The biggest reason why the Longhorns struggled to put Tennessee away in Texas' 20-17 win on Saturday was the offensive line. The line struggled to protect quarterback Arch Manning and struggled in the run game. UT coach Steve Sarkisian says it has to get better.
Last season, the offensive line was the weakest unit on the team. The Longhorns run game was historically bad and Arch Manning was under pressure much of the year. Many of Manning's early season struggles can be traced back to having very little time to go through his progressions. The O-line was also very penalty prone,
The Texas coaching staff tried to address that in the offseason. The Horns brought in transfers Laurence Seymore from Western Kentucky and Wake Forest transfer Melvin
Siani. The group also has Trevor Goosby, who many believe will be a top ten pick in the 2027 NFL Draft.
But this rebuilt offensive line hasn't been much better so far in 2026. It looked great for one quarter against Ohio State, when the day's heat had weakened the Buckeyes defense. The offensive line wasn't very good against UTSA either.
But Saturday against the Vols, it hit a season low. Texas allowed six sacks, ten tackles for a loss and were only able to gain 1.7 yards per rush. Manning was hurried, hit, had to scramble on several long third downs. On most running pays, the running backs couldn't get past the line of scrimmage. And the penalties were back.
“Clearly wasn’t good enough Saturday.”
— OnTexasFootball (@ontexasfootball) September 28, 2026
Texas HC Steve Sarkisian speaks on the Longhorns offensive line. pic.twitter.com/TIMZUJU2J0
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian says there were a number of issues, but the bottom line is the group has to improve.
"Clearly, it wasn't good enough Saturday, right? It's a combination of things," Sarkisian said. "Some of them are the quarterback. Some of them the center. Some of it is the other guys executing what they're told to do. So it was a combination of things. Clearly, it wasn't good enough Saturday."
Texas is idle this week, so they have a little extra time to try to fix the ongoing issues. But an extra week might not matter considering Sark has been trying to fix the position for over a year.
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This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Sarkisian: Texas Longhorns offensive line 'Clearly not good enough'
