Inside Texas November 28, 2022 | Texas vs Baylor

STRONG FINISH

A heavy dose of Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson propelled Texas to a 4th quarter win over Baylor in the season finale.

THIS WEEK:

Texas Runs Over Baylor |

by Joe Cook

4

Dominant defense and run game key Texas victory. Five Quick Thoughts | by Ian boyd

Post Mortem |

Texas plays complimentary football in Baylor game. by Paul WadlIngton

The Longhorns leaned on their two best players to beat the Bears. 18

Recruiting News |

Horns Down Bluejays |

2023 class is heavy on early-entrolles. by erIC nahlIn 20

Texas notches second home win against top-10 team with victory of Creighton. by Joe Cook

LONGHORNS RUN OVER BAYLOR

AUSTIN — Through three quarters of Texas’ regular season finale versus the Baylor Bears, the Longhorns had rushed 23 times for 77 yards. The discrepancy resulted in the Longhorn defense being on the field for almost 30 minutes with another quarter to play.

Texas needed to flip the script. Thanks to stellar performances on the ground from Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson, both most likely playing their final game at Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium, Steve Sarkisian’s crew was able to do just that.

BAYLOR IN SEASON FINALE

BY JOE COOK

Of Texas’ 26 fourth quarter plays, 25 were rushes. The Longhorns gained 131 yards and two scores, with Robinson and Johnson both finding the end zone. Robinson’s 1-yard rush helped the Longhorns retake the lead, while Johnson’s 11-yard scamper that included a hurdle of a BU defender put the game at its final 38-27 tally.

The UT offense took some time to get going, and was often its own worst enemy. Texas’ first offensive series resulted in Quinn Ewers committing intentional grounding in his own end zone, giving the Bears two points. He’d make up for it on the next drive with a short rushing touchdown, the first of his career.

But the Longhorn offense couldn’t stay on the field. Ewers struggled, Robinson was not getting many touches, and normally reliable play ers were anything but.

When Sarkisian elected to make the run game the priority after BU retook the lead via a scoop-andscore of a Ewers fumble in the fourth quarter, it didn’t matter what defense the Bears were in. Texas just lined up and ran over whoever was in their way. Doing so helped a defense that was arguably over worked in the first half stay rested for the second half.

It was just what Pete Kwiatkowski’s unit needed. The Longhorn defense

didn’t allow the Bear offense to score in the second half. Jaylan Ford recorded his fourth intercep tion of the season, and BU quarter back Blake Shapen took blow after blow from Longhorn defenders as the game was nearing its end.

The performance from Longhorn rushers did not go unappreciated. As the seconds were ticking off, most of the 94706 in attendance chanted “Bijan, Bijan, Bijan.”

Sarkisian tried to give him a chance at one more touchdown, but the Baylor defense stood strong.

It was too late for it to make a dif ference. Thanks to Robinson, who completes a 1500+ yard regular season and moved past Jamaal Charles for fourth in school history in rushing yardage, and Johnson, whose unselfish team-first mentality has garnered him praise from Sarkisian at every turn, Texas closed the season with its eighth win.

FIRST QUARTER

Top moment: Quinn Ewers three-yard rushing touch down.

Featured performer: Quinn Ewers

Stats: Quinn Ewers was 4-of5 for 83 yards, also rushed for a touchdown after a ground ing penalty resulted in a safety on the Longhorns’ first possession. Jaylan Ford had 5 tackles. Jahdae Barron had a TFL and a PBU, and almost

Hayden Conner (76) and Kelvin Banks (78)

a pick six. Robinson had six carries for 21 yards.

Notes: Ewers rushing touchdown was the first of his career. An 11-yard punt by Baylor gave Texas a short field that set up Robinson’s first touchdown. Texas ran its signature wheel-route play to get Keilan Robinson the ball early in the quarter.

SECOND QUARTER

Top moment: Two mishan dled snaps for Baylor that led to an 18-play drive ending in just 3 points.

Featured performer: Jaylan Ford

Stats: Baylor had 127 total yards and 25 total plays in the second quarter to Texas’ 9. It accounted for an 11:21 to 3:39 time of possession for Baylor. Shap en was 8-for-11 for 83 yards and a touchdown, including four straight completions including his scoring toss, to end the half.

Notes: Baylor had an 8:41 drive that only resulted in three points after Texas stood strong in the red zone after two mishaps in the run game by Baylor. Two late sacks surrendered by the Texas OL near the end of the half gave Baylor a scoring opportunity they converted via a 14-yard pass from Shapen to Ben Sims. Ewers attempted just three passes. Texas averaged four yards per play.

