Roger Wallace and Billy Gates discuss where things went wrong in the Longhorns’ 29-21 loss to Florida on Oct. 4 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, and they look ahead at one of college football’s most storied rivalries, the Red River Rivalry against Oklahoma, to be played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas at 2:30 p.m., Saturday
Digital Sports Reporter Billy Gates and KXAN Sports Director Roger Wallace dive deep on all things Texas Longhorns, giving you a behind-the-scenes look at all the UT action.
[Music] Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of the Horns Report here on KX Plus. I’m your host, Billy Gates. And uh we’re here to of course to talk about the uh Texas Longhorns 2921 loss to the Florida Gator in the swamp in Gainesville, Florida on Saturday. Uh pretty pretty tough one to handle. One of those games where I don’t really think the final score indicated how far apart the teams were. It kind of seemed like Florida dominated this game from start to finish in the line of scrimmage. But that’s just one man’s opinion. Uh here here to talk here to here here with me to talk about it uh is Roger Wallace, KXN sports director and color analyst for the Longhorn Radio Network. So Roger, like we watched the same thing. Uh you watched it live uh from the swamp there in Gainesville. Um it just sort of sort of seemed like uh Florida had everything going and Texas did not. Yeah, it was weird because uh as you said, it was an eight-point game and it kind of reminded me of Ohio State when you think about Texas had the ball at the end of the game. Now, it was desperation, but they did have the ball to get a touchdown to tie it. Texas had the ball, get a touchdown and a two-point conversion to tie it here. But you’re right, it felt uh felt like Florida outplayed Texas in just about every phase. Uh, and the most critical part of that was what Steve Sarkeesian said right off the bat, and that was the line play. This is the first drive. Offensive line for Florida, uh, had their way with Texas. Defensive line for Florida had their way with Texas. Arch Manning under constant pressure. Running backs did virtually nothing, uh, trying to run the ball. And I think that’s what gave that glazed overlook look to to Longhorn fans. And Arch, six sacks, I think, eight more hurries. And, and that was kind of the story of the ball game, which is kind of the story of the SEC. You better have line play. Oh yeah, absolutely. And I think uh I mean it’s not like Texas didn’t know that going in, but they certainly um you know, for lack of a better term, found out the hard way because Florida, they’d been scuffling a little bit like that that defense had been pretty good. Uh Florida’s offense had been inconsistent, but golly G DJ Lagway found his stride against the Texas defense that everybody thought uh was was unstoppable almost. Yeah. And I I mean I hate to say it, but I I had a hunch that Florida was going to get right at some point and they did it against Texas. It was a it was an amazing atmosphere, Billy, because there was a sense in that stadium, even when they were winning, that fan base wants a coaching change to the point where they’re winning and maybe a decision to run the ball on third and long or not put the pedal to the metal. But all of a sudden, we’re hearing booze inside the stadium from from the Florida fans. And they’re they’re going to get their biggest win of the season by far. Probably their biggest win in a couple of years. And so that kind of tells you where where that fan base is. Um but yeah, they they put it together. You mentioned their defense. It has been good. Even in the losses, it’s been good against Miami. They were right there until the last half of the fourth quarter. Miami at 13 points. LSU well documented. They scored 20 points despite DJ Lagway getting picked uh five times. And South Florida, yeah, they won at the swamp, they scored 18 points to do it. Defense hasn’t been the problem, but the offense came up with big plays, explosive plays. And whether that was a product of them finally getting it right or the Texas defense getting exposed, no Malik Muhammad, and they clearly picked on the side uh where Muhammad would be and it paid off. Yeah. And uh Steve Sarkeesian in Monday’s press conference addressed Malik Muhammad’s absence and he said, “Yeah, like when you lose an all-American caliber, you know, cover guy, uh you’re going to you’re going to have to make stuff up somehow.” Um they tried to split safety look, but then, you know, Florida ran the ball so well with Jaden B that um they had to come out of that. They had to put more guys in the box, go to more man coverage, and then that’s when Dallas Wilson, the amazing freshman receiver from Florida, got loose. And, you know, he just goes for six catches, a buck 11 with two touchdowns. I mean, just kind of seemed like when something wasn’t working for