Jeff Howe

Four is four more than I want, but I didn't mind it too much yesterday.

Yep. They pose a lot of problems. That's a legit offense.

As a college defensive lineman, Suh might've been a once-in-a-lifetime player. As good as guys like Casey Hampton and Tommie Harris were in college, I didn't see anyone do what Suh did before him or since.

The last part of your post is why I think the coaches went with Kobe Black. I don't think he had a great camp, but the coaches saw something that gave him the nod over Derek Williams.

1. @Bobby Burton talked about this on "Lunch with the Coach," which we recorded today, but it starts with run blitzing and being aggressive on early downs to try and get Ohio State behind the chains. That's where it starts before we get to coverage. Overall, though, I'd expect Muschamp to be more aggressive. 2. You lean on your strengths in a game like this, which is finding ways to put Biles and Simmons in positions to impact the game. The defensive plan starts with weaponizing those two specifically. 3. I think it's whoever is on McCuin and/or Inniss. Texas did a great job on Smith the last two times it's played Ohio State, but Emeka Egbuka and Carnell Tate made huge catches in those games.

I wouldn't focus on putting one guy on Smith. You're going to have to roll coverage to his side, whether that's a trap situation, putting a safety over the top or something else. You've got to mix it up. The pressure on Sayin will also be a huge part of that for Texas. Ohio State did a good job of protecting him in last year's game, but I don't expect that to be the same this year.

Just saw what I think is the best punt I've ever seen by the Wisconsin punter. Holy cow!

Keff is the man on Texas State coverage.

Thoughts and prayers to the spotters in the press box trying to read jersey numbers on the field in the Notre Dame-Wisconsin game.

Devin McCuin is good. I think the edge in the receiver group is WR3 because I like Emmett Mosley more than Brandon Inniss. With the top two on both sides, it's a draw.

I don't know if you watch "Lunch with the Coach," but Coach Erwin addresses this and shares your sentiment. It'll be worth the watch when it goes up on the channel tomorrow.

I don't care if the Longhorns win by one or 100. They need this one. No credit for playing it close, IMO.

If I were grading the pass defense, I'd give it an A-minus. The good outweighed the bad. Still, it'll be a different world against Ohio State. Is this when Jeremiah Smith finally has a big game against Texas?

