — This isn’t the first time in Sarkisian’s career as a head coach when he’s had to open a season against the opponent his team played to end the previous season. Washington’s 2012 season ended with a 28-26 loss to No. 20 Boise State in the Las Vegas Bowl, but Sarkisian’s fifth campaign in 2013 started with the Huskies welcoming the Broncos to Seattle, a game Washington won convincingly, 38-6.
    Sarkisian’s Huskies also avenged a 56-21 loss to No. 8 Nebraska in the third game of the 2010 season with a 19-7 win over 17th-ranked Huskers in the Holiday Bowl, which wrapped up his second season at Washington with the program’s first winning record (7-6) in eight years.
    For Sarkisian, going 232 days between meetings with a non-conference opponent, even one as talented as the reigning national champions, isn’t foreign.
    “Part of it is, schematically, how much are people really going to change? Names and faces, some of them can remain the same. Some of them are new. How do people evolve and grow in their roles — some of the returning faces? There's challenges to it all,” Sarkisian said. “I think, at the end of the day, there's some commonalities, I'm sure, that they'll be, that they do. There'll be some new things. Maybe they move some pieces around, some people in different spots. What do they do with Jeremiah [Smith]? Do they use them the same way? Do they use him differently? Do they use them on punt returns? Do they use him on kick returns? How much did they do with Caleb Downs? Sonny Styles? A lot of similar names from last year, it's just, how much do they evolve? Then, how much have we evolved with some of the people in our organization and some of the schemes? That's part of the process of [a season opener]. That's always one of the challenges of Game 1 is the unknowns, and then trying to put your players in the best position to have some success.”
    Jeff Howe
    AUSTIN, Texas — There was a time when Steve Sarkisian couldn’t take Texas on the road and buy a win.
    After traveling to Boone Pickens Stadium and dropping a 41-34 decision to No. 11 Oklahoma State on Oct. 22, 2022, Sarkisian’s road record as coach of the Longhorns stood at an abysmal 1-6. While Bijan Robinson churning out 216 yards on a career-high 35 carries in a win over TCU in Fort Worth accounted for Sarkisian’s only victory through his first six true road games on the job, things haven’t been the same since the loss in Stillwater.
    That’s the last time Texas lost a true road game, establishing the longest active road winning streak in the country after last season’s 17-7 win over No. 20 Texas A&M at Kyle Field. Winners in each of their last 11 true road games, the No. 1 Longhorns try to make it 12 consecutive victories next Saturday when they open the 2025 season against No. 3 Ohio State.
    Traveling to the Horseshoe to face the reigning national champion for the second time in less than eight months might make for the toughest road trip of Sarkisian’s tenure. That’s saying a lot, considering the Aggies became the fifth Associated Press Top 25 opponent to fall victim to Texas during the streak.
    The streak started with a turning point in Sarkisian’s time leading the program — a 34-27 win over No. 13 Kansas State on Nov. 5, 2022.
    With the Wildcats on the verge of forcing overtime, and the Longhorns on the verge of blowing a 21-point halftime lead, Keondre Coburn stripped a scrambling Adrian Martinez. Jaylan Ford secured the loose ball and the victory for Texas, its first under Sarkisian away from Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium over an AP Top 25 opponent.
    Since then, the Longhorns have snapped Alabama’s 21-game winning streak at Bryant-Denny Stadium in 2023 and Michigan’s 23-game winning streak at the Big House last season. A 27-24 win over No. 25 Vanderbilt was one of three ranked opponents Texas defeated on the road en route to a 13-win season and a second consecutive trip to the College Football Playoff in 2024.
    The key to changing the program’s fortunes when traveling into enemy territory, Sarkisian said after the team’s second camp scrimmage last Saturday, was sticking to the routine he established in 2021.
    “I don't know that there's some secret sauce. We're a routine operation," Sarkisian said. "As much as some of us wanted us to change our routine on the road, we stuck with it way back in the day when we weren't a great road team. Over time, guys found the routine of what we did and why we did what we did.
