Arch Manning is leading an average Texas offense. Here are 2 Longhorns who could help

For a few minutes in his team’s 20-17 win last Saturday at Tennessee, the Texas football offense looked like what head coach Steve Sarkisian envisioned when he helped construct one of the highest-paid units in the nation.

The Longhorns opened the game in Knoxville with an eight-play, 75-yard scoring drive capped by a 9-yard touchdown run from Raleek Brown. And they pulled off the possession with textbook precision; quarterback Arch Manning completed all three of his passes for 56 yards, Brown and Derek Cooper combined on five runs for a total of 16 yards, and the Longhorns didn’t commit one penalty.

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Perfect balance, perfect execution, perfect result.

“I was really impressed with the offense, the way we started the game,” Sarkisian said. “To get the ball in that environment and take the lead 7-0 on the road, I thought was really big for us about owning the environment, owning the arena.”

But what happened the rest of the game bothered Sarkisian, who has also served as the team’s play-caller since he took over the Texas program for the 2021 season.

Over its next nine possessions, Texas produced six three-and-outs, a turnover and a pair of field goals as well as five penalties. The Longhorns did help seal the win with an eight-play, 60-yard touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter, but Sarkisian knows his team can’t afford such offensive dry spells in an upcoming eight-game SEC schedule that includes five meetings with teams in the current Associated Press poll as well as rivalry games against Oklahoma and Texas A&M.

“From that point forward (on the opening drive), until about the second-to-last offensive drive, we did not play very good offensive football,” he said. “I’d love to say it was this or that. It literally was us taking turns of not doing the things that we had practiced to do, and that was unfortunate because sometimes it’s easier to say this one position group or this one player or this one thing was the issue, and it really wasn’t.”

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So, how can No. 1 Texas (4-0, 1-0 SEC) improve on an offense that ranks 11th in the SEC in scoring with 33.3 points a game and 12th in total offense with 378.5 yards per contest? That’s something Sarkisian plans on figuring out before the Longhorns resume their SEC schedule Oct. 10 in the Red River Rivalry with Oklahoma.

“That’ll be the task this week (and) throughout the bye week of where we need to improve offensively and where we can build upon that,” he said. “But again, I’d love to say, ‘Man, it was just the right tackle or the right guard or the center or the left guard or the tight ends.’ But it was like each play somebody else was kind of taking their turn. So we’ve got to get that rectified. We’ve got to get these guys believing in in their training and trusting their training to perform.”

MORE: Forget anonymous critic, No. 1 Texas Longhorns have shown they’re far from soft | Golden

Here are three specific questions for the Texas offense entering the heart of its schedule:

Will Hollywood Smothers’ return create explosive runs?

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NO. 1 TEXAS VS. OKLAHOMA

When/where:

2:30 p.m. Saturday in Dallas.

TV/radio:

TBA; 1300 AM, 98.1 FM, 105.3 FM.

Brown ran hard against Tennessee with 67 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries, but the Longhorns didn’t heavily invest in the backfield during the offseason just for effort. They want explosiveness, and the likely return of Hollywood Smothers against Oklahoma could help.

Smothers suffered an ankle injury Sept. 19 in the 30-6 win over UITSA and did not play at Tennessee after going through pregame warmups.

“He was an emergency (option) for us Saturday,” Sarkisian said Monday. “I think he’ll be fine in a couple weeks when we play OU.”

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Tre Wisner and CJ Baxter, who shared the bulk of the backfield duties across the previous two seasons, both left in the portal. The Longhorns shelled out an undisclosed amount of money for Brown and Smothers, each of whom earned all-conference honors a year ago at Arizona State and North Carolina State, respectively. So far this season, Smothers leads the team with 198 yards rushing on 41 carries while Brown has 196 yards on 48 carries. But the team has just three carries that have gone for more than 15 yards; Smothers has a 45-yarder and an 18-yarder, and Brown has a 21-yard carry.

Can WR Cam Coleman emerge as a consistent playmaker?

Receiver Cam Coleman signed with Texas as arguably the most coveted and, presumably, the most compensated nonquarterback in the portal. But through four games, the Auburn transfer has just 12 catches albeit with a team-high four touchdowns and a 17.3 yards-per-catch average.

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Can Manning get Coleman involved more in the passing game, and does that even matter for a deep unit that also includes Ryan Wingo (19 catches, 239 yards), Emmett Mosley V (12 catches, 173 yards) and emerging freshman Jermaine Bishop Jr. (six catches, 81 yards)? And does Manning need to force the ball to Coleman, which he seemed to do on a deep pass to the post against Tennessee that led to an interception?

According to Sarkisian, the questions don’t matter. Coleman opens things up for the entire offense, Sarkisian said, which helped Manning complete 14 of 19 passes for 201 yards against the Vols.

“There was a lot of emphasis and attention drawn his way with cloud coverage and things, and that’s where we have to utilize the other guys,” Sarkisian said.

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And about that long pass to Coleman that led to the pick?

“I have no qualms about (Manning) taking that shot, and I like Cam Coleman’s odds one on one on a deep ball down the field,” Sarkisian said. “But we’ve got to be creative enough, and we’ve got to allow him to do the things that he does really well as we continue to navigate our way through the season.”

MORE:

Colin Simmons solely claims Longhorns’ sacks record after stat correction

What happened to Arch Manning’s pass protection?

Texas signed three offensive linemen in the portal – guards Dylan Sikorski and Laurence Seymore III and tackle Melvin Siani – to bolster a unit whose primary goal is to protect Manning. So, what happened to the pass protection against Tennessee? Manning went down four times in the first three games of the season but endured six sacks and two more hits against Tennessee.

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“It’s a combination of things,” Sarkisian said. “It clearly was not good enough Saturday.”

Coaches tend to dismiss the ratings system utilized by Pro Football Focus. But for what it’s worth, PFF gives left guard Sikorksi a season-long pass-blocking grade of 92.1, the best among all the starting linemen. Right guard Brandon Baker ranks the lowest for the season with a 74.4. Every other starter ranks between 79.4 and 85.4.

Against Tennessee, Sikorski led the team with an 86.7 pass-blocking grade followed by Siani (73.4), center Connor Robertson (67.1), left tackle Trevor Goosby (63.7) and Baker (44.4).

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This article originally published at Arch Manning is leading an average Texas offense. Here are 2 Longhorns who could help.