THIRD QUARTER

Top moment: John Mayers’ missed 40-yard field goal after a 13-play,

Featured performer: Bijan Robin son

Stats: Texas tallied 134 total yards in the quarter to Baylor’s 52. Ewers was 6-of-7 for 82 yards. The Long horns committed three penalties. Baylor was 1-for-5 on third downs, but 2-for-2 on fourth downs. Baylor was limited to 2.6 yards per play.

Notes: Texas began the half on offense and committed two false start penalties. Texas made up the yardage via a long pass to Jordan Whittington, but the fourth-year player who was honored in senior day fumbled the ball. After the third quarter, Baylor had 276 total yards. They would finish with 280.

FOURTH QUARTER

Top moment: Jaylan Ford’s inter ception

Featured performer: Bijan Robin son

Stats: Texas had 25 carries for 131 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, and converted 3-of-4 third down opportunities. Baylor ran 10 plays and gained 4 yards. Ford’s interception was his fourth this sea son. Texas had one passing yard in the quarter.

Notes: Texas surrendered the lead early in the quarter after Baylor’s Gabe Hall scooped-and-scored off a sack of Ewers near the shadow of the Longhorn goalpost. Texas ran the ball every play after Ewers’ fumble

34-yard drive that took 5:33 off the clock

Jean Delance

Bijan Robinson

Looks like the “seven-win Sark” moniker can be tossed in the trash where it belongs as a take about a head coach who’s main resume as top man was spent rebuilding Washington. Texas finishes the regular season 8-4 with a terrific team win over Baylor in which the founda tions of run game, defense, and special teams all came through to give Texas the edge.

There were some tough moments. Iffy decision-making under pres sure by Quinn Ewers directly put nine points on the board for the Bears, but he made enough throws for Texas to stay alive for a chance to dominate the rest of the game and pull out a win with a grinding second half effort.

#1: TEXAS RAN THE DANG BALL

This game was a great coaching battle between Steve Sarkisian’s staff and Dave Aranda’s on the Baylor sideline. The obvious defining feature of this game was Texas’ second half adjustment to run the dang ball.

In the first half, Baylor held massive advantages in…

Total plays run (45 to 22)

Total yards (224 to 136)

Time of possession (21:01 to 8:59)

If you were a Texas fan worried about the Longhorns wearing down in the second half, you had every reason to be afraid. Bijan and Roschon Johnson had combined in the first half for nine carries for 56 yards at 6.2 ypc with one rushing touchdown.

Here’s how those numbers turned out after a second half of play:

Baylor ran 75 total plays to 64 for Texas Texas out-gained Baylor 402 yards to 280 Baylor held the ball 33:24 to 26:36 These numbers evened out in a major way because

vs

QUICK thoughts

By Ian Boyd

There were moments early in the third quarter where it looked like Texas might wear out and get run down over the course of the game to give away a pretty good margin. Instead they turned to improved depth and better fundamentals than they had a year ago and Bijan Robinson was the one who knocked on the door in the fourth quarter.

Bijan will likely wrap up his Texas career with season totals of 258 carries for 1,580 yards and 18 rushing touchdowns. An all-time great season from a running back who never had a brilliant, senior-heavy offensive line or a top notch, play-action passer at quarterback to help him out.

Bijan and Roschon combined in the second half for 33 carries which yielded 200 yards at 6.1 ypc with three rushing touchdowns.

It was a reversal of how this game went a year ago when the Bears wore Texas down. Truly it was a reversal of most every game Texas has blown or even played in the Big 12 under Sark.

Bijan finished with 29 carries for 179 yards at 6.2 ypc with two scores and Roschon added 13 carries for 77 yards at 5.9 ypc with two more rushing touchdowns. What a relief for the Texas fans to see the Longhorns give their two running backs a chance to go win the game for them.

The main key was the drive after Ewers’ sack-strip, scoop ‘n’ score for Baylor. Texas went back out there and ran the ball 11 times in a row for 74 yards and a score.

Then, for good measure, they picked off Blake Shapen and ran the ball six more times in a row for another one. Game over.

SOLUTIONS

Everyone, Sark included, assumed Ewers would have to throw the ball effectively to beat Baylor. Multiple teams had given Texas fits by loading the box and taking the game out of Bijan and Ros chon’s hands and Baylor had one of the more imposing defensive fronts of any team in the league. What’s more, Baylor has had a weak secondary vulnerable to being attacked.

Early on Texas threw the ball quite a bit and had mixed results. Ewers actually finished 12-16 for 194 yards at 12.1 ypa with no touchdowns or picks. He was finding the over/corner routes he throws so well (although Jordan Whittington fumbled after catching one) and also nabbing some free yards when Baylor would play 10 yards off Xavier Worthy. He was also sacked four times in the first half alone and had the bad intentional grounding penalty which caused a safety, the fumble when he didn’t feel pressure well, and another self-sack.

