Texas Longhorns

Steve Sarkisian has now won 4+ games against ranked opponents in FOUR straight seasons

Since the AP Poll began in 1936, only 6 other coaches have done it:
Nick Saban
Bobby Bowden
Kirby Smart
Dabo Swinney
Pete Carroll
Larry Coker

Texas RB Hollywood Smothers will miss the remainder of the 2026 season due to injury

At the moment, Muschamp is the only reason Texas is still in the College Football Playoff picture. The Longhorns' defense has allowed more than 5.0 yards per play only once this season, and even in that one game (against Ohio State), it allowed only three points after halftime. With the Longhorns' season potentially on the line Saturday night in Austin, they completely erased Ole Miss' offense in the first half, giving up just three points. The Rebels gained 70 yards in two first-half snaps and 68 in 35 other plays.
Dzsokijuing

és képzeld azt, hogy sarkisian azért rugta ki a korábbi dc-t, pete kwiatkowski-t (ki gyakorlatilag szinten remek véldemet rakott össze), hogy jobban tudjon fókuszálni a támadó oldalra.

“We have plenty of issues. I don’t think any program in the country is perfect,” Sarkisian said. “One thing that really helps me with Will is his head coaching experience, having been in this conference at Florida and at South Carolina, his experience being under coach Saban, us speaking the same language. I feel very comfortable with Will being the head coach of that defense.

“That allows me and frees me up a little bit more time from an offensive perspective. Instead of robbing Peter to pay Paul, I’m able to let him go do his thing on defense. He can really be a great leader over there and head coach over there, which allows me to get back to doing the things that I believe I’m really good at.”

-- mondta még 2025 decemberében.

At the moment, Muschamp is the only reason Texas is still in the College Football Playoff picture. The Longhorns' defense has allowed more than 5.0 yards per play only once this season, and even in that one game (against Ohio State), it allowed only three points after halftime. With the Longhorns' season potentially on the line Saturday night in Austin, they completely erased Ole Miss' offense in the first half, giving up just three points. The Rebels gained 70 yards in two first-half snaps and 68 in 35 other plays.

Texas star left tackle Trevor Goosby will miss the remainder of the season after suffering a knee injury against Ole Miss on Saturday.

családban marad.

A bejegyzés megtekintése az Instagramon

ESPN College Football (@espncfb) által megosztott bejegyzés

 www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/50262750/texas-ad-clarifies-use-ai-key-play-loss-florida

sarkisian másodjára is lefőzte a kávét.

"Texas is the fastest team to go from AP #1 to unranked since....
last season’s Texas team."
zacknorb

ott ahol több esztendőre visszamenő top recruiting class-al ezt sikerül összehozni ott a rendszerrel, az edzőkkel vannak a kérdőjelek. ott ahol immáron két top rated high school irányítót sem sikerült fejleszteni (ewers & manning) ott a rendszerrel, az edzőkkel vannak a kérdőjelek. mondhatni az egyetlen ok amiért az elmúlt években ott lehettünk a top-ban - az a védelem.

ha nem manning lenne a mezre írva, már padozna. gyakorlatilag egy csődtömeget sikerült csinálni sarkisian(ék)-nak belőle. tavalyi szezon kezdet nagyon rázós volt, heteken át pontatlan volt, a dobómozdulata különös volt, ám a szezon második felében egyre jobban látszódott, hogy a tapasztalatszerzés fejlődési pályára helyezte. az idei esztendő nagyon kisiklott, több cikk is foglalkozott ugyan vele, de senki nem tudja igazán rá a pontos választ. amit mi tapasztalhatunk, hogy hezitál a dobásoknál. a kiszemelt célpontot hosszasan kíséri. a qb run igencsak megcsappant (konkrét statisztika van, hogy kifejezetten a designed run meg lett tizedelve). márpedig manning - a tavalyi esztendőből fakadóan - akkor volt elemében, ha "szabad kezet" kapott. most, ha bizonyosan területet nyerhetne (vagy a majdnem bizonyos first down-t), némi hezitálás, mozgolódás után át is passzolja a labdát. ebből aztán olyan bicskanyitogató play-ek születtek, hogy gyakorlatilag a line of scrimmage után passzolt volna, vagy bedobta a labdát cover-be, miközben a checkdown is open volt. negyedik éves játékosról beszélünk.

