The Texas Longhorns are no strangers to heightened scrutiny; they’ve been in this position before. Yet as they enter Saturday’s matchup with the unranked Florida Gators, they'll know the margin for error in the regular season’s final seven games has narrowed.
It’s not slimmer than this time last year where Texas had two losses before the Red River Rivalry. However, as it gets set for the final game versus an unranked opponent before facing four top-25 teams in a row.
Here’s a pair of final thoughts entering Saturday’s matchup.
Do What You Do Well Offensively
It sounds simple, almost a cliché, yet given the offensive struggles the Longhorns have had this season, it certainly isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Amid calls to ditch the typical Sarkisian offensive scheme, which revolves around playing mostly in 11 (1 running back, 1 tight end) and 12 personnel (1 running back, 2 tight ends) rather than 10 personnel, Sarkisian pushed back on those assertions Thursday.
“Well, really good defensive coordinators like the ones we play against. If they know that that's all you're going to do, I promise you we're going to get schemed up,” Sarkisian explained about ditching those heavier tight end sets. “And so you have to be able to change gears, switch gears, do different things, or we can stand back there in five- and six-man protection, and guys are going to be running free in Arch's face."
While Sarkisian makes a good point, Texas can't live in a world where it runs only one running back and no tight ends. It must have balance and mix things up, yet the criticism that Sarkisian doesn’t use his most explosive personnel grouping enough, rather than needing to run it all the time, makes his answer look disingenuous.
Per SECStatcat, Texas has run 10 personnel on just 13 snaps thus far. That is 3.67% of the Longhorns' total offensive snaps played this season. The most they’ve run 10 personnel in a single game is six snaps versus UTSA.
If it works, there is no reason the Longhorns should run it so few snaps on Saturday.
Familiarity Should Help Longhorns Defense
The Florida offense doesn’t look like the juggernaut it was shaping up to be before the two-game losing skid. The Gators' offense will still challenge a battle-tested Texas defense.
Florida boasts one of the nation’s top running backs, Jadan Baugh, and a wide receiver corps with proven production. Yet, it also has one of the top young offensive coordinators in college football, Buster Faulkner.
The 45-year-old moved to Gainesville to call plays for Jon Sumrall after three seasons at Georgia Tech, where he helped the Yellow Jackets kickstart the Brent Key era with back-to-back seven-win seasons before winning nine games in 2025.
Faulkner’s offense was a major part of it, as he oversaw the development of Texas A&M transfer Haynes King into a capable starter.
Yet, while Faulkner’s offense gave many defensive coordinators issues despite not always having the talent edge at Georgia Tech, Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp was on the Georgia staff that knew that system as well as anybody.
After the Bulldogs survived the eight-overtime game versus the Jackets in 2024, Faulkner’s unit scored 42 points in a loss. Georgia held Georgia Tech to just nine points last season.
Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram for the latest news.
Add us as a preferred source on Google