Florida, they would easily go to something else. Yeah, they had the answers to the test and Texas didn’t. Texas missed. And again, long ball game, but that first play of the game, Grayson Littleton with a big time hit. Ball squirts loose. Michael Tass momentum takes him past the ball. Florida recovers it and they go on to drive for the opening score. Texas recovers that. They’re in Florida scoring territory. If Florida gets down in this game, I think that crowd turns on him pretty quickly, but obviously none of that happened. Uh and and Texas couldn’t take advantage. They had the double pass to Ryan Wingo to Jack Andre and overshot him by about a half a yard. Yeah. Uh or that’s a walk-in touchdown. But again, for real. Yeah. You know, th those are just close plays that that happen to every team in the span of 120 plays in a ball game. Yeah. And you you mentioned the the double pass missed for the walk-in touchdown. Arch also had one to EMTT Mosley that he overshot him by about five yards when when there was nobody within about 15 20 yards of Mosley. him playing in his first game of the season coming off an injury. Uh just we’ll back up a little bit. Let’s just go over some numbers real quick for Florida. DJ Lagman, we talked about a a tremendously talented quarterback. Really showed it against the Longhorns. Uh 21 of 28 passing for 298 yards, two touchdowns, both of those to Dallas Wilson. Um and an interception. Jaden Ball, we mentioned uh 27 carries for 107 yards. Gosh, with a touchdown. and and it really looked like early in the game when he was getting six, seven, eight yards a carry, it really looked like he was going to go for, I don’t know, 150 or 200, but eventually Texas kind of bottled him up, but then, you know, that’s when they started hitting Wilson and he goes off six for 111. Um, and then, uh, Verno Brown has three catches for 72 yards along as 60. So, the Texas defense just gave up way too many explosive plays. And I think Sarkeesian addressed that in the press conference as well. And um it was just u it’s kind of a clinic by by an offensive clinic by Florida and a defensive one too. Like it was it was definitely a it it was a type of game, Roger, that Steve Sarkeesian wants Texas to play in a lot of ways, right? Sure. Yeah. Be balanced, hit explosive plays, be able to run when you have to run. And that’s the one thing that I always say about what Sarkc says about a balanced attack doesn’t mean you run it 40 times and you throw it 40 times. It means when you need to run the ball and everybody knows you’re going to run the ball, you have the ability to run the ball and they couldn’t do that. So then you throw them out of balance. So then Florida uh front starts to tee off. They brought a lot of pressure on Arch Manning. Longhorns kept running backs in. Sometimes the running backs just got overpowered on blitzes. And um yeah, Manning had Mosley, but Manning also had a a rusher right in his face. And I think that that took something away from that throw. Uh but he took a beating and and Sarkc talked about it. Uh and I was doing our our SEC show and in a crazy way, call me crazy, but when it’s all said and done, I thought that was probably his best game all things considered. Sure. for the first five. Uh considering the defense he was up against, the circumstances of the game, being on the road, the ability to still make some plays even though there was all that pressure. Sure, he missed throws. Yeah. Uh but the touchdown to Wingo was an example. Yeah. He got out of the he got out of trouble. Instead of taking off, uh he stayed with it and, you know, found Wingo in the back of the end zone. Had to put a little touch on it. So, uh in that regard, but you know, not good enough. He threw two picks uh as well and then you know you can’t take that safety at the end. You got to throw the ball away. You got to do something so you don’t have to hope you get one more tick on the clock. Yeah. Um so yeah, but but maybe this game will will pay off down the road for Arch on the road cuz guess where his third start is away from home? Cottonball against Oklahoma. not a true road game, but it’s going to be the craziest environment he’s ever been in because of the circumstances of the way that uh that game is constructed against against a really good Sooners team, too. And we’ll get to them in a second. Want to back up a little bit to uh the defense of Florida’s defense uh anyway pressuring Arch being able to to kind of forget about Texas running game because it was so non-existent. Uh six sacks like we’ve been saying. Uh eight quarterback hurries. Uh they broke up three passes, they had two picks, seven tackles for loss. So I think they were they were in the back field a bunch and a lot of that was not having that balance in the offense, that running game, which Steve Sarkeesian talked about at length in the press conference. And then we’ll hear from Steve right