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What’s wrong with Arch Manning and can he salvage Texas’ season?

This is not the season anyone envisioned for Arch Manning.

The expectation was that, come late October, Manning would be in the midst of a season that would send him to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony and validate the talk of him as the potential No. 1 pick in the 2027 NFL Draft.

And in the process, he’d have Texas in the thick of the national title race.

This is not the case, and there are no legitimate excuses. The Longhorns spent significantly to improve his supporting cast, adding high-priced talent at the skill positions and on the offensive line. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian fired respected defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski and replaced him with Will Muschamp, a move that he said would free him up to focus on the offense.

Instead, the Longhorns’ offense is as underwhelming as it is expensive, and Texas’ College Football Playoff hopes are on the brink as it prepares for a must-win game against seventh-ranked Ole Miss in Austin on Saturday.

And at the center of it all is Manning, whose struggles have raised questions about his play, his future at Texas and his draft prospects.

“He’s got everything. He’s big, he’s fast, he’s got the last name. Big arm,” said an FBS head coach who’s studied Texas this season. “He’s got it all, but something’s not right.” This coach, like the others in this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity so he could offer his honest opinions on an opponent.

With all the noise and criticism swirling around him, and as he enters a defining stretch — games against No. 7 Ole Miss, at No. 22 Missouri and at No. 18 LSU in the next month — the obvious question is: What has gone wrong with Arch Manning?

“I haven’t put good film on tape the past five weeks, and I’m going to be better,” Manning told reporters earlier this week. “I’m going to be better for my teammates. I’m going to be better for myself, and I’m going to be better for my coaches.”

The Athletic spoke to dozens of coaches and personnel staffers in the offseason while reporting for the 2026 College QB Tiers rankings. An SEC front office staffer felt people were falling into a familiar cycle.

“Everything about what we’re doing (with the Manning preseason hype) is exactly what we did last year,” he said. “It’s the same picture. What has he gotten better at?”

It was fair to consider Manning overhyped coming into the fall. He improved as the 2025 season progressed, but he basically played at a high level for only one month.

His struggles this season have brought the conversation to a much darker place, though, with legitimate questions about whether he should be benched. Manning committed turnovers on the final offensive snap of each of Texas’ past two games — 3-point losses to Oklahoma and Florida. The offense isn’t working, at least not well enough for this team to reach its goals. The Longhorns are averaging 5.5 yards per play (103rd nationally) and 30.2 points per game (64th).

To be fair, Manning has faced three top-20 defenses (in yards per play allowed) in his first six games — Ohio State, Tennessee and Oklahoma. But also, he didn’t look great against UTSA and Florida, teams with subpar defenses.

“I don’t even know,” said an SEC staffer who has seen the Longhorns in person this season when asked what the problem is with the offense. “He just seems like a very, very average QB. What does he do that’s elite? What does he do that will win you a game? What has he ever done to make you believe that?”

After the stunning loss to Florida last weekend, Sarkisian said Texas wasn’t playing great offensive football and everything would be evaluated. That was followed up by a question about whether Manning was included in that evaluation.

“Everything means everything,” Sarkisian said.

Still, it would be shocking if Manning lost his starting job, but the fact that the discourse has shifted from “Is Manning really worth the No. 1 pick?” to “Is Manning Texas’ best option at quarterback?” is a true sign of where his season has gone.

“(It’s) what we’ve always seen: inconsistent, misses open throws, doesn’t see it real clear,” the head coach who studied Texas said. “Big, strong, physical athlete, great arm, all the tools, but for whatever reason doesn’t process very well and he’s not very accurate.”

There are certainly moments when Manning demonstrates the potential that made him the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2023 recruiting class. Watch his 41-yard touchdown pass to Cam Coleman against Oklahoma, where he evaded the rush, escaped the pocket and threw a perfect strike in the back of the end zone. Or his fourth-and-7 throw against Florida, when he bought an extra second against a ferocious pass rush, stepped to his left, kept his eyes downfield and calmly delivered a deep ball to receiver Emmett Mosley V for a 62-yard gain.

