Texas is staring at a brutally tight path back into the College Football Playoff race, but the Longhorns aren’t ready to sound the alarm just yet.
After back-to-back 27-24 losses to Oklahoma and Florida, both unranked at the time by the Associated Press, Texas defensive tackle Hero Kanu has become one of the loudest voices trying to steady the room. First, after the Oklahoma loss, he told reporters that the “season is not over, guys.
We’ve still got a bunch of games to play in the future.” Then, after Saturday’s defeat to Florida, he pushed the same message again, only with a little more reflection.
"Men only die when they give up, when they don't believe no more. I'm telling you, we still believe," said Kanu, a fifth-year defensive lineman.
"So whatever happened today, happened today. We’ve got to move on."
He’s not wrong, either. No.
19 Texas is 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the SEC, and while the margin for error has shrunk fast, the season is not finished. A CFP berth is still on the table.
Even an SEC championship game appearance is still technically in play, with every team in the conference already carrying at least one league loss.
But the reality is hard to ignore: in a season where two losses may be the line that shuts the playoff door, Texas now has six games left and very little breathing room.
The next test comes quickly. Ole Miss visits Austin on Saturday, and Texas will enter that game in a sharper spot in the AP poll - and a tougher one emotionally.
The Longhorns dropped to No. 19 on Sunday, while Ole Miss moved up to Texas’ old No. 7 position. Even so, Texas is expected to open the week as the betting favorite.
The stretch that follows is no easier. Ole Miss is one of three ranked teams still left on the schedule.
After that, Texas hosts Mississippi State, then travels to No. 22 Missouri and No.
18 LSU. The regular season ends with rivalry games against Arkansas and Texas A&M.
"We don't have any College Football Playoff rankings yet," Kanu said. "We will see after Week 12 where we're at in those rankings, but we've still got more games to play."
The six-game finish is split evenly between home and road, but asking Texas to go 6-0 from here is a tall order. The program has only finished a season with six straight conference wins twice since 2010, and both of those came when Texas was in the Big 12, in 2013 and 2023. Since moving into the SEC ahead of the 2024 season, the Longhorns’ longest conference winning streak in a season has been five games.
Inside the building, though, the mood after Florida wasn’t all doom and gloom. Center Connor Robertson said he felt fortunate to be at Texas.
Quarterback Arch Manning said, "you've got to find ways to be grateful because I've dreamed to be in this position so I'm not going to take it for granted." Punt returner Ryan Niblett, who had his 1-year-old daughter, Romi, on his lap while speaking with reporters, even called the chance to talk to the media a blessing.
Still, the Longhorns know the issues are real. Head coach Steve Sarkisian said every part of the offense needs to be evaluated after the Florida game, including his own play-calling and Manning’s starting status. The defense has its own problems after Florida ripped off eight third-down conversions in the second half, and star edge rusher Colin Simmons exited with a leg injury.
Special teams at least got a lift from Niblett’s 63-yard punt return for a touchdown, which gave special teams coach Jeff Banks a short-lived escape from the criticism. But there are still plenty of questions hanging over that unit, too.
"We have (six) more guaranteed games left, and we've got to make the most of those," UT linebacker Justin Cryer said. "I'm not going to let one game and one weekend determine how the rest of my senior year goes, right?
Because at the end of the day, I'm still playing at the University of Texas. I'm still living a childhood dream, so I'm not going to let any person on Twitter or beat reporter dictate how I feel about going through the rest of the season.
I am going to continue to play my heart out for this university and want to get this thing fixed."
In Other News...
Alabama Suddenly Faces Real Pressure After College Footballs Wildest Shakeup
College football spent a chaotic Saturday turning the top of the sport upside down, and Texas was right in the middle of it. Five of the Associated Press Top 25s top seven teams lost in Week 7, an unheard-of shakeup in the regular season that has not happened since the poll began in 1936. Georgia, Notre Dame, Indiana, Alabama and Texas all fell, leaving the rankings in the kind of flux that rarely survives more than one week.
For the Longhorns, the result is less about one bad night than the mess it creates around them. Miamis double-overtime win over Florida State has it in position to grab the No. 1 spot for the first time since 2002, and the rest of the poll now has to sort through a weekend that knocked out so many of the presumed front-runners at once. For Texas, the setback arrives at the worst possible time, with the margin for error suddenly a lot thinner and the path back up the rankings far less predictable. [Read more 🡒]
Arch Manning Suddenly Faces A Texas Question Fans Never Wanted
Texas is in an unfamiliar spot after back-to-back losses, and the discomfort has naturally turned toward Arch Manning, whose play has become a central question as the Longhorns try to steady themselves. For a program that entered the year with high expectations, the conversation has shifted quickly from upside to accountability, with the offense under scrutiny and the quarterback position now part of the broader review.
Steve Sarkisian has made clear that the evaluation goes beyond one player, but it does include the people behind Manning if he decides a change is needed. KJ Lacey, Dia Bell and MJ Morris are among the options being considered, which says plenty about how seriously Texas is weighing every part of the offense while trying to find a way out of the slump. [Read more 🡒]
Arch Manning And Texas Suddenly Face A Season-Saving Debate
Week 7 reshaped the national picture in a hurry, and Texas was among the teams feeling the fallout after its loss to unranked Florida put the Longhorns playoff hopes in jeopardy. Around the country, ranked contenders kept tumbling, from Auburns last-minute upset of Georgia to Tennessees defensive win over Alabama, while Ohio State survived Indiana but came away dealing with a quarterback injury. The AP top 25 changed with all of it, and Texas suddenly found itself with far less room for error than it had just a week ago.
For Arch Manning and the Longhorns, the bigger issue is no longer just the loss itself, but how the rest of the season should be handled from here. With the margin for another slip now razor-thin, Texas faces a debate that can define a season: whether to lean into the urgency of chasing a playoff rescue, or treat the remaining schedule with a longer view in mind. In a year when the title race has already been scrambled by chaos, the Longhorns are left sorting out what kind of push still makes sense. [Read more 🡒]