On Friday night, Justin Cryer, Texas football senior linebacker, conducted a series of \u201croom checks\u201d with his position group.<\/p>\n
Following co-defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen\u2019s arrest and suspension earlier in the week, Cryer wanted to make sure the younger guys in the room didn\u2019t treat their upcoming game against UTSA differently than any other matchup.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, those room checks, along with whatever else Texas\u2019 defense did to remain focused, seemed to pay off. Instead of faltering in the wake of off-field drama, they flourished.<\/p>\n
\u201cI give a lot of the credit to the guys,\u201d Cryer said of his team\u2019s defensive performance. \u201cThey didn\u2019t freak out or panic or, especially off the high of last week, they didn\u2019t come into the game thinking that the season was over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senior linebacker Rasheem Biles secured an interception in the game\u2019s opening play, capitalizing on UTSA\u2019s redshirt senior quarterback Owen McCown\u2019s pass down the middle and returning the ball eight yards.<\/p>\n
This early takeaway set the tone for defensive domination, and the Roadrunners went into the locker room at halftime with just one field goal to show for their offensive effort.<\/p>\n
The Longhorns doubled down in the second half, limiting UTSA to just 35 yards of total offense and one more field goal for a final score of 30-6. By the end of the game, for the first time in nearly six years, the Roadrunners hadn\u2019t managed to find the end zone.<\/p>\n
For context, UTSA averaged 35.5 points last season and scored 24 points in its 2025 season opener against a Texas A&M team that would go on to the College Football Playoffs. The Roadrunners are accustomed to achieving offensive success, and their effort was stifled almost completely by the Longhorns on Saturday.<\/p>\n
22 different Texas players finished the game with at least one tackle, and Biles and sophomore defensive back Kade Phillips led the charge with four apiece.<\/p>\n
Following the matchup, head coach Steve Sarkisian wanted to make sure the pride he had in his defense was heard loud and clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur defense kind of just kicked their ass,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cI\u2019m excited about that, and we should be excited about that \u2014 that our defense is playing the way they\u2019re playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was far from a perfect week for the Longhorns, and there were definite moments where it seemed as though the offense wasn\u2019t close to its best. But if any of Texas\u2019 defensive players were struggling amid the chaos-infiltrated week, they did a good job of hiding it Saturday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just keeping the same routine,\u201d Biles said after the win. \u201cObviously, things happen. People are human. We ain\u2019t really worried about it. \u2026 We just worry about our next opponent, and we\u2019re worried about this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarkisian revealed that Nansen will return to practice this week to help the Longhorns prepare for their upcoming road matchup against the Tennessee Volunteers, and Texas could benefit greatly from another lights-out defensive performance in Knoxville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Friday night, Justin Cryer, Texas football senior linebacker, conducted a series of \u201croom checks\u201d with his position…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-442623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442623","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=442623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}