Then Sark realized there was another way to attack Baylor. All season long the Bears have mimicked Texas’ 2021 defense, play

ing their secondary back and trusting the defensive front to stop the run with honest boxes and late arriving run support. Conse quently, their young and relatively small secondary had relatively zero experience in playing up to stop the run.

Once Texas sniffed that out, this game was over. They lined up in 12 personnel and would motion Whittington in tight to run the ball, mostly on Duo, over and over again. Baylor couldn’t fit all the gaps up front, were totally unused to being bullied in this fashion, and just got run off the field.

There were too many gaps for the D-line and linebackers to fill, even by two-gapping, and Texas wore their secondary out with this simple scheme. I’ll chart the stats during the week but it was a dominating feature. That’s how you run the ball every snap on multiple successful touchdown drives.

“What if Baylor loads the box?” Went from being a chief concern to a opportunity for a blowout.

Roschon Johnson

Baylor really tried to impose their own will with the run game. Their own two main backs Richard Reese and Qualan Jones combined on 29 carries for 99 yards at 3.4 ypc.

They were pretty consistently picking up 3-4 yards every run, just as Texas was consistently picking up 6-7 on all of their own calls, and that eventually played out on the scoreboard in this game.

Blake Shapen, forced into positions to have to win the game for Baylor, was not up to the job. Texas got inconsistent pressure on him but despite two bad coverage busts, held him to 18-36 for 179 yards at 4.9 ypa with two touchdowns (two busts) and a pick. Him getting railroaded by DeMarvion Overshown when he came unblocked on a blitz was a fitting capstone to the game.

Texas’ overhangs really killed Baylor in this game. One of the key adjustments in this game was when Texas turned to DMO as the Sam linebacker in the 3-4 sets after using Morice Blackwell (also some good snaps) earlier. DMO’s explosiveness off the edge gave Baylor major issues and he finished the day with a remarkable 14 tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack, two break-ups, and one murder…

#5 WHAT’S THE STORY IN 2022?

Texas finished in 3rd place in the Big 12 with an 8-4 record and three wins better than a season ago. They’ll have played Alabama within a last minute field goal, beaten rival Oklahoma 49-0, beaten 2nd place team Kansas State on the road, and avenged losses to Baylor, Kansas, and Iowa State. Not bad.

Then perhaps back to the Alamo Bowl with a likely matchup against Washington, which would certainly be interesting for Sark and Pete Kwiatkowski.

Texas hasn’t quite got the Sark machine running just yet, but they are playing defense and running the ball better than they ever did for Charlie Strong or Tom Herman. If this is it for the 2022 Big 12 season then Texas will have major momentum heading into NSD1, portal season, and bowl practices.

His presence to the wide edge (when he wasn’t inside at Will linebacker) was detrimental to Baylor’s bootleg, play-action game and he caused problems backside in pursuit. When it was Jahdae Barron, he was also a problem at the field “Star” position with two tackles for loss, a sack, a break-up, and nearly a pick-6 on a snap where he played cornerback. Barron has a very strong case for be ing the best nickel in the league.

Credit again to Jaylan Ford as well who made an exceptional drop on 3rd down to pick off Shapen when he was trying to go back to his favorite throw for a dagger route over the middle. That’s four picks on the year for the Mike linebacker and he also added a pair of tackles for loss.

Baylor has a pretty good offense this season but without the ability to pound teams over the game with their senior O-line and run game, they don’t have what it takes this year in the passing game to find wins late. For Texas to out-pound the defending Big 12 Champions was a statement. Credit improved linebacker play, improved schemes, and tremendous depth on the D-line for Texas having multiple games this season where they got stronger down the stretch against opposing rushing attacks.

I mean the second one in particular. What a terrific play to cement his tenure at Texas in DKR.

Ironically, it was a Wildcat play and specifically it was quarter back stretch. Texas used to run this for Sam Ehlinger all the time, although typically with a lead blocker to the edge rather than backside eye candy (Texas had a fake running back read opposite the flow and a sweep opposite).

Roschon was literally recruited to Texas to play quarterback and run the ball on this concept, that was the plan for his career.

Instead he had some mechanical issues in his freshman camp and found himself on a team with only one healthy, scholarship running back entering the season. So he volunteered to move positions.

#4: ROSCHON’S TOUCHDOWN

He’s always had to play second fiddle behind Keaontay Ingram or Bijan, but he’s always been worthy of more and he’s always been there to offer exceptional, hard running for Texas when they needed it. As a team leader and captain, he’ll go down as a Long horn legend, and Sark will forever be grateful to him for the culture win to finish 2021 against K-State and the subsequent leadership he’s offered.

