Since being ranked No. 1 in the preseason polls, many people have felt the Texas Longhorns have underproduced and been underwhelming a majority of the season. Despite letting up in the fourth quarter, Texas finally put together its most complete effort of the season while taking down No. 9-ranked Vanderbilt 34-31 in Austin.
With 3 games remaining and a realistic path to the College Football Playoff still available, Texas is resembling the team it was projected to be in August. Here are 3 reasons why the Longhorns are finally living up to the preseason hype which surrounded them entering the season.
1. Arch Manning is finally playing consistently
After struggling most of the first 5 weeks of the season, Arch Manning has put together strong performances in 3 of the Longhorns 4 consecutive wins in SEC play. Since beating Oklahoma in his first Red River Rivalry start, Manning has passed for 972 yards, 7 touchdowns while throwing only 1 pick.
If Manning’s last 2 games are any indication of what lies ahead for future Texas opponent,s there will be lot of people around the nation looking silly and taking down posts on social media. Manning has thrown for 674 yards and 6 touchdowns against Mississippi State and Vanderbilt while going over 300 yards passing in back-to-back games for the first time in his young career.
A big beneficiary of Manning’s hot streak has been star sophomore wide receiver Ryan Wingo, who is also starting to live up to the preseason hype as a result. After not going over 80 receiving yards but once the entire season, Wingo has gone for 184 and 89 yards in consecutive weeks highlighted, by back-breaking catches of 62 and 75 yards each week.
Against Vandy this past weekend, Wingo’s 75-yard catch and run occurred on the first play of the game from scrimmage to get Texas on the board first. If it wasn’t for an apparent hand injury which forced him to leave the game early, Wingo would most likely have produced consecutive games of 100 plus receiving yards for the first time in his career.
2. Previously unheralded players keep producing
Coming into the season, every publication talked about Texas’s dominant defensive trio of Athony Hill, Colin Simmons and Michael Taaffe, while mentioning Manning, Wingo and Quintrevion Wisner on offense when talking about the Longhorns. Although all have had made some big plays and been major contributors throughout the season, a big reason Texas is starting to reach preseason expectations is because of the outstanding supporting cast that doesn’t get talked about enough.
Players like junior defensive back Jelani McDonald and sophomore wide receiver Emmett Mosley V continue coming up big for the Longhorns despite lacking the attention and fanfare of others.
McDonald has been so consistent he has recorded 8 tackles or more in every SEC game except for one and is second on the team in tackles overall behind Hill. On offense, Mosley V has had an explosive reception in 3 games in SEC play and has racked up 3 touchdowns in his last 2 outings.
Both were at their best when Texas needed them the most in Week 9’s come-from-behind victory over Mississippi State. McDonald led the team with 14 tackles, while Mosley V caught the game-winning touchdown to save Texas’s season in overtime, which held up after going under review for a few minutes.
To get to the College Football Playoff to even win a national championship, every team needs unsung players to step up on occasion and, luckily for Texas, McDonald and Mosley V have answered the call and performed big when called upon for the Longhorns.
3. The Longhorns’ pass rush is elite
Despite losing a lot of defensive talent to the NFL in the spring, the Texas defensive unit came into the season expected to be a force and give a lot of quarterback and offensive coordinators nightmares. Unfortunately for opponents, Texas’s defense has been elite most of the season, highlighted by an aggressive pass rush that continues to get better each week.
Currently, the Longhorns lead the nation with 34 sacks, led by Simmons who is starting to live up to his All-American billing with a team-high 8 sacks on the season. Besides the overall sack total, the big reason Texas is starting to live up to the hype is the timing and consistency of the sacks.
Since Texas began its 4-game conference winning streak against Oklahoma, the pash rush has generated 5 sacks or more in every one of the 4 victories. The unit was at its apex against Vandy, as it sacked Commodores star quarterback Diego Pavia 7 times despite the fact Pavia entered the game having only been sacked 7 times all season long.
If Texas can continue to generating this type of elite pressure, combined with an offense finally executing at a consistent high level, it has a legit chance to do the unthinkable and beat Georgia and Texas A&M to finish the regular season. What seemed like a bad prediction is starting to become a reality as Texas is starting to figure things out across the board and winning games in the SEC.
Kendrick E. Johnson writes for various national outlets such as High School on SI, Yardbarker, ESPN Andscape and MMA Weekly. He is an independent print journalist, sports television reporter and multimedia journalist who has covered the NBA Finals, NFL, NCAA football, MLB, NHL, WWE and over 75 world championship boxing and UFC Fights nationally. Johnson has also covered every prep sport possible in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and all across the great state of Texas. He’s done numerous 1-on-1 interviews with some of the biggest names and personalities in sports from Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry and Shaq on the basketball side to Jon Jones, Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford on the combat sports side and John Cena, Jey and Jimmy Uso and Charlotte Flair in WWE.
