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    Jeff Howe
    What shouldn’t get lost in the shuffle of Texas coming uncomfortably close to squandering a 24-point lead in last Saturday’s 34-31 win over Vanderbilt is the way the Longhorns put the Commodores in a four-score hole through three quarters.
    Texas (7-2, 4-1 SEC) won the line of scrimmage battle in a landslide, something it hasn’t done consistently in 2025. Steve Sarkisian might’ve said it best during his weekly news conference on Monday when he pointed out how the Longhorns minimized Vanderbilt’s strength “and made it a strength of ours.”
    The remarkable effort by Clark Lea’s organization to turn a perennial SEC doormat into a contender for a berth in the College Football Playoff has centered around winning in the trenches.
    The Commodores came into the game with the third-best rushing offense in the SEC (203.4 yards per game, ranked 24th in FBS) while allowing only 26 tackles for loss (3.25 per game, ranked fourth nationally) and seven sacks (0.88 per game was tied for the top spot in the SEC and 11th in the country) through eight games. Vanderbilt was a top-25 defense nationally in tackles for loss (6.8 per game) and sacks (2.63 per game) and boasted a top-20 ranking against the run (101.9 yards per game allowed).
    Facing a formidable opponent up front, Texas dominated the game at the point of attack.
    “That's why I didn't think the score was indicative of how the game went,” Sarkisian said. We’ve got to play better in the fourth quarter, don't get me wrong, but we're playing better football right now.”
    The Longhorns kept Arch Manning upright, preventing the opponent from recording a sack for only the second time this season. The Commodores ended the game with one tackle for loss, tying Ohio State for the fewest tackles for loss allowed by Texas through nine games.
    Only four of the Longhorns’ 27 official rushing attempts were stopped for no gain or netting negative yardage. The 15 percent stuff rate allowed is the second-best mark Texas has recorded in 2025, topped only by a five percent stuff rate by the Buckeye defense (just two of 37 official rushing attempts in the season opener failed to get back to the line of scrimmage).
    The line of scrimmage play on offense came as close as it has to matching the continued excellence displayed by the defensive front. After sacking Diego Pavia six times (Vanderbilt allowed only seven through eight games) and recording 10 tackles for loss (one shy of a season high 11 notched in a road win over Kentucky on Oct. 18), Texas has racked up 23 sacks and 37 tackles for loss during its four-game SEC winning streak.
    The Longhorns currently own the top-ranked run defense in the SEC (78.2 yards per game allowed, No. 2 in FBS) and their 34 sacks lead the conference and the country (No. 2 in FBS with 3.78 sacks per game). Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense is also 18th nationally and fifth in the SEC in tackles for loss per game (6.8).
    The team's trench success came on a day in which the offense enjoyed a 7-for-11 performance on third down (tied for the season high with an identical 7-for-11 effort in a 55-0 win over Sam Houston on Sept. 20). Combine those aspects of the win with Mason Shipley’s 39-yard field goal in the first quarter on the heels of a strip sack and fumble recovery by Colin Simmons and Sarkisian is excited about the momentum Texas will look to capitalize on coming out of the bye week. Specifically, Sarkisian wants to see his club build on what he described as "a level of confidence right now with our team of, ‘Man, we're getting better.'"
    "We're taking care of the ball better. We're creating turnovers. We're stopping the run. We're starting to run the ball better — we need to
    run it better. We're converting third downs. We're doing a lot of things really well," Sarkisian said. "We're playing better at the line of scrimmage now on both sides of the ball.
    “There was a lot of things to point to in that game where it's like, ‘OK, we're starting to hit our stride a little bit more,” he added. “There's some things to clean up, we're not a finished product, but we're getting better."
    Jeff Howe
    Let’s start with what’s objectively fantastic about Texas hanging on for a 34-31 win over No. 9  Vanderbilt, and that’s the start of the game.
    The season-saving closing moments of last Saturday’s 45-38 overtime win over Mississippi State carried the Longhorns into a game at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium for the first time in 42 days. With those two factors colliding, I would’ve been disappointed if we didn’t see the most inspired, ready-to-go-from-the-jump version of Steve Sarkisian’s team through nine games.
    And Texas (7-2, 4-1 SEC) came out like a house of fire.
