Jeff Howe

A three-point play by Matas gets things started for Texas.

Johnson, Orlando, City... Take your pick!

Whether it's a running back or a wide receiver, I'd love to see Texas add one of those types of guys in the portal. A Jaydon Blue or Keilan Robinson type.

Game 12: TEXAS (7-4, 0-0 SEC) vs. Le Moyne (5-5, 0-0 Northeast) Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025 — 7 p.m. Central Moody Center (10,763) — Austin, Texas GameDay Quick Facts — TELEVISION: The game will be streamed nationally by SEC Network+ with David Saltzman (play-by-play) and Jim Haller (analyst) on the call. — RADIO: The Longhorn Radio Network broadcasts every UT game on the statewide network. Craig Way (pxp) and Eddie Oran (analyst) will call the action. Check TexasLonghorns.com for a listing of affiliates carrying the game. — SERIES: First meeting Notables — BOUNCING BACK AFTER A LOSS: After each of its previous three losses this season, the Longhorns have bounced back quickly with dominant victories. Texas is 3-0 this year after a defeat with a +34.7 ppg scoring margin in those three contests. — HOME SUCCESS IN THE MOOD: Texas is 5-1 this season in home games in Moody Center and sports an impressive +21.5 scoring margin in those six contests. The Longhorns are 30-2 all-time in non-conference games in Moody Center. — POPE HEATIN' UP: Over the last six contests, senior G Jordan Pope has averaged a team-best 16.0 ppg while converting 53.2-percent (33-62) from the floor, including a 43.6-percent (17-39) mark from three-point range, and hit 13-of-14 (.929) free throws. — SOMETHING TO BUILD ON: In the second half at No. 5/5 UConn, the Horns limited the Huskies to 28 points (12-28 FG, 2-9 threes) and forced nine turnovers.

Ryan Wingo wouldn't be the first Texas wide receiver to have a sophomore season that left everybody wanting more, only to bounce back with a massive junior season. I mentioned Xavier Worthy, but Mike Davis and Devin Duvernay went through similar career arcs.

I'm a big Ty'Anthony Smith fan. The bowl prep and the bowl game could make this time a turning point in his career.

The vigor with which Texas addresses the wide receiver position in the transfer portal likely depends on the answer to one question. How much faith does Steve Sarkisian have in Ryan Wingo emerging as a bona fide No. 1 option for Arch Manning? Leading the Longhorns in receptions (50), receiving yards (770) and touchdown receptions (seven) en route to second-team All-SEC recognition from the league’s coaches constitutes a successful sophomore campaign through 12 games. Still, finishing the regular season with the second-most dropped passes among SEC wide receivers (Wingo’s seven are currently two behind Alabama’s Ryan Williams for the league high), which contributed to Manning suffering from 21 dropped passes, fourth-most among SEC quarterbacks and tied for 21st in FBS, according to Pro Football Focus. With his 50 catches coming on 87 targets (a 57.5 percent catch rate, according to PFF), Wingo’s 2025 season mirrors what Xavier Worthy went through in 2022. Worthy’s sophomore season saw him lead Texas with 59 receptions (on 113 targets for a catch rate of 52.2 percent), yards (757) and touchdowns (eight) and drops (seven). The 2024 first-round pick turned things around with an All-American season in 2023, with his 75 receptions for 1,014 yards and five touchdowns (two fewer dropped passes on six more targets from the previous season) helped the Longhorns win the Big 12 and reach the College Football Playoff. Will Wingo make the same kind of leap in his first draft-eligible season? — DeAndre Moore Jr.’s decision to jump to the NFL leaves a void in the slot (a team-high 216 snaps according to PFF) and opens a role as Manning’s go-to target in the intermediate passing game. According to PFF, Moore leads the Texas offense in receptions (14) and yards gained (229) when targeted from 10 to 19 yards down the field, accounting for 36.8 percent of the receptions (38) and 43 percent of the yards (522) he tallied in his final season with the Longhorns. In the intermediate game, Emmett Mosley V’s PFF season grade of 94.9 is higher than Moore’s (94). Mosley is a safe bet to rack up more than the 11 targets he got on intermediate throws. As for the workload in the slot, Sarkisian has to decide whether a portal acquisition would be an upgrade over a potential tandem of Daylan McCutcheon and Jermaine Bishop Jr. While Sarkisian can’t leave anything to chance in what’s expected to be Manning’s last season behind center, losing Trevor Goosby, Hero Kanu, Jelani McDonald or Quintrevion Wisner to the NFL could force Texas to use its available resources to shore up position groups with greater, more pressing needs. — With Liona Lefau leaving the program ahead of entering the transfer portal on Jan. 2, Ty’Anthony Smith is at the top of the list of the Longhorns who stand to gain the most leading up to and coming out of the Citrus Bowl against Michigan on New Year’s Eve. Smith ended the regular season with 364 snaps logged, according to PFF, recording the fifth-best season-long grade against the run (78.9, with PFF considering a grade of 70 to be above average) of any Longhorn defender. The Jasper product leads the team in forced fumbles (three) and missed tackles (12), showing how often he finds himself around the football. The latter should get better with experience, but the same must be true of Smith’s coverage ability for him to take the next step as a player. According to PFF, no Texas linebacker has been targeted this season more than Smith (33). Only Graceson Littleton and Jaylon Guilbeau have allowed more completions among Longhorn defensive players than Smith (26), who has allowed 244 yards (fourth-most on the team behind Guilbeau, Littleton and Lefau) and an NFL passer rating of 107.6 when targeted. With offensive play-callers looking to exploit the second level of the opposing defense when hunting favorable matchups, all linebackers are a liability in coverage in some way, shape or form. Nevertheless, Smith has the tools to be better in coverage than the numbers have shown this season. View full news story

Some of these teams don't have a spot for a return specialist. It's an all-purpose spot, which KC Concepcion has been filling on most of these.

