{"id":483005,"date":"2026-11-01T07:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T07:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/483005\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T07:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T07:04:08","slug":"texas-football-dominates-in-halloween-win-the-daily-texan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/483005\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas football dominates in Halloween win \u2013 The Daily Texan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"10-31-26_FBvsmississippi
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRunning back Ryan Niblett celebrates after he ran into the endzone during Texas’ game against Mississippi State University at DKR Stadium on Oct. 31, 2026. The touchdown was cancelled by an unnecessary block in the back penalty on Texas wide reciever Rett Anderson.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

As the Texas football team ran out onto the field for its second half against Mississippi State on Halloween night, 103,586 fans watched, holding their breath.<\/p>\n

Many of them wore burnt orange, and many were in their Halloween costumes, but their collective thought was likely along these lines: no witch, ghost or ghoul could be more frightening than their very own Longhorns taking the field for the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Texas had been outscored 24-0 across its previous third quarters entering Saturday\u2019s matchup, and the 15 minutes immediately after halftime were largely responsible for both of the Longhorns\u2019 losses this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, on the scariest night of the year, Texas football had a fright-free finish and earned a 31\u20133 victory against the banged-up Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was enjoyable to take my headset off with two minutes to go at the end of the game,\u201d Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian said in a postgame media availability.<\/p>\n

The odds were stacked against the Bulldogs from the start \u2014 they entered the game missing multiple defensive playmakers, and the program announced that sophomore starting quarterback Kamario Taylor would miss the rest of the season \u2014 but an already a bad injury situation only grew worse throughout the matchup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a solid first quarter performance, senior backup quarterback AJ Swann left the game in the second quarter with an injury after being taken down by senior linebacker Rasheem Biles.<\/p>\n

Biles forced a fumble on the play, which was recovered and returned 61 yards for a touchdown by junior defensive lineman Maraad Watson. The touchdown was the first of the 333-pound lineman\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was happy just seeing him scoop that ball,\u201d said defensive lineman Hero Kanu after the game. \u201cIt was a big momentum swing as well \u2014 a great play by the whole defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas\u2019 offensive line, though, didn\u2019t play to the same standard as its defense.<\/p>\n

Growing pains were to be expected, given that this was the Longhorns\u2019 first full game without senior left tackle Trevor Goosby, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the game against Ole Miss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Manning was sacked five times this game due to his lack of protection, despite his willingness to run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe five sacks sucks, and that\u2019s not something we\u2019re proud of,\u201d Sarkisian said. \u201cI don\u2019t want him to have to endure that. I\u2019ve got to assess some of the carries and what that looked like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manning stepped up, but the front five\u2019s floundering also limited the success of their team\u2019s running backs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Raleek Brown, fifth-year ball carrier, ended Texas\u2019 third-quarter touchdown drought with a 4-yard reception, but after a 157-yard performance against the Rebels last weekend, Brown finished with just 30 yards on the ground against the Bulldogs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senior running back Hollywood Smothers accumulated a net loss of six yards rushing before being taken into the injury tent in the third quarter. Smothers\u2019 status is unknown.<\/p>\n

While the running game was quieter, Manning and his receivers generated enough momentum to help the Longhorns create an advantage. Junior wide receiver Emmett Mosley V led the way, racking up 98 yards and his first touchdown of the season.<\/p>\n

Junior wide receiver Cam Coleman accumulated 61 receiving yards and a touchdown during Texas\u2019 opening drive, but he headed to the locker room with an injury early in the game\u2019s second quarter.<\/p>\n

With both Texas and Mississippi State beat up, it\u2019s hard to determine exactly where each team stands moving forward. But the Longhorns got to add a dread-free win to their resume on the night of fright \u2014 one that they badly needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Running back Ryan Niblett celebrates after he ran into the endzone during Texas’ game against Mississippi State University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-483005","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\/483005","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=483005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}