Inside Texas November 14, 2022 | Texas vs TCU

BOGGED DOWN

Despite a valiant effort by the Longhorn defense, the Texas offense could not get going against No. 4 TCU in a 17-10 loss.

THIS WEEK:

Texas Stalls Out on Offense |

by Joe Cook

The Longhorns failed to score an offensive touchdown in loss to TCU.

Five Quick Thoughts | by Ian boyd

In a game ruled by the defenses, the Horned Frog offense did just enough to win.

Post Mortem |

A tale of two teams -- the defense dominated, the offense self-destructed. by Paul WadlIngton

Recruiting News |

Texas hosts a slew of high-profile recruits for TCU game. by JustIn Wells

Kansas Preview |

Texas travels back to Kansas, this time to face the Jayhawks in Lawrence. by Paul WadlIngton

Horns Dominate Gonzaga |

Texas breaks in the Moody Center with big win over No. 2 Gonzaga. by Joe Cook

BREAKDOWN ON OFFENSE

AUSTIN — Most of the 104,203 in attendance at Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium and the millions watching the No. 18 Texas Longhorns square off with the No. 4 TCU Horned Frogs expected to see a matchutp typical of the Big 12 over the last decade, with up-and-down action from prolific offenses led by talented quarterbacks and featuring superstar running backs.

OFFENSE DOOMS TEXAS

BY JOE COOK

What the in-person and at-home audience saw instead was a performance the Longhorn offense failed to show up for. Texas was held under 200 total yards for the first time since the 2015 season opener against Notre Dame and failed to score an offensive touchdown for the first time since the 2016 season finale against TCU in a 17-10 loss.

“Offensively, zero rhythm in the game,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We could not get out of our own way, which is extremely frustrating. Clearly did not see this coming.”

Both defenses were the stars of the show, with the Longhorn defense ac cumulating 14 tackles for loss and five sacks. It even did the bulk of the scoring for Sarkisian’s team, with a late Jahdae Barron scoop-and-score serving as Texas’ only touchdown.

Though the performance was strong, it was not spotless. TCU scored two touchdowns via broken plays. The first

came in the third quarter when Kendre Miller busted loose for a 75-yard touch down run to make it 10-0. The second occurred in the fourth quarter when Max Duggan found a wide open Quentin Johnston in the end zone to make it 17-3.

Those two mistakes aside, the Texas defense did its job for most of the night against an offense that entered averag ing 508.7 yards per game and 7.0 yards per play. Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense limited the Horned Frogs to 283 total yards and 3.9 yards per play. Barron, Barryn Sorrell, and DeMarvion Over shown led the Longhorns with 11 tackles apiece. Sorrell added 1.5 sacks and 3 TFLs, while Barron had 3.5 TFLs in ad dition to his touchdown.

It was the offense that failed to do what was necessary for victory. Quinn Ewers turned in a performance akin to the one delivered a few weeks ago versus Okla homa State. He was 17-for-39 for 171 yards and an interception. Ewers began the night 0-for-7 against a TCU squad

that was No. 95 in passing defense.

As he did in Stillwater, Okla., Ewers repeatedly looked for Xavier Worthy with deep throws. No. 3 targeted No. 8 on 12 occasions, but the two managed to link up just four times with none of the four on deep throws. Only two other receiv ers, Ja’Tavion Sanders and Jordan Whit tington, were targeted by Texas’ signal caller on Saturday night.

For Sarkisian, in another callback to the contest in Stillwater, said he didn’t consider placing Hudson Card in the game late to try to salvage a poor performance, believing it wouldn’t be fair to the third-year sophomore. He thought Ewers competed well, but admitted the former Five-Star Plus+ quarterback didn’t have his best showing on the field.

The running game gained little ground against the Horned Frogs’ three-man front defense. Bijan Robinson and Ros chon Johnson combined for 17 rushes for 43 yards. Robinson’s 12-carry, 29yard performance likely puts any Heis

Hayden Conner (76) and Kelvin Banks (78)

man hope to bed. Overall, Texas tallied only 28 rushing yards, with five Ewers’ rushes losing 15 yards.

“It’s frustrating,” Robinson said. “For the offense, we just couldn’t get the run game going. Couldn’t find any creases. Anything.”

Despite anemic offense, there were opportunities for Texas. The Longhorns had two chances in the red zone, one in the third quarter and the other in the fourth.

In the first opportunity, a Johnson run that went nowhere and two incomple tions resulted in a Bert Auburn field goal that netted Texas’ first points of the game. In the second opportunity while trailing 17-3 in the fourth quarter, an incompletion, a bobbled snap, and two more incompletions left the Longhorns without six points when they needed it most.

There was also a chance for Ewers to find Robinson through the air for points early in the fourth. Facing a 2nd-and-3, Robinson ran a wheel route and ap peared to elude his defender and break open. By that point, however, Ewers had moved onto the next receiver in his progression.

“I saw a linebacker, whoever it was, run out with him,” Ewers said. “At that point, I got off of it because I assumed he was going to be covered up.”

A few plays later, Texas would end its second red zone trip with no points.

Barron’s late touchdown gave Texas the most hope it had all evening, but the Longhorn defense couldn’t answer the bell one last time as TCU gained the yardage it needed to run out the remain

ing 4:25 on the clock

In addition to the opportunities missed, Sarkisian forfeited an opportunity near the end of the first half. The Longhorns took possession of the ball on their own 25 with 1:20 left and one timeout. Texas moved to midfield, setting up a 4th-and-1. Instead of trying to gain more yards or points, Sarkisian elected to punt the ball away and go into halftime.

“If we don’t get it, I just didn’t want to give them the ball with a short field with a chance to get points when we were playing good defense,” Sarkisian said.

The result of opportunities missed and forfeited by the Longhorn offense put all the pressure on the Longhorn defense. The two lapses put Sarkisian’s team out side the margin of error it could ill afford to leave if it wanted to pull off its first top five win at home since 1999.

The loss makes a trip to Arlington as part of the Big 12 championship game, which would be a rematch against TCU, highly unlikely. In its current format, no team with three conference losses has ever made it to the Big 12 title game. Texas currently sits at 6-4 with a 4-3 conference record.