    Less than four minutes into the game, Arch Manning (25-for-33, 328 yards and three touchdowns) and Ryan Wingo (89 yards on two catches before exiting the game with a thumb injury) connected on a 75-yard touchdown, Colin Simmons forced a Diego Pavia fumble on a strip sack and the Longhorns had a 10-0 lead.
    I wanted Sarkisian to take the ball first (he didn’t get the choice since the Commodores won the toss and deferred their option to the second half). The opportunity to be the aggressor and set the tone the right way could get Vanderbilt (7-2, 3-2) on its heels.
    That’s exactly what happened. The Longhorns never trailed in the latest must-win game of the 2025 season.
    I couldn’t have envisioned a better start to a victory that keeps the team’s goals of a berth in the SEC title game and a third consecutive trip to the College Football Playoff alive.
    ***
    Manning achieved back-to-back 300-yard passing games for the first time in his career with the most complete sampling of throws we’ve seen from him this season.
    On quick throws, screens, intermediate passes and the occasional shot down the field beyond 20 yards, Manning completed 10 consecutive passes at one point. While connecting on 22 of his final 27 attempts, Manning was 7-for-9 for 81 yards on third down and six of his completions moved the chains.
    Manning led Texas to points on six of the offense’s first seven drives, with the Longhorns failing to score only on a two-play drive at the end of the first half.
    ***
    Until the end of the game, when Texas was trying to drain the clock and make the Commodores use their timeouts, Sarkisian called the game he needed to call to position the Longhorns for a win. While I might be a prisoner of the moment, I'll say that the vast majority of the Vanderbilt game is up there with last season’s road win over Michigan and the 2023 road win over Alabama as games in which Sarkisian seemed to push all the right buttons on offense at a consistently high level.
    One of the things I liked was how Sarkisian helped the offensive line, which benefited from the return of Cole Hutson from injury.
    With Hutson in the lineup at left guard, Texas had the athleticism between Trevor Goosby and Connor Robertson that wasn’t there with either Nick Brooks or Connor Stroh. Sarkisian’s decision to maximize the Longhorns’ advantage on the perimeter with the quick passing game, well-executed screen passes to the running backs and the utilization of pre-snap movement to create a numbers advantage in the running game led to Quintrevion Wisner (75 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries) and C.J. Baxter Jr. (22 yards rushing and a receiving touchdown) rushing for a combined 97 yards on 25 carries.
    With only one tackle for loss allowed (Clark Lea’s defense came into Saturday’s game averaging 6.8 tackles for loss per game, which ranked 21st nationally) and the defense sacking Pavia six times (only seven sacks allowed through eight games) to go along with 10 tackles for loss, Texas dominated the line of scrimmage against a team that prides itself on winning with a physical, methodical brand of football.
    The hard-to-stomach final few minutes of the game could push the winning trench effort aside. It shouldn’t, but it’s understandable if it’s hard to see it through the muck of an almost catastrophic fourth quarter.
    ***
    The game turned on a play that nearly put the nail in Vanderbilt’s coffin.
    Manning’s 33-yard touchdown strike to Emmett Mosley V (69 yards and a touchdown on seven catches) was correctly overturned and ruled an incomplete pass. However, the officiating crew failed to call defensive pass interference or defensive holding on cornerback Kolbey Taylor, who had a handful of Mosley’s jersey, restricting his left arm from helping him complete the play.
    Instead of a touchdown that would’ve put Texas up 40-16 (extra point pending) with 4:09 to go, effectively ending the game, Mason Shipley’s failed field goal try from 51 yards out on the next snap put into motion a forgettable end to an otherwise strong outing.
    ***
    Two things are true about the end of the game.
    I try as hard as I can to leave the officials out of the discussion of how things played out. With that said, I don’t know what else Simmons (five tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, one sack, two hurries and a forced fumble) has to demand more holding calls. Even though Trey Moore (three tackles, one sack, one tackle for loss and two hurries) drew one on Vanderbilt’s last possession, it’s hard for me to believe that Simmons’ constant disruption and the Vanderbilt offensive line’s inability to block him couldn’t get him more calls (and I don’t have the that's without getting into the Commodores’ two-point conversion, which was upheld after a review with a flimsy explanation from the replay booth to the ABC crew working the game as to why it stood).
    Still, there’s no excuse for the breakdowns on the back end, which helped the Commodores nearly pull off an upset that would’ve dashed the Longhorns’ postseason hopes. Pavia, who threw for 365 yards, rushing for 43 and accounted for four touchdowns (three passing and one rushing), went 12-for-16 through the air in the fourth quarter, racked up 205 yards and threw two touchdowns.
