Jeff Howe

On the eve of No. 21 Texas attempting to build on winning last Saturday’s 23-6 fist fight with Oklahoma when it faces Kentucky on the road (6 p.m., ESPN), what Colin Simmons said on Monday stands out as the theme of the week for Steve Sarkisian’s team. Texas (4-2, 1-1 SEC) wants its suffocation of the Sooners to be the jumping-off point to a prosperous second half of the regular season. Coming off of his most productive game of the season (five tackles and 2.5 sacks), Simmons, who was named SEC Co-Defensive Lineman of the Week for his performance in the win over Oklahoma, was blunt in his response when asked about the challenge of maintaining the mental approach the Longhorns carried into the Red River Shootout. “Well, I'll let you know this right now: We're not here for the emotional roller coaster. We're not here to go up and down,” Simmons said. “We're only here to go up and be consistent.” Simmons, along with the other Texas players who met with the media on Monday, and Sarkisian referred to Saturday’s meeting with the Wildcats as “an SEC Championship Game.” While that might sound disingenuous on the surface, the mantra speaks to the Longhorns' understanding that a loss to Kentucky (2-3, 0-3) would all but put an end to their hopes of returning to Atlanta for the second consecutive season. A start to Saturday’s game that mirrors what happened when Texas got itself into an early 10-0 hole in Gainesville on Oct. 4 (Florida hung on for a 29-21 win that knocked the Longhorns out of the Associated Press Top 25) is one from which the Longhorns might not recover. Mark Stoops has had better teams than the one he’ll lead onto Kroger Field. Still, the Wildcats’ potential to successfully utilize a ground-and-pound style of offense (Kentucky averages 159.4 yards per game and 4.22 yards per attempt on the ground) is the kind of attack capable of protecting a lead. According to College Football Data, the Wildcats average 3.2 line yards per carry, which ranks fifth in the SEC. According to the metric, which distributes a percentage of the credit for an offense’s rushing yards to the offensive line, the Kentucky offensive line gets the job done in the running game better than all but four lines in the conference. For all of the talk about the Texas offense needing to start fast, the defense’s job is just as important in that regard. “We've got to come out and stop the run,” defensive tackle Hero Kanu said on Monday. “That's, obviously, the mindset we’ve got to have.” In the loss to the Gators, Florida gained 94 of its 159 rushing yards in the first quarter. If the Longhorns can replicate what it did against the Sooners — the defense allowed only 80 sack-adjusted rushing yards (3.2 yards per attempt) and, once Texas grabbed the lead in the second half, turned up the heat on John Mateer to the tune of five sacks — it will go a long way toward making sure the team returns home with all of its goals intact. “We've got to force them to have third-and-longs,” Kanu said. “We've got to stop them on first and second down. That's really the mindset we have and we know what we've got to do.” View full news story

I mean, Cam did look like he was 26 at 18.

Can we not insult each other on a thread discussing a Lifetime Longhorn ending their football career?

This part of Caden's post hit me right in the feels because I've heard @Rod Babers and others mention something similar: "There were days the rehab hurt more than the hits. Days I questioned if I was chasing ghosts. Days I felt like the only one in the world who understood what my body and mind were going through. But day after day, I got up anyway. That discipline changed me. It taught me to keep showing up even when it seems the thing you love most is working against you, when there’s no crowd, when it’s just you, your thoughts, and your why. That’s a gift I’m carrying out of this game."

He's back at his old high school as an assistant coach. Texas flipped him from Oklahoma out of Newbury Park:

Best of luck to Caden Sterns with whatever's next for him:

Welcome to the community, Matt!

It will be a challenge for the offensive line to see if they can keep trending upward with Robertson stepping into the starting lineup.