It’s time to revisit On Texas Football's “One Burning Question,” where we ask a significant question of the Texas Longhorns heading into a game. Entering Saturday’s 59-7 win over Texas State, our burning question for No. 5 Texas was: How will the Texas pass defense fare in its first test under Will Muschamp? Although there were a few hiccups, the Longhorns kept Brad Jackson and the Bobcats’ passing attack from producing the eye-popping they posted last season. Jackson’s 150 passing yards on a 15-for-23 afternoon marked his lowest output through the air since the 2024 season, when he threw for 102 on a 4-for-6 outing in a blowout win over Southern Miss. The 188 passing yards Texas State mustered are its fourth-fewest in 41 games under GJ Kinne, while Saturday’s route saw Texas hold the Bobcats without a passing touchdown for only the fourth time in Kinne's tenure. Texas State ended the game with three pass completions of 20 or more yards, a hair below the 3.6 per game the Bobcats averaged last season (tied with the Longhorns and five other programs for No. 34 nationally with 47 20-plus-yard completions). Just one of those chunk-yardage connections (a 41-yard strike from Jackson to Tucker Cusano in the second quarter) led to a touchdown, which might’ve been the only coverage bust Muschamp’s defense experienced while defending 29 official pass attempts. Defending the deep ball was only part of the challenge Texas faced against the Texas State aerial attack. Thankfully, the Longhorns minimized the damage the Bobcats did after the catch; Texas State’s 109 yards after the catch and 5.5 yards after the catch per reception (according to Pro Football Focus) were under its 2025 season averages of 137.7 yards per game and 7.05 yards per reception, respectively. Of the 109 yards Texas allowed after the catch, 61 of them came on three plays. Cusano’s catch, where Jackson dropped the ball into him after he got behind the Longhorn linebackers in coverage, kickstarted a five-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, but the Bobcats couldn’t turn either of their other two long catch-and-run plays into points. Texas overcame a 24-yard catch-and-run by Davian Jackson, who Graceson Littleton rode out of bounds at the 5-yard line after Brad Jackson pulled up during a scramble and flipped the ball to his running back for big yardage. The defense stood tall, denying the Bobcats the end zone on a 13-play, 82-yard drive, which ended with a missed field goal. Chris Dawn Jr. beat Bo Mascoe on an angle route out of the backfield in the second quarter, ripping off a 22-yard gain before Jonah Williams tackled him at the Longhorns’ 36-yard line. Two plays later, Rasheem Biles (whose interception on an attempted screen pass by Jackson in the third quarter was the defense's third takeaway of the game) punched the football out of Taji Atkins’ arms, leading to Littleton’s 59-yard scoop-and-score touchdown. PFF credited Jackson with a 2-for-6 performance on passes thrown 10 or more yards beyond the line of scrimmage for 53 yards. That exemplifies how the Texas defense executed Muschamp’s game plan: get lined up quickly to combat the opponent's tempo, don't let the ball get behind you and prevent ball carriers from ripping off extra yards after the catch by making plays in space. Muschamp shouldn’t have been expected to be too exotic against Texas State with a showdown against No. 1 Ohio State next on the schedule. The Longhorns will face a Buckeye passing game that was clicking on all cylinders in a 56-3 rout of Ball State; Julian Sayin threw for 320 yards and three touchdowns on a 21-for-25 performance, with Jeremiah Smith recording 151 yards and two touchdowns on eight receptions. In two games against Texas, Smith has caught seven passes for 46 yards and didn’t find the end zone in either meeting. Like a lot of things that can be said about the Longhorns coming out of the win over the Bobcats, the challenge facing the pass defense will be much tougher when Ohio State is occupying the visiting sideline at DKR next Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC). View full news story

He’s QB2 with the Jets.

Michigan’s offense is a burning car on the side of the road. I shouldn’t watch, but I can’t look away.

They were definitely not trying to get beat deep.

Great finish to the Baylor-Auburn game!

I want to rewatch the game almost strictly for defensive purposes. I could be wrong, but it felt like a pretty basic, bland game plan by Will Muschamp.

