Sunday Optimism: Manning the lone bright spot for the Longhorns

We are back on another Sunday to provide optimism after Texas’ 3rd loss of the season. It’s harder to find, but Manning’s performances and chaotic nature of CFB brings a small amount of true optimism.

We made it to another Optimism Sunday and as you can imagine, this will not be a long read. Texas got dominated from tip to tail in Athens, including a 4th quarter collapse. Despite the reasons for optimism being harder to find, they are there, particularly at the quarterback position. 

Let’s jump into this and try to make the best of a bad situation. 

Starting with the biggest and most encouraging thing I can say right now: Arch Manning is the guy. This was not his best game, but for what feels like the 8th time this season, Manning was put on an island and asked to create offense all game long. He was truly the only reason Texas was able to get within four points heading into the 4th quarter. There will be critics, and there are fair critiques to be made, but there is no doubt in my mind that Arch Manning is someone that can lead the Longhorns to a National Championship. 

As for the rest of the offense, Ryan Wingo’s ability to bounce back from early mistakes to make some nice plays down the stretch was encouraging. Emmett Mosley V made a number of nice plays, including a 40-yard catch and run. DeAndre Moore made a number of nice plays. The issue with all of those positives is they came with negatives from all three, mainly a number of drops. It’s very obviously a talented group of pass catchers, but that means little when you can’t make consistent plays. 

Moving to the defensive side of the ball, this is a complicated conversation. The defense allowed Georgia to march down the field on the opening two drives, but then blank the Bulldogs until the 4th quarter. The Longhorn offense was given the ball at the Georgia 46-yard line and their own 30-yard line, and converted it into an INT and a three-and-out totaling -2 yards. It’s hard to say the defense didn’t give the offense enough chances to win this game. 

Then you move to the 4th quarter, and the Longhorns offense possesses the ball for 3:38 of the quarter, leaving the defense on the field constantly. This obviously was exacerbated by the massive special teams mistake on Georgia’s surprise onside kick. Point being, the Longhorn defense didn’t play their best and miscommunication needs to be figured out, but put any defense on the field with the Georgia offense for almost 20 minutes of a half, they will be scored on. 

The special teams will be saved for the pessimistic piece coming later today, but I do have one final piece of optimism: this season has been insane. The Longhorns chances of going to the CFP are incredibly slim, but it’s been proven time and again this season, you never know what’s coming. The Longhorns have to win the next two games, and then just hope to get enough chaos to get into the dance. It’s unlikely, but I’ve learned to never say never in college football this season. 

As for what the future holds for this coaching staff, if Steve Sarkisian will hire an offensive coordinator and all the personnel questions, there will be plenty of time to talk about that. For now, there is still plenty to play for in 2025 and I believe there is reason to believe the Longhorns can finish 2-0 and at least have an interesting Selection Sunday.