There’s one side of the ball that will draw most of the attention as the being reason behind the defeat Texas suf fered Saturday night. The struggles of Sarkisian’s offense that failed to score a touchdown made an upset win an unreachable goal.

“We didn’t run the ball well,” Sarkisian said. “We didn’t throw the ball well. We didn’t execute in the red zone well. We didn’t convert third downs well. We didn’t do anything good. It’s easy to point at one guy, but that wasn’t the case. We didn’t play good offensive football.”

Jean Delance

Barryn Sorrell

Like many TCU games of yesteryear, the Texas Longhorn offense found themselves against an opponent who’d scouted and prepared them remarkably well. This lead to a mostly impotent day on offense which doomed them, despite a strong defensive effort.

Except this time their own strong defensive effort was clearly aided by Gary Patterson while it was a new Horned Frog staff which schemed up a way to put Steve Sarkisian’s offense on lockdown.

Quinn Ewers was in a nightmare, back in the Oklahoma State where he felt the weight of trying to win the game for Texas and went 17-39

#1: TCU’S WINNING DEFENSIVE PLAN

I was very bearish on TCU’s chances of playing winning football this season, primarily because I figured the tatters of a defense left behind by Gary Patterson would NOT easily convert into a 3-down flyover in a single offseason. However they added a few transfers which have helped them a good deal, freshman nose tackle Damonic Williams gave them a (literally) huge missing piece, and their coaching staff has done a terrific job.

Because they’ve been much better inside than ex pected, they’ve been able to double down on it because of their cornerbacks. ULM transfer Josh Newton and Tre’vius Hodges-Tomlinson played a lot of man cover age and freed up the Horned Frog safeties to sit in the middle of the field close behind the linebackers.

Nothing wild, but what TCU did with their linebackers and D-line gave Texas fits. Defensive end Dylan Horton slipped inside into the B-gaps and gave Cole Hutson fits. Linebacker Johnny Hodges had 11 tackles and sniffed out a lot of Texas’ plays. Safeties Mark Perry and Nook Bradford combined for 10 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.

vs

QUICK thoughts

By Ian Boyd

for 171 yards at 4.4 ypa with zero touchdowns and one bad intercep tion.

Those numbers are one easy way to sum up what went terribly in this game. Another way is Bijan Robinson‘s line.

12 carries for 29 yards at 2.4 ypc.

Cancel the flights to New York and don’t fill up the bus to Arlington with gas just yet.

Hodges-Tomlinson finished the day with three pass break-ups and an interception matched with Xavier Wor thy much of the night, who in turn was targeted 12 times and caught four balls for 32 yards to finish with a dismal 2.7 yards per target.

Texas wanted to keep up their hammering process from previous, successful outings against this defense. It wasn’t working though. Getting Andrej Karic and the tight ends on the field didn’t help them block the bunched bodies, TCU’s angles and aggressive run throughs at linebacker gave them fits.

The answer of throwing the ball outside to 1-on-1 matchups, which is what the Ewers-Worthy connection is supposed to grant for Texas, yielded nothing.

Sarkisian adjusted in the 4th quarter or so and Texas manufactured a couple of drives into the red zone only to bog down in the red zone and translate three trips into three points.

Unsurprisingly, Gary Patterson and Texas had an outstanding gameplan for TCU’s offense as well.

The Frogs have lived off power-option football from the spread this season, mixing downhill inside zone and GT counter plays with the threat of Max Duggan keepers off the edge or quick flips out into space.

Unfortunately for the Frogs, there were some major tendencies to their approach. The Longhorns feasted early with nickel and boundary corner blitzes off the edge when they saw certain mo tions which indicated runs were coming and TCU was living all night with plays in which one of two things happened.

1: Texas played base defense, the Edge would play contain, and Duggan would have to hand off for an inside run into the tackles and teeth of the Longhorn defense.

2: Texas brought a defensive back blitz off the edge and crashed the Edge player after the run, leading to a lot of tackles for loss.

Between the modest gains running on Texas’ run fronts and the frequent negative plays from the blitzes (or from the perimeter screen game which Jahdae Barron and Texas were abusing mercilessly), TCU couldn’t come

out ahead.

Duggan kept his head though, TCU dramatically won the field position game thanks to Texas offensive impotence, and eventu ally Texas made a mistake on one of those spread zone runs and Kendre Miller broke free for a 75-yard scoring run.

On the day, Miller had 21 carries for 138 yards at 6.6 ypc with one score. Aside from the long run, he had 20 carries for 63 yards at 3.2 ypc. The long run was almost the difference in the game save for a snafu by Duggan late in the game when he tried to pull the ball late on a tight zone play (no quarterback keep read), fumbled, and Barron returned it for a 48-yard score.

So ultimately, Texas broke even against the TCU run game.

However they had one bad coverage bust on a Quentin Johnston post route which allowed him to break wide open for a 31-yard touchdown. That was the game.

Keondre Coburn

Rumors were floating heading into the game about D’Shawn Jamison missing and perhaps Barron as well. Jamison was indeed out, hence Brooks’ presence, but Barron was very much a factor in this game.

11 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and a defensive touchdown is a nice day. His disguises and constant shifting were a thorn in TCU’s side as he mixed blitzes with coverage drops and confused TCU’s receivers on blocking angles for their perimeter screen game, which he devoured hungrily.

He did get isolated on Quentin Johnston and came up short in a crucial 3rd-and-4 after his fumble return. Texas had a chance to get a stop and get the ball back with three minutes to tie the game. They faced 12 personnel from TCU in what looked like an obvious attempt to just run the ball and shrug and punt if it was stopped. Texas played the 3-4 personnel with DeMarvion Overshown at outside linebacker and blitzed him off the edge. With DMO’s hands in his face, Duggan fired off a slant outside to Johnston (same combo Sam Ehlinger and Collin Johnson used to connect with on 3rd down) and they brought it in to effectively win the game.

Barryn Sorrell also had a terrific game with 11 tackles, 1.5 sacks, three tackles for loss, and a pass break-up. Going into the game it was known TCU’s offensive tackles were a little heavy-footed in

#5 SO WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Texas fans will be inclined to see this as a total disaster. The program brought in all of those recruits and Arch Manning only to drop that stinker of an offensive performance and lose their best shot at the Big 12 Championship?