    “We started to change the narrative of who we were as a road team.”
    The current road winning streak is tied for the program’s fourth-longest in the AP Poll era (since 1936). No Texas had ever racked up double-digit consecutive road wins until Darrell Royal’s Longhorns won 10 in a row, beginning with a 27-12 victory over Baylor on Nov. 10, 1962, and ending with a 27-24 loss to No. 3 Arkansas on Oct. 16, 1965.
    Sarkisian’s current streak is tied with a stretch of road success Texas enjoyed under Mack Brown over three seasons (2000-02). After a 28-14 win over Colorado in Boulder on Oct. 14, 2000, the Longhorns didn’t drop another road game until a 42-38 loss to Texas Tech on Nov. 16, 2002, which kept Texas out of the Big 12 title game.
    Sarkisian has the Longhorns positioned similarly to where Brown had them in the early 2000s. Back then, Texas was stacking elite recruiting classes on top of each other and had been close to playing for a national championship, with a loss to Colorado in the 2001 Big 12 Championship Game costing the Longhorns an opportunity to face Miami in the Rose Bowl.
    Whether Texas continues the winning streak inside the Horseshoe in nine days or not, double-digit winning streaks in true road games have only happened when the Longhorns have been legitimate championship contenders.
    — Royal’s Wishbone-era squad won 12 true road games in a row as part of the program’s record-setting 30-game winning streak (1968-70).
    The ‘68 Longhorns bounced back with a vengeance from a 1-1-1 start, working out the kinks in the Wishbone while getting through Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and No. 9 Arkansas before a 38-14 road win over Rice on Oct. 26. Texas, which won two national championships before its school-record winning streak was snapped with a 24-11 loss to Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl at the end of the 1970 season, saw the road winning streak end at the hands of No. 16 Arkansas in Little Rock, 31-7, on Oct. 16, 1971.
    — Fred Akers came painfully close to winning a couple of national championships in his time as the Longhorns’ head man (1977-86). At the height of his tenure, Akers led Texas to 13 consecutive true road wins, which were spread out over four seasons (1981-84).
    A week after the Longhorns took a No. 1 ranking into Fayetteville and ran into a Razorback buzz, dropping a 42-11 decision, they went into Irving’s Texas Stadium and handed No. 10 SMU its only loss of the 1981 season, recording a 9-7 win. The Mustangs were one of four ranked opponents to drop a home game to Texas during the streak, with two of the ranked wins coming in 1983 (No. 5 Auburn and No. 9 SMU) and another in 1984 (No. 12 TCU).
    The 44-23 win over the Horned Frogs on Nov. 17, 1984, was the last win during the streak, with a loss to Baylor in Waco ending it a week later (24-10 on Nov. 24).
    — After Brown’s ‘02 squad lost to Texas Tech, the Longhorns rattled off 15 true road victories in a row over the next four seasons (2003-06), three of which came over ranked opponents.
    Texas knocked off Arkansas in Fayetteville (2004) and won twice in College Station (2003 and 2005) and Lubbock (2004 and 2006) during the streak. Sandwiched between a 55-16 thrashing of No. 21 Oklahoma State (Nov. 8, 2003 in Stillwater) and a 22-20 triumph over No. 17 Nebraska in the snow (Oct. 21, 2006 in Lincoln) was a 25-22 win in the Horseshoe over No. 4 Ohio State on Sept. 10, 2005, which established the Longhorns as a legitimate national championship contender early in a season that ended with Texas snapping the school's 35-year title drought.
    Jeff Howe
    AUSTIN, Texas — There was a method to Steve Sarkisian’s madness when the Texas coach embarked on a mission to challenge Malik Muhammad ahead of the team’s second camp scrimmage.
    “I purposely went after him with a couple of different things,” Sarkisian said after the scrimmage. “For him to play the way that he played gave me more confidence than I've had, and I have a lot in him. Today was very, very encouraging on that front.”