Had Roschon played running back for Baylor (was never a pos sibility, for the record) the outcome today could even have been different. I still think he could have been a great Mike linebacker as well, although Texas didn’t end up needing one this season. He’ll finish his Texas career with a lot left in the tank for the NFL and a universal approval rating. Texas wishes the best for him and for Bijan.

Jahdae Barron (23) and Jaylan Ford (41)

Roschon Johnson

POST-MORTEM | OFFENSE

by Paul Wadlington

The Texas offense couldn’t stop scoring on Saturday. They scored 38 on the Baylor defense, another 9 on Texas, and still managed to close up the regular season with a double digit win over a physical Bear team that the Longhorn running game ground into 4th quarter rubble. By the end of the game, Texas had become a service academy offense without the option ele ments and Baylor couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

It didn’t start that way.

Texas had early success throwing the ball — when they could get the ball out — as Quinn Ewers started the game 5 of 8 for 111 yards, but Bijan Robinson finished the first stanza with only 7 carries for 29 yards. Texas gave up 3 sacks in its last five drop backs of the half and surrendered a safety early when Quinn Ewers’ protection fell apart and he grounded the ball to an area where Texas had no eligible receivers. That helped stake the Bears to an early 9-0 lead.

BIJAN ROBINSON

While halftime commentators and Texas fans naturally called for the Horns to just hand the ball to Bijan, actual events sug gests that this was more feeling and talking points than game script reality. After Texas surrendered a safety on its first drive (and lost a possession), they scored two touch downs and a field goal on the following three possessions running a fairly balanced offense.

The offense was working just fine when it had the chance to possess the ball, but with only 9 minutes of first half possession (as Baylor’s offense converted 6 of 10 first half money downs), it’s impossible to work in 15-20 carries for #5.

Real frustration came in the last two sequences of the first half when Texas got the ball with 2 minutes left on the Texas 20 yard line and couldn’t execute a two minute drill due to repeated pass blocking recognition failures. The Horns finished with only 23 first half plays. Had Texas handed the ball off to Bijan and run out the clock at the two minute mark, I’m not sure either Longhorn fans or commentators would have been particularly delighted, but it would have been preferable to that closing sequence.

When Texas decided to stop shooting itself in the foot and get simple and fast, the game turned. But it took a while to figure it out because the plays available in the passing game were so tantalizing. In some ways, the story of the season.

A second half Whittington fumble in Baylor territory was followed by an effective 78 yard touchdown drive that featured Texas using tempo for the first time in the game. That’s also when the run game really started to turn. Tempo kept Texas simple, put an end to extended snaps counts and heavy motion that was triggering repeated offsides penalties and jumpy feet (Sand ers forced a punt on 4th and 2 from midfield with an offsides on the first drive of the 2nd half and Hayden Conner managed a three offsides penalty hat trick), and most crucially it disal lowed Aranda and the Baylor defensive staff from getting in last second brain transplants to their defenders.

The game became about the players and Texas had better, fresher ones coming in waves.

Despite arriving at a winning formula the drive previous and Bijan starting the next drive with two runs for 16 yards, Sark still wanted to sneak in a deep shot and Quinn Ewers fumbled on the play after being hit, surrendering a Baylor scoop and score that erased an early 4th quarter Texas lead.

So with Baylor leading 27-24 at the beginning of the final quar ter, Texas decided to get medieval. On the first Texas posses sion of the 4th quarter, Texas ran the ball 11 consecutive times for 75 yards. After the Jaylan Ford interception and holding a 31-27 lead, Texas ran the ball 6 consecutive times for 42 yards and another touchdown. 17 consecutive runs. None went for negative yardage. Two touchdowns. Leading 38-27, Texas got the ball back with about 3 minutes on the clock and ran the ball five consecutive times to close out the game with authority on the Baylor 4 yard line.

QUARTERBACK

When Ewers didn’t make three massive errors, he was really good, going 12 of 16 for 194 yards. That’s a funny thing to write, but accurate. While he bears no blame for several horrific pass protection moments or a Whittington fumble after he throws a strike, an important part of his maturation and development will be playing bad cards correctly. Fold the hand and play again. You don’t have go all-in and try to bluff your way out. Ewers probably also needs a better estimation of his speed and athleti cism vis a vis a college defenders with a free path.

ROSCHON JOHNSON

OFFENSIVE LINE

Offensive line is the only unit in football where an entire group gets maligned when one guy messes up or a non-OL blows their assignment. Three members of the unit played their best football of the season. Jake Majors drew Siaki Ika and had zero problems with the massive nose tackle. He was also terrific on the pull. Christian Jones and Kelvin Banks pass protected well, dominated in run blocking and I think Jones may have killed some guys in the final quarter.

