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The bye week gave us time to focus on things unrelated to the Texas Longhorns.
Some took the kids trick-or-treating or became that cool neighbor who served tequila shots to adults that night. There was plenty of time to brush up on local politics and vote. Longhorn fans were finally able to fit in a Saturday date night. However, let’s be honest: there was one activity you enjoyed more this past week than anything else.
Laughing at Texas A&M after South Carolina spanked the Aggies.
Oh, Aggies.
Okay, now back to Quinn Ewers.
It is time to throw away all the preseason expectations surrounding Ewers. Forget about him potentially throwing for 4,000 yards this season. He is no longer a serious Heisman Trophy candidate. There is no need to debate if Ewers is the best quarterback in the SEC. This is not the time to ponder his draft stock.
The only thing that matters is Ewers needs to be the best version of himself to get this team into the playoffs and make a national championship run.
Texas has four regular season games remaining, and the Longhorns will be the favorite to win each game:
Saturday – Florida (home)
November 16 – at Arkansas
November 23 – Kentucky (home)
November 30 – at Texas A&M
It is easy to envision Texas running the table, especially after seeing the Aggies lose on Saturday.
However, the SEC has taught us that if you take any team lightly in this conference, there will be a price to pay.
Well, maybe that doesn’t apply to Mississippi State or Auburn.
Ewers’ task is simple:
Just land the plane – again.
Ewers endured challenging performances last season. He did not play well against Wyoming. He didn’t play his best game in a close win against Houston. Ewers did not play well against Texas Tech, but the Longhorns didn’t need him to do anything special during that blowout win.
There is a common denominator with those games:
Texas won.
Ewers played well enough to guide Texas to the Big 12 Championship Game. He worked his magic during a record-breaking performance in the title game. Some critics have blamed Ewers for the loss against Washington in the playoffs. I blame a defense that allowed Michael Penix Jr. to complete 29 of 38 passes for 430 yards and two touchdowns (188.7 passer rating).
Before Ewers sustained an injury, he was playing well. He had a strong performance to start the season against Colorado State and led Texas to a road win against Michigan. Ewers completed 14 of 16 passes for 185 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception, finishing with a 213.4 passer rating before the oblique injury.
Clearly, he played poorly enough against Georgia to get benched. Ewers played well in the first half against Vanderbilt but struggled after halftime.
However, Sarkisian did not point fingers at Ewers during his previous press conference.
“Going back and even looking at the tape, I thought Quinn had a tremendous game, especially coming off of last week where your first pass is a tipped interception, and you can get kind of down,” Sarkisian said. “For him to come back and go 17 completions in a row, 200 yards, three touchdowns, I think, just speaks volumes of kind of his mental fortitude, the resiliency he showed. I’m really proud of him for that.”
Put down your Arch Manning pom-poms.
Sarkisian has made it clear he intends to stick with Ewers for the remainder of this season. There are only three realistic scenarios that result in Manning appearing in another game this season:
1. Ewers sustains another injury
2. Ewers is playing poorly, and Texas is trailing
3. The Longhorns are winning in a blowout
Only one scenario is great for everyone involved.
Hopefully, for Ewers, the bye week allowed his body to heal, and he will close out the regular season on a high note and continue that momentum in the playoffs. This defense is good enough to keep Texas in every game.
This team just needs Ewers to be the best version of himself.
“I think for him, I'm sure last week there was a lot of emotions, from the Georgia game all the way through this game (Vanderbilt),” Sarkisian said. “With emotions, your heart may be beating a little bit more, maybe not sleeping quite as good as you'd like, and your mind is racing because you want to make sure you play well and you're doing all the things that you need to do. I'm sure this week he's probably going to appreciate a little bit of downtime, appreciate a little bit of rest. We talked about that this morning [last Monday] with the team. Everybody's recovery this week is going to look a little bit different. There’s some guys that are recovering from physical ailments that we need to get them back from. There’s some guys that maybe got to get their mental health space, kind of maybe realign with all that a season can put on them and make sure we have resources for them that way. There’s other guys that maybe just need some physical rest. And so where that lands on each guy is a little bit different.