The American Football Coaches Association FBS All-America Team is out, and three Texas players made the list. — Michael Taaffe (first-team defensive back) — Colin Simmons (second-team defensive line) — Anthony Hill Jr. (second-team linebacker) This is the first NCAA-recognized All-American team to have all three Longhorns on the squad.

Sark said the same thing at his signing day press conference on Dec. 3, which is about all he can say right now.

Where he’s being mocked by publications and writers isn’t necessary what the NFL thinks or how teams view him as a prospect. Gerry mentioned in his recent Goosby update that the opinions ranged from the middle of the first round to early in the second round as to where he’d go if he put his name in the ‘26 draft. In other words, he’s not viewed as a lock to be a mid-first-round pick.

That's the reality of where we are right now. Being a starter making a certain amount of money one season doesn't guarantee anything for the next season. Just like players can make leverage plays for more money, coaches can change the terms and present them to the players in a take-it-or-leave-it manner.

A few of them coming off the books will help. That's not the case for all of the departures, though.

Fifth round-ish.

In a perfect world, Lefau and Moore would be back at Texas as seniors in 2026. Unfortunately, that's not the way college football is operating right now.

Monday’s news of Liona Lefau’s departure from the Texas football program, along with DeAndre Moore Jr.’s intention to declare for the 2026 NFL Draft, is collateral damage amid the persistent roster volatility permeating throughout college football. The Longhorns planned to use the transfer portal to bolster the linebacker position before Lefau’s decision to enter the transfer portal went public. With Lefau’s production over 42 career games played and 22 starts gone, Texas will look for proven commodities to overhaul the second level of Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense. Moore, who wasn’t expected back on the Forty Acres in 2026, according to what team sources told On Texas Football in recent weeks, will join Lefau, Ethan Burke, Jaylon Guilbeau, Anthony Hill Jr., Trey Moore, Malik Muhammad and Michael Taaffe in opting out of the Citrus Bowl against Michigan in just over two weeks. Lefau’s decision to head into the portal, and Hill and Moore focusing on the draft, leaves Texas thin at linebacker for the bowl game, to say the least. The short-term pinch means a bigger role for Ty’Anthony Smith against the Wolverines, who lead the Big Ten with 32 rushing touchdowns, are second in the conference in yards per rushing attempt (5.51) and rank 16th nationally in rushing yards per game (213.2). Brad Spence could log more playing time at linebacker instead of as a pass rusher off the edge and, potentially, there could be more snaps available for Bo Barnes and Marshall Landwehr. For better or worse, that’s the price Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns are willing to pay to ensure they’ve got their ducks in a row long before the transfer portal officially opens for business on Jan. 2. Sarkisian didn’t want to outright say during his signing day press conference on Dec. 3 that following “an NFL draft model” is the best way to approach roster construction. Still, he laid out why the need to be fiscally responsible leads to tough calls on which players to acquire and retain. “You can only have so much money,” Sarkisian said. “There’s rules, there’s caps and we play within the confines of what the rules (are) that they put in place, so you’ve got to decide what’s the value at the position and what’s the value of certain players. When School B offers more money that’s outside of the value — it’s not endless. You can’t just keep throwing money on top of money on top of money. “We have to be very specific in (addressing) what are our needs, looking long term as well as short term, of where do you allocate that money?” Viewing the early signing window as the equivalent of the NFL draft (presumably, that would make the February signing period college football’s version of the supplemental draft, which is a fair comparison because it's becoming less relevant from one recruiting cycle to the next), Sarkisian said Texas landed some “elite first-round picks” in the 2026 class (Tyler Atkinson, Dia Bell, Jermaine Bishop and Richard Wesley are among those who look the part). He also made note of the Longhorns welcoming “high-level second, third and fourth-round picks” into the program ahead of his sixth season as head coach. Eventually, the newcomers become veterans on various career trajectories. Like NFL rookies, when their contracts are winding down and franchises must decide whether to extend them on longer, more lucrative second contracts or let them become unrestricted free agents, the rising third and fourth-year college players must accept their role for the coming season (even if it’s diminished and comes with a pay cut) or bet on themselves, either as a transfer or in the draft. Those are the discussions Texas and every other Power Four program eying a championship run are in the process of having with their players. The freedom of movement from which players benefit is the same mechanism that allows coaches to dictate the terms and conditions a player must accept to remain a part of the program. Between defections to the portal and NFL draft departures, only 10 of the 25 high school signees from the 2023 recruiting class are on track to be a part of the 2026 squad. Trevor Goosby, Jelani McDonald and Quintrevion Wisner are among the 10, meaning the number will go down should any of them declare for the draft. While the staff has a group of young players they’ll look to develop behind the scenes, the bulk of the roster movement ahead of what figures to be Arch Manning’s last season with the Longhorns will be moves the organization makes with an all-in mindset. It’s not ideal, and it can lead to decisions neither side of the table wants to make, but it’s the nature of the beast given college football’s current structure (or lack thereof). View full news story