now and then we’ll talk about how they’re going to fix this this run game against quite literally the best defense in the SEC statistically in Oklahoma. So, here’s coach Sarkeesian about how they kind of fixed this run game. It’s not working. That’s for sure. That’s what’s going on. You know, not to to put it as simple as that, it it just hasn’t hit. And um you know, we’ve we’ve been rolodexing running backs. I think that’s a little bit of an issue. Um, you know, a lot of times when you when you have a runner, which traditionally for us, we’ve kind of got that lead runner and then a second runner, the lead runner starts to find a rhythm with the timing of the blockers and and and we don’t have that right now. And we got to fight to get there as fast as we can. Um, because I do think there’s something to be said about a runner getting carries. And I know you guys have been mad at me before. Why is one guy get all the carries and then there’s a number two guy? Well, there’s a reason for that. I I think there’s there’s rhythm and timing into running the ball. Um now, do we need to block better? Yes. Do we need to game plan better? Yes. Uh do we need to break more break more tackles? Yes. Uh all those things add up to we don’t have a run by a running backs over 18 yards. Um we’ve been spotty from from a consistency standpoint in the run game. Um and and that’s what we’re fighting for, you know, and and so it’s easy just to put our hands in there and say we can’t run it and let’s go throw it every down. I just don’t believe in that. That that’s not who we are. So we’re going to continue to work at this thing. Hopefully we’re better on Saturday. We’ll find out. That’s a pretty crazy stat, Roger, where the Texas hasn’t had a running back with a run of not even over 20 yards, of 18 yards. And you know, typically like we’ve seen these Sarkeesian teams in the past when they’ve that’s what they hang their hat on is is running the ball and having explosive running plays. Uh that I I I just I I hadn’t dove that deep into the stats until um I believe it was Anar Richardson that mentioned um that stat and then Steve kind of repeated it there. But that’s that’s pretty pretty wild to me. Yeah, because you got to get some explosive plays out of the run game. Yeah. You want to be able to, you know, get those tough yards. Four, five, six, seven. I always think about the late great Cedric Benson, and he would always turn two into four, four into six, six into maybe nine. And that means he’s either pushing the pile, showing great balance, showing great patience, and that’s what we’re not seeing from this Texas run game. They’re not getting much more than they get. In other words, if they’re not getting any push, they’re not getting any yards. Now, uh, Quinton Weisner back wasn’t effective at all. He was effective against a pretty good Ohio State front with 80 plus yards, uh, in the opener, but yeah, that’s the tough part. What do you do midseason, right, to help an offensive line where you’ve rolled in a couple of left guards and that hasn’t uh, really paid off? You’ve had a lot of penalties, pre- snap penalties, and had six of them against the Gator last week, five of which were in the second half. Second half. Yeah. And I think two in a row, right? So, all of a sudden, first and 10, first and 20, you just can’t make a living like that. So, I don’t know. I don’t know uh how you fix that. if it’s a if it’s a pride thing, if it’s a u you know a scheme thing, if he changes the way he calls plays to kind of protect him a little bit, right? Uh but they still got a lot of lot of football and and you you talk about well everything’s still in front of them. Yes. But also they’re three and two. Yeah. With a tough sevengame run here of you know, show me a gimme win. And I’ll tell you, Arkansas is still explosive because I know that’s the first that’s the first answer people are gonna say. Exactly. So, uh, yeah, there. And on flip side, you know, maybe they figure some things out and get on a little roll. And I always said, if Florida beat or if Texas had beat Florida and lose to Oklahoma, there’s not a great feeling coming out of the Cotton Bowl. Not at all. So, flip it. If Florida lose or Texas loses at Florida, come back, beat an Oklahoma team. Pretty good feeling coming out of the Cotton Bowl. You’re you have the same record now. We’ll see if that can happen. Sure. Roger logic may not work in the real world. No. No. I mean that I mean all of a sudden you’re in good graces with with fans especially. And then you know maybe maybe the uh the uh all the offensive line questions from the media which I I believe was the first four questions today in in the press conference was about that old line. Yeah. Um well he’s and he and Sark started it with his statement line of scrimmage. Yep. Yeah. The Texas rushes for a season low 52 yards against the Gator. Most of that from March and 37 of it from