“We just want to make sure our players, Quinn included, that all of those resources are here for them to get that done, whatever it makes them feel like when we come back next Monday, their batteries charged up as close to one hundred percent, they feel as good as they can feel for this kind of four-game stretch that we have coming up.”
******
By the way, one stat Sarkisian loves is his history of producing 1,000-yard running backs.
That streak is in jeopardy if Texas does not get more production from the run game. Texas' rushing offense is currently ranked ninth in the SEC.
2024 (Texas)
Quintrevion Wisner - 77 carries, 422 yards, 2 TDs (5.3 YPC)
Jaydon Blue - 71 carries, 337 yards, 4 TDs (4.5 YPC)
2023 (Texas)
Jonathon Brooks - 187 carries, 1,139 yards, 10 TDs
CJ Baxter - 138 carries, 659 yards, 5 TDs
2022 (Texas)
Bijan Robinson – 258 carries, 1,622 yards, 18 TDs
Roschon Johnson – 93 carries, 563 rushing yards, five TDs
2021 (Texas)
Bijan Robinson – 195 carries, 1,127 yards, 11 TDs
Roschon Johnson – 96 carries, 569 yards, five TDs
2020 (Alabama)
Najee Harris – 251 carries, 1,466 yards, 26 TDs
Brian Robinson Jr. – 91 carries, 483 yards, six TDs
2019 (Alabama)
Najee Harris – 209 carries, 1,244 yards, 13 TDs
Brian Robinson Jr. – 96 carries, 441 yards, 5TDs
2017- 2018 (Atlanta Falcons OC)
2015 (USC)
Justin Davis – 169 carries, 902 yards, seven touchdowns
Ronald Jones – 153 carries, 987 yards, eight touchdowns
2014 (USC)
Javorius Allen – 276 carries, 1,489 yards, 11 TDs
Justin Davis – 129 carries, 595 yards, four TDs
2013 (Washington)
Bishop Sankey – 327 carries, 1,870 yards, 20 TDs
Jesse Callier – 48 carries, 213 yards, three TDs
2012 (Washington)
Bishop Sankey – 289 carries, 1,439 yards, 16 TDs
Dezden Petty – 29 carries, 99 yards
2011 (Washington)
Chris Polk – 293 carries, 1,488 yards, 12 TDs
Jesse Callier – 47 carries, 260 yards, 1 TDs
2010 (Washington)
Chris Polk – 260 carries, 1,415 yards, nine TDs
Jesse Callier – 77 carries, 433 yards, zero touchdowns
2009 (Washington)
Chris Polk – 226 carries, 1,113 yards, five touchdowns
Demitrius Bronson – 19 carries, 89 yards, zero touchdowns
Funniest Things You Will See This Week
Poor kid had an out-of-body experience
Damn
When you try to act happy about your gift
Sports On A Dime
1. Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian on the development of Gunnar Helm: “I've been really, really proud of Gunnar. He was in the kind of our inaugural recruiting class. Those kids signed in December, and then I got hired in January. We had a little information on Gunnar in the recruitment process from the previous place we were at. But to watch his growth over four years, from where he was as a developmental player in our program, his first year. The next year, kind of found a little bit of a role. And then, year three, last year, had a real role as kind of an in-line blocker, as JT Sanders was catching a lot of balls, Gunnar continued to work at it. I think the dedication that he made to developing himself in the passing game, we saw glimpses of it last year, but what he's been able to do this year has become a real weapon, a real target, a primary receiver, a guy that can not only catch the ball but can create explosive plays and can make people miss in the open field.
“I think he's become a really complete tight end, and I just think that's a credit to his work ethic, but also to the development in our program, and him believing in our program and in the weight room and with Coach [Jeff] Banks in the tight end room.”