The primary issues in protection came at right guard – whether that spot was manned by Cole Hutson or Devon Campbell after Hutson went out with a leg injury. Both struggled badly with stunts from the tite front and were the culprits in 3 sacks. Jumbo TE Andrej Karic also gave up the Ewers strip-sack-touchdown, failing to give Al Walcott much resistance at all.

When Texas decided they wanted to get simple and pound Bay lor’s front, the OL was terrific. On the RoJo hurdle TD Christian Jones pancaked the Baylor edge 10 yards down the field and cut off four different defenders in pursuit. The rest of the line was also highly effective with Kelvin Banks and Hayden Conner leading the way, Jake Majors pulling and Cole Hutson cutting off any backside pursuit. RoJo maximized the run, but you’re looking at 5 OL wins.

WIDE RECEIVER/TIGHT END

Xavier Worthy caught seven balls simply off of Baylor being

scared of him and he brought good energy and physicality for four quarters. I always enjoy a 165 pound guy dropping shoul ders on people.

Sanders had some great moments as an edge blocker and pass catcher. He keeps killing the offense with offsides penalties on crucial downs though. Whittington had a fumble on a nice punch out from the defender, but he blocked well and looked good with the ball in his hands. Helm was fine as well.

RUNNING BACK

Saving the best for last. The two Longhorn bell cows combined for 256 yards rushing on 42 carries and 4 touchdowns. Their physicality and effort set the tone and their longest run of 23 yards demonstrated that this wasn’t about popping a couple of big runs. It was a consistent pummeling.

Bijan had a slow start, trying to press A gap runs to the C, but once he got the feel for Baylor’s help defenders and got his pads upfield, he gouged them repeatedly and put on a masterful performance. RoJo ran hard as hell and looked generally pissed off for four quarters. His hurdle touchdown was a chef’s kiss top per to the game and their careers.

Two of my favorite players in Texas history. They’ll be missed.

FINAL

That was a satisfying win with just the right amount of doubt cul minating in a dominant 4th quarter showcase of physicality and effort. The game went from nip and tuck to Texas domination in a single quarter. As he did against Kansas, Sark demonstrated an understanding that the offense he wants to run isn’t the of fense Texas can run.

On to the Alamo…

XAVIER WORTHY

POST-MORTEM | DEFENSE

While the Texas run game delivered a thorough Bear beating in the 4th quarter to seal a double digit win, the Texas defense turned in an equally impressive second half performance lay ing bare the Baylor run game and play action identity that had carried Jeff Grimes’ offense throughout the year and a pretty successful first half of offense in Austin. Most encouragingly, the second half shutdown of the Baylor offense came with halftime tweaks that stopped Baylor cold and gave the Texas offensive brain trust the time and space to figure out that they probably

just needed to throw their play sheets in the trash and hand the ball to #5 and #2. Without the Texas defense dominating the second half, does the Texas offense have the patience to Run The Damn Ball?

That the Texas defense achieved with an officiating crew that has assessed a total of one penalty for 1.5 yards against Long horn opponents in the last eight quarters they’ve officiated Texas games is…special. Aside from the statistical improbability of it

JAYLAN FORD

all, one thing I know from watching decades of football is that outside zone heavy teams who rely on play action never ever commit holding infractions.

For the game, Texas held Baylor to their offensive season low of 101 yards rushing, with 30 rushing yards on 14 carries in the second stanza. Texas was even more impressive late against the Bear passing game despite busting a first half coverage that allowed a 47 yard touchdown pass and another free shot to Ben Sims in the end zone. Blake Shapen found too much time and too many open receivers early on, going 12 of 20 for 153 yards and 2 touchdowns, but in the second half the Baylor play action game disintegrated in the face of better recognition, more active hands with batted balls and pass break ups and a better understanding of the limitations of the Baylor passing game. Shapen’s 2nd half stat line was a woeful 6 of 16 for 26 yards and an interception.

Texas also started getting off of the field. When the other team is determined to make every drive 4 down territory, a defense has to save its own life and Texas eventually did just that. Baylor’s

If it felt like Baylor was having success running the ball, that was more a function of early success in the passing game and their ability to keep converting 3rd and 4th downs. No individual Bay lor runner or run hurt Texas. The proof? Baylor had 32 standard runs from their running backs. They totaled 101 yards at 3.2 yards per carry. When their passing game dried up, their running game disappeared as well. And the Texas defense dominated.

When you contrast how this game script went with lesser Texas defensive efforts against Texas Tech and Oklahoma State on key downs and stopping repetitive trips to the well, there was a clear adjustment to what Baylor was doing on the field as the Horns systematically denied Blake Shapen his comfort throws.

