Two games into the 2025 season and I’m going to lead this column off with a dose of good and bad news for Texas Football.
Let’s get the bad out of the way … I don’t currently see a national championship contender in burnt orange.
Oh, they might eventually get there because the talent level in the program is so significant. Time might even be on their side. Yet, right now? We’re talking about a 7th-ranked team in the country that possesses a lot of issues to work through, including one that ranks as the elephant in the room in my eyes.
We’ll circle back around to the issues in play for the Longhorns that need to be addressed over the course of the coming weeks and months, but I can see the smoke coming out of your ears at the mere notion that these 2025 Longhorns might be a pot of fool’s gold, so let’s turn our attention to the good news before someone strokes out before the end of paragraph 4 ….
Texas isn’t alone. That’s the really, really good news. The calendar hasn’t even turned to the second week of September and the entire top 10 in college football is full of teams that look a hell of a lot more like contenders than teams that will hold a championship trophy in four months.
Let’s do a quick roll-call …
No. 2 Penn State – The Nittany Lions were clinging to a 7-0 lead over … *checks notes* … Florida International (not the team Tom Herman used to coach) before a field goal with less than a minute to go until halftime provided a 10-0 lead. Whatever this Penn State team might be, it’s not what Texas is aspiring to become.
No. 3 LSU – Suddenly, that Clemson win looks a little sketchy, huh? One week later, while playing at home for the first time this season, the Tigers messed around with Louisiana Tech for a half and led only 10-0 after 30 minutes. It turns out that the 23-7 win over the Bulldogs revealed that there’s a lot of work that remains to be done with Brian Kelly’s team.
No. 4 Georgia – The Daws were playing something called Austin Peay at home and stop me if you’ve read this in the previous two descriptions of No. 2 Penn State and No. 3 LSU, but a home struggle of patty cake broke out for large stretches of this game. The Dawgs led 14-3 at halftime and cruised to the kind of 28-6 win that Texas fans can appreciate for its lackluster-ness.
No. 8 Clemson messed around (losing 16-3 at halftime) and nearly found out with Troy at home. No. 12 Arizona State lost to Mississippi State. No. 13 Florida lost to the fightin’ Anwar Richardsons.
I’m not sure that I’ve seen a team yet this season that anyone needs to be frightened by. There’s a lot of very average football being played by “contenders” at the moment. Considering that the Longhorns are one of those teams playing some fairly uninspired football, it’s a good thing that misery has a lot of company at the moment. Oh, you’re in your feelings about the world miserable? That’s too hyperbolic? Fair enough. It’s a good thing that dishevelment has a lot of company at the moment.
Better?
Ok now let’s talk about these Longhorns for a moment and what we’re still waiting to see going into week three, which features an offense that can best be described by the following gif …
While there is a pile of lesser issues for the Texas staff, none are bigger than the fact that Parker Livingstone has been the best player on the Texas offense this season and outside of tight end Jack Endries, I’m not sure anyone else even deserves to have his name read out loud in the same manner.
Quarterback Arch Manning is a full on box of chocolates at the moment. Every Texas running back runs like he has a piano strapped to his back. Ryan Wingo has been an absolute flop through the first two games of the season, while expected All-SEC receiving threat DeAndre Moore is on pace for 216 yards … IN 12 GAMES … with a 6.0 yards per reception clip to boot. None of the three freshmen receivers that earned at least one 5-star grade from a recruiting service is good enough to get on the field consistently. Meanwhile, the offensive line really seemed to struggle with the interior of the San Jose State defense at times when it wasn’t committing drive-killing penalties.
WHERE ARE THE DIFFERENCE-MAKERS ON OFFENSE?!?!?!?!
Hell, where are the difference-makers on defense? Colin Simmons has not been anything close to elite. Anthony Hill was credited with two forced fumbles yesterday, but I will contend that he hasn’t been the best linebacker on the team so far this season. Or maybe even the second-best linebacker. None of these cornerbacks are in the same galaxy as Jahdae Barron was last season.
I’m nowhere near in panic mode. Far from it. Just watch the post-game show from yesterday. I’m relatively chill at the moment. As someone that prescribes to the quest of being better in October than you were in September, being better in November than you were in October and so on and so on … I’m willing to let this Texas team grow up on the fly, partly because the schedule allows for it with three games in September that won’t be remotely competitive, unless Texas stays mired in disheveledness.
This is merely being honest with what I’m watching early in the season. We’re watching an elite roster struggle through 120 minutes of football at producing at elite levels, although the standard the defense is being held to is light years higher than its offensive counterpart.
A lot of positive steps still need to be taken. If anything, the 2024 Ohio State Buckeyes are the poster children for these 2025 Longhorns because that championship was left for dead a couple of times last season, especially after Michigan drop-kicked it upside the head in late November. That team found a way to flip the switch after getting into the playoffs without a first-round bye.
Considering Texas already has a loss on the resume and doesn’t yet look like a team ready to embark on an 11-game winning streak, it might have to do the same.
That being said, Steve Sarkisian and Co. have miles of work to do before that outlook can remotely begin to look like a road that can be traveled. We’re at the walk before you can run stage of the 2025 season and will be for the next few weeks.
Let’s hope a game-changer or two materializes during that time.