March. Yeah. And hit. This is an interesting kind of kind of detailed stat. 15 attempts mostly scrambles obviously. Uh 37 yards with a long of 36. That’s not typically a recipe for success. Uh Quinton Weeiser, who’s back in action for the first time since August 30th since the Ohio State game, the season opener. Eight carries, 11 yards. He had a short touchdown, but it it’s just one of those things where like they couldn’t get him going. CJ Baxter out with a hamstring injury. Um, no telling if he’s going to be ready for the Oklahoma game. We’re going to find out um how ready he may be on Wednesday when the first iteration of the injury report comes out uh for the Southeastern Conference. So, we we’ll be we’ll be patiently waiting uh for that. So, I mean, if if they’re able to have both their leadbacks back, right? So CJ Baxter with Trayvon Weisner. They still have to figure out this line of scrimmage. Um Nick Brooks played his first um action um against Florida. Had a couple of those false start penalties back to back may turned a second and seven into like a second and 17 or something like that. Um he looked okay uh for his first time out, but it’s this kind of mix and match offensive line, Roger. um that uh that there it’s tough to build chemistry that way with not only the running backs but also the line itself. Yeah. And it’s funny when you look at the storylines coming into the season and if you do it and I I I compare national to to local because I think uh this is legitimate this year because of the Arch Manning factor. I think nationally everybody assumed with Arch Manning and what they had coming back on defense that this was the number one team in the country. I think locally the questions kept coming about replacing four starters on the offensive line and we hear that yeah they had guys that played a lot of snaps because they were able to use their depth and a Trevor Gby who had to step in for Kelvin Banks but still that was the biggest question mark I think locally and then they also knew that Arch Manning hadn’t done as much in front of their eyes as for some reason uh the rest of the received it. So now what’s the nation doing? They’re hammering Arch. Why? Because they’re the ones that that put him on the pedestal and they can’t be wrong in the first place. Yeah. They can’t be wrong, right? So it’s got to be something with with Arch whereas maybe he’s just a first year starter that’s played in two really tough environments, taken his lumps. Uh and we’ll see where it goes. But yeah, the offensive line and I think deep down the coaches knew that, okay, we got guys that have played snaps, but you’re still replacing four guys on that offensive line that uh led them to the SEC championship game in the final four. And a lot of those guys led them to a Big 12 title in the final four. So, uh it it hasn’t gone as well. He was asked today about the portal. He said a lot to do with the portal is what’s available, right? Uh and yeah, hindsight is easy. uh if there was a left guard out there that they could have grabbed. No, no kidding. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean it, you know, all the questions come up when when things don’t go well, right? And uh and so here we are. Yeah. Kind of makes you appreciate guys like Jake Major, you know, right? Kind of makes you makes you appreciate those guys. um Kelvin Banks obviously and all those all those guys from last year that that really like built that that cohesive unit up front that was a Joe Moore finalist for two seasons and you know and and that was my biggest question coming into the season too was that offensive line and and we’re we’re we’re we’re seeing it right now. So hopefully uh at least for the Longhorn sake um that they’ll they’ll figure something out uh for the Red River rivalry which is coming up on Saturday 2:30. I believe it’s gonna air on ABC. Is that the ABC ESPN? One of those. Um, it’s not on NBC. Billy is not my If it’s not on KX or the CW Pack 12 after dark football. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Everybody watches this football in the CW. I I’m usually confident if fans want to find Texas football on TV, they’ll Yeah, they’ll find it. They’ll They’ll find it. They’re not hiding them. They’ll find it somewhere. Yeah. It’s uh they they’ll find it. So, um, so let’s kind of shift shift gears to Oklahoma. The big question, um, everybody has and Brett Venibals addressed it after the Kent State win. They they beat they beat Ken State 44 to nothing or something silly last week. Um, who’s going to play quarterback? Is it going to be John Matier? Is it going to be Michael Hawkins Jr.? Uh, John Matier, the tremendous uh, transfer from Washington State, his in his first year with Oklahoma, um, kind of taking the country by storm. a lot of folks, you know, didn’t really know his game, uh, playing for the Cougars over there in Pullman, Washington, being part of that