If you’re not impressed by Texas, I don’t know what to tell you.
Once upon a time, “Texas is back, folks” was the ultimate punchline for mocking the Longhorns preseason outlook. Now, nobody is laughing at the only team in America who reached each of the last 2 semifinals. And if they are, they’re doing so while failing to acknowledge the new reality.
It’s tough to find flaws in Texas these days.
That’s a credit to what Steve Sarkisian has built. He’s a lifetime removed from a 5-7 start and much closer to joining that ever-exclusive group of national championship-winning active coaches, which expanded to 3 after Ryan Day led Ohio State past Texas in that aforementioned semifinal game.
But instead of talking about a negative ending, let’s dig into a positive beginning of sorts in Austin.
There’s no better time to be positive than talkin’ season. That’s what I always say. Each of the next 16 days, we’ll look at the best things about each SEC team. This daily series will align with the SEC Network Takeover, which runs from Saturday, June 28 until July 13, AKA just before talkin’ season officially kicks off at SEC Media Days on July 14.
For those keeping track at home, that’s alphabetical order.
So far, here are the teams that we’ve done:
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Auburn
- Florida
- Georgia
- Kentucky
- LSU
- Ole Miss
- Mississippi State
- Mizzou
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
Today, we’ll continue with the best things about Texas in 2025:
Best offensive player: Arch Manning, QB
Look. I know that I could pick Tre Wisner and cite the fact that he’s the SEC’s lone returning 1,000-yard back. At this time last year, I might’ve made the case that CJ Baxter was going to be the best offensive player on Texas’s roster, but then he got hurt in fall camp. If I wanted to go super in the weeds, I’d tell you that Trevor Goosby is the guy that I’m bullish on becoming an All-American who gets picked in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
But Manning is the pick here, and I won’t apologize for it.
He’s the pick not just because of his last name, or because I was impressed by some of those throws against Louisiana-Monroe. He’s the pick because nothing we’ve seen from him suggests he has a ceiling. Don’t get it twisted. He’s got things to work on. Most notably, he needs to work on sensing back-side pressure and having that mental clock in the pocket. Live reps will be the only thing that’ll help with that. But in a limited sample size, he looks like the real deal. The downfield accuracy was there (47% adjusted completion percentage on throws 20 yards downfield), he completed 66.7% of his passes with a 5-0 TD-INT ratio and 10.6 yards/attempt when blitzed and he added 149 yards after contact on 21 rushing attempts.
All of that stuff plays. It’ll play even if the receiving room and offensive line both have some new pieces to fit. There could be a greater margin for error because of that backfield, as well as a defense that won’t demand weekly 35-point showings from the Texas offense. Manning will be put in ideal spots to make plays.
By season’s end, the “he’s only getting talked about because of his last name” crowd will be eating plenty of crow.
Best defensive player: Anthony Hill Jr., LB
The best compliment that I can give Hill is that if you watch any defensive player this year, No. 0 will have your attention quicker and more often than anybody. If we were doing a draft of all defensive players in the sport, I’d have a real dilemma with taking Hill or Caleb Downs at No. 1. That’s how good he is. He’s a middle linebacker who wrecks games for the best returning unit in the sport. In 2024, he racked up 113 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss, 8 sacks, 4 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery and 1 interception. That’s not too shabby for a true sophomore in his first season against SEC competition.
Long live an off-ball linebacker who can get in the backfield and look like the best player on any field he’s on. That’s Hill. He’s been a standout since he arrived at Texas as a 5-star recruit, and in Year 3, there’s no telling what he’s capable of that defense. Those instincts and surroundings are as good as you can ask for. Hill has the ability to be the 2025 version of Roquan Smith … especially if he can fuel Texas to a win at Georgia.
Best freshman: Kaliq Lockett, WR
Lockett is an obvious choice after he got rave reviews as an early enrollee. I’m not saying that Lockett is going to become Matthew Golden 2.0, especially with the high expectations that await Ryan Wingo. That’s not a fair comp for a true freshman. But like with Golden, I get the feeling that by late in the season, Lockett is going to feel like a cheat code for Sarkisian to play. The route-running ability and top-end speed at 6-2 will become an asset in this offense, which now has opportunity with Golden and Isaiah Bond off to the NFL. Perhaps the better comp will be Wingo, who also had moments like that as a 6-2 true freshman last year.
Lockett’s role could be like Wingo, who occasionally lined up in the slot. DeAndre Moore Jr. will still likely covet the majority of those snaps if he’s healthy, but the beauty of the Texas offense is that someone like Lockett can earn those opportunities, especially if he shows good understanding of the scheme from the jump. Lockett will make plenty of noise as a true freshman catching passes from Manning.
Best game: Week 1, Texas at Ohio State
It’s the obvious answer even if it won’t necessarily define the Playoff outlook in the way that it would’ve in the 4-team era. We’ve never seen a team make the Playoff after losing in Week 1, but obviously, we’ve only had 1 year of the 12-team era. It’ll happen at some point, perhaps starting with the loser of this game.
It’s not just that it’s Manning in his first career road start. It’s also the debut of fellow former 5-star recruit Julian Sayin. Two preseason Heisman Trophy candidates would be must-see TV in itself, but that’s really just part of it. You’ve got arguably the 3 best non-quarterbacks in the sport in Hill, Downs and Jeremiah Smith. Plus, it’s the rematch from last year’s semifinal game, which was Ohio State’s toughest test during that run to a national championship. And just in case that wasn’t enough, the pageantry will be second to none with it being Lee Corso’s final College GameDay on the desk.
If that’s not a headliner matchup, I don’t know what is.
Best reason for improvement: More offensive possibilities
Some might view that as a dig at Ewers and say that I’m hating on his game while praising the unproven Manning. We need context. Only 12.4% of Ewers’ passes went 20 yards downfield (No. 110 among FBS QBs with min. 20 such attempts). Only the flip side, the only quarterback in FBS who had a higher percentage of throws behind the line of scrimmage than Ewers (28.2%) was Haynes King (31.5%), who also added 581 rushing yards and 11 rushing scores. In defense of Ewers, he played through a torn oblique, as well as the ankle injury he suffered late in the season.
Again, that’s context. The other side of that is the exact reason why Manning’s buzz goes beyond his last name. Everything is on the table. Sarkisian won’t have to tweak the offense to his limitations, and he can extend expand it to his skill set. Manning can have the quarterback run game and the downfield passing attack at his disposal.
Let’s also not dismiss the limitations that Texas had in the ground game at times last year after it suffered a pair of season-ending injuries in the backfield during fall camp. Sure, Wisner blossomed, but the depth issues hurt, and when Jaydon Blue dealt with his fumbling issues late in the season, Texas didn’t have a bevy of options to turn to in some key moments. Shoot, Manning was the guy who Sarkisian turned to in a couple of those short-yardage situations late in the season. Having a mobile quarterback along with the return of a healthy Baxter will give the Longhorns a higher ground-game ceiling.
The beauty of this offense, albeit an inexperienced one, is that there won’t be the same sort of ceiling that it felt like it had last season. It doesn’t guarantee improvement, but could that make the difference in a game against Georgia, or perhaps in a return trip to Atlanta? Absolutely.
Expectations are big, as they should be. Dare I say, Texas might be as big as it’s been in 20 years.
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.
