No. 5 Texas 59, Texas State 7: Three things we learned
· Yahoo Sports
The No. 5 Texas Longhorns came into the day a 29.5-point favorite against the Texas State Bobcats and somehow managed to clear that, putting them away 59-7. These are the kinds of openers that coaches tend to like against overmatched opponents, making the win look easy while also putting plenty on tape to coach.
The passing game has room to growIt’s wild to say this in a game where Arch Manning completed 74 percent of his passes and left the game with 6:03 in the third quarter after back-to-back touchdown drives to open the half, but there were some low moments in the passing game. He forced a pass into triple coverage at the end of the first half for his lone interception of the day, and Coleman’s second touchdown was into a tight window that a better safety may have taken the other way.
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It’s not just on the quarterback, but the play prior to Manning’s interception was a high pass that Ryan Wingo could have brought down in the end zone. Manning also targeted Emmet Mosley V seven times, but only connected with him three times for 37 yards. They will need to be at the top of their game next week when Ohio State comes to town.
Texas has the potential to have a legit ground gameHollywood Smothers and Raleek Brown were big additions in the offseason for Texas, and both looked the part against the Texas State defense. Each running back had explosive runs on the day, with Smothers starting his day with a 45-yard scamper, while Brown had touchdown runs of 13 and 21 yards in the contest.
It wasn’t perfect on the day, with Texas State bowing up late as the Texas line seemed to back down a bit in the second half, but having two rushes longer than 20 yards in game one a year after they had just 12 in the whole season feels like a step in the right direction.
Muschamp’s defense will be opportunisticThere will be plenty of coachable tape for the Texas defense, which allowed eight explosive plays, but the Longhorns created havoc at every turn.
Transfer linebacker Rasheem Biles, perhaps the most emblematic of it, had a forced fumble and an out-of-nowhere interception, on top of his five tackles and a tackle for loss. Defensive tackle Maraad Watson added a strip sack, while fellow defensive tackle Alex January batted down a pass on fourth down to end a once-promising drive by Texas State.
Even against a quarterback who rushed for more than 700 yards a year ago, they managed two sacks before GJ Kinne made the decision to pull him in the third quarter, putting the Texas State defense behind the chains. They finished the game with eight tackles for loss and harassed both quarterbacks throughout the contest.