Overall, Texas held Baylor to 56 yards on 30 plays in the final half of play and zero offensive points. There were 29 points scored in the second half and the Texas O was responsible for all of ’em.

TLDR? The Texas coaches won halftime.

early offensive success came on protracted drives (they con verted 4/5 on 4th down overall) but Texas only allowed Baylor to convert 1 of their last 10 3rd down attempts after they started at 4 of 8. If you can’t get 4th down stops, make the 3rd down stop so convincing that 4th and 6+ doesn’t have quite the same appeal.

DEFENSIVE LINE

A great group effort from all of the interior guys, but the inser tions of Collins and Ojomo on the edge with DMO on the op posite edge firing in at SAM linebacker changed the complexion of the defense. Oghoufo was having trouble holding up to the volume of outside runs and this was also degrading his pass rush. Substitution and a scheme tweak solved the problem.

RYAN WATTS

JAHDAE BARRON

Alfred Collins had 4 tackles, a sack (he pushed his OL into a scrambling Shapen) and two big pressures. Moro Ojomo was also extremely active, notching 7 overall tackles including an early hustle tackle for no gain on a 3rd and 8 midfield run that had Baylor gotten a few positive yards, would have led to a 4th down conversion attempt and quite possibly a scoring drive.

A fresh Oghoufo was rein serted late and pass rushed well in the late 4th quarter. Coburn played well, despite being visibly frustrated by holds as he tried to pursue on outside zone. On the running play after Baylor converted their 4th and 3 with the sideline pass to Qualan Jones, you can see a held Coburn turn to the official in disgust with his hands held out as if to say,”Seriously?”

Overall pass rush was lacking, particularly in the first half, but it was also clear that they had a directive to play run first. Eventu ally, they started to get the feel of Baylor’s rhythm and did a better job of getting Shapen off of his spot and disrupting throws with hands up or forcing an off balance throw.

LINEBACKER

I picked the Texas linebackers as the most crucial defensive players for this game in the IT preview and they turned in their best collective linebacking performance of the season. Ford and DMO were fantastic. It certainly showed up in the box score as the two combined for 27 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, an intercep tion and 3 pass break ups. Ford is the Texas Defensive MVP but DMO’s last two games have me wishing he had one more year of stability and instruction. Tucker-Dorsey was solid with 4 tackles and a pass break up. You won’t find Blackwell in the box score, but he stuck his nose in there and re-routed some Baylor runs.

DEFENSEIVE BACK

The second half was terrific after a shaky first half. Terrance Brooks seemed to largely supplant D’shawn Jamison for most of the game, but Jamison saw some snaps late. Jahdae Barron turned in another strong game (2 tackles for loss, 1 sack, a pass break up) but he dropped another potential Pick 6 for the sec ond straight week. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t responsible for the busted coverage, but I’m not 100% on that one. Jerrin Thomp son did a nice job cleaning up in the run game and drew a tough recognition job as single high safety. Ryan Watts gave up a couple of throws underneath, but was very solid in run defense. The first half wasn’t too hot, but the second was as good as any this season

FINAL

Texas held Baylor to 3.7 yards per play (75-280 overall), a season low in their running output and dominated the Baylor passing game over the last 30 minutes of play despite the Texas offense digging them holes at the beginning of each half. They rallied, adjusted and took over.

That was a satisfying win.

TERRANCE BROOKS

RECRUITING TRAIL NEWS

by Eric Nahlin

Texas currently has the No. 5 class in the On3 Consensus rankings with a healthy average rating of 92.816. While fans begin to wonder what new portal additions will be in Austin for the spring,

Texas is set to have a whopping 12 of 21 current commits on campus in January. So, the new portal additions won’t be the only new faces roaming the halls of Moncrief.

Let’s take a look at each early enrollee followed by a little commentary on early expectations.

Arch Manning, QB New Orleans (La.) Isidore Newman: Expec tations are always too high for high school freshmen. Now throw the most famous last name in football into the mix along with one of the highest ratings ever given to a high school prospect and expectations become even more unrealistic. Fortunately for Arch Manning, though, Texas already has a starter at quarter back which should allow him a redshirt year to develop and learn the system.

Cedric Baxter Jr., RB Orlando (Fla.) Edgewater: Baxter will not be redshirting as he arrives with the fanfare of another Cedric B. two decades before him. Gone are Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson, so again, expectations will likely be unfair to the freshman, but he has the talent to deliver as part of a platoon behind an offensive line that will only get better. Baxter will return to Austin in December before enrolling in January.

Johntay Cook II, WR DeSoto (Texas): Cook’s explosive route running is going to translate immediately but he’ll need to put in the customary work

to get on the same page with Ewers, the playbook, and defen sive coverages. He’ll have to prove to be a willing blocker. None of that is a concern, it’s just all part of the process and a good reminder of the value of enrolling early.