But those awe-inspiring moments are overshadowed by flashes of confusion where Manning misses routine throws, makes bad decisions or fails to protect the ball in critical situations.

“The decision-making hasn’t progressed the way you would expect for a quarterback in his fourth year with the program,” said Dane Brugler, The Athletic’s NFL Draft analyst. “When you watch Arch on tape this year, there are times where it’s ‘Why are you turning that down? Or why are you forcing it?’ The decision-making hasn’t been where it needs to be, where it should be.”

Brugler made sure to note that it never comes down to one thing when evaluating quarterbacks. The environment always needs to be taken into account. And Texas’ offense, as noted, has plenty of issues.

“The (offensive line) isn’t as good as they’d hoped, and the wide receivers are very talented but haven’t played great,” said a Power 4 talent evaluator.

Texas brought in two highly touted transfer running backs, Hollywood Smothers (NC State) and Raleek Brown (Arizona State), but ranks 120th nationally with only 3.6 yards per carry. The Horns have a potential first-round pick at left tackle (Trevor Goosby) and a highly sought-after transfer at right tackle (Melvin Siani, from Wake Forest), but Manning has been sacked 17 times, which is tied for 14th most nationally. Coleman showed elite talent at Auburn, but it never led to big production. That’s remained the case at Texas.

And while Sarkisian is often viewed as one of the brightest offensive minds in the sport, it doesn’t seem like he possesses a great feel for what he wants this offense to be and he clearly hasn’t gotten the most out of Manning, who isn’t Texas’ only problem but hasn’t been the solution either.

That’s created questions about whether Texas is the best spot for Manning next year if he doesn’t declare for the NFL Draft.

“He’s not processing and he’s missing throws,” the FBS head coach said. “When you’re not doing those two things, you’re not a good quarterback. Is that on Sark or is that on him? I don’t know.”

Everyone has an opinion on what Manning should do next. But there’s a lot of football to be played and data to be collected.

“There’s a big TBD by his name,” Brugler said. “Every game, it feels like he does something like, ‘Oh yeah, there it is.’ If you watch him play, clearly this is a talented guy, but that doesn’t mean he’s playing up to being a top-five draft pick right now. But that doesn’t mean you shut the door at all either.

“Quarterbacks, if they have the mental toughness to overcome the mistakes, they can get better. It’s just a matter of, can Arch get there? It’s too early to say for sure if he can or if he can’t, but at this point it’s hard to have conviction that this is going to be a top-10 pick. Now, if he plays much better down the stretch, OK, maybe you re-evaluate based on updated evidence, but right now, where we are in mid-October, he has not played up to expectations, and I don’t think anybody would argue with that.”

What happens over the next month and a half, particularly this next four-game stretch, will define what Manning’s future holds. It starts this weekend against Ole Miss, which has its obvious ties to the Manning family with Archie’s and Eli’s numbers retired by the program. There’s a game against Mississippi State on Halloween, followed by road dates at Missouri and LSU, both currently ranked in the Top 25.

Texas is certainly capable of dropping any of those games before it ends the season with dates against Arkansas and rival Texas A&M.

Manning could play well and improve over the second half of the season just as he did in 2025. In that scenario, he could save Texas’ season and get the Longhorns back to the College Football Playoff after missing out last year. He could declare for the NFL Draft or return to Texas for another season.

If he continues to struggle, major changes would seemingly be on the table. Would he still be the starter at Texas? Would it make sense for him to keep playing for Sarkisian? Would he declare for the draft and take his chances?

The spotlight will be nothing new for Manning, who has been the most scrutinized player in college football since he stepped into the starting role last year, but the individual stakes have never seemed greater for the talented-yet-inconsistent signal caller.

“It’s hard to not have a chip on my shoulder right now,” Manning said. “I tell ya that. I think I play better with it on.”

