Zero sacks. One tackle for loss.
The lack of negative plays inflicted by the No. 9 Vanderbilt Commodores against the No. 20 Texas Longhorns was a massive storyline in the 34-31 victory by the Longhorns on Saturday
at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
With 53 tackles for loss allowed over the first eight games, Texas entered the top-25 matchup tied for 120th nationally in hemorrhaging negative plays offensively, a discredit to offensive coordinator Kyle Flood’s development at a position that lost four starters after the 2024 season.
Against Vanderbilt, however, moving senior Cole Hutson into the turnstile left guard position in his return from injury while keeping redshirt junior Connor Robertson at center represented a critical stabilization after weeks of abysmal play there.
“I thought that solidified some things, gives us a little bit more experience in there,” Sarkisian said.
Left guard had been a huge issue all season as the projected starter, redshirt junior Neto Umeozulu, lost his position battle to redshirt sophomore Connor Stroh in preseason camp and hasn’t played since the blowout win over Sam Houston after rotating with Stroh over the first several games. But Stroh couldn’t hold onto the job because of balance issues that caused him to regularly lose his footing.
Flood turned to freshman Nick Brooks, a natural tackle, in the second half of the loss to Florida, but Brooks promptly gave up a pressure on his first play and things didn’t get any better from there. By the end of the game, Brooks was credited with allowing nine pressures before allowing three sacks among six pressure against Kentucky. More consistent play in the comeback against Mississippi State wasn’t enough to keep Brooks in the lineup as Hutson’s return offered Flood another option.
Hutson’s move from center to guard was part of Flood’s effort to get the best five offensive lineman on the field. Since Hutson missed the Kentucky and Mississippi State games due to injury, he wasn’t available to solidify the leaky position.
Because Robertson was thrust in action, Texas had the most extensive game film to self-evaluate the redshirt junior’s effectiveness — the 83 snaps the Austin Westlake product played against Mississippi State surpassed Robertson’s total snap count in 2024 when he made appearances in four blowouts.
Robertson experienced some of his own struggles filling in for Hutson, allowing five pressures to the Wildcats, but turned in a solid performance against the Bulldogs and had an outstanding performance in pass protection on Saturday.
The experience factor was critical for the coaching staff to make the change.
“I don’t know if Cole and Connor are the most physically gifted offensive lineman we have in that room, but what they do have is experience. What they do have is they’re smart, and what they do have is they’re tough, and those guys exude all three of those things, especially when they’re playing together,” Sarkisian said on Monday.
After four years on the Forty Acres and multiple years of experience training at center, Robertson has a deep foundation of understanding in making the protection calls and got some help from redshirt sophomore quarterback Arch Manning, whose rapid maturation has keyed the team’s four-game winning streak.
“I thought Arch, to his credit, helped them — he did some things in protection to pick some things up to allow us to throw it down the field and it allowed him to get through reads,” Sarkisian said. “When you can get to your second, third reads in a progression, that means your protection is pretty good.”
Sarkisian also praised the play of his tackles as sophomore right tackle Brandon Baker received the highest pass-blocking grade on the team from Pro Football Focus, playing clean football in pass protection over 37 snaps, as did redshirt sophomore left tackle Trevor Goosby.
“I think Trevor and Brandon both had really good football games for us,” Sarkisian said.
Manning was able to operate from largely clean pockets as the offensive line only allowed four quarterback pressures, was not sacked in the game for only the second time this season, and translated that into an efficient performance — 25-of-33 passing for 328 yards and three touchdowns.
“I thought Arch had the best protection he’s gotten all year and that’s a credit to everybody,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said after the win.
While the running game remains a work in progress as Texas ran for 100 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries, only allowing one tackle for loss helped keep the Longhorns on schedule, leading to more manageable third downs. Against Vanderbilt, Texas faced an average of 6.6 yards to go and converted seven of 11 opportunities (63.6 percent), including all five third and shorts.
“Run game wise, we’re making some progress. I thought we made a ton of progress with the offensive line. We didn’t have negative runs, we had a couple, but I think there’s more there for us to continue to improve that, but proud of our offensive line. Again, you’re not a finished product in September and October, we can continue to improve, and that group is an example that they’re getting better,” Sarkisian said.
Heading into the bye week, synchronizing the offensive line and running backs remains a priority.
“I think we can still improve our run timing, and when I say run timing, it’s the timing of the blocks with the runners hitting the holes. I still felt like that was a little bit off today. I felt like we left some meat on the bone in the run game,” Sarkisian said.
What Texas has found is a level of continuity that didn’t exist through the first eight games of the season.
“Again, I don’t know if that’s the most physically gifted group of an offensive line that we can put out there, but surely they play well together, and that showed up Saturday,” Sarkisian said.
