In the first quarter of Texas football\u2019s 34\u201327 victory over Ole Miss, senior quarterback Arch Manning threw an interception in an attempt to find junior wide receiver Emmett Mosley V on first down.<\/p>\n
On the very next play, senior linebacker Justin Cryer had an interception of his own, snagging the ball and restoring balance that Texas couldn\u2019t afford to lose so early in the matchup.<\/p>\n
In theory, Cryer shouldn\u2019t have had to secure that ball in his hands because the Longhorns\u2019 offense shouldn\u2019t have turned the ball over to begin with. But these back-to-back interceptions were perfectly emblematic of the imperfect, yet deeply motivated, Texas team that took the field on Saturday at the Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.<\/p>\n
It was a team fueled by desperation, external disregard and the dire desire to win at all costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said all week, whatever it takes,\u201d Manning said after the victory. \u201c(The) last two weeks were tough, but we knew if we do whatever it takes, we\u2019re going to come out with a win tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Needless to say, it took everything the Longhorns had and came down to the last seconds of regulation \u2013 this was their third crunch time win of the year, as senior safety Jelani McDonald secured an end zone interception as the clock expired.<\/p>\n
It also took two rushing touchdowns by Manning, a blocked kick by junior defensive lineman Alex January and multiple explosive runs by graduate running back Raleek Brown and sophomore running back Michael Terry III.<\/p>\n
Texas has to make more great plays than many teams because of how many mistakes it also accumulates \u2014 something that must be addressed in the very near future. But for now, the team will relish a scrappy win and a quarterback who finally seems to be playing with a mentality head coach Steve Sarkisian described as both \u201cedgy\u201d and \u201cborderline arrogant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarkisian said he loves this new mentality, as do the rest of the Longhorns. Manning said that new mentality is a product of the increasing external criticism he has faced.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been hyped up all my life,\u201d Manning said. \u201cI kind of like being disregarded and counted out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oddly enough, being counted out might have been the best thing that could\u2019ve happened to the Longhorns before their matchup against the Rebels. For the first time this season, they played with more of a chip on their shoulder.<\/p>\n
It required sacrifice, which was most prominently evidenced by both junior wide receiver Cam Coleman and senior offensive tackle Trevor Goosby leaving the matchup injured. It has since been confirmed that Goosby will be out for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n
Texas also entered the game without junior edge rusher Colin Simmons and senior running back Hollywood Smothers. Their injuries, as well as the ones that occurred during the game, made things more difficult for Texas, but they also seemed to increase the Longhorns\u2019 willingness to win as a team at all costs.<\/p>\n
It took every player and involved a fiery attitude from each of them, but Texas went 1\u20130 this weekend, which was Sarkisian\u2019s primary focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t about sending a message,\u201d he said after the win. \u201cIt was about just getting to 1\u20130 tonight against the No. 7 ranked team in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the first quarter of Texas football\u2019s 34\u201327 victory over Ole Miss, senior quarterback Arch Manning threw an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-476940","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\/476940","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=476940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}