"I was told that Texas edge rusher Colin Simmons is expected to miss three to four weeks with a high ankle sprain. Simmons underwent an MRI on Monday that revealed no structural damage."

"Texas is the fastest team to go from AP #1 to unranked since....
last season’s Texas team."
zacknorb

Fire Sarkasian!
Még szerencse, hogy nem nagyon van időt meccset nézni.

"Texas is the fastest team to go from AP #1 to unranked since....
last season’s Texas team."

Only three teams since 1936 have lost back-to-back games against unranked teams when they entered the streak No. 1 in the AP poll: 1939: Pitt 1961: Michigan State 2026: Texas

Amit most Archie kap....
T1G_ThundersNFL AntiHarcosKlubAlapító

Joggal végső soron

Sarkisian. ➡️ ☕️

Egyik top veresege (Texas-i) karrierje alatt.
Ventura

Mondtam, hogy mennie kellene

Sarkisian. ➡️ ☕️

Egyik top veresege (Texas-i) karrierje alatt.
Ventura

Kiegyensúlyozta az Ohio State győzelmet.

Amit most Archie kap....

Sarkisian. ➡️ ☕️

Egyik top veresege (Texas-i) karrierje alatt.

Úgyis a restroom flag fog megmaradni, de amit ma Colin Simmons letett a pályára, az ilyen generational kategória.
zacknorb

Texas edge rusher Colin Simmons has been credited for an additional half sack against Tennessee, when he teamed up with Hero Kanu for a fourth quarter sack. Simmons now holds the Longhorns single-game sack record at 5.5, and leads the nation in total sacks



Szerkesztette: r.baggio

Úgyis a restroom flag fog megmaradni, de amit ma Colin Simmons letett a pályára, az ilyen generational kategória.
zacknorb

Ez az ő meccse volt, a D nyeri a konfot és a bajnokságot, ha egyáltalán.
Dzsokijuing

Az talán már most kijelenthető, hogy nem Manning és a támadósor fogja, ha egyáltalán
🤘 gaben 🤘

csalódott vagyok - ugyanaz a forgatókönyv: jó védelem és papíron erős támadósor, azonban azok képtelenek egységként funkcionálni és teljesíteni. elmaradnak a big play-ek, manning hezitál. merem állítani, hogy tavaly szezon második felében jobban teljsített.
Ventura

Viszont a zárónegyedes 45-7-es pontmérlegünk impresszív.
Ugly W volt, de W.

Szerkesztette: Dzsokijuing

Úgyis a restroom flag fog megmaradni, de amit ma Colin Simmons letett a pályára, az ilyen generational kategória.
zacknorb

Ez az ő meccse volt, a D nyeri a konfot és a bajnokságot, ha egyáltalán.
Dzsokijuing

Az talán már most kijelenthető, hogy nem Manning és a támadósor fogja, ha egyáltalán
🤘 gaben 🤘

csalódott vagyok - ugyanaz a forgatókönyv: jó védelem és papíron erős támadósor, azonban azok képtelenek egységként funkcionálni és teljesíteni. elmaradnak a big play-ek, manning hezitál. merem állítani, hogy tavaly szezon második felében jobban teljsített.

Úgyis a restroom flag fog megmaradni, de amit ma Colin Simmons letett a pályára, az ilyen generational kategória.
zacknorb

Ez az ő meccse volt, a D nyeri a konfot és a bajnokságot, ha egyáltalán.
Dzsokijuing

Az talán már most kijelenthető, hogy nem Manning és a támadósor fogja, ha egyáltalán

Úgyis a restroom flag fog megmaradni, de amit ma Colin Simmons letett a pályára, az ilyen generational kategória.
zacknorb

Ez az ő meccse volt, a D nyeri a konfot és a bajnokságot, ha egyáltalán.

Úgyis a restroom flag fog megmaradni, de amit ma Colin Simmons letett a pályára, az ilyen generational kategória.

Szerkesztette: zacknorb

Győzelem esetén simán kinézem a Red Clownból, hogy a páholyban odaadja nekünk a bajnoki címet a 4. fordulóban, mint Nixon a végén.