Today was a better day for the No. 7 Texas Longhorns in a 38-7 win over the San Jose State Spartans at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
Not the most crisp and efficient day, but a better one nonetheless. The 2025 Longhorns are officially in the win column for the first time, and it was the kind of win that allowed them to get plenty of players off the sideline and into the fire for the first time. You want to be able to get as many guys in the game as possible in these cupcake games, and while we saw offensive starters in the game for a little longer than expected, we definitely saw some names get snaps for the first time this season.
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Texas will get two more opportunities to empty the benches like they did on Saturday over the next two weeks, all of which will be valuable opportunities to get guys live reps and continue to build chemistry across the position groupings. But before we get to looking ahead, lets chop it up a bit about what stood out to me about the Longhorns in their win against the Spartans.
The Texas defense was a turnover machine
Pete Kwiatkowksi’s defense was back up to it’s usual antics on Saturday, as it forced four takeaways and came close to forcing two or three more over the course of the contest. The Texas defense turned the tide of this game permanently when it forced three turnovers on three consecutive drives, which led to the Longhorns scoring three consecutive touchdowns to build a nice cushion on the scoreboard.
Texas had one of the best defensive units in the country last year when it came to generating turnovers, and after not forcing any against Ohio State last week they quickly and emphatically got on the board with some on Saturday. On top of the four turnovers they forced, the Longhorn defense forced two additional turnover on downs by stonewalling the Spartan offense on fourth down.
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San Jose State only was able to generate 273 yards of total offense and was kept under 100 yards rushing for the afternoon. Top wideout Danny Scudero was targeted 16 times and only managed 66 yards receiving.
This unit did allow one scoring drive on Saturday, but otherwise accomplished what we have become accustomed to seeing from them.
Is Parker Livingstone WR1?
I know it is only two weeks into the season, but Parker Livingstone has been the best wide receiver for Texas despite most of the pre-season hype surrounding Ryan Wingo. Livingstone made a hell of a catch in Columbus for the team’s only score and on Saturday he was absolutely terrorizing the Spartans secondary.
Livingstone finished the day with four catches for 128 yards and two scores, and averaged 32 yards per catch. He also had part or all of two big receptions wiped out due to penalties. Livingstone generated a good bit of buzz in the spring and during camp, and so far he has shown up for a Longhorn offense that has needed playmakers to step up.
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A better day from Arch Manning
It needed to be a better day at the office from No. 16 in burnt orange and white, and that is what we got from the starting Longhorn quarterback on Saturday. It was a less than crisp start, but once things got going Arch looked much more comfortable than we saw him last week.
Manning finished the game 19-of-30 passing for 295 yards passing with four touchdowns and one interception. He also ran for 23 yards and an additional score on the ground. The offense as a whole bogged down too much at times for my liking given the opponent, but it was a much more productive outing for Manning and the offense.
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The interception was a bad one given the circumstances — Arch had a defender in his face and he just threw up a prayer instead of just trying to throw it away. Steve Sarkisian will be coaching him up hard when they review that one on tape.
Arch needs all the live reps he can get over the next two weeks before Texas makes that trip to play Florida. If he continues to improve each week that will be very encouraging for Texas and the offense.
The Texas run game was lackluster
I felt better than others about how Texas was able to run the ball against Ohio State last week, but I came away a lot less enthused with the Longhorn run game after Saturday’s effort against San Jose State. While Tre Wisner was kept out for precautionary reasons, the Texas offensive line was not able to go to work like I was hoping to see against a Spartan defense that allowed 236 rushing yards just last week to Central Michigan.
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CJ Baxter led the way with 64 yards on 13 carries and was robbed of a touchdown due to a penalty (more on that in a second) and the rest of the carries were split between Christian Clark (seven carries, 21 yards) and Jerrick Gibson (seven carries, 38 yards). Gibson had a bad fumble on the final offensive drive of the game after struggling with fumbles last year.
This group lacks explosiveness as a whole and is not going to scare a lot of defenses if this is what things are going to look like this year. Wisner in the mix will help things a bit, but there definitely isn’t a early lead back like Bijan Robinson or even Jonathon Brooks in that position room right now.
Way too many penalties
Lets just keep this short and sweet — 12 penalties for 115 yards is way too damn much for a football team of any caliber and especially one that came into the season with championship expectations. There were multiple penalties that wiped away big plays and there was a brutal roughing the kicker penalty on special teams that extended the drive for San Jose State and took away very good field position for the Texas offense.
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Colin Simmons is a dude and is going to do great things for Texas this year, but he was flagged twice on Saturday, including being offsides. That just simply can’t happen and is the kind of stuff that will bite you square in the ass against better opposition. Hell, it bit you in the ass last week in Columbus. Steve Sarkisian and his staff need to jump down some throats in the coming week about this because it can’t continue to be a theme moving forward.
Texas is in the win column and back on track after the tough one in week one in Columbus. Some things were fixed, but there is still plenty of work to be done before rolling out the red carpet for UTEP next week.
The 24-hour rule is officially in effect. Watch the tape, get corrections, then flush it and get your minds right for the Miners.
