Nobody feels good after this one whether you are a Texas Longhorns fan or a Kentucky Wildcats fan.
Saturday’s 16-13 win by the Longhorns over the Wildcats in Lexington was all kinds of gross and Texas tried its best to give it away in every way possible, but managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat via a walk off Mason Shipley field goal in overtime. Yes, they needed an extra frame of football to beat this Kentucky team that hasn’t won a conference game
in I don’t know long now.
This was annoying, sloppy, and very uninspiring football from Texas on Saturday. I am going to highlight a couple of high points, but it was mainly a lot of yuck in this one and didn’t give you a lot to be happy about.
Special teams literally won Texas the game
Ryan Niblett has been big time the past couple weeks. On Saturday he had two big returns that set Texas up for points, including their only touchdown of the game.
Then there was this one late to help set up Texas for what should have been the game-winning field goal from Shipley in regulation.
Niblett is a program guy and is turning in some big plays for the Longhorns on special teams. He was one of few sparks for Texas on Saturday, and they might not have won the game without him.
Speaking of Shipley, every kick that left his foot went through the uprights on Saturday, including a 53-yarder. He legit should have been the hero in regulation, but Texas did some top-tier dumb football stuff to make it go to overtime. More on that in a minute.
Lastly, Jack Bouwmeester continues to be a huge weapon when it comes to flipping the field for the Longhorns. He was a busy man on Saturday with eight punts coming off his foot, but he was absolutely nails. Bouwmeester averaged 42 yards per punt and six of his eight punts were downed inside the Kentucky 20-yard line. Exceptional performance.
Special teams can literally be the difference in you winning or losing a ball game. On Saturday they were the reason that Texas didn’t suffer an embarrassing loss in Lexington. Hats off to Jeff Banks and his guys for their contributions this week.
Colin Simmons was the best player on the field on Saturday
We heard a lot of things about Colin Simmons this offseason, and it looks like they are beginning to manifest on the football field. I know the broadcast said Anthony Hill’s name a lot on Saturday (he had a really good game as well), but Simmons was on some supernova sh** against the Wildcats.
That was one of Simmons’ three sacks on the night and he should have had at least one or two more. Simmons was an absolute monster on Saturday, and on top of his three sacks he added in three tackles for a loss and a forced fumble that came on one of this sacks.
Simmons has been absolutely unhinged the past two games and he is on his way to collecting All-American honors at the end of the year. It’s been awhile since Texas has had a double-digit sack pass rusher on the roster. Simmons has a legit shot at it this year after coming up just short in 2024.
The entire Texas offense AND offensive staff put up a putrid performance
The entire Texas offense and game plan was absolutely garbage on Saturday night. There is no sweetening it up or putting lipstick on that pig. I have no idea what the plan was all week for Steve Sarkisian and his offensive staff, but his offense looked absolutely pathetic and they looked like they had no answers for anything once things started to go south.
This was the lone highlight for the Texas offense all night long and the fact that Tre Wisner puts this on the ground and almost turns it over was 100 percent on brand with how things went for the Longhorns offense on Saturday.
Here are the numbers and none of them are go0d — 179 TOTAL yards from the Texas offense, 5-of-16 on third down-conversions, only EIGHT first downs in a game that went into overtime. That’s absolutely embarrassing for a program of Texas’ caliber and for a head coach who is the offensive play caller.
Arch Manning was not good at all in this one. I usually have some gems in there for him, but it is hard to sweeten up 12-of-27 passing for 132 yards. He had multiple misfires that would have led to big plays for Texas and that didn’t help things when points were at a premium and the Longhorns struggled mightily to move the football.
Texas had 47 rushing yards with the longest a 14-yard run by Manning. Thirty-seven of those yards went to Wisner. Just absolutely awful and inexcusable at this point to not be able to find a way to generate a run game, so that all of it is not falling on your quarterback, who is clearly still having a hard time getting in a groove.
The offensive line didn’t do anything to help matters on Saturday. They allowed three sacks and the Wildcats racked up seven tackles for a loss. Kentucky’s defense won the battle upfront all night long and it was probably the second-worst performance of the year behind the Florida game.
This offense is now seven games into the season and there is no semblance of an offensive identity. I have no idea what transpired over the offseason, but there needs to be an intense evaluation once this season wraps up, because the ball was absolutely dropped in more ways than one on this side of the ball and that ultimately falls at the feet of Sarkisian.
Kudos to the defense for bowing up when it mattered
Play of the game right there. I was shocked that Kentucky actually tried to go over the top there. SHOCKED. If they pull that and try to throw it, it’s probably a touchdown. But kudos to the Texas defense for dropping their nuts and making a play with the game on the line. Because lets be honest, if Kentucky scores there the game is most likely over.
I already gave props to Simmons for having a whale of a game, but I have to make sure to shoutout Hill for his performance as well. I felt like I heard his name twenty times on Saturday and he was constantly stoning dudes between the tackles — 12 tackles, a pass deflection, and a beautiful interception that will be on his draft tape for 2026.
He’s a baller. He and Simmons are three-and-done guys, so enjoy what time you have left with him. Jelani McDonald has been playing his ass off as well, you can probably say goodbye to him at the end of the year with how he has been playing.
Nine tackles for McDonald on Saturday (all solos) and two tackles for loss. He’s making himself some money every week.
The defense was on the field a metric fu** ton on Saturday and still stood tall when it mattered most. Kentucky’s offense possessed the football for almost 40 minutes on Saturday and ran 86 plays. This is because the Texas offense did next to nothing to help them out on Saturday and couldn’t sustain a drive to save their lives. They still allowed too many first downs (26) and almost 400 yards of offense, but they were far from the problem on Saturday.
Bad situational football almost cost Texas the game
Everyone is going to talk about it, so le’ts go ahead and get to it. DeAdndre Moore’s lack of situational awareness going out of bounds on the final Texas drive in regulation directly led to Kentucky having a chance to drive and force the game to overtime. A lot of things were frustrating to watch on Saturday, but seeing that happen in such a key moment was absolutely brutal from an upperclassmen for this Texas team.
Kentucky has one timeout left and if you stay in bounds there you force them to take it and then you run the clock down and walk them off in regulation with no chance for a rebuttal. That is a Football 101 moment that has to be communicated and has to be executed there. I don’t know how that happens in that spot, but the broadcast was dumbfounded, much like the rest of us watching in real time. Things like that get you beat and it almost cost you the game on Saturday.
Also, what the hell happened on the offensive possession in overtime? That was about the worst sequence you could ask for from an execution and game-calling standpoint. All you need is a field goal to get the hell out of there with a win and you immediately commit the cardinal sin by getting flagged for a penalty to back you up. Thankfully you were able to get some of the yardage back, and thankfully Shipley was clutch, because otherwise you are probably looking at another overtime frame and Kentucky having all the momentum.
Just bad football and low IQ moments happening when you absolutely could not afford them.
You shouldn’t feel so defeated after a victory, but that’s exactly how it felt to write this one. You are 5-2 and technically still have a chance to make the playoffs, but does anyone feel like that is going to happen with how this offense is playing right now? There are no easy wins left on the schedule from here on out. The cowbells of Starkville await you next week and they haven’t exactly rolled over for people like they did last year.
Watch the tape and flush this one, because you need to shape up and lock in for the next one. The 24-hour rule is officially in effect. See you next week. Same time, same place.