Jaydon Chatman, OL | Killeen (Texas) Harker Heights

Connor Stroh, IOL | Frisco (Texas) Wakeland

Andre Cojoe, IOL | Mansfield (Texas) Timberview, Payton Kirkland, OT/IOL | Orlando (Fla.) Dr. Phillips

These guys have differing traits but they’re all similar in they won’t be forced onto the field until they’re ready, barring injury.

As we’ve stated on numerous occasions, this class is ideal for following the 2022 class. There is a lot of upside for Kyle Flood

ANDRE COJOE AND CONNOR STROH

to maximize, and judging by Christian Jones‘ growth this year, Flood is going to get a lot out of this group. Unlike that 2022 class, the vast majority of Flood’s signees will enroll early. We saw how that benefitted Cole Hutson. Trevor Goosby will be the lone non-early enrollee of the freshman O-line, but he’s also the most likely to follow in the footsteps of Kelvin Banks at left tackle. He’ll have plenty of time to catch up with his classmates.

Sydir Mitchell, DL

Oradell (N.J.) Bergen Catholic: Easily one of the most im portant players in the class. Mitchell is a mountain of a young man who will be a fast responder to S&C workouts. Like the mammoth O-linemen in the class he’ll get a big jump on his development. With the departures of Keondre Coburn and Moro Ojomo, there will be snaps available for Mitchell to earn as a true freshman. Mitchell will be back in Austin one more time before he enrolls.

Colton Vasek, EDGE

Austin (Texas) Westlake: He’s a different type of player than Justice Finkley, but I think Vasek plays with a similar ‘grown man’ attitude. That could help him get on the field as a freshman similar to Finkley. Physically, he’s further along than his former high school teammate, Ethan Burke, who played some as a freshman despite not enrolling early. Like Mitchell, Vasek will be a quick responder to S&C.

Derion Gullette, EDGE/LB

Teague (Texas): Gullette tore his ACL last summer and missed his senior season. It goes without saying how arriving early expedites the developmental process for players, but it should also help Gullette’s efforts to rehabilitate his knee. Gullette’s goal will be to regain the movement ability that made him one of the most freakishly athletic defenders in the country.

Liona

Lefau, LB

Kahuku (Hawaii): He might be one of the most slept on players in the entire country. Lefau is already more physically mature than most high school linebackers and also comes with a great mental evaluation. He’s another true freshman

who could see snaps with a good spring and summer.

Malik Muhammad, CB

Dallas (Texas) South Oak Cliff: I view Muhammad similarly to Cook, just on the other side of the ball. He’ll have the best cov erage traits in the program the day he arrives on campus, but he’ll still need to learn the playbook, coverage techniques, and how to diagnose route combinations. Like with Cook, none of that is a concern, but there is a process from transitioning from talented high school player to good college player.

Texas hopes to finish the class strong and if the staff could add standout linebacker Anthony Hill from Denton (Texas) Ryan, he would be yet another early enrollee at a position with immediate playing time available.

ARCH MANNING

TEXAS TAKES DOWN

AUSTIN, TX -- Not since December 22, 2009 had Texas won a matchup between two top-10 teams in Austin. That changed on Thursday as the No. 2 Longhorns defeated the No. 7 Creighton Bluejays 72-67 as part of the Big 12-Big East Battle.

DOWN BLUEJAYS

BY JOE COOK

Protecting the Basketball

The Longhorns took care of the basket ball to an elite degree on Thursday night. Across 40 minutes in a game where the largest lead for either team was only 11, Texas turned the ball over just three times, and none were in the last five minutes of the game.

According to Sports Reference data that goes as far back as the 2010-11 season, that’s the lowest turnover total for the Longhorns since a four turnover game versus Cal in 2019.

Texas relied on its experienced guard corps of Marcus Carr, Tyrese Hunter,

and Sir’Jabari Rice to capably lead the Longhorn offense in both the half-court and transition throughout the night. That experience rewarded the Longhorns as that group combined for an 8-to-1 turnover ratio.

It’s rare for any team, let alone Texas in the past decade-plus, to have five or few er turnovers, let alone just three. It may be the closest Beard’s been to perfection as a Division I coach since a two turnover game with Texas Tech in a loss at West Virginia on January 25, 2021.

Not only did the main duo of Carr and Hunter turn the ball over just once in each player’s 34 minutes on the court, they led the Longhorns’ scoring efforts. Carr scored a team-high 19 points on 7-of-20 shooting, including 2-of-5 from three. Hunter, who had to leave the game for a short amount of time in the second half after knocking knees with a Blue jay, added 15 points on 7-of-15 shooting. None may have been easier than his final dunk off an inbound play to give Texas a sixpoint lead with 18 seconds left.

