After a month on the road, the No. 20 Texas Longhorns return home to Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, with hope that friendly confines lead to better results. Texas went 3-1 in the four games away from Austin, but very easily could have gone 1-3 after a pair of overtime games against Kentucky and Mississippi State went their way.
For their welcome back to the Forty Acres, Texas hosts the No. 9 Vanderbilt Commodores in a matchup that could define the rest of the season for the Longhorns.
Vanderbilt plays a ball-control style of offense, ranking among the lowest number of offensive plays run per game and the highest amount of time per play. That doesn’t mean they’re not a potent offense —the Commodores average nearly 40 points per game — but simply minimize opponents’ chances to match their offensive output. Quarterback Diego Pavia leads the charge and another big-time performance in a win could put him in the award conversation as the year progresses.
Texas needs a bounce-back performance from its defense after getting shredded by Mississippi State and needing to come up with four late-game stops to let the offense seal the deal in Starkville. Quarterback Arch Manning led the comeback, but a concussion suffered in the ofertime period left the heroics for Matthew Caldwell and called the former five-star’s availability into question for the matchup. Can Texas get the job done without him as they come back to Austin?
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Weather: Party cloudy, 65 degrees, wind ESE 4 mph