2. Sarkisian’s response when asked how Helm compares to other tight ends in college football: “Well, it's kind of difficult to judge when I haven't seen all the other ones. What I do know is, we spread the ball around a fair amount in our offense. Just look at our numbers of touchdown catches, receptions, and the amount of guys that catch balls for us. It's not like we just feature one specific player at one specific position. With that being said, I think Gunnar is leading our team in receiving yards right now. He's made impactful plays. He's made explosive plays.
“I don't know about all the other tight ends, but Gunnar is a complete tight end. As much as he does for us in the pass game, he's critical to our success in the run game. He's critical to our success in pass protection. He is a true tight end and a guy that has to encompass it all. He's not the guy labeled the tight end that splits out and plays slot receiver. He does it all, and he does it at a high level. He plays a lot of snaps for us. He's tough-minded, so I do think that about him, but it's hard to compare him to other guys that I haven't seen.”
3. Sarkisian on David Gbenda’s response to losing playing time to Liona Lefau: “David's responded really well. He's a guy that when we get him in there, he's impactful. He makes his reps count, something that we've been, we've really been preaching here is – don’t count your reps, make your reps count. When David's on the field, he's making tackles, he's plays fast, he plays physical.
“We've been talking a lot about this at multiple position groups, but I think a lot of it even at linebacker, you don't feel that drop off when you go to the number two guy, and David's a prime example of that. When he gets on the field, you don't feel like, man, we have a backup in there. We have a guy who's in there making plays and is impacting the game.”
4. Sarkisian on Jahdae Barron’s draft stock increases after deciding to return for his senior season: “He's making that money now, and making that money back now for himself and for his family. I know a lot of agents preach, just get to your second contract. That's true, and that's true whenever you go to the NFL, but you can never go back and make that money that you inevitably get drafted at, and what that rookie deal looks like. When we have players that really buy into the developmental piece and what one more year could look like for them, I think it just really speaks volumes for our younger players for what it can look like.”
5. Enjoy your Sunday
6. It is a wonderful world we live in when Vanderbilt can talk trash (bad language alert)
7. Here is Oklahoma’s remaining schedule after Saturday’s win against Maine
At Missouri
Alabama
At LSU
Oklahoma is 5-4. If the Sooners do not defeat Missouri, it will be hard to make a bowl game.
8. Better known as the Lane Kiffin Rule
9. Come on, Tom.
Here is Yahoo’s recap of Herman losing his cool after a blowout loss against USF on Friday:
“Florida Atlantic head coach Tom Herman did not appreciate the shoe being on the other foot Friday.
“Let's rewind to Oct. 14, 2023. FAU, in its first season under the former Texas head coach, blew the doors off of South Florida, 56-14. It was not a graceful win, as FAU attempted and recovered an onside kick, then went for it on fourth down while up 42 points in the fourth quarter.
“In the run-up to this year's matchup, Herman talked openly about how he views USF as a rival, saying "We don't like them, I hope they don't like us." Those comments ended up being an unfortunate prologue to a 44-21 blowout win for USF.
“And USF didn't just beat FAU. On its last real play of the game, the Bulls went for it on fourth down while up 23 points and got it with a 10-yard pass.
“As the game ended, USF head coach Alex Golesh attempted a frosty blow-by handshake with Herman, which appeared to set something off in Herman. He proceeded to follow the coach and berate him for several seconds.”
10. Let’s see what happens
Proud Dad Alert
This crazy schedule will resonate with every parent of young athletes.
Maximus was invited to participate in an MLS Next Invitational ID event in San Antonio on October 25. I rented a car in Austin, drove to the event, stayed in San Antonio, caught a 5 a.m. flight to Nashville, covered the game, napped for about 90 minutes, caught a 5 a.m. flight back to Austin, and then watched my son play for his team at 11 a.m. on last Sunday. I was dead to the world that afternoon.
However, Max made sure it was worth the effort (shout out to OB Live producer Tyler Mills for creating a cool thumbnail).