For all the takes that have been unleashed and the negativity that has engulfed the program week after week, Texas finds itself squarely in the mix as the college football season readies for its final chapters.
That’s a heavy statement on a variety of fronts. Two months ago, this seemed almost assumed. Texas began the season as the nation’s No. 1 ranked team.
Since then, however, nothing has gone as planned. Even Saturday’s victory—the highpoint of the Longhorn’s year—came with its fair share of football nausea.
Despite the noise and losses and the close calls, the Longhorns have largely kept winning. Or, perhaps more appropriately, never fully played their way out of it, which is a lot more than many teams with enormous expectations can say.
Against Vanderbilt on Saturday, one of the hottest teams and biggest darlings in college football, Texas showed it’s very much still in the mix as the first College Football Playoff rankings are days away.
The final score, 34-31, doesn’t tell the full story. It doesn’t tell you how much better Arch Manning looked compared to what we’ve seen, looking comfortable, accurate and fully capable. It doesn’t tell you how active the defensive line was against the supremely elusive Diego Pavia, sacking the QB six times.
It does, however, remind us that this team remains a work in progress. For all the good that Texas accomplished, this game, which felt like a blowout throughout, turned out to be anything but a snoozer. Â
And we’re left to wonder what exactly this team is capable of.
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There have been losses—two to date. One to the best football team in the country at their stadium, and the other came to a football team currently looking for a new head coach.
There were nearly two more losses the last two weeks. The Longhorns needed overtime to take down two-win Kentucky. Just a week ago, Texas needed a miraculous 17-point comeback in the fourth quarter to upend Mississippi State.
Along the way, we debated Manning’s future and what program he would be playing for next season. We even mapped out Steve Sarkisian’s NFL exit, which served as last weekend’s topic du jour. Â
Heck, this writer made the case for Sarkisian to find an NFL home sooner than later just a few short days ago. While that sentiment hasn’t changed, Sark clearly hasn’t stopped fighting.
The football has oftentimes been sloppy, and the outcomes against lesser opponents have often been far too close. The team that began the year as one of the favorites to win the national championship has never looked the part.
But it also never truly removed itself from complete consideration And this team deserves credit—yes, actual positive affirmation—for doing so.
That’s not the case for Penn State and Clemson. On Saturday, after falling 46-45 to Duke, Clemson moved to 3-5 on the year. Penn State, now with an interim head coach, was waxed by Ohio State to move to the same record.
Miami? A second loss on Saturday pretty much eliminates the Hurricanes from contention. And let’s not dive into just how big of a mess LSU was, is and could possibly be moving forward.
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Texas has found a way. It has been imperfect and riddled with issues, but the Longhorns have managed to stay in the mix. Sarkisian deserves an incredible amount of credit for that. As does Manning, who has (gasp) gotten significantly better since the season began.
What happens next, of course, remains a bit of a mystery.
After a bye, Texas will head to Georgia, a matchup that is suddenly full of life and enormous stakes. The Longhorns will then finish the season with home games against Arkansas and unbeaten rival Texas A&M.
Nothing is a given. Nothing is assumed. Recent history tells us that all games remaining can be won or lost. Such is life in Austin in the fall of 2025.
Another loss, and the Longhorns’ playoff hopes are likely dashed. Three more wins, and Texas could still find its way into the bracket with everything to play for.
In short, it’s been a weird year. Often bad, never bad enough. But it’s hard not to acknowledge the resiliency and the progress made, especially in certain areas.
If we’re going to crush Texas for every misstep, we should be willing to celebrate the positives, and Saturday featured plenty of them. It wasn’t perfect, and it probably will never be this season.
But Texas has found a way.