    Muhammad, a veteran cornerback with 18 starts in 30 career games, will begin the 2025 season with arguably the toughest assignment he’ll face as a junior whenever he has to cover Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith. Smith was limited to one reception for three yards on Jan. 10, when the Buckeyes’ 28-14 triumph in the Cotton Bowl ended the Longhorns’ season one game shy of the College Football Playoff National Championship.
    “It was a team effort,” Muhammad said earlier in camp about what it took for Texas to hold Smith to his lowest statistical output and his lowest single-game grade from Pro Football Focus during his remarkable true freshman season.
    The Longhorns had Smith’s number in Arlington. Still, Sarkisian, who didn’t mention Smith or any other Ohio State wide receivers by name while detailing what Muhammad went through last week, knows coach Ryan Day and offensive coordinator Brian Hartline will be looking to get the 6-foot-3-inch, 223-pound Smith (76 receptions 1,315 yards and 15 touchdowns, which established new freshman records for a Buckeye) involved early and often.
    The occasions when Muhammad finds himself one-on-one with Smith should be few and far between.
    That’s not a knock on the 6-foot, 188-pound Muhammad, who Pro Football Focus touts as the sixth-best returning cornerback in the country. Texas should do whatever it takes to limit the times Smith faces man coverage because he destroyed opponents in those situations last season.
    According to PFF, Smith’s 90.6 grade against man coverage was second among FBS wide receivers (minimum of 13 targets), recording 25 receptions for 384 yards and four touchdowns on 32 targets with a near-perfect NFL passer rating when targeted (156.3). Smith also averaged 4.09 yards per route run (sixth in FBS) with an average depth of target of 11.1 yards, indicating that if Will Howard could correctly identify that Smith was facing man coverage, the nation’s No. 1-ranked recruit in 2024 would be turned loose, and Ohio State could hunt chunk-yardage plays (Smith caught 12 passes last season that traveled 20 yards or more down the field, racking up 467 yards and scoring four touchdowns, recording a near-perfect PFF grade of 99.9 when targeted on deep throws).
    Julian Sayin, who was named Ohio State’s starting quarterback on Monday, shouldn’t be expected to decipher what Pete Kwiatkowski is throwing at him in his first career start. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how much Kwiatkowski and Duane Akina alternate between playing man and zone in the opener.
    That has more to do with trusting the communication that the secondary has worked to rebuild in the wake of losing Jahdae Barron and Andrew Mukuba than anything else. At the same time, an effective pass rush could make life on the back end much more manageable if the Longhorns can routinely pressure Sayin.
    Although Smith was good last season against zone, catching 43 passes for 783 yards and nine touchdowns, shading coverage to his side of the field and devoting more resources to him, in general, is the path of least resistance.
    Elevated to the No. 2 wide receiver, with Emeka Egbuka out of eligibility, Carnell Tate was much better against zone last season (a season-long PFF grade of 73.7) than when working against man coverage (59.1). While it’s risky for Texas to let its defensive backs handle Tate, Brandon Inniss and the other Buckeye receiving threats more often in one-on-one situations, Muhammad and the other Longhorn defensive backs should be ready for what they’ll see inside the Horseshoe in 12 days.
    Jeff Howe
    AUSTIN, Texas — Steve Sarkisian won’t know how the Texas interior defensive line measures up to the program’s last few groups until the No. 1 Longhorns meet No. 3 Ohio State in the Horseshoe on Aug. 30.
    Still, through six practices, Sarkisian knew enough to make a definitive statement about Kenny Baker’s unit.
    “We're deep,” Sarkisian said after the team's Aug. 5 practice. “That's probably the biggest thing I can say about that group right now. We're playing a lot of guys, which has been good.”
    Vernon Broughton and Alfred Collins were two of the first 71 picks in the 2025 NFL Draft. Along with losing two of the most prominent members of a Texas defense that was No. 3 in FBS in total defense (283.4 yards per game and 4.4 yards per play allowed), scoring defense (15.3 points per game allowed) in the red zone (62.9 percent conversion rate allowed), the expired eligibility of Jermayne Lole and Bill Norton put the Longhorns in a position in which the 94 snaps Alex January logged as a true freshman made him the team's most experienced returning tackle.
