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It wasn’t a clean day, but getting to win No. 10 was all that mattered for Texas and its Playoff hopes.
Mission accomplished.
On Senior Day, the Longhorns endured an up-and-down afternoon but they fended off Kentucky for a 31-14 victory.
Here are 3 takeaways from Texas’ victory against Kentucky:
1. Quinn Ewers had an eventful Senior Day, to say the least
The Texas quarterback’s day started with him participating in Senior Day, which was somewhat significant in itself. It all but confirmed that Ewers will be off to the NFL at season’s end. That wasn’t surprising.
But that wasn’t the most noteworthy thing from Ewers’ day. It was that he played through a leg injury that he suffered during Saturday’s final home game of the season. It showed. Ewers’ mobility was limited significantly. He threw a pick-6 that was more of a strip sack, and he wasn’t the same player who threw a pair of touchdown passes to Gunnar Helm and led a 24-point first half.
Steve Sarkisian opted not to bring in Arch Manning, and instead, he tried to work around Ewers being less than 100%. That might not have been significant on Saturday because Jaydon Blue and Tre Wisner fueled the Texas ground game — they combined for 254 rushing yards — but ahead of next week against Texas A&M, that’ll be dissected throughout the week.
2. Cutter Boley provided UK a spark in relief of Brock Vandagriff
After Brock Vandagriff completed 3-for-7 passes for 51 yards with a touchdown on 4th down and an interception, he was pulled for Boley at halftime. The true freshman instantly marched Kentucky down the field, and while he didn’t lead a scoring drive, he certainly provided a spark in the second half. Boley was 10 for 18 for 160 yards, all of which came in the second half.
Boley’s day ended with an interception and he took a bad sack on a 3rd-down play in the red zone that should’ve resulted in a chip-shot field goal, but Alex Raynor missed from 33 yards. Still, though. Boley’s poise was on display against the No. 1 pass defense in America. Ultimately, he wasn’t going to be able to rally back against Texas on the road.
Will Stoops stick with Boley and let him start against Louisville? It wouldn’t be surprising, especially knowing that Kentucky won’t get to 6 wins.
3. Unless Texas gets demolished by Texas A&M, pencil in the Longhorns for a Playoff berth
At 10-1, Texas is the last 1-loss team left in the SEC heading into the final weekend of the regular season. That feels significant. Also significant is the No. 3 ranking that the selection committee gave the Longhorns. We can debate the lack of quality wins, but what’s not debatable is that the selection committee believes Texas passes the eye test.
Would losing to Texas A&M in that atmosphere suddenly drop the Longhorns below all of those other 2-loss SEC teams?
Never say never, but barring chaos and a beatdown in College Station, Texas’ Playoff chances appear to be a lock.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
