Quick Look: Texas Longhorns

Game Day Information:

Date: Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020

Time: 11 a.m.

Location: Austin, Texas

Venue: Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium

Series Record: Texas leads 63-26-1

Last Meeting: TCU won 37-27 (2019)

TV: FOX

Talent: Gus Johnson, Joel Klatt, Jenny Taft

Radio: WBAP 820 AM, KTCU 88.7 FM, XM 392

Talent: Brian Estridge, John Denton, Landry Burdine

Spanish Radio: KFZO 99.1 FM

Talent: Miguel Cruz, Elvis Gallegos

The Longhorns are 63-26-1 all-time against the Horned Frogs and hold a 34-14-1 advantage when the teams face off in Austin. UT won the last matchup between the two teams in Austin, 31-16, in 2018. TCU has won five of the seven contests since joining the Big 12, including last year’s 37-27 victory in Fort Worth.

Offense:

Sam Ehlinger is the piece that moves mountains for these Longhorns; the senior QB has accounted for 10 touchdowns already this season on 71% passing. He’s on pace to smash some pretty impressive records created throughout the long history of the Burnt Orange. Ehlinger has been pretty good against TCU in the past two seasons, passing for 576 yards and four touchdowns, but also had four interceptions — all from the 2019 game.

UT has gotten decent production out of the run game as well, with returning starter Keontay Ingram picking up yards at a 6.3 per clip. Highly touted young back Bijan Robinson has looked incredibly explosive in limited carries, and seems to be on track to get more and more touches as the season goes on. Though they haven’t need to pound the rock much so far this fall, the running back room is probably licking its chops in watching the TCU defense from last week, as the Horned Frogs allowed runs off 44 and 23 yards and allowed 189 yards on the ground in total.

The Horns leading receiver is Joshua Moore, with 11 catches through two games — four for touchdowns. But Ehlinger has slung the ball around to a bunch of different guys so far this fall, with seven different players hauling in at least four catches through two games.

Defense:

LOL.

It might be bad.

Once again, Texas is facing a situation where they have all of the talent in the world and very little pay-off. Hell, Houston Baptist held Texas Tech to fewer points than UT did! The Red Raiders had their way with the Horns D Saturday until the end, rallying from an early deficit to take a double-digit lead before their own defense remembered that they were a Texas Tech defense and decided to be worse.

That doesn’t excuse the Horns problems, though — allowing two touchdowns in the second and fourth quarters and three in the third isn’t ideal, nor is allowing a 50% third down conversion rate and 4.8 yards per carry.

The pass rush generated pressure but no sacks and no QB hurries, and while the Horns accrued six tackles for loss, they also allowed Alan Bowman to set his feet and find receivers far too easily. BJ Foster was good with seven tackles and three players had two passes defended each, but the performance was subpar overall to say the least.

Outlook:

TCU has thoroughly dominated the Horns overall since joining the Big 12; even the worst team the Frogs have fielded, record wise, the last seven years looked far superior than UT on the field. I don’t know if Gary Patterson just has Charlie Strong and Tom Herman’s numbers or if there some secret potion he is giving to his team or what, but somehow, he seems to get the better of the bigger program time and time again. Will that be the case Saturday? It’s hard to say based off of a one game sample, but there’s reason for optimism on offense and plenty of correctable errors on D.

FPI is giving the Horns an 80.5% chance of winning, Vegas set the line at TCU +13, and Herman had a bad quote that, taken out of context, can be clipped to “Gary doesn’t do much.”

Seems like a recipe for an upset, does it not?

Can’t wait for Saturday.