Texas replicating exactly what it did while choking the life out of Oklahoma en route to winning the Red River Shootout for the third time in four years is a formula capable of giving the Longhorns a chance to win their six remaining regular-season games. Specifically, Texas (4-2, 1-1 SEC) would love the manner in which it manhandled the Sooners in the second half to carry over to the back half of the schedule, which begins with Saturday’s road game against Kentucky (6 p.m., ESPN). After trailing Oklahoma at halftime, 6-3, the Longhorns recorded a 20-0 edge on the scoreboard in the second half. Texas had a 188-88 advantage in total yards, racked up 91 net yards and averaged 3.8 yards per attempt on the ground and got a near-flawless performance from Arch Manning (11-for-13, 97 yards and a touchdown). Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense held Oklahoma’s offense to a combined 1-for-10 effort on third and fourth down and an average of 2.9 yards per play after halftime. A defense that failed to record a sack in losses to Ohio State and Florida got to John Mateer five times, with constant pressure (according to Pro Football Focus, Mateer was pressured on 17 of his 47 dropbacks), contributing to the quarterback’s three interceptions. Steve Sarkisian’s club “showed a lot of maturity and mental toughness and resolve and then, ultimately, imposing our will as the game went on,” he said during his press conference on Monday. Now, with Saturday’s trip to Lexington looming, the internal challenge is building on the process that led to the team’s success in Dallas. “Do we get right back to those same habits that we had last week?” Sarkisian said. “With the intent, with the sense of urgency, making every rep count in practice and then playing the brand and a style of football that we're very proud of, which is a physical one?” For Texas to continue being a team that can finish strong, the Longhorns must start becoming one that gets off to faster starts. When analyzing the first three drives for Texas and its opponents in the team’s three games against Power Four competition, the Longhorns have made a habit of putting themselves behind the 8-ball. Texas’ starts against the Power Four: Three games, nine total possessions Texas Points: 7 Total Offense: 45 plays, 178 net yards (3.96 yards per play) Rushing: 23 carries, 68 yards (2.96 yards per attempt) Passing: 15-for-22, 110 yards Third Down: 1-for-10 First Downs: 8 Penalties: Nine for 85 yards Opponents Points: 20 Total Offense: 68 plays, 344 yards (5.06 yards per play) Rushing: 36 carries, 152 yards (4.22 yards per attempt) Passing: 18-for-31, 191 yards, one interception Third Down: 7-for-13 First Downs: 21 Penalties: One for five yards The win over the Sooners was a microcosm of the Longhorns' early-game struggles. For starters, penalties and negative plays plagued their first three possessions. When the dust settled on those drives, Texas mustered only 40 total yards (3.1 yards per play) and was 0-for-3 on third down while facing a minus-6 play differential (19 snaps for Oklahoma to 13 for the Longhorns). When the offense took the field facing a 6-0 deficit with 9:09 remaining on the clock, Texas got it together. A 12-play, 75-yard drive took 4:40 off the clock and ended with a 39-yard Mason Shipley field goal, allowing the Longhorns to break through on the scoreboard. On that series, Texas wasn’t assessed a penalty and, although Quintrevion Wisner was dropped for a 1-yard loss one play after he burned the Sooner defense for 37 yards, Manning’s third-and-10 completion to DeAndre Moore Jr. for 14 yards on third-and-10 was the first of two third-down conversions on the drive. In short, the Longhorns proved that they’re capable of playing complementary football against a formidable opponent. “It's like, 'Guys, can we just execute a little bit and move forward?’ Third-and-6 is a heck of a lot better than third-and-12 or third-and-23 or third-and-whatever. Just give ourselves a chance,” Sarkisian said. “Then, when they start to figure out, 'Hey, this is a lot easier,' Arch is like, 'Wait, this is a lot easier.' "Then what happened? The penalties, all of a sudden, went away," he added. "We're more productive. We have a 12-play drive, a 14-play drive, a 10-play drive — we're controlling the ball. The defense is getting their rest. They're playing with a little bit more energy on defense. That's where the complimentary football piece comes into play.” To build on the win over Oklahoma, and for Texas to avoid getting into a hole against the Wildcats, Sarkisian needs his squad to get into a rhythm and play successfully off each other a lot earlier than it’s taken them to get settled. “We have to be able to take things throughout the week — and then on Friday — that we say, 'Hey, these are going to be things we're going to open the game with, and we've got to execute those things with confidence.' We did it better later in the game than we actually did earlier in the game, so we've got to do a better job as a staff to instill that in them, for them to understand that this is what's going to get called — we don't need to have any anxiety. We had too many breakdowns early in the game, for my liking. That's an area where we have to improve. We should be starting games better than we have been and we need to do that. We've got to — as a staff — find a better way to instill that in those guys.” View full news story

