{"id":22924,"date":"2025-10-27T13:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/22924\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T13:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:23:10","slug":"texas-escapes-major-upset-texas-am-texas-tech-keep-rolling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/22924\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas escapes major upset, Texas A&M, Texas Tech keep rolling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Sarkisian\u2019s day started with a statement from his agent<\/a> that, contrary to a report, he\u2019s not available to coach in the NFL next season, and it ended with a miraculous fourth quarter and overtime necessary to beat the likes of Mississippi State.<\/a><\/p>\n

Suffice to say this season isn\u2019t working out the way Sark probably figured, a fun day at the State Fair of Texas<\/a> notwithstanding.<\/p>\n

Besides struggling to beat the lowly Bulldogs and Kentucky, Texas lost to Florida<\/a>, whose coach has since been fired.<\/p>\n

Now the schedule really heats up: three top-10 schools, starting with Vanderbilt this week, and two of the opponents archrivals, no less.<\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

Get the latest D-FW sports news, analysis and opinion delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, Kevin Sherrington’s A La Carte.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

Based on how Texas has played in its three SEC games to date, it\u2019s hard to see it beating Vandy, Texas A&M<\/a> and Georgia in Athens. <\/p>\n

On top of everything else, Texas may miss Arch Manning, who had his best game of the season in leading the Longhorns back from a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit. Before leaving the game in overtime<\/a> with an apparent head injury, Manning threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another.<\/p>\n

Bad enough that Texas is also missing All-American safety Michael Taaffe, whose absence was notable in Starkville. He runs the defense. Still to be determined who\u2019s running the offense.<\/p>\n

Think where the Longhorns would be without Ryan Niblett, who\u2019s returned two punts for touchdowns in the last three games, including a 79-yarder that forced OT Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Texas still has time to put it all together, which is good, because if the Longhorns don\u2019t finish strong, they\u2019re in danger of becoming only the second preseason No. 1 team to finish out of the polls in more than 60 years. USC, under Lane Kiffin, was the other in 2012.<\/p>\n

In other Best in Texas news, Texas A&M put together its best all-around performance in a statement win over LSU<\/a>, Behren Morton got to stand around and watch as Texas Tech dominated Oklahoma State<\/a>, SMU sucked all the air out of Saturday\u2019s game on the Hilltop against Miami with a shocking loss to Wake Forest<\/a> and UNT\u2019s Drew Mestemaker<\/a> continues to make his high school coach look bad for playing him at safety instead of quarterback. <\/p>\n

1. Texas A&M (8-0)<\/p>\n

Aggies stacking up an SEC title run. A national one, too? <\/p>\n

Last: 49-25 win over LSU. <\/p>\n

Next: at Missouri on Nov. 8.<\/p>\n

2. Texas Tech (7-1)<\/p>\n

No tortillas? No problem. <\/p>\n

Last: 42-0 win over Oklahoma State. <\/p>\n

Next: at Kansas State on Saturday.<\/p>\n

3. Texas (6-2)<\/p>\n

Does this ranking look too big on the Longhorns? <\/p>\n

Last: 45-38 win over Mississippi State in OT. <\/p>\n

Next: Vanderbilt on Saturday. <\/p>\n

4. Houston (7-1)<\/p>\n

Coogs\u2019 break Sun Devils\u2019 4-0 stranglehold on Texas teams. <\/p>\n

Last: 24-16 win over Arizona State. <\/p>\n

Next: West Virginia on Saturday.<\/p>\n

5. TCU (6-2)<\/p>\n

Horned Frogs hang on, snap two-game road losing streak. <\/p>\n

Last: 23-17 win over West Virginia. <\/p>\n

Next: Iowa State on Nov. 8.<\/p>\n

6. North Texas (7-1)<\/p>\n

Mestemaker passes for a school-record third of a mile. <\/p>\n

Last: 54-20 over Charlotte. <\/p>\n

Next: Navy on Saturday. <\/p>\n

7. Baylor (4-4) <\/p>\n

Aranda on another slow start: \u201cWe can\u2019t live the way we\u2019re living.\u201d <\/p>\n

Last: 41-20 loss to Cincinnati. <\/p>\n

Next: UCF on Saturday.<\/p>\n

8. SMU (5-3)<\/p>\n

Mustangs no longer share driver\u2019s seat with first regular-season ACC loss in two years. <\/p>\n

Last: 13-12 loss to Wake Forest. <\/p>\n

Next: Miami on Saturday.<\/p>\n

9. Texas State (3-4)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost President\u2019s Day in San Marcos. <\/p>\n

Last: idle. <\/p>\n

Next: James Madison on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

10. UTSA (3-4) <\/p>\n

Can\u2019t anyone down here and play on Saturdays? <\/p>\n

Last: idle. <\/p>\n

Next: Tulane on Thursday.<\/p>\n

11. Rice (4-4)<\/p>\n

Quinton Jackson piles up 248 all-purpose yards. <\/p>\n

Last: 37-34 win over UConn in 2OT. <\/p>\n

Next: Memphis on Friday.<\/p>\n

12. UTEP (2-5)<\/p>\n

See \u201cUTSA.\u201d <\/p>\n

Last: idle. <\/p>\n

Next: Kennesaw State on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

13. Sam Houston (0-7) <\/p>\n

For Bearkats, no matter what day they play, it\u2019s always Groundhog Day. <\/p>\n

Last: idle.<\/p>\n

Next: at Louisiana Tech on Friday.<\/p>\n

\"LSU<\/a>LSU fires head coach Brian Kelly following blowout loss to Texas A&M<\/a><\/p>\n

The Tigers let go of Kelly during the fourth season of a 10-year contract worth about $100 million.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>Texas Tech QB Will Hammond to miss remainder of season with ACL injury, reports say<\/a><\/p>\n

Starting quarterback Behren Morton is back at full health and will lead the Red Raiders against Kansas State.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/a>Texas A&M\u2019s injection of speed, explosiveness into offense powering Aggies\u2019 meteoric rise<\/a><\/p>\n

The additions of KC Concepcion and Mario Craver have added a new dynamic to Texas A&M and made the Aggies\u2019 offense into a special unit.<\/p>\n

Find more college sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Sarkisian\u2019s day started with a statement from his agent that, contrary to a report, he\u2019s not available…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3689,3688,5964,772,9820,7284,154,783,27,260,29,537,28,415,9365],"class_list":["post-22924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-baylor-bears","tag-colleges","tag-listicle","tag-oklahoma-sooners","tag-oklahoma-state-cowboys","tag-smu-mustangs","tag-sports","tag-tcu-horned-frogs","tag-texas","tag-texas-am-aggies","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-unt-mean-green"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}