Are the Texas Longhorns About to Run Through the Playoff Field?
By returning to its smash-mouth roots, Texas looks the part of a genuine national championship contender
By
Laine Higgins
Follow
Dec. 29, 2024 at 10:20 am ET
Life’s supposed to work a certain way for the Texas Longhorns. You get the best players, you draw the biggest crowds and when you’re on offense, you run the dang ball.
It worked that way for the better part of a century, as Texas produced some of the finest rushers that college football has ever seen, from Earl Campbell to Ricky Williams to Jamaal Charles.
Advertisement
But in recent years, as the Lone Star State has gone loco for the pass-happy Air Raid offense, the Longhorns seemed to forget about their smash-mouth roots. As Texas cycled through coaches since its last national championship in 2005, one of the few constants was its penchant for passing. This is a team with the most famous backup quarterback in the nation.
This season started off no different. Through the first five weeks of the season, the Longhorns tossed 17 touchdown passes but had a player rush for 100 yards in just one single game.
But as the season heated up and the stakes got higher, Texas started to take on a different, more old-fashioned identity. By the time of its College Football Playoff first-round matchup against Clemson earlier this month, the shift was complete. The Longhorns racked up 292 rushing yards—roughly 54% more than they averaged in their previous 13 games. For the first time all season, two different players topped 100 yards.
In describing their approach afterward, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian could have been quoting legendary Longhorns coach Darrell Royal.
Advertisement
“Run to win,” Sarkisian said after the 38-24 victory. “We’re going to need to run the football to advance in these playoffs—that’s what playoff football is about.”
It sets up Wednesday’s playoff quarterfinal against Arizona State as an old-school clash between two bruising running games. The Sun Devils have Cam Skattebo, a one-man wrecking machine who averaged 131 rushing yards per game and finished fifth in 2024 Heisman Trophy voting. Texas has a newfound confidence in its ground game that might just carry it all the way to Atlanta.
Most teams that have won championships in the playoff era are capable of picking opponents apart with the pass game and running them into oblivion. But Michigan proved last year that if you’re going to use just one to win, it’s running—the Wolverines beat a top-10 opponent while going an entire half without attempting a pass.
No one would mistake the 2024 Longhorns for the 2023 Wolverines. But in the first-round of the playoff, Texas ran the ball punishingly enough to make you do a double take.
Advertisement
It was a major shift for Texas—and one the Longhorns had been trying to make for weeks. Sarkisian said that his team’s run game is based on outside zone concepts, which spread the defense out at the line of scrimmage in order to create wide-open lanes for running backs. The scheme is effective against a variety of defensive looks, but it’s more involved than more traditional up-the-gut run plays.
“It sounds easy—everybody run to the right or left, the running back just go,” Sarkisian said. “It’s a little bit more intricate than that for us.”
For large stretches of the season, the Longhorns struggled to master those nuances. It didn’t help that injuries piled up early in the season. Texas lost lead back C.J. Baxter for the season in August, then saw second-stringer Jaydon Blue miss time in September with a bum ankle.
Advertisement
For long stretches this fall, Quintrevion Wisner, a three-star sophomore who hardly played in 2023, became the Longhorns’ bellcow. It earned him the admiration of Sarkisian, who said the back was “tougher than a Brillo pad” and then watched him rush for a season-high 186 yards against Texas A&M.
“He’s just done a great job of whenever his number is called, he executes,” said fifth-year offensive lineman Jake Majors of Wisner.
It wasn’t until November that the ground attack really started clicking. All that progress came screeching to a halt when the Longhorns’ faced Georgia in the SEC Championship game. Texas finished the game with just 31 rushing yards on 28 attempts.
“We went back and watched the film,” said Blue. “We didn’t run the ball well at all.”
Whatever adjustments they made after playing Georgia, it’s safe to say they worked. Never mind that Clemson allowed the 60th most yards per rush of any team, Texas had its best running game of the season by a country mile.
“This year happened to be one of those years where it took us a little longer to really get it right,” Sarkisian said. “I feel like we’re kind of hitting our stride at the right time.”
Write to Laine Higgins at laine.higgins@wsj.com
Advertisement