However bringing in Arch to hang out with nearly every top player the program is targeting in front of a record crowd (104k fans) will likely yield dividends in recruiting even if a win would have been better. With Texas A&M and Oklahoma also losing (both may even miss bowl season, A&M at least will), recruiting is going to go well for Texas.

As for the Big 12 title hunt, the Longhorns are now back in a tie for third place at 4-3. TCU is a lock to make it into the Big 12 title game. They could lose the final two games and be no worse off than tied with Kansas State, over whom they’d hold a tiebreaker.

protection if Texas could force them into passing situations but it wasn’t known whether they had an Edge who could make much of the situation. Sorrell has had several big home games this season and figures to have a great year in 2023 as he continues to grow and learn how to use his hands to create a pass-rush.

Overshown also had a nice day with 11 tackles, a .5 sack share, and several plays where his speed erased the spread stress of the Frog offensive design. As for his punt block “roughing the kicker” penalty, it was a bad beat.

TCU was inviting the edge rush all night, Texas nearly got home several times and every single time their punter would take a dive like a Premier League star striker and hunt a call. I’ve actually wondered why we haven’t seen as many kick ers doing that these days, Oklahoma used to crank out some amazing actors, but it appears TCU has the art down pretty well.

Kansas State whipped Baylor 31-3 tonight and are 5-2 in confer ence play with a road trip to West Virginia and home date with Kansas remaining.

Texas needs to beat Kansas on the road and then take down Baylor at home then they need for K-State to lose one of those games. If all that happened, and Oklahoma State also lost one more game, Texas would hold the tiebreaker over K-State and be in. If they got in a three-way tie with OSU and K-State, I’m not sure how things would break out.

Suffice to say Texas had control of their own destiny, their young quarterback slipped, and they lost it. They might still sneak in but a best case scenario is more likely to be 8-4, a productive set of bowl practices and monster recruiting class, big bowl win, and then to nail down this passing game in the following spring.

Jahdae Barron

Terrible game from Ewers.

He continues to look for Worthy down the field but he can never seem to find him. On many of these throws it’s hard to believe the error lies with Worthy when Ewers can rarely seem to find his line. The interception in the first half was a disas trous play, fresh off the heels of some initial success they took their shot and Ewers didn’t seem to see the weak safety sitting on the post. Or if he did see him, his reaction was to throw it behind Worthy to keep it away from the safety and thus into the hands of the trailing Hodges-Tomlinson.

Ewers’ timing was routinely off. He was early in the red zone, such as on the open glance to Jordan Whittington where he rifled the ball in hard just as Whitt was finishing his move to get open (nearly precise, but too early). He was late on the first throw of the game to Worthy on a deep out pattern which was wide open. There were some amazing throws mixed in, such as the seamer to Ja’Tavion Sanders which took Texas down to the goal line. Then there was the fumbled snap, the self sack where he tripped the pocket, and countless other “he looks rattled” freshman moments.

There’s a lot of talent evident but these throws down the field from bigger sets require extra precision because the windows down the field are narrower and the timing is so difficult.

Sark did him no favors with the gameplan, which was much too hesitant to accept that neither the power runs in the box

nor the deep throws outside were winning against TCU’s de fenders. Finally they accepted the need to get into spread sets to get TCU defenders out of the box and hit some screens to Whittington who finished with six catches for 78 yards.

They needed considerably more there though, and sooner, or else a better plan for blocking TCU’s loaded boxes. The Longhorn O-line seemed to struggle with the angles and speed TCU’s deep alignments at linebacker created and the run game came up empty.

The dropback spread passing game they brought out was okay at times but that style requires a lot of precision as well with protections and quarterback progressions and this unit ain’t there yet, to say the least.

The missed wheel to Bijan Robinson running free into the end zone was agonizing for Texas and juxtaposed well with Dug gan making Texas pay when they busted coverage on Quentin Johnston.

Texas’ identity this season is mostly “line up in big formations, run the ball, and hit enough throws to keep em honest.” TCU had answers and the Longhorns didn’t have enough counters they were comfortable turning to in order to adjust.

If there’s a bright side it’s that Ewers’ jittery play in some of these losses is likely to stick with him as he approaches this coming offseason.

Quinn Ewers

POST-MORTEM | OFFENSE

by Paul Wadlington

Steve Sarkisian has two full time jobs at Texas: offensive coor dinator and head coach. The number of college coaches that can successfully navigate that dual role can be counted on one hand. The number on that hand that don’t have a major sup portive brain trust to help shoulder the burden in both roles may be counted on one finger. Maybe.

We like to imagine the impact of holding down two 60 hour a week jobs flows in only one direction – that the overwhelming

burden of controlling the offense can inhibit broader program management – but in fact it can also flow from the myriad timeconsuming duties of head coach to degrade offensive coordina tion. Particularly when Sark doesn’t have a true right hand man on offense that he can offload big portions of game planning to or task with a discrete offensive package implementation to anticipate a particular defensive approach.

Typically, Sark nails the pregame preparation, evident on the

BIJAN ROBINSON

first half scoreboard, and then sees of fensive options compress as the game wears on. Either by virtue of opponent adjustments to a youthful offense ( a true freshman QB and four underclassmen OL limit autonomy) or his own self-imposition that a great play call is forever burned and that he doesn’t build in counters to certain core identity plays. Sometimes both.

If your only solution to linebackers firing recklessly downhill behind a three man de fensive front is to shelve your limited right handed running game and fire incomple tions downfield from bunch formations that compress the field, you lost this game on Tuesday when you were putting in your game plan.

When TCU wants to play in a phone booth, you don’t hunt for a pay phone. TCU’s tac tics were predictable (if IT writers can anticipate them, a coach can) and given his freshman quarterback’s inexperience, it was paramount to have solves for TCU’s neutral down run-blitzing defense before the game starts. By now it’s clear that in-game adjustments are going to be inefficient and halting. They shouldn’t be as bad as what we saw, but fixing stuff on the fly is a lot easier with 5th year seniors. Worst of both worlds, Sark didn’t have the right game plan.

Texas totaled 199 yards of offense at 3.3 yards per play and scored no offensive touchdowns. Texas had a season low 28 yards rushing overall. The best pure football player on the field, Bijan Robinson, ran 12 times for 29 yards and didn’t touch the ball in the passing game. The longest Texas drive in the 1st half went for 24 yards and the first five Longhorn drives of the game totaled 19 yards on 17 plays. I counted five drops, but even most of those were also bad throws or halting execution.