    Vanderbilt averaged 11.3 yards per play in the fourth quarter, went a combined 4-for-5 on third and fourth down and converted a fourth-and-19 from its 2-yard line on a 12-play, 89-yard touchdown drive.
    Yes, Texas missed Michael Taaffe and Jelani McDonald. But the absence of the two veteran safeties can’t singularly account for the egregious breakdowns in the fourth quarter, which helped make the game closer than it should’ve been.
    ***
    While the closing minutes are ripe for criticism, the Longhorns have a top-10 win in their pocket heading into the bye week.
    Manning seems to be hitting his stride, Sarkisian might’ve found something to help the offense click with AJ Milwee’s move to the press box and the offensive line should come out of Saturday’s win with a little confidence.
    The most concerning thing coming out of the game is that for two consecutive games against two different passing attacks, the pass defense has been shredded. Texas needs Taaffe and McDonald back in a bad way, but things need to tighten up and get cleaned up.
    The Longhorns have looked exploitable in SEC play. With Gunnar Stockton (Georgia), Taylen Green (Arkansas) and Marcel Reed (Texas A&M) left on the schedule, the issues on the back end must get resolved with an extra week to prepare for a highly anticipated trip to Athens on Nov. 15.
    Jeff Howe
    Whether Arch Manning is out of concussion protocol in time to start at quarterback for No. 20 Texas against No. 9 Vanderbilt at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday (11 a.m., ABC) or Matthew Caldwell makes his Forty Acres starting debut, don’t expect Steve Sarkisian’s offense to change much, if at all.
    “We haven’t changed anything that we’ve done,” Sarkisian said on a Zoom call with reporters after Thursday’s practice. “Our system has been our system.”
    It’s true that Sarkisian’s attack has looked largely the same, no matter which of the five quarterbacks he’s called upon to start in his tenure (Manning, Hudson Card, Casey Thompson, Quinn Ewers and Maalik Murphy) have run the show. Nevertheless, none of those quarterbacks operated the offense the same.
    Manning, who practiced on Thursday but remains in concussion protocol, Sarkisian said, is making progress toward getting back on the field. If he can’t go, however, Sarkisian remains steadfast in his belief that Caldwell’s coaches and teammates “have the utmost confidence and respect” in the Troy transfer to get the job done.
    Regarding how the offense will function with Caldwell at the controls, it’s to Sarkisian’s benefit to play coy and avoid revealing his hand to Clark Lea and the Commodores. Everybody outside the Moncrief Complex has a limited viewing sample of what Caldwell can do, Sarkisian said, “but he gives us a ton of confidence in the way that he practices every day, the way that he works.”
    Between Caldwell’s 2023 season at FCS Gardner-Webb and what he did in five starts with the Trojans in 2024, there are two areas in which he could help Texas (6-2, 3-1 SEC) move the football through the air.
    Five of Caldwell’s seven touchdown passes in 2023 came on pass attempts behind the line of scrimmage. Caldwell earned a 74.3 season-long grade from Pro Football Focus on those throws, going 43-for-47 for 250 yards, which is better than Manning’s 2025 grade on pass attempts behind the line of scrimmage of 70.2 (52-for-54 for 371 yards and no touchdowns). 
    Caldwell had more success on intermediate throws (pass attempts 10-19 yards down the field) at Troy last season, recording a PFF grade of 85.7 (28-for-46 for 433 yards and seven touchdowns against three interceptions). Caldwell’s overtime touchdown pass to Emmett Mosley V in last week’s win over Mississippi State was an intermediate-range throw, a part of the field in which he’s 3-for-4 for 44 yards (a PFF grade of 86.8) and where Manning hasn’t been at his best this season (27-for-54 for 431 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions).
    Caldwell’s ability to execute screens and quick throws behind the line of scrimmage, along with the intermediate throws that Sarkisian’s play-calls can scheme open, can stabilize an offense that otherwise couldn’t lean on Manning extending the play with his legs, be a factor in the running game or hit chunk-yardage plays on deep balls (on 60 career pass attempts thrown 20 or more yards down the field, Caldwell has completed just 19, throwing two touchdowns against seven interceptions). The Longhorns shouldn’t be expected to run either quarterback much; Manning wouldn’t be asked to run more than necessary for obvious reasons and in addition to Caldwell fumbling seven times (48 official rushing attempts, including sacks) in 2024, his elevation to QB1 would put KJ Lacey one play away from the first meaningful action of his true freshman season.