Pack Two sort of conference as the Pack 12 rebuilds itself. Uh, but he landed in Norman and and I wouldn’t say shocked because I’ve seen him play and I kind of know how good he is, but just sort of how he showed everybody else his skills running and throwing the football. He may not play. He had hand surgery. So, uh, Venibals had told reporters after the Kent State game that he assumed that Matier would not be available. Roger, if it is Michael Hawkins, we saw kind of a preview of that last year. Uh, te Texas ran all over them. Uh, 38-3, something along those lines. Kind of feel like it’s going to be a different Michael Hawkins this go around. Yeah. And and uh again, I’ll go back to uh the defense for Oklahoma. will make their quarterback better. Uh, but he did get the start. He played against Ken State. He took a little bit time, but he finally got a touchdown pass Isaiah Satena. That seemed to unlock a little things. If you watch the highlight, he threw it up and Isaiah Satenia caught it. Uh, but but Hawkins, it’s funny because he’s the backup, but he’s got the experience in this game and Arch Manning doesn’t. and he’s obviously a mobile guy, but Sark’s bigger concern was the scheme with Ben Arbuckle who came with with John Matir and the fact that he’ll put them in advantageous situations and uh so Sark’s so concerned about his offensive line and now uh his defensive line and blocking and tackling that uh I I don’t think he now Yeah. Matir uh he’s got got a lot of Baker Mayfield in him from if you’ve watched him, he’s got some swagger. He’s got some fire. Uh he’ll he’ll roll the dice a little bit, but uh if he had hand surgery last week, it seems it does seem hard to imagine, you know, you think so, right, that he would play. Sark said, “We’re going to plan for him, but we’re going to plan for the Arbuckle offense.” Um but but I think Hawkins will be in a much better place uh with what he has around him on Saturday. And he’s coming in with confidence and his team has so much confidence and we know about how this game goes. Texas blew him out uh three years ago in Sark’s second year and then OU got him in a wild one. Texas blew him out last year. So, uh you know, we’ll see. Texas, it’s odd. They drop out of the top 25 and they’re a three-point maybe three and a half point favorite. Clearly, that’s got to be the quarterback situation at Oklahoma. You you you’d think so. And that is that’s kind of weird that the unranked team gets the favorite, but you know those the folks in Vegas know what they’re doing, right? They’re just trying to make money. Yep. They they just they know where the action action. That’s right. They know where the action comes from. Um big thing for for for us media folks, Roger, is that the Cotton Bowl got renovated. So that that really interesting to see see what kind of Yes, it did. Yes, it did. I’ve heard some positive reports about the uh the renovation and I think the press facilities improved a little bit. Um so yeah, another 230 game. We haven’t seen that in a while until last year and that adds a different element because you’re rolling in there midm morning as opposed to the when it’s a little quieter so you have to deal with but if you never been to that game it is quite a spectacle on the state fair of Texas grounds. Yeah. Um in front of 92,000 they split it down the middle. So yeah it is a game like no other. And and it’s and it’s more with a 230 start. more uh acceptable in society to get a get a corny dog when you get there. You can’t you can’t have an 8 am corny dog. I mean for breakfast what are you doing? Yeah, exactly. And all the other stuff. I don’t know. What did you try last year? Um I I I went with a corny dog and then I had like a it was like a Mexican street corn kind of kind of mix. Well, that’s no fun. I know. I know. I I kind of stay in my No fried Reesei cups or anything like that. I mean, you know, I’ve I’ve I’ve done a fried Oreo before. not at the state fair of Texas, but I’ve done it before. Pretty good. Like, not bad. I try to try to try to stay away from that these days, you know. Um, but uh but maybe maybe this go around I’ll I’ll I’ll venture into more of the the fried uh confectionary items instead of instead of just a you know, savory hot dog. Players were were asked about. But I don’t think it’s as much fun for them to talk about it after what, you know, happened 48 hours prior uh at Florida. But it is uh you know, there’s so many Dallas Fort Worth kids and they get to spend a little time with their families after the game uh before heading back home. But uh uh I mean, you talk about a a turning point in the season. Yeah. Uh four and two and one and one or three and three and 0 and two with two true road games uh to follow. This one This one’s going to be interesting. That’s a huge difference. Huge difference. Well, Steve uh talked about uh what he enjoys about the Red River rivalry and and now now