Sark’s solution to TCU jumping the Texas running game was to shelve the running game entirely. Any rare successful run was immediately followed by a downfield incompletion. The most implementable solution to TCU’s tactics given Ewers inexperi ence was to spread the field out, get the ball out to individual mismatches if they continued to outnumber the box and to incorporate fly and jet sweep misdirection in the running game to conflict their downhill linebackers and edges. Texas offered no eye candy, no creativity and no attempt to punish TCU’s

overplay other than the same downfield incompletions that have characterized the offense over the second half of the season. It’s binary offensive thinking. The only limited success Texas saw was spreading the field late without any accompanying creativity, allowing Jordan Whittington to create yards after the catch and power a pair of late semi-successful drives (12-71FG, another ended on downs on the TCU 10).

QUARTERBACK

Texas fans love discussing talent as a Platonic abstraction. This has everything to do with the recruiting industry. Talent as what an athlete might one day be. Consequently, they struggle to understand applied talent. On Saturdays, effective talent is what they can actually do on the field. By that reality-based metric, Quinn Ewers is one of the worst starting quarterbacks in the Big 12. There are obvious reasons for this, but holding forth about his “talent” is irrelevant. The further he is divorced from a tight game plan, the worse he gets. Typically, that happens in the 3rd quarter.

Against TCU, it happened last Wednesday. From a mechani cal standpoint, Ewers’ unorthodox release points and footwork are now working against him. He has no base to fall back on so even basic throws are pressed. He finished 17 of 39 for 171 yards and an interception. Statistically he is the worst perform ing QB in the Big 12 over his last three starts. The offense must meet him where he is. Not where Sark would like it.

QUINN EWERS

Sometimes a change can provide a spark. Last Saturday, Kan sas State subbed in Will Howard for an ailing Adrian Martinez after a scoreless first quarter. He threw for three touchdowns and Kansas State cruised on the road, 31-3.

A few hundred miles away, West Virginia upset Oklahoma as a 8 point home dog after benching former 5 star JT Daniels for Gar rett Greene. Greene ran for 119 yards and two touchdowns and threw for another score as OU failed to adjust their JT Daniels focused defensive game plan. Is Garrett Greene “more talented” than JT Daniels? No. But he provided a spark and what OU’s defense allowed played directly into his limited skill base.

Might there have been a similar parallel in Austin? TCU was begging to be spread out and have accurate zippy passes delivered to good Texas athletes in space forcing the Frogs out of their layered phone booth, perhaps also punishing defensive overplay with opportunistic QB runs or at least a run threat. Like Greene against OU, Hudson Card’s skill set, however limited, may have matched Texas need. I’m not sure what’s lost giving him a spin for a series or two..

OFFENSIVE LINE

TCU jumped two primary telegraphed run plays and the OL never got started. Pass protection was actually fine, if uneven, particularly when you consider the vanilla nature of the game plan and you get past an early blown assignment or two. TCU’s primary personnel exploitation was targeting Cole Hutson by lining up their most explosive DL Dylan Horton on him in some tight fronts and Horton gave him a really hard time in both the

running and passing game early. Oddly, Texas played into TCU’s hands by run ning 80% of their run plays right and never attempted to create conflict.

RUNNING BACK

Can’t evaluate. They weren’t part of the offense. After the half, RoJo and Bijan had a combined 6 carries for 4 yards. Neither caught a pass. Keilan Rob inson ran zero jet sweeps and had zero perimeter flips. 21 personnel was an afterthought. Texas consented to removing the best unit on the team from the game.

WIDE RECEIVER/TIGHT END

Xavier Worthy was poor but Hodges-Tomlinson played a role in that. It’s chicken-egg at this point. He lacks confidence in Ewers and watching him pull up in disgust or confusion has become a thing.

Jordan Whittington provided a big spark with 6 catches for 78 yards and TCU’s defensive backs had difficulty getting him on the ground or dealing with his small area quickness/size combo.

Sanders dropped two catchable balls and looked frustrated for four quarters despite notching 7 balls for 61 yards. I think both Sanders and Whittington could have forced TCU to make some hard coverage choices if Texas had spread them out but we’ll never know. Billingsley dropped a ball on his chest and didn’t block. Only three Longhorns caught passes.

FINAL

A terrific effort from the Texas defense was wasted on a day when OU and A&M were whipped by conference cellar dwellers as a score of blue chippers and 104,000 riled up Texas fans watched the Texas offense throw away their inside track to the Big 12 title game.

The goal now is to show some resiliency and progress and fin ish with a three game winning streak.

JORDAN WHITTINGTON

POST-MORTEM | DEFENSE

Somehow the Texas Longhorns frittered away their best de fensive performance of the season against a high octane TCU offense. Texas held the Frogs to almost half of their season total yards per game average (289 yards, 68 at halftime), cut the Toad’s season scoring output by 60% (41.3 to 17), inflicted 5 sacks and double digit tackles for loss, eradicated their passing game (Duggan was 19 of 29 for 124 yards), added a defensive score of their own hoping to inspire a listless Horn offense… and provided the most amazing statistic of all: they held TCU

scoreless on five drives that started at the Texas 49, 44, 36, 34 and 38, respectively.

The first four of those were consecutive TCU possessions. Un believable. How did Texas manage that? By holding the Frogs to 25 yards on 22 plays on those drives, forcing a fumble, then getting a hand on a field goal attempt. They held an offense av eraging 7.4 yards every time they snapped the ball to 3.9 yards per play. The Horn defensive approach looked like the best pos

MAX DUGGAN

sible melding of PK’s calls with Gary Patterson’s scouting report on TCU’s personnel.

The Texas defense wasn’t perfect, but they were damn good. So let’s get the only two major defensive mistakes of the game out of the way. The first was a 75 yard run by Kendre Miller (my TCU preview: “Miller has a knack for breaking long runs”) where TCU caught Texas in an alignment where any mistake by the unblocked play side linebacker was going to be punished badly.

