Three Things to Know About the Texas Longhorns

Oklahoma State travels to Austin this weekend looking to become the first team in college football history to beat Texas in Austin five consecutive times. That would be a coup d’etat for Mike Gundy and Co. after recently surpassing Texas in winning percentage since he took over in 2005.

Texas, though, has a terrific defense and has a squad that Gundy called probably “the most athletic team in the league” earlier this week. Can its offense hang with OSU? Will special teams and penalties decide the outcome? How many QBs will UT employ on Saturday?

Here are three things to know about Texas and this weekend’s tilt.

Texas Has Struggled Against the Pass

Despite having a stout defense that has been elite against the run (3.57 yards per carry), Texas has not been very good defending the pass. This seems like it would benefit Oklahoma State which, uh, has not struggled to pass the ball. Texas is allowing 8.1 yards per attempt which is T105 in the country and just ahead of Kansas and Baylor as far as Big 12 teams go (FYI: Tulsa and Pitt are also in the bottom 10 nationally).

“We’ve got to get better at defending the pass,” said Texas coach Tom Herman this week. “We’re doing a good job defending the run.

“We’ve got to be more assignment-sound in coverage and if that means we run less coverages, then that’s what that means. But let’s at least, you know, don’t be a ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’. Let’s be a master of a couple of things … if you’re in the right place at the right time where you’re supposed to be, and James Washington jumps over you and makes a hellacious catch or makes a move off, threads the needle in between three guys in zone coverage; that’s going to happen. They do that to a lot of people.”

Oklahoma State for its part has apparently been impressed with Texas DC Todd Orlando, but Orlando has not been impressed with himself despite guiding a defense that has held every single opponent under its season average. He said this week that Texas is going to have to start rotating in more DBs after they clearly struggled against OU.

Aside from a pass break-up and a tackle-for-loss by Brandon Jones along with a handful of tackles by DeShon Elliott, the safeties were caught multiple times peeking into the backfield as they let receivers get behind them in coverage. Call it a mental lapse, call it being unprepared for Mayfield — it was frustrating to watch the safeties revert to bad habits we saw last season. Few things frustrate me more than watching a safety let a receiver run right by him in coverage. [Burnt Orange Nation]

“The thought was once we started facing those high-tempo, hair-on-fire offenses, we’d rotate more,” Orlando said. “We just haven’t faced those hair-on-fire offenses, but we’re about to – so we have to rotate more.”

Run Game Exclusive to Ehlinger

Texas has been without its star offensive tackle Connor Willims since the USC game, and that hasn’t helped, but its best running back to this point in the season is … not a running back. QB Sam Ehlinger, who took over after an injury to Shane Buechele early in the year, is averaging 68 yards a game while guys like Chris Warren and Kyle Porter can’t crack the 50-yard mark because you can’t ever trust somebody named Kyle Porter.

Texas on the whole is averaging an abysmal 3.98 yards per carry which is No. 85 nationally behind teams like Baylor and Kansas.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to face the reality that Texas will likely not be able to rely on its running backs this season in the run game. And that’s not me saying it’s entirely the running backs fault either because it’s not. The offensive line is a rag-tag group and this offensive staff hasn’t exactly figured out when to use which running back.

The best thing going for this group of running backs right now is screens out of the backfield. Other than that, handing it off to a running back is good for about a yard or two at a time. [Burnt Orange Nation]

Gundy knows that Ehlinger is going to run it, even after he may or may not have been concussed in the OU game last weekend, and even though Herman has been insistent on the freshman not trying to tuck it and go quite as much.

“Texas is going to try to spread us out and use their quarterback as a running back, at least that’s what I see from the outside looking in,” said Gundy earlier in the week. “That gives them a one-man advantage, so our linebackers have to tackle well in space. To a certain extent, it becomes a fairly easy game to know what’s happening.

“You have to get guys down toward the line and try to keep them under four yards per carry. They’re using the quarterback as a running back in my opinion and getting 4.5 yards per carry, so we have to be able to get him down.”

We should talk about Ehlinger a little more. I’ve watched Texas a lot this year, and he’s been really impressive in some areas and not so much in others. He kind of reminds me of J.W. Walsh in that it’s almost like he’s looking to run even on pass plays.

Last 2 games Sam Ehlinger ran a combined 42 times.Vince Young never had more than 40 rush attempts in a 2 game stretch at #Texas #Staturday

— Drew Lieberman (@DrewLieberman) October 14, 2017

His arm’s not impressive, but under Ehlinger Texas’ offense has bettered its scoring output by nearly two touchdowns. He nearly beat SC at SC and OU in the RRR as a teenager, and he clearly has whatever that thing is that college football coaches engage in recruiting wars over.

Wanna know why Sam Ehlinger is the guy? Watch him on his way up the tunnel after the game. Texas has been missing this for too long. pic.twitter.com/sof6UkwxHD

— Ricky Doyle (@RickyDoyle) October 14, 2017

Can he beat an underrated Oklahoma State defense with a Heisman candidate coming at him from the other side of the field? I don’t know about that, but he’s going to make your curse your television more than once on Saturday afternoon.

Slow Starts

Oklahoma State has 11 first quarter offensive TDs this season. Texas has 2. Oklahoma State is No. 3 in the country in first quarter offensive TDs. Texas is No. 123. If it’s close after the first quarter, the advantage certainly goes to the Horns (please don’t defer, Mike!) and the game could come down to turnovers and/or penalties.

First Quarter TDs

Texas held USC and Oklahoma to an average of 16 points below their season averages on offense. If they do the same to Oklahoma State, the Pokes will score 32-35 points. That should be enough as long as OSU doesn’t cough it up or do silly stuff on special teams. But as we’ve seen in the first three weeks of the Big 12 season, neither of those things should make you particularly confident.