he’s into, you know, his his fifth one. Uh so, here’s here’s Steve uh talking about the rivalry game and and all the all the, you know, fun that comes along with it. And this is a great game. Like, there’s nothing about this game that is like I love all aspects of it. I love it that it’s a neutral side. I love that it’s in Dallas. I love that it’s a state fair. I love that both teams are in the same tunnel. I love that the crowd is split 5050. I love that so many of our players have family coming. Um I don’t love that there’s some noise around how we’re playing, but that’s the reality of the situation. That’s that’s what we signed up to do. All that being said, we got to focus on us and we need to be enamored with what we need to do um from a preparation standpoint, an execution standpoint, a game plan standpoint, uh being intentional with our practice habits, things of that nature. And so, you know, you lean into some of the veteran players who have been through this week before, who know what this week is about and and and push your younger players or your new players that maybe have transferred in into this is how we go about our business. Um, because it is a great game and he’s right, it is a great game. And it’s interesting how he how he mentioned leaning into those veteran players uh for the younger guys to, you know, take advice from, things like that. And you know, at least one of those veteran players, Michael Taff, was around for five and seven, so he kind of knows how to respond after after some adversity. Um, it’s it’s just kind of a this is just such a cool game, Roger. I mean, that’s I my I had my first experience with it live last season uh when we went up there and I just I my jaw was on the floor for pretty much the entire game. If you’re a if you’re a college football fan, this is one you’ve circled. uh if you have any chance to get to, you’re going to want to uh try to get this one. Matt Brown used to describe it as a mid-season bowl game um because of the the pageantry around it. Now, they don’t really break routine. They’ll go up Friday and do their thing and play the game in and leave, but just because of there are some special events around it uh for alumni and Dallas and things like that for both Texas and and Oklahoma. But, uh, you know, I remember this game as a non-conference game when Texas was in the Southwest Conference and OU was in the Big Eight. And then everyone thought, “Wow, now it’s going to be a conference game and it’s going to be two South Division rivals. So, this could be to knock the other one out of a potential championship game.” Then they got rid of the divisions. And of course, what happens in 2018 at a stretch where it had been kind of rough for Texas. Texas finally wins and they turn around and lose to OU in the Big 12 championship game at AT&T Stadium. So that that great feeling of the regular season win kind of nullify. They went on they won the won the Sugar Bowl that year. But uh yeah, so you know nothing really changes in the game. Some of the circumstances around the game changes and this is a game that no matter what the schedule was going to look like in the SEC was going to be played when these two schools agreed uh to move to the SEC. Now we know uh the scheduling situation, but uh this is this is what it is and this is how it’s been for for a long long time. Yeah, I’m definitely excited for it. Another one of these uh the 121st meeting between the teams there there’s a couple of um couple of games in there that let’s let’s see the the 2018 game was actually in Arlington. No, that was the second one. And that was the second one. Okay. Yeah, that was the Big 12 championship game. Big 12 championship. There we go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But um yeah, they beat Kyler Murray. Yeah. And Kyler Murray wouldn’t shake Sam Elling Inger’s hand as the story goes. And he was more than willing to shake Sam Ellinger’s hand after beating him in 18 stadium for the for the Big 12 title. Well, yeah. Yeah. Hopefully this doesn’t end like the 95 game where it was a 24 tie. Yeah, we know that won’t happen. That was my first year here. Oh, wow. I bet that that that’s a that’s a fun way to to to start a start a tenure at a place is go cover a tie football game. A lot of heroes are made. Sure. A lot of heroes are made in this game. A lot of a lot of former Longhorns walking around town not not paying for meals because of what they did uh in this ball game and and example number one’s Peter Gardair because he beat him four times as a starter. Uh which obviously hasn’t been duplicated. No. No. That’s that’s going to be a tough one to duplicate. Um all righty. Well, we’ll end this one here. Um, appreciate y’all watching uh on Cakes Plus, YouTube, wherever you find this. Uh, for Roger Wallace, I’m Billy Gates. This has been the Horns Report. Thanks so much for watching. We’ll talk to you again very soon.