The other mistake was a blown coverage by Anthony Cook and/ or Terrance Brooks. Was Brooks supposed to carry Quentin Johnston? That’s hard to say, but even if Brooks was supposed to carry him, Cook is the deepest man. A safety needs tiered vision: awareness of the receivers near you, but still watching the QB’s release to allow your break. Cook was fixated on the sideline receiver that play and he can’t allow a receiver across his face even if that’s not his guy. Regardless of who made teh mistake, that score gave TCU 17 points and, amazingly, that’s all they needed for a 7 point win.

DEFENSIVE LINE

Strong job all around. By far the best performance for the edges this season. Barryn Sorrell was everywhere with 11 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks and a batted ball. Sorrell exploited his quickness advantage against a slow-footed TCU offensive line.

Ovie Oghoufo turned in his most physical performance of the season, containing Duggan beautifully while repeatedly driving bigger TCU tackles into Duggan’s lap. I have to think that Ovie’s disappointing KSU film was used heavily as both motivation and a tool for instruction. Ovie effectively created Sorrell’s first sack by moving Duggan off his spot, not via flyby but by parking his defender in his lap.

Coburn and Sweat were the primary standouts inside. They combined for 9 tackles and Sweat had a blocked pass. They were largely responsible for Texas being able to bring stunts and movement without being punished inside.

Of course, that second touchdown never happens if Texas doesn’t attempt a punt block. Putting those two plays aside, Tex as was otherwise dominant. Constant disciplined pressure on Duggan (who never posed any pocket run threat), the best zone and combo coverage I’ve seen this year and terrific aggression. Texas played at a defensive speed we haven’t seen since Bama and a physical and multiple pass rush coordinated with corner and nickel blitzes completely disrupted TCU’s rhythm.

inside texas

LINEBACKER

Ford and DMO combined for 20 tackles. Jaylan Ford played with consistency and effort, though he wore down a bit in the 4th quarter. This was a DMO friendly game for sure. At least until the closing run sequences where Texas wore down and the linebackers didn’t fit some gaps ideally. With the Texas DL dominating inside, DMO was free to roam and run and did a lot of cleaning up across the board. There was a discernible drop

RYAN WATTS JAHDAE BARRON

off to DTD’s snaps, though he did have a nice stunt sack on a flushed Duggan. Ghosting his gap on the 75 yard TD run was a backbreaker.

DEFENSEIVE BACK

Texas was without D’shawn Jamison and were prob ably better for it. Physicality abounded, highlighted by the terrific play of screen hawk Jahdae Barron. Barron totaled 11 tackles, a scoop and score touchdown and 3 tackles for loss, all inflicted by jumping TCU’s staple screen game. Destroying those easy yards out wide put TCU’s offense into a pickle early. The best DB play of the game came when Barron split a double team to stick a TCU pass catcher 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Before the play, you can see him kamikaze to the spot before the ball is even out of Duggan’s hand. That play was emblematic of the confidence and aggression that so many Texas defenders played with. No hesitation pulling the trigger. Ryan Watts played a heck of a game and PK’s habit of blitzing corners and nickels wasn’t fruitless, but was greatly enhanced by the efficacy of the regular pass rush. It was also a nice con tainment insurance on Duggan getting out of the pocket. Watts finished with 6 tackles, 2 tackles for loss and a sack.

Props to Terrance Brooks and Austin Jordan for holding up in tough circumstances at the other corner spot. Brooks got the lion’s share of snaps and he held up pretty well on most of his snaps. Jerrin Thompson and Anthony Cook didn’t have much work as TCU avoided the middle of the field and the Texas edge defenders of all varieties (both DL and CB, nickel) didn’t let much bleed past them.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Keilan Robinson had a nice kickoff return to midfield and the Horns had very good coverage on a dangerous TCU special teams unit while Kitan Crawford got a finger on a missed TCU

field goal attempt, but the new set of downs gifted to TCU at the beginning of the 4th quarter with a punt block attempt was a decisively bad call. One I understand emotionally, but can’t countenance logically. That’s why there are head coaches and not just three coordinators running the team.

That’s a frustration “let’s make something happen” call by Jeff Banks meant to compensate for a pathetic offensive perfor mance. You have to set up return, make TCU kick (they were punting from their 27) and hope the offense puts it together. You don’t put the defense at risk again in a one score game when they’ve been under constant stress and just gave up their only touchdown the drive prior. TCU parlayed a new lease on life into a touchdown. Ultimately, that was the decisive score of the game.

FINAL

The Texas defense drew by far the most difficult assignment of the TCU units and they kicked TCU’s ass on about 85% of plays, even with considerable headwinds provided by other units. The Texas offense played so abysmally that they man aged to kill themselves and drown their rescuer.

BARRYN SORRELL (88) AND KEONDRE COBURN (99)

RECRUITING TRAIL NEWS

by Justin Wells

LONGHORNS HOST HIGH PROFILE VISITORS FOR TCU GAME

Despite the close loss to No. 4 TCU, the reviews are in from re cruits in attendance and most enjoyed the big-game atmosphere from DKR.

Anthony Hill Jr, LB, Denton (Texas) Ryan

One of the biggest prospects in the country was on hand for the Texas-TCU tilt on Saturday night. And despite coming up on the short end, Anthony Hill and his family saw enough to know Texas could be the spot.

Hill remarked about how well the defense played, something very important to his recruitment. The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder and the On3 Consensus’ No. 1 linebacker was able to reconnect with friends and former teammates on Saturday, and felt closer to home than before.

Overall, it was a great visit, his father told Inside Texas. Ohio State, Alabama, and Texas A&M could get visits over the next month leading up to early national signing day.

Texas did what he needed to do from a defensive standpoint; show improvement and development. That’ll be a key to this recruitment down the stretch.

Jaden Greathouse, WR, Austin (Texas) Westlake –

Notre Dame commit

“It was real good,” said Greathouse. “I had fun with my (former) teammates and guys I went with.”

Nothing Earth-shattering here to report other than UT stays in the hunt for the On3 four-star receiver.

Markis Deal, DL, Garland (Texas) Naaman Forest

The feeling for months in the recruitment of the 6-foot-4.5, 280-pound On3 Consensus 4-star is that he preferred the brighter lights of programs such as Texas and Georgia. TCU’s season has considerably eaten into that. Deal watched TCU and Texas Saturday night on his final official visit.