Whether it was the four-game redshirt rule or moving to not counting postseason games against the four, they've baby stepped their way to 5-5 model making too much sense.

I don't believe so.

Steve Sarkisian was available to field questions from the media on Wednesday’s SEC coaches teleconference ahead of No. 21 Texas traveling to Kentucky for a conference road game on Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN). Sarkisian’s normally scheduled obligation occurred one day after the departures of running back Jerrick Gibson and kicker Will Stone from the football program. When asked what went into their respective decisions, Sarkisian didn’t elaborate beyond the facts of the situation. “They wanted to redshirt and transfer,” Sarkisian said. According to Pro Football Focus, the two snaps Gibson logged in last Saturday’s 23-6 win over Oklahoma marked the fourth game in which he’s played this season. The same is true for Stone, who missed the team’s non-conference wins over UTEP and Sam Houston with what Sarkisian indicated was a back ailment. Gibson, the team’s de facto short-yardage back, rushed for 152 yards and a touchdown on 37 carries. Even with C.J. Baxter Jr. on the mend after suffering a hamstring injury in the team’s 27-10 win over UTEP on Sept. 13, Sarkisian expressed confidence in the other running backs on the roster picking up the slack. “Who will take those carries is everybody,” Sarkisian said. “Whether that's Tre [Wisner], whether that's Christian [Clark], whether that's James [Simon], whether that's Cedric when he gets back, we've got ample bodies. We should be OK in that aspect of it all.” Mason Shipley, who handled kickoff duties in the two games Stone missed, will resume those responsibilities, Sarkisian said. While the Longhorns have enough scholarship bodies at most positions to avoid in-season departures crippling depth at a particular spot, Sarkisian isn’t a fan of players who feel forced to make decisions like the ones Gibson and Stone deemed best for themselves. The NCAA appears to be on the verge of granting student-athletes five years to complete five seasons of eligibility, a model dubbed the “5 in 5” plan, which Sarkisian believes would curb situations like the one Texas (4-2, 1-1 SEC) is dealing with while competing for a berth in the SEC Championship Game and a third consecutive trip to the College Football Playoff. “I think it's a terrible position to put these players in to make these decisions right now, but there's money involved, there's revenue sharing, there's NIL — there's different factors,” Sarkisian said. “I think it's putting agents and family members and student-athletes in a difficult position to make business decisions in the middle of the season, but that's where we're at. I'm not really here to complain about it; that's just the reality of the situation we're in. When a player asks to do that, I thank him for their time and I wish them the best of luck. I mean, what else are we supposed to do at that juncture? These are the rules that we've put in place. We've got to operate within the parameters of the rules.” View full news story

Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer showed what Florida can be if the right buttons are pushed. If I were Marcus Freeman or someone advising him, I'd have to know what the plans are for the potential administrative changes and what the NIL structure looks like. Commitment to resources is everything in college football now.

That's another one that could've gone Texas' way.

I'm disappointed in Auburn fans for not throwing something.

I didn't realize when it first happened how close Jelani McDonald came to a pick-six.

Or the people responsible for NIL funds. Either way, this is a historic firing.

The very same.

No team in the country is as formidable as Texas A&M before the calendar flips to November.

Hugh Freeze might be cursed. I'm not too broken up about it, but still...

Venables is a Dillon Gabriel late-game drive away from being 0-for-Texas as OU coach.