    Cole Brevard (Purdue), Hero Kanu (Ohio State) and Travis Shaw (North Carolina) joined the program out of the transfer portal during the winter window. Even with January and Melvin Hills III back with a year under their belts, and Myron Charles, Justus Terry and Josiah Sharma making up a strong signing class that was on campus for spring practice, Texas went back into the portal and snagged Lavon Johnson (Maryland) and Maraad Watson (Syracuse) heading into the summer.
    Ten defensive tackles occupying scholarships on the 2025 roster might seem like overkill. Regardless, Sarkisian wanted to ensure the Longhorns had enough depth to fortify the rotation through what will be a long season if Texas makes another deep run in the College Football Playoff.
    “When you look at our team, I think about January,” Sarkisian said. “As much as I'm thinking about Aug. 30, I'm thinking about this journey we're trying to go on.”
    While it might take a few games for Sarkisian, Baker and Pete Kwiatkowski to figure out an optimal rotation, a deep mix of tackles is something the Longhorns didn’t have in 2024.
    Collins (593 snaps) and Broughton (588) both logged more than 500 snaps last season, according to Pro Football Focus. Lole (469) and Norton (260) were the only other Texas tackles to play more than 100 snaps, with January’s snap total finishing a distant fifth among Longhorn interior defensive linemen.
    “Where we're at now, a lot of these guys probably would've been able to spell those guys more than we were able to last year,” Sarkisian said. “I think that's probably the difference. Some of those guys, if they were on our team last season, Vernon and Alfred might not have had to have played as many snaps as they did a year ago.”
    What that might look like when the dust settles on the 2025 season is a distribution of snaps similar to how the Texas defensive tackles operated in 2022.
    A group that eventually produced six NFL draft picks, including a first-rounder (Byron Murphy II in 2024) and two second-rounders (Collins in 2025 and T’Vondre Sweat in 2024), the defense’s top six tackles in Sarkisian's second season got enough snaps to be impactful during a 13-game campaign. Sweat’s 35.7 snaps played per game led the unit, followed by Keondre Coburn (31.9), Moro Ojomo (31.3), Murphy (30.2), Collins (21.6) and Broughton (20.3).
    When looking back at the snap totals within the tackle group in 2021, the Longhorns got more from Sweat (26.3 snaps per game in 2021) and Murphy (24.8), which helped Ojomo (35.9) and Coburn (32.4) maximize their time on the field. A deeper, more effective tip of the spear helped Texas finish 22nd nationally in yards per rushing attempt allowed (3.48) and 32nd in rushing yards per game allowed (125.7), a drastic turnaround from Kwiatkowski's forgettable debut (201.6 yards per game and 5.15 yards per attempt allowed).
    According to PFF’s snap totals from the 2024 season, Watson (37.9 snaps per game) logged the most playing time at his previous stop, followed by Brevard (34.7), Shaw (25.9), Johnson (20.5) and Kanu (7.8). Based on their season-long PFF grades, a rotation could help Texas get more consistent production from Watson and Brevard.
    No defensive tackle in the Sarkisian era has logged as much playing time in one season as Watson did as a true freshman in the ACC. A few fewer snaps per game could do for Watson what it did for Brevard, whose PFF grade improved from a 60.6 in 2023, when he played in 11 games for the Boilermakers and averaged 35.6 snaps per game, to a 75 last season (a PFF grade of 70 is considered above average).
    The competition for snaps will bleed into the regular season, which is fine with Sarkisian. If the master plan Sarkisian put into motion works, and the 2025 defensive tackle outlook rivals what happened in 2022, Baker's group should have a lot left in the tank when it matters most in December and January.
    “That's what my goal was coming into the season: Could we develop that room into where we can play a lot of players, a lot of people, so that over time, that wear and tear wouldn't take its toll on us?” Sarkisian said. “I think we've done that.”
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