Deal has the best relationship with Bo Davis of the defensive line coaches recruiting him. Some of this is time spent by Texas targeting Deal, and some of that is the consistent message of

texas

JELANI MCDONALD

relationship with Deal. For TCU, the relationship has evolved since May, but it’s the season TCU is having combined with opportunity very close to home that has the Longhorns worried a bit.

Deal is expected to decide at the end of the month with TCU surging more and more. Texas has been considered the favorite since late July. Georgia has to overcome distance from home.

Jelani McDonald, LB/ATH, Waco (Texas) Connally

The former Oklahoma State commit continues to make himself at home in Austin. This was the On3 four-star’s second trip to Texas in a month, and he was absolutely blown away by the atmosphere and environment.

McDonald was with Connally teammate and four-star Kobe Black, and both loved the event. He also was able to meet recruits like Arch Manning, Derion Gullette, Tre Wisner, and Johntay Cook.

Texas continues to pace this pursuit and McDonald currently doesn’t have a timeline for a decision. McDonald is expected to make an official visit to TCU, where his father played, prior to his scheduled official visit to Texas December 17.

Johnny Bowens, DL, Converse (Texas) Judson

Texas got back into the Bowens recruitment in October, and hosted the 6-foot-2, 260-pounder on Saturday. Bowens told Inside Texas recently that he hadn’t given Texas much chance, but wanted to check them out prior to a November 24th deci sion. Texas showed Bowens Saturday night exactly what he could become in Austin with an active, disruptive front that has developed in year two under Bo Davis.

Bowens was also surprised at the Texas fan base and atmo sphere according to a source close to the recruitment. The big hurdle for Texas will be Oregon and Texas A&M having a sub stantial lead headed into Saturday. The one-time Aggie commit was considered a slight lean to Oregon prior to the weekend. But there is the possibility that a family member will keep Bow ens closer to home.

Jaydon Chatman, OL, Harker Heights (TX) #AllGasNoBrakes

“I love being at DKR win or lose, it was a great time. Our offense just couldn’t get it going. Can’t wait to get there in January.”

Billy Walton, EDGE, Dallas (TX) South Oak Cliff #AllGasNoBrakes

“I mean, the game was great,’ Walton said. “The offense needs to get going a little bit, but defensively we did great.”

2024 Hunter Moddon, ATH, Houston (TX) Clear Lake #AllGasNoBrakes

One of Texas’ junior commitments came back to Austin for the big matchup this weekend. It felt like home for the 6-foot-0, 175-pounder and On3’s No. 4 athlete in the 2024 cycle.

“When I walked in, I felt welcomed back home,” Moddon said. “The game was a lot fun to watch. We couldn’t get the run game going which means we couldn’t start passing the ball really. The beginning of the game was a little slow, the energy wasn’t quite there yet, but things picked up.”

Moddon watched Xavier Worthy and other UT receivers, since that’s the position he prefers at the next level. He noted despite the Horns’ loss, all it takes it more work and dedication, some

thing he’s ready to do when he arrives on campus.

He also Peyton Manning, recruits, and enjoyed building bonds with his future teammates on the Forty Acres.

Moddon holds offers Georgia, LSU, Michigan State, and TCU among others, but insists he’s locked into his Texas pledge.

2024 TyAnthony Smith, LB, Jasper (Texas)

Smith is no stranger to Austin. He’s already visited a handful of times and was back at DKR on Saturday. At 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds, Smith owns a slew of offers including Texas, LSU, TCU, Auburn, Oklahoma State, and Missouri.

“The defense man,” said Smith, about what he enjoyed the most. “There’s nothing like a defensive game.”

2024 Braylon Conley, S, Humble (Texas) Atascocita

The On3 three-star is starting to appear on recruiters’ radars. Texas, Oregon, Louisville, Kansas State, and Arkansas have all offered the 6-foot-1, 162-pound safety.

“I enjoyed the atmosphere and sellout crowd,” said Conley. “(Texas’) defense balled all game. Two plays made the differ ence in the game – the big touchdown run in the 2nd half and the busted coverage touchdown pass. Other than those two plays, the defense played a great game. Kept them in it all game and even scored.”

2024 Eli Bowen, CB, Denton (Texas) Guyer

While the On3 Consensus four-star was unable to make the Texas-TCU game on Saturday due to an injury suffered on Saturday night that will keep him out of the remainder of the playoffs, Inside Texas caught up with the newest Texas 2024 defensive back offer.

Bowen would like to see Austin soon, a game this season if possible. He’ll certainly be on campus this spring. Notre Dame, Oregon, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Ole Miss are among his double-digit offers.

The 5-foot-9, 165-pound two-way player was instrumental in Guyer’s regular season success as a lockdown corner and slot receiver. His brother, Peyton, is committed to Notre Dame, but is still looking at a number of programs like Oklahoma, Michigan, and Texas A&M.

#AllGasNoBrakes

NEXT WEEK | PREVIEW

by Paul Wadlington

Kansas football has experienced some very dark times. From 2010-2021, the Jayhawks were 23-122. From 2016-2021, they won exactly 3 Big 12 games. Two of those wins came against Texas. Moving on…

A 15.9% winning percentage over the prior decade will ut

terly demoralize a program and fan base, but something has changed in Lawrence. Lance Leipold is performing miracles. In his second season, the Jayhawks are 6-4, bowl eligible and play an immensely entertaining brand of football. Lance the Lightbringer banished the darkness despite losing his star quar terback in early October, while patching together a functional

QUINN EWERS

KENNY LOGAN (1)

team devastated by Les Miles’ on the job retirement, which crushed the Jayhawk roster and forced Leipold to beat the bushes for FBS bodies. Leipold maximally developed his inheritance in his second offseason and continued to install a great offense led by now sought after of fensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki.

Like Chris Klieman at Kansas State, Leipold is proof that a struggling program hiring an ambitious “small school” coach (he came from Buffalo, before that Wisconsin-Whitewater) with real skins on the wall working with limited resources is vastly supe rior to a failed big program retread with name familiarity. Refresh ing. Most athletic directors tend to overvalue name recognition, agent pitches and idiotic search firms (Korn Ferry) that couldn’t find their way out of a botanical garden with signage and a map over hiring actual traits. New Kansas AD Travis Goff deserves credit for ignoring name hires and grabbing a relatively unheralded veteran football coach.

