The Texas offense has missed the mark throughout three games this season, and much of the blame has been heaped on Arch Manning’s shoulders. That is totally understandable, and in some part, valid. He has not played up to his, or Texas’ standard thus far, and still needs to turn a corner. Despite Manning’s frustrating play, the main issue with the Texas offense right now seems to be the five guys in front of him.
The Texas OL, particularly in the run game, has not been the group they need to be thus far. They only rank 38th in the country in line yards/rush, 91st in EPA/rush and 52nd in success rate running the football. Those numbers are good enough to get you to 8 wins, but it’s not good enough to get you back to the CFP. There needs to be a massive improvement with this group moving forward.
The thing to keep in mind is this is a very young group. Only two starters came in with previous, long-term starters in DJ Campbell and Cole Hutson. Then you have three new faces that are still finding their footing as full time starters. It’s fair to assume there will be progression, but that progression has to happen quickly, or the SEC defensive fronts are going to dominate.
The Texas OL coming into the season was likely the biggest question on the team. Since the season started, some other questions have popped up that have overshadowed this one. That being said, the other problems that have popped up are correlated with OL play early. If the OL can start to put it together, we are going to see Arch play better, the run game being more potent and most explosive from this group.
There is a world where the Texas OL does need to work in some different combinations throughout this game if they can. The main lineman that has been singled out is LG Connor Stroh, so could we see more of Neto Umeozulu there? Could they shift Cole Hutson back to LG and slide Connor Robertson in at C? It’s all up in the air for this team, but it’s obvious they need to be better going forward.
The two on the right side of the OL, Trevor Goosby and DJ Campbell, have been the two best run blockers of the group, but the other three need to meet them there. It’s a talented, athletic group of players, but if they don’t up their play considerably before SEC-play gets underway, the issues with the offense are not going anywhere.
Arch Manning has been the focus of all offensive struggles for the Longhorns thus far. That is entirely unfair, considering the OL is not blocking at a high level up front, there have been multiple drops and poor separation from the pass catchers and the RBs not being able to find openings in the run game. All of those are issues, but the one that, if it’s fixed, can fix every other one is the offensive line stepping up and becoming a much stronger group this weekend and beyond.
This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Key to a offensive turnaround for Texas Football is the offensive line
Reporting by Tommy Bresee, Longhorns Wire / Longhorns Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