Texas’ hasn’t seen the level of guard play it’s getting from Hunter and Carr at the 1 and 2 in quite some time, and

those two plus Rice not only are big rea sons’ behind Texas’ win over Creighton, but the Longhorns’ 6-0 overall record.

Poise at key junctures in the second half

Texas entered halftime with a 32-27 lead thanks to a 8-2 run in the final 2:30 of the opening 20 minutes. It carried the momentum that a 10,896-person crowd typically offers.

However, he first few minutes of the second half were extremely frantic for the Longhorns, and the momentum Texas had entered the locker room with quickly was sucked out of the building that had a smattering of Bluejay fans present.

Creighton had a hot start while Texas was out of sorts from the opening posses sion to the under-16 timeout. What had ballooned to an eight-point Texas lead was cut to just one when Creighton hit two free throws coming out of the media break.

After those freebies, the Longhorns played a style closer to what they had showed entering halftime. Rice hit a three-pointer, then Carr did the same. Christian Bishop then hit a layup in the paint to cap an 8-0 run and force Creigh ton to use a timeout. Texas would make it an 11-point lead, it’s largest of the night, on the other side.

Texas held the margin around that number until the Bluejays made a late run. Baylor Scheierman, who had started 0-for-10 from the field, hit his last four shots in the last four minutes, including two threes with under 30 seconds left.

In order to win the game, Texas would need to showcase poise on the inbound play and also at the line. Carr and Brock Cunningham calmly stepped to the line

Timmy Allen

after successful passes and ensuing Creighton fouls, and after timeouts called by Beard no less, before nailing all four crucial shots to seal the victory.

Picking poison on defense without one of the best post options full go

One of Creighton’s strengths entering the game was its balanced scoring. The five starters on Greg McDermott’s squad all averaged over 12.0 points per game, with 7-footer Ryan Kalkbrenner averaging a cool 16.1 PPG.

If Kalkbrenner was the person typically charged with drawing defenders in, then Scheierman’s usual role is to bring de fenders out. However, he started 0-for-9 from beyond the arc.

That didn’t make the task of defending Kalkbrenner any easier, though. Beard described UT big man Dylan Disu post game as “banged up” and only having gone through a “limited week of practice.” The tallest player on the Longhorn roster played three minutes in the second half.

him to maintain a post presence against other vertically gifted players on their schedule. But the salty trio of Cun ningham, Mitchell, and Bishop were able to do just enough to help Texas survive Kalk brenner on Thursday night.

What this means for the current team

-Texas has marquee wins against the top two teams on its early non-conference sched ule. The high highs that Gonzaga and Creigh ton offer may be offset by the low lows of some of the other nonconference opponents. Still, when the selection committee starts making hard decisions on seed-lines, wins like this will stand out, especially with the assumption both the Bulldogs and the Bluejays will have strong 2022-23 campaigns.

slate. Beard even made a point to thank the Corral after the game, as did mem bers of the roster.

–Timmy Allen scored a season-high 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting and also brought down a team-high 10 rebounds. He added four assists for good measure.

Chris Beard (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

The task of guarding the Creighton 7-footer then fell to the trio of Cunning ham, Bishop, and Dillon Mitchell. Their comparative lack of length was punished by Kalkbrenner. He was 4-for-5 from the field and pulled down 10 rebounds in just the second half. Until Scheierman heated up, he was the main source of offense for Creighton.

Texas made life difficult for the big man, often throwing two or three defenders his direction, a gambit that paid off since Creighton managed a paltry 4-for-27 night from behind the arc.

Disu’s status is something to monitor going forward, as the Longhorns need

-Hunter is the best Longhorn guard since? The answer to that question isn’t quite clear yet. There have been good guards in recent years for Texas, like Matt Coleman, Isaiah Taylor, Avery Bradley, and Cory Joseph. Hunter is only just start ing his Texas journey, but he’s showcas ing why he was the Big 12 freshman of the year last season with Iowa State and such a valuable addition to the Longhorns for this campaign.

-Even with a 6 p.m. tip and typical Austin traffic, the Moody Center was rowdy and engaged from start to finish. Winning begets winning, and wins on the court will lead to more fans in the stands when the team starts going through the Big 12

-Mitchell scored 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting and showcased some touch in the midrange.

-Cunningham scored two points, but they were the most important points of the night.

-Bishop was 3-of-6 from the field and had six points against his old team. He calmly led a fast break late to supply Hunter with a bucket leading to his only assist of the night.

-Texas travels to New York City for a game versus Illinois on Tuesday in Madi son Square Garden.

Jean Delance

Dylan Disu

Texas Spirit Photo of The Week