Arch Manning’s performance in Saturday’s 59-7 season-opening win over Texas State mirrored the product No. 5 Texas put on the field. Manning opened the 2026 season completing 20 of 27 passes for 305 yards, four touchdowns and an interception. Like the Longhorns as a group, Manning had plenty of good things he can take away from the first game of the season (two touchdown passes to Cam Coleman, a 7-for-8 day throwing the ball on third down and leading two touchdown drives to start the second half after a sloppy sequence before halftime) and a few things he’d like to have back (an interception in the end zone on the last play of the first half). Overall, Manning and the Longhorns have enough things to fix coming out of the game that they should keep them from riding high for too long, especially with the countdown to a showdown with No. 1 Ohio State underway in earnest. *** For the most part, when Manning was behind center, Texas State's defense was in a single-high safety look for most of the game. The Bobcats devoted more resources to stopping the run after Texas got the ground attack going early, which is when Manning started to push the ball down the field. Eight of Manning’s 20 completions were explosive (15 or more yards), including a 44-yarder to Coleman (three catches for 70 yards) and a 45-yard strike to Ryan Wingo (seven catches for 121 yards and a touchdown, all in the first half). *** While the deep ball carried the passing game Saturday, a couple of Manning’s clutch throws were the kind of layups Steve Sarkisian has said Manning needs to hit more frequently. One was when he got Texas State to jump into the neutral zone on third-and-9, resulting in a swing pass to Hollywood Smothers (70 yards rushing, 28 yards receiving and a 13-yard touchdown catch) for 11 yards and a first down (Raleek Brown scored six plays later). The other was a fourth-and-4 strike to Emmett Mosley V (37 yards on three receptions), which gained seven yards as Manning made the throw (from the hash mark closest to the home sideline going into the visiting sideline) look effortless. *** What was disappointing about Manning’s interception into a crowd of Texas State defenders is that he eliminated those kinds of mistakes in the second half of last season. Hopefully, it was a first-game mistake and Manning will reserve the right to kick a field goal and get points for the offense in those situations going forward. *** Raleek Brown’s (34 yards rushing and two touchdowns) aforementioned 13-yard touchdown run in the second quarter capped an impressive 13-play, 80-yard drive after the Bobcats missed a field goal. That drive featured some of the best and most consistent blocking the Texas offensive line has ever put on display this early in the season under Steve Sarkisian. With the tight ends (namely Nick Townsend and Spencer Shannon) setting a physical tone, the Longhorns owned the line of scrimmage, converting a second-and-1 (a 5-yard run by Cooper) and a third-and-1 (a 5-yard run by Smothers) en route to the end zone. Unfortunately, the combination of Texas State sending more bodies toward the line of scrimmage, Texas going with fewer multiple-tight-end sets and the Longhorns looking like they weren’t staying on their blocks long enough to let runs get beyond the line of scrimmage caused the running game to bog down. Sarkisian called a delayed handoff/draw for Brown in the third quarter, which got him into the end zone from 21 yards out essentially untouched. It was a welcome sight. Still, as high as the highs were on Saturday, the lows felt a little too low when Texas tried to pound the rock. *** Between the high-risk, high-reward nature of Will Muschamp’s defense (on top of what seemed like a bland game plan), the explosive nature of Texas State’s offense and the tempo the Bobcats utilize, it should’ve been expected that the Longhorns would give up some big plays. While Texas was torched too many times for comfort (three 15-plus-yard passes and five rushing attempts of at least 10 yards), the Longhorns earned their three takeaways. Rasheem Biles and Maraad Watson punched the football loose twice and Biles watched Brad Jackson’s eyes the whole way on an attempted screen pass he intercepted. Muschamp’s defense can give up plays here and there, as long as they make more than they give up. That was the case on Saturday. *** Although the Bobcats got loose in coverage more than a few times, attacking the Texas defense at the second level and in the middle of the field in the process, it felt like the Longhorns tackled well. Credit to Jonah Williams for an open-field tackle on Chris Dawn Jr. to limit a catch-and-run on an angle route out of the backfield to a 22-yard gain (Biles’ forced fumble and Graceson Littleton’s scoop-and-score came one play later). Muschamp’s crew at least made Texas State earn its chunk-yardage plays. *** The defense has areas of concern. Namely, how the linebackers and safeties will hold up in coverage against the Buckeyes and beyond and too many runs that helped the Bobcats stay on schedule (Texas State’s average to-go distance on third down was 4.3 yards). Nevertheless, I’d expect Muschamp to show a lot more against Ohio State, which won’t test Texas the same way the Bobcats did (tempo, wide splits on the outside and a massive offensive line are veer-and-shoot staples that make GJ Kinne’s offense tough to deal with for four quarters). *** The Longhorns had four accepted penalties for 35 yards in the opener. Compared to a penalty-riddled 2025 season, that would’ve tied the Oklahoma game for the season-low in penalties and been the second-lowest penalty yardage total of the season (31 against the Sooners). *** Speaking of penalties, what more does Colin Simmons, who recovered the fumble Watson forced, have to do to draw a holding call? *** All told, the win over Texas State was as good an outing as Sarkisian and Texas could’ve hoped for. There were a lot of good things to take away and be excited about going forward, but there's a lot to clean up before Ohio State comes to town. View full news story

ICYMI from a few days ago, here's the Texas State depth chart, if you need it:

Bold for Week 1 against Ball State: