Sometimes all you need is a little wakeup. You know, that extra cup of coffee in the morning. That afternoon Coke. Just something to get you going again.
This was the offensive line’s wakeup call this season.
“We had to learn a lot about ourselves from that game,” said Texas center Jake Majors. “What we learned was we had a lot to improve on, whether that was technique, fundamentals, communication, and of course physicality.”
The Georgia Bulldogs bullied the Texas offensive line that night for seven sacks which resulted in multiple turnovers and multiple short field drives for the Georgia offense. The Bulldogs built a 23-0 halftime lead which was too much to overcome on the night.
Since that game the Longhorns have tightened things up (except for a slight wobble against Vanderbilt).
Sacks:
Vanderbilt: 4
Florida: 1
Arkansas: 2
Kentucky: 1
Texas A&M: 1
But a funny thing happened along the journey to a reawakened pass offense – Texas found its run game.
“Being able to establish the run early, being able to rely on it in the second half has been huge for us because that opens up the pass lanes for Quinn [Ewers] and more explosives down the field,” said Majors.
Texas had 29 yards rushing on 27 carries against Georgia (and yes, the yards lost from sacks lowered their rush total significantly, but that wasn’t the only problem in the run game that night).
Things got a little better against Vanderbilt (104 on 34 carries – 3.1 ypc).
Then the turnaround:
Florida: 210 yards rushing on 31 carries (6.8 ypc)
Arkansas: 139 yards rushing on 41 carries (3.4 ypc)
Kentucky: 251 yards rushing on 46 carries (5.5 ypc)
Texas A&M: 243 yards rushing on 47 carries (5.2 ypc)
In the wake of the devastating loss to Georgia, the 2024 Texas Longhorns found their identity. They are a team that wins by running the ball and playing incredible defense.
“You guys can recall early in the season, me talking about, we're giving up too many leaky yards in the run game, you know? We talked about that on defense,” Sark said posing his own questions to the press. “We talked about on offense, our ability to run the ball consistently, especially when our opponent knows we're going to run the ball. You haven't heard those things out of my mouth here for about the last month.”
If you look at the run totals over the last month, you’ll see that Sark has taken the pressure off of quarterback Quinn Ewers by relying on the run game more, especially late in games when Texas has been able to milk the clock and kill games.
Sark hasn’t completely taken the air out of the ball. The great @CodyCarpentier has done a fantastic job of tracking explosive plays all season long and the Horns are still one of the best teams in the country and picking up yards in big chunks (through the air and on the ground).
But Texas has been able to rely on the run game, especially late in games, to milk the clock and kill off games.
Against Florida, the Horns ran the ball 13 times during a 15-play drive that chewed up the final 8:27 of game clock. Arch Manning took a knee on the final play of the game at Florida’s six yard line.
Against Arkansas, Ewers only attempted to passes during a 14-play drive that killed off the last 6:55 of game clock. For the second game in a row, the Texas QB lined up in victory formation and took a knee in their opponents red zone, rather than trying to get one final score up on the board.
Against Kentucky, the Horns ran the ball in the fourth quarter for 15 straight plays, driving 86 yards and ending with a touchdown. That one drive ate up more than half of the quarter (8:22 of game clock). I should add, that Kentucky defensive line is no pushover. Deone Walker is a sure-fire NFL talent.
It’s not just that Texas is running the ball – they are imposing their will on teams.
“I think there's been a level of consistency in our physicality that that has grown, and I think that stems from practice,” said Sarkisian. “Our practice habits have improved as the season’s gone on. We're practicing better defensively than we have all year. I touched on a couple weeks about go about how physical practice has been, and even the chippiness at practice, which I think, again, is a great sign that we have the energy to do that, but I think all those are byproducts of why we're seeing a level of physicality for four quarters from our guys, not just kind of in spots where maybe we were early in the year. I think it's there's a level of consistency now that's better than it's been all season long.”
There is no denying that Georgia was more physical than Texas on the line of scrimmage on October 19th. But that game seems to have reawakened these Horns … and come Saturday, the Dogs may have bitten off more than they can chew.
TREVOR GOOSBY LIVING UP TO HIS BILLING …
When Trevor Goosby first committed to Texas in 2022, I talked to his trainer at the time, former NFL offensive lineman Patrick Lewis.
I couldn’t help but think about that conversation this past week while watching Goosby step in for an injured Kelvin Banks and produce the highest grade of any Texas offensive lineman in the game.
This quote in particular stuck out to me.
“If you look at him [Goosby] in person, he’s probably one of the most natural left tackles walking the Earth right now,” said Lewis at the time. “That kid, he’s one of the most natural tackles I’ve seen in a while. Just watching him move and watching the way he shadows defenders, guys trying to make quick inside moves, he’s on it. I have yet to see any body just beat him with feet.”
Lewis didn’t just play in the NFL, he also played for Texas A&M so I knew he was watching as his former protégé took the field last Saturday. He says he wasn’t surprised by Goosby’s play.
“All he needed was some time to grow into his body and become the guy who we thought he would be,” said Lewis. “You heard a lot of great things early on about his development there. He's done exactly what was expected of him – a big kid and great athletic kid, and he's paving his way. He's doing everything that I thought he'd be doing.”
Goosby arrived at Texas as a three star offensive lineman in his recruiting class, but Lewis says he was always underrated.
“He might had a lot of people doubt him because they didn't know how he fit in that class. But you know, he's proving them wrong,” said Lewis.
Lewis also praised the coaching work that Coach Flood has done to develop Goosby – particularly in the run game.
“You would think a guy like him, with his size, that he would have issues in a run game. Well, that's what people thought,” said Lewis. “But he adjusted. He’s being well coached there, and he's amongst great o-lineman that are there as well.
“You can see that his game is coming full circle, like. Of course, there's always things that we want to improve on, because when you talk about, point of attack, you talk about really moving people off the ball, but to be honest, he does exactly what they need him to do when he gets his opportunity.”
Incidentally, Lewis also trained Connor Stroh and Neto Umeozulu. He said in 2022 that he thought Umeozulu was ahead of the other two just because he plays with attitude. That could end up being a good sign for next year’s offensive line.
TWEETS OF INTEREST:
I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Kyle Flood included Goosby in his list of thank you’s after Texas was named a finalist for the Joe Moore Award this week.
The award, which is given to the best offensive line in the country each year, has been a goal for this unit all season long.
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It’s not just Flood doing an amazing job with his players this year. It’s time to put some damn respect on Pete Kwiatkowski’s name.
You have to think he’s the favorite on this list. He would get my vote.
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We’ve talked a lot about how great this Texas defense is this year. Even the players recognize its greatness.
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Is this cockamamie? Or a damn good sign of what to expect on Saturday?
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Aggies and other delusional people like to make up conspiracy theories about Texas’ “soft” schedule claiming the conference wanted Texas to be in the SEC Championship game. In order for a theory like that to take hold in a person’s mind, there has to be an aspect of believability to it – even if taken as a whole it seems ludicrous. In this case, the believable part is that heck yes the conference and ESPN want Texas in the game because they know people want to watch the Horns.
But just know, wanting a big team like Texas in a big game doesn’t mean stacking the deck to make it happen. Texas earned its way to Atlanta … and that road went right through College Station.
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It looks like the Texas volleyball team got a whole lot better on signing day.
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You never know what is going to make a kid pick one school over another.
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But then again … sometimes you do know.
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Colt McCoy knows how to fix Justin Tucker.
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I think we figured out what went wrong in Columbus, Ohio.
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I’m telling you … her biological clock is ticking slower than most.
