AUSTIN — The Texas football team revisited the not-so-distance past in preparation for a critical rivalry game that might’ve determined their College Football Playoff fate. In film study, prior to Friday’s showdown vs. Texas A&M, the Longhorns staff included clips of running back Quintrevion Wisner’s career-best performance in last year’s regular-season finale win against the Aggies.
“We purposely put [in] probably three-to-five carries of Tre, last year, in this game,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said, “just to give him a little friendly reminder of who he is and what he’s capable of.”
Yeah, no sweat there, he knows who he is.
“I’m Tre Wisner,” he said when asked if an ‘Aggies Slayer’ nickname was an appropriate title. “I go to the University of Texas.”
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The program’s high-profile foes recognize that by now.
“He just shows up in these rivalry games and balls out,” quarterback Arch Manning said. “It’s funny.”
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Wisner, a junior running back from DeSoto, rushed for a season-high 155 yards in a 27-17 win vs. previously undefeated A&M at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium Friday night. He helped diversify a Longhorns (9-3, 6-2 SEC) offense that outscored the Aggies (11-1, 7-1) by two touchdowns in the second half.
He averaged 5.8 yards per attempt on five first-half carries, but the Longhorns scored just three points and trailed after two quarters because they remained committed to an aerial attack that couldn’t find space to operate.
They committed to a more balanced offense in the third quarter and were rewarded for the flip. Wisner broke a 48-yard run to start the first Texas drive of the second half to move the Longhorns into field goal range. He rushed for 37 yards on four carries in the next drive and helped set up quarterback Manning’s 29-yard go-ahead touchdown pass to wide receiver Ryan Wingo.
“I thought he ran hard,” Sarkisian said. “I thought he ran physical. We didn’t block it perfect — they’re a good defensive football team — so we didn’t block it perfect all the time. But, man, they blocked some things really well to get him in space and get him into open field.”
Wisner has rushed for 80-plus yard in eight career games. Six of those instances were against ranked teams, and in 14 games against AP Top 25 teams since the start of last season, he’s rushed for 1,158 yards on 4.8 yards per carry. He’s averaged just 4.3 yards per carry against unranked opponents.
He ran for 118 yards and a touchdown vs. No. 18 Oklahoma in last year’s Red River Rivalry game, totaled a career-high 186 yards against No. 20 A&M in last year’s Lone Star Showdown, rushed for 110 yards and two touchdowns vs. No. 12 Clemson in the first round of last year’s College Football Playoffs. had 80 yards against No. 3 Ohio State in this year’s season opener, finished 94 yards vs. No. 6 Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl two months ago and helped pace the offense in Friday’s win vs. the Aggies.
The Longhorns are 5-1 in those games and 9-1 all-time when he rushes for 75 or more yards.
“I trust the game plan,” Wisner said. “If they’re going to come to me, it’s my job to make sure they keep coming to me.”
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It isn’t anything new for the former three-star recruit who entered his freshman season at Texas no better than fifth on the depth chart. He totaled 210 yards of offense and two touchdowns in DeSoto’s 6A Div. II state championship game win against Austin Vandegrift three years ago at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium and said postgame that he was “super excited” to play for the Longhorns upon graduation.
The Longhorns will need his big-game tendencies to remain intact if they do clinch a spot in the 12-team postseason tournament. The Longhorns have struggled to establish a consistent run game this season behind an offensive line that took half of the year to find its best form. They rank toward the bottom of the conference in rush yards per game (129.7), yards per carry (3.9) and, per Pro Football Focus, have the fifth-lowest graded run game within the league.
Friday’s game, though, represented what is possible for the Texas offense if Manning is not required to win games exclusively with his arm. Their second-half approach — in which they ran the ball 22 times — spread out the A&M defense and allowed Manning to pass for 128 yards on just eight attempts.
“I think we kind of slowed down and I didn’t try to do too much,” Manning said. “We were physical up front, our o-line played really well, [Wisner] ran hard, I really just had to hand the ball off.”
Wisner gave him a reason to.