Texas may be 4-0, but the record is doing a lot of heavy lifting right now.
The Longhorns have already survived some ugly stretches against ranked opponents, yet the offense still hasn’t found a clean rhythm for four full quarters. Against Tennessee, the problems showed up fast and in bunches: the run game never really got going, explosive plays were hard to find, and Arch Manning took a beating with six sacks in pass protection.
That’s the larger concern for Steve Sarkisian. Texas has the talent to look sharper than this - an experienced quarterback, a strong playcaller, and enough weapons to make defenses pay - but the unit keeps drifting out of sync. The result is a team that keeps winning without really playing to its ceiling.
Sarkisian said he can’t pin the offense’s issues on one position group or one clear culprit. What he has seen instead is a different part of the offense falling short from one moment to the next, even when those situations were practiced during the week. He described the fix as a “simple fix,” centered on trust in the work done Monday through Friday and then carrying it into Saturday.
“Why are we not taking Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to Saturday?” Sarkisian said.
“It starts there. Let’s at least just do what we practice, and that will start moving the ball forward on a more consistent basis.”
That matters because one bad snap can snowball quickly. A negative play on first down, or even a small gain, can leave Texas staring at third-and-long, which makes life harder on everyone involved. The line has less room to protect, receivers face tougher coverage, and the quarterback is forced into tougher decisions.
Sarkisian said he has no intention of shrinking the playbook, but he does want the Longhorns to clean up the basics. In his view, some players are pressing and trying to do too much, a habit he described as “chas(ing) ghosts.”
“I think we need to settle down a little bit as a team, not try so hard and just do the simple,” Sarkisian said. “And if we can do that, that’s not going to make us perfect, but that at least is a starting point to start moving in the right direction.”
The penalties are another obvious problem. Texas has improved in that area overall, especially with pre-snap mistakes, but the Tennessee game brought the issue roaring back. The Longhorns were flagged 11 times for 115 yards, with junior edge Colin Simmons among the players to commit costly errors, including an unsportsmanlike penalty.
Texas has been able to lean on a strong defense to cover for some of those lapses, but the margin for error won’t stay this wide forever. With the schedule getting tougher after the bye, the Longhorns will need the offense to stop wasting possessions and the little mistakes to disappear before they start costing games.
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Punch said his role should look different in Austin, especially on defense, where he will not be asked to do everything he did before. That shift could let Texas lean into a more complementary setup inside, with Vokietaitis doing more of the heavy lifting around the rim while Punch uses his mobility elsewhere. For a team looking to change the way it protects the paint, that combination has plenty of appeal even before the games begin. [Read more 🡒]