At the start of October, it looked like No. 13 Texas Longhorns were a team on its way to an embarrassing end to the year.
Texas had questions that needed to be answered following the last bye and the loss
to the Florida Gators seemingly said that the answers wouldn’t be coming this year. Then the Longhorns cracked off four consecutive wins, including wins over the Oklahoma Sooners and Vanderbilt Commodores, to head into the second bye with momentum and reasons for optimism. Quaterback Arch Manning is developing into the quarterback fans and the media expected him to be, while the offensive line does a better job keeping him upright, and the running backs are picking up some of the slack on the ground.
That being said, injuries on the defense led Texas to a few frustrating outings, including a near implosion against Vanderbilt, that leave people questioning the unit that once led the team. Getting Michael Taaffe back following the bye should help bolster that unit, but how much difference can one player make as the Longhorns need to win out to guarantee their goals for the year? If getting healthy wasn’t challenging enough, defending SEC Champion and two-time bully Georgia Bulldogs await on the other side of the bye week.
For Texas, a week focusing on itself, both on the field and in the training room, is all they can do as they hope to right one of last season’s wrongs and keep themselves alive in the race for the postseason