    The closest thing Texas has had to a recognizable identity on offense is when it relies on Manning’s athleticism to extend plays. Manning's legs have taken pressure off the offensive line and created explosive plays down the field.
    Even if Caldwell can’t do those things, Sarkisian is confident in the offense putting a winning brand of football on the field with the well-traveled veteran at the wheel.
    “The game plan is the game plan,” Sarkisian said. “I think all of his teammates have a ton of confidence in Matt if it’s his time to go.”
    Jeff Howe
    When Davon Booth reeled in a shovel pass from Blake Shapen and weaved through a beleaguered Texas defense for a 62-yard touchdown, which gave Mississippi State a 38-21 lead with 12:29 to go in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game in Starkville, I thought about 2010.
    Mack Brown’s program carried the weight of a BCS title game loss to Alabama into a season that began with sky-high expectations. Will Muschamp’s defense did what it could to keep the Longhorns afloat, but Greg Davis' listless offense turned the football over enough that the dam eventually broke.
    Fifteen years later, the fate of Steve Sarkisian’s club was all but sealed.
    The 2010 squad went from a 13-1 juggernaut in 2009 to a 5-7 dumpster fire. Even with a win over Oklahoma sandwiched between road losses to Ohio State and Florida, and last Saturday's 16-13 overtime road win over Kentucky, it felt like the 2025 group was headed in the same direction.
    The offense consistently shooting itself in the foot allowed the defense, which was gashed time and again by the Bulldogs, to be overexposed.
    Nevertheless, Deonte Anderson’s personal foul penalty for roughing Arch Manning on a failed fourth-and-1 on the ensuing possession after Booth’s touchdown changed everything.
    With the drive still alive, Manning connected with Emmett Mosley V for a 21-yard touchdown with 9:34 left in regulation, kickstarting a run of 31 unanswered points. Manning went 12-for-20 for 169 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, persevering through another game in which he was under constant pressure and got little to no relief from a virtually non-existent running game (72 net yards on 32 carries, including the five times Manning was sacked, which lost a total of 29 yards).
    Less than two minutes after Mason Shipley made it a 10-point game with a 26-yard field goal, Ryan Niblett took advantage of Ethan Pulliam's booming 57-yard punt. Pulliam outkicked his coverage down the middle of the field, paving the way for Niblett's game-tying 79-yard touchdown.
    The defense, as it did in last Saturday’s overtime victory over the Wildcats in Lexington, allowed only one first down after the Shapen-to-Booth touchdown, ending a miraculous 45-38 triumph on Ethan Burke’s fourth-and-20 walk-off sack in overtime. The stop came on the heels of Matthew Caldwell making the most of his lone pass attempt, relieving an injured Manning and lofting a 10-yard touchdown to Mosley on second-and-8 in overtime.
    Texas (6-2, 3-1 SEC) defied logic by rallying from 17 points down in the fourth quarter to win. The Longhorns were dead in the water. The on-field meltdown coming on the same day that off-field news surrounding Sarkisian’s future on the Forty Acres dominated the pregame chatter ahead of the team’s fourth consecutive game away from Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium created a perfect storm for a program to be in complete and utter turmoil at the final gun.
    Instead, Sarkisian and the staff will get ready for Texas to welcome a good Vanderbilt team to town next Saturday with all of the team’s season-long goals on the table.
    The Longhorns will head home from Starkville with blemishes that could prevent them from reaching their preferred destination. Chief among them is the health of Manning, who had to be helped off the field after taking a shot at the end of a 13-yard run on the first play of overtime, abruptly ending a day in which he threw for 346 yards and accounted for four touchdowns (three passing and one rushing).
    Nevertheless, Texas is done with a month’s worth of football games played away from home with only one SEC loss on the ledger. Unlike the 2010 Longhorns, Sarkisian’s club is bowl eligible and had enough about it to escape two road games with a pair of too-close-for-comfort victories.
    That’s the bottom line. Texas won back-to-back overtime road games it had little to no business winning.
    It remains to be seen what becomes of a season that started with talk of a return to the College Football Playoff and a possible national championship run. For now, Longhorn fans should take comfort in the fact that this team, as flawed as it is, had enough about it to pull out two wins that could’ve easily gone the other way.
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