DEFENSE

The Jayhawks have more bodies than ballers and Texas must press their advantage here. Kansas is ranked 99th in the country in defensive advanced metrics, but they do play hard and can and will turn over sloppy offenses. They’re also veteran – though that experience was not necessarily accumulated at Kansas. Seven of their 11 starters are seniors, most of the redshirt or super senior variety.

They’ve struggled to stop the pass and opponents are averag ing just under 8 yards per attempt and almost 300 yards per game while converting 46% of their third downs and 65% of their fourth downs. They’re hit and miss against the run, largely dependent on how offenses adjust to their initial approach. Teams like Baylor, Oklahoma, even Texas Tech, ran all over them by attacking their numbers with execution and dominating their interior DL and smallish run support secondary.

DEFENSIVE LINE

They feature four 5th or 6th year seniors. Two by way of JUCO, one a transfer from Miami of Ohio, Lonnie Phelps. The only homegrown starter is Kansas super senior Sam Burt. The Jay hawk front is comprised of physically mature bodies, but other than Phelps, bodies is all they are. Phelps leads them with six sacks on the year and he has legit juice rushing from the edge as well as run-stopping prowess. He has 45 tackles on the year and also leads them in tackles for loss. Solid player. He’d start for Texas. The rest of them? Not so much. Texas has to bully them, keep clean pockets and can’t run away from the running game if there’s some initial hardship due to some exotic wrinkle.

LINEBACKER

Craig Young transferred from Ohio State and has been produc tive at OLB. He has 3.5 sacks on the year and is at his best on passing downs. Rich Miller is a solid if smallish transfer from Buffalo who has been a stabilizing force. Small and speedy Lo renzo McCaskill transferred to Kansas from Louisiana, where he was an All Sun Belt performer. They rotate in several guys and rely on them to hold up when the Kansas defensive line can’t.

SECONDARY

Their best player is safety Kenny Logan. Great in run support and active in the passing game. He leads them in tackles and

MORO OJOMO

has two interceptions on the year. Other than the 210 pound Logan, the secondary is small and can be bullied. Kansas knows this and tries to make up for it by attacking, stunting and disrupting. This secondary will take risks to jump balls and turn QBs over and they have some picks to show for it, but QBs who keep their composure tend to methodically slice and dice them if they avoid putting the ball in peril.

SPECIAL TEAMS

A poor unit overall. Kansas lacks depth and that shows up here. The kick and punt return teams and coverage are unremark able and their field goal kicker is 7 of 12 on the year and he’s had one blocked. Their punter averages right around 40 a kick. KU did block a punt in their opener, but that seemed to be more about opening day football. Texas should have an advantage here.

OFFENSE

I saved their strength for last. Kansas has a terrific and imagina tive option-based offense that combines RPOs with wide zone, gap schemes, zone read, some old school option and an ultra dangerous deep passing game. That they’ve performed so well on offense with two different starting quarterbacks is even more impressive. Currently, the Jayhawks are ranked 9th in the coun try by advanced statistics and average just over 7.3 yards per play. They tend to be deliberate in pace, largely to help preserve

their defense. If they have a global weakness, it’s a tendency to get a little careless with the ball (mostly with Bean at QB) and they can be a bit penalty prone.

QUARTERBACK

Jalon Daniels was a surprise Heisman contender through the first half of the year, throwing for 11 touchdowns to 1 intercep tion with 5 rushing touchdowns, leading the Jayhawks to a 5-0 start. He’s a strong compact runner and an accurate passer with a knack for ball handling and the RPO game. Think of an athleti cally upgraded version of UTSA’s Frank Harris. Bottom line: he’s a winner. Daniels was injured against TCU and backup Jason Bean took over. Bean is a rangy sprinter with a big arm, but he’s less nifty than Daniels as a runner and lacks his consistency and recognition. The former 10.4 100 meters sprinter can move though:

Jason Bean with a loooooong touchdown run to restore #KUfball

‘s two-score lead. pic.twitter.com/z0zm6MIpbH

— Kansas Jayhawks on 247Sports (@Kansas247) November 5, 2022

Bean is a little banged up right now and it looks like a healthyish Jalon Daniels may get the start on Saturday. Game day will

XAVIER WORTHY

tell the tale, but both QBs are dangerous and quite adept at throwing to a variety of Jayhawk pass catchers with the added dimension of dangerous legs. Daniels is smarter, the niftier ball han dler and slicker in general, but Bean is putting up big numbers as well and he has a great deep ball. KU will use either or both extensively in the running game.

RUNNING BACK

Devin Neal is the best least heralded skill player in the league. The sophomore is a terrific no-nonsense runner with natural power, heart and explosiveness. He averages over 6.7 yards per carry and has 951 yards on the season. Really good player. He’ll carry the load.

WIDE RECEIVER

The Jayhawks distribute their pass catching amongst Luke Grimm, Quentin Skinner and Lawrence Arnold fairly equally, but the 6-3, 200 pound Arnold is the top pass catcher. All three of them are good after the catch and will make tough catches in traffic on adjusted RPOs or verticals. Skinner and Arnold are both very tall and rangy and do a good job of shielding defen sive backs for completions over the middle. Kansas has great disguise in their passing and play action game and they have a knack for hitting huge plays on overly eager defensive backs chasing ghosts. Big TE Mason Fairchild goes 6-5, 265 and KU isn’t shy about throwing to him lumbering up the seam, where he is surprisingly effective.

OFFENSIVE LINE

Kansas has done a terrific job protecting this unit with their scheme, consistently giving them angle advantage on run plays or encouraging them to take the defender where he wants to go and then counting on the RB and QB to make it right. They’ve only given up 8 sacks on the season and the ball gets out quickly. Two starters transferred to KU with Leipold from Buffalo and they have another transfer from Southeast Missouri State.

Tackle Earl Bostick has been a major break out performer. Given the recent sad history of this program, their recruiting limitations, some of their small school transfer backgrounds and the importance of consistency in OL development, KU’s devel opment and play here has been nothing short of remarkable. Coaching matters.

All of that written, Kansas can’t win bullying Texas up front. They’ll try to do it with deception and scheme.

