On Saturday, Texas football finally got its first win of the season on the board with a dominant 38-7 win over San Jose State in its home opener in Austin. Of course, playing against the Spartans was a nice reprieve from the gauntlet that is this Longhorns schedule, which opened with a road date against Ohio State.
Texas was far below its best against the Buckeyes in Week 1's highly-anticipated College Football Playoff rematch, which was to be expected in some ways. Arch Manning was making his first career start on the road in one of the toughest places to play in the nation. Ohio State also has a lot of returning pieces on defense, and it showed that continuity in the 14-7 win over Texas.
While Week 2 brought more success for Texas, it still wasn't pretty for Steve Sarkisian and company. They turned the ball over twice and didn't get off to a quick start despite eventually pulling away near the end of the first quarter.
After the game, Sarkisian said that he is focused on getting Texas back to the standard that he wants to see it playing at, via ESPN's Dave Wilson.
“I think as our team in general goes, this is not the best version of Texas football this season that we're going to see,” Sarkisian said. “My foot's got to get in their butt here on Monday morning. That's unacceptable. And there's a standard in which we want to play the game, and 12 penalties does not meet that standard.”
The sloppiness from Texas is the primary thing that needs to get fixed going forward, but such a talented team with the experience that the Longhorns do should have that stuff ironed out relatively soon.
While the result of this one was never really in doubt, all eyes were on Arch Manning and how he would rebound from his poor season debut against Ohio State. Despite the slow start, the former five-star recruit finished 19-for-30 passing with 295 yards and four touchdowns. He did have an interception as well, but it was certainly an improvement from Week 1.
Manning and the Longhorns have a pair of cupcakes against UTEP and Sam Houston before SEC play gets underway with a road date against Florida on Sept. 20.
