Texas started the season hot blowing out teams like Colorado State, Michigan (before they got going), UTSA, Louisiana-Monroe, Mississippi State and Oklahoma. A complete joke of an early schedule but it gave people this false narrative that Texas was the best team in the country. It even allowed them to inflate their team statistics.
By all accounts Texas is a good team, but Tennessee played a much harder schedule by far. Texas went the entire year without beating a single ranked team in the regular season then were handed Clemson in the first round and Arizona State in the quarters and both games were A LOT closer than the experts expected because Texas has been overhyped due to their joke schedule.
Taking a look at Texas in the second half of the season, they lost 30-15 to Georgia, barely escaped Vanderbilt 27-24, barely escaped Arkansas 20-10, barely escaped Texas A&M 17-7 and lost to Georgia again 22-19 playing against a QB that hadn’t taken a snap all season. This is who Texas really is.
Offense: Ewers is very careless with the ball, he has thrown an interception in 4 straight games and has turned the ball over on fumbles. He makes great throws and then the next throw he will show why some Texas fans want him benched for Arch Manning. Speaking of Manning, there hasn’t been as much Manning packages as there were when Texas was playing bad teams. Texas has dynamic speed at WR and they aren’t afraid to take shots, but we have seen that twice now against Oregon and we know how to defend against it. Their running game is very sporadic and you never know which will show up. In their last 6 games, they have over 200 rushing yards against Clemson, Texas A&M and Florida, then they have 139 rushing yards against Arkansas and less than 50 rushing yards against Georgia and Arizona State.
Defense: Everyone knows Texas superstars Jahdae Barron at CB and Anthony Hill Jr. at LB, but they have a deep DL too that rotates a lot. Luckily for Ohio State, Texas may have the 3rd best DL in our last 4 games behind Michigan and Tennessee. Texas’s real strength is their secondary which is the 2nd best secondary in the country ranked only behind Ohio State. Ohio State will undoubtedly find the fish though, and that fish is Malik Muhammad who starts at the opposite corner spot from Jahdae Barron. Muhammad has been torched all season and particularly against Clemson and Arizona State in the playoffs while Arizona State was down their best WR. Texas also has aggressive safeties that are bound to bite on a lot of the fakes Ohio State uses. And while Jahdae Barron is an elite corner, he’s only 5’11 200 compared to a 6’3 215 pound Jeremiah Smith.
Special teams: goes without saying but do not kick or punt the ball to Silas Bolden
(Mod Edit: As this post is Bevo-centric, moving to the College Sports Forum.)