FINAL

The Texas defense has the much harder draw this Saturday but the potential for Texas to stop the run honestly and limit KU’s passing game is there if the back end can resist busts and Texas can balance defending stick moving RPOs in the middle of the field with keeping tabs on a running quarterback. Take away KU’s explosive plays and the offense takes a dive.

The Texas offense should dominate, but the degradation of the Texas passing game over the last three weeks suggests that Kansas may try some very aggressive game planning and dare Texas to show passing game competence. Trying to beat them doesn’t have to come from missing Xavier Worthy on play action from a bunch formation. It’s a big field and KU has real person nel deficiencies.

BYRON MURPHY

LONGHORNS DOMINATE

AUSTIN, TX -- The first big game in Moody Center history pitted the No. 11 Longhorns against the No. 2 Bulldogs. Texas head coach Chris Beard remarked on Tuesday he hoped his team would play with a chip on its shoulder against the Zags following last year’s struggles in Spokane, Wash. during a 86-74 loss.

DOMINATE GONZAGA

BY JOE COOK

If there was something the Longhorns wanted to prove to Gonzaga, the Moody Center fans, or the national television audience, their 93-74 win did just that. After a sluggish start, Texas dismantled the West Coast Conference power in front of a frenzied Moody Center crowd.

Tyrese Hunter was superb, scoring a career-high 26 points. He was joined in double figures by Dylan Disu (12 points), Marcus Carr (16 points) and Sir’Jabari Rice (11 points).

Drew Timme played a solid game, but the Longhorns controlled both ends of

the floor and the tempo at which the game was played on their way to their first win over a top-two opponent in over a decade.

Tyrese Hunter goes berserk, leading Texas from behind the arc

The Iowa State transfer had quite the debut season last year on his way to Big 12 freshman of the year honors. He capa bly led the Cyclone offense, and would be tasked with similar duties at Texas.

But an improvement in his shooting abil ity would determine how much success Texas would not only have throughout the course of the year, but against stout

individual opponents like No. 2 Gonzaga.

It took a game or two for him to get going, but against the Bulldogs Hunter showed a pristine shooting stroke. Hunter was 9-of-14 shooting, including 5-of-8 from distance.

“It was a hell of a game,” Hunter said to ESPN after the game.

His shot-making stole the show, but he had plenty of help from teammates in beyond the arc shooting too. Other Longhorns were 8-for-25, a respectable 32 percent against a Gonzaga team still finding its footing on the perimeter but not without talent.

Early in the first half, dribble penetra tion by Hunter, Marcus Carr, and Arterio Morris were key in setting up good shots. When Texas had passes from the inside to the perimeter, it made for the best looks for Longhorn shooters. That was il lustrated in Carr’s seven assists, Hunter’s two assists, and Morris’ one dime, a savvy one at that.

It continued when Texas kept pushing the pace in the second half against a Zags team down and frustrated.

But it all starts at the point, and when the point can run the offense effectively and score like Hunter did on Wednesday, Texas is going to look as formidable as they did in front of a national audience.

The Mood

The debut game is one thing, the second game against a low major is another. A nationally televised primetime game that is sold out and required students to camp out in order to get into The Corral? That’s the real first showcase of the Moody Cen ter, and those in attendance delivered.

Tyrese Hunter

There will be no disparaging of the Erwin Center here. This is to serve as praise of the Moody Center. It’s unlikely a crowd that loud and that energized has ever taken in a home Texas men’s basketball game.

Beard beckons noise from the home crowd every few possessions. In the second half, he didn’t need to do so. The defense made life difficult for the Zags, forcing 20 turnovers. Even with strong shooting percentages for the Bulldogs (49/47/71 FG/3P/FT), the Texas defense was energized thanks to the 11,313 In The Mood.

The national television audience, with a good amount of praise from ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla, learned that Texas is a formidable place to play basketball when there’s reason for fans to be very, very excited. That they were on Wednesday.

Drew Timme

The key matchup for the Longhorns on defense was centered around the center. Drew Timme made Texas’ team look silly in Spokane, Wash. last season and Beard and his staff knew that limiting the Rich ardson (Texas) Pearce product would be pivotal in determining the outcome.

Timme had the kitchen sink thrown at him. Disu guarded Timme, as did Dillon Mitchell, Christian Bishop, and Brock Cunningham.

Cunningham was arguably the most ef fective, waging a legit war in the paint in the first half. Cunningham would get help, with hard double-teams coming seem ingly at the right time every time.

Plus, the plan to make entry passes dif ficult was executed to perfection. Timme still got his, he was 7-of-10 from the field, 4-of-5 from the line, and pulled down nine

boards. However, he turned the ball over 5 times, a team-high for the Zags. He was -15 in his 32 minutes on the floor.

Also, Texas’ bigs played well against the two-time second-team All-American on the offensive end. Disu added 12 points, six of them from beyond the arc where Timme didn’t care to tread.

Cunningham turned in a tremendous first-half, finishing with seven points. Bishop show cased an offensive skill set that is still a work in progress, but is more advanced than last season.

Mitchell was quiet for most of the evening until he brought down the house with several late emphatic dunks that likely produced the loudest moments ever heard at a Longhorn basketball game.

After Timme’s 37-point performance last season, Texas knew that something would have to be different to top the No. 2 Bulldogs. Whether it was Disu, Cunning ham, Bishop, or Mitchell, the Longhorn post players did their jobs.

Beating Gonzaga at their own game

With an athlete like Hunter running the point, Disu at full health, Mitchell at the wing, Carr, Allen, and Cunningham primed for big years, and the additions of Morris and Rice, Texas has the roster to run at a faster pace and put pressure on opposing defenses.

That would be a tall task against Gon

zaga, who throughout Mark Few’s tenure leading the Bulldogs has pushed the pace.

Watching Texas on Wednesday would make it seem like Beard’s program has been running at a high pace for years. Texas had 12 fast break points, a decent number. But what was important was Gonzaga’s total in that same stat. Gon zaga had two fast break points all game.

As adept as Texas was running in transi tion on offense, they were equally as strong in the same area on defense. Ten total turnovers by the Longhorns also helps to make sure that Gonzaga made little impact on the run.

When the offseason chatter about playing fast started to surface, it was met with some reasonable skepticism. Beard and company showed there was no reason to doubt with the win on Wednesday.

Jean Delance

Marcus Carr

Texas Spirit Photo of The Week