If it wasn’t for Penn State, the Texas Longhorns would be the most disappointing team in the nation this season.
Despite losing 2 games by 8 points or less at 2 of the toughest stadiums in the country, most pundits and college football fans in America officially put dirt on the Longhorns’ grave and have ruled their 2025 season all but over this past weekend. Although it’s not dead, Texas is officially on life support just 1 game into its SEC slate.
With their Red River Rivalry game upon them this week and big games with Vanderbilt, Georgia and Texas A&M on the horizon, here are 3 things the Longhorns must dramatically improve upon if they want any chance of running the table the rest of the season.
1. Texas must develop a consistent run game
Through 5 games, it is preposterous that Arch Manning and his 160 rushing yards and 5 rushing touchdowns lead the Longhorns on the season. To highlight how bad things are even more for Texas, Manning is the only player on the roster who has rushed for more than 1 touchdown on the season.
If Texas plans on turning things around or even having a positive season in SEC play, it must get the running back trio of CJ Baxter, Quintrevion Wisner and Jerrick Gibson healthy and going. Someone from this trio or even talented true freshman running back James Simon must emerge as the lead back if Texas wants to have any shot of beating Oklahoma this weekend or A&M and Georgia in November. On the season, the Longhorns have failed to have anyone rush for over 100 yards in a game, with Wisner coming the closest by running for 80 yards against Ohio State.
If coach Steve Sarkisian and company plan on righting the ship, this must change immediately. After rushing for over 1,000 yards last season, Wisner was expected to be the man the Longhorns needed this season, but has been limited to just 2 games due to a recurring hamstring injury that kept him out of games early in the season.
With Manning struggling mightily without a consistent run game, Wisner’s reemergence is a necessity for the Longhorns to have any success in SEC play. The fact that the Longhorns sport a 4-0 record when Wisner goes for over 100 yards in a game in his career and are 6-1 when he rushes for 79 yards or more highlights why Wisner is the key to getting Texas’s nonexistent ground game going.
2. The Longhorns’ offensive line must dramatically improve
The Texas offensive line came into the season as the Longhorns’ biggest question mark and is now one of their biggest problems.
So far this season, Manning has been sacked 9 times, hit 22 times and hurried 67 times. Last week against Florida alone, he was sacked 6 times and hurried 10 times all behind a struggling O-line that simply got bullied by the Gators all game long.
This can’t happen any more the rest of the season as Sarkisian and his staff must find a way to make what was a strength for Texas last season at least adequate in 2025. Most want to blame Manning as the biggest culprit for Texas’s offensive struggles this season when the bigger problem has been the subpar play of the guys up front.
If Texas wants any shot of getting things back on track, its offensive line must protect Manning more consistently and it must improve its run blocking to balance things out while allowing Sark to get deep into his play-calling bag.
3. Stars must play like stars
No matter if its Manning or Ryan Wingo on offense or preseason All-Americans Colin Simmons, Michael Taaffe and Anthony Hill Jr. on defense, none of the faces of the Longhorns program have lived up to their preseason billing. This must change beginning this weekend for Texas to have any remote dreams of returning to the College Football Playoff.
On offense, Wingo must become more consistent and make his presence known as the talented wideout has failed to catch more than 4 passes in a game or record a 100-yard receiving game this season despite leading the Longhorns with 4 touchdowns. On defense, Simmons must majorly improve his disappointing 1.5-sack total on the season while Taaffe and Hill must become more consistent to stabilize a Longhorn defense coming of its worst performance of the season.
It’s a difficult task, but all these thing need to happen for Texas to have a remote chance of turning around its disappointing 2025 season.
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.
