A win is a win, but my goodness, that was ugly. The Locked on Longhorns postgame show starts now. Intro. You are Locked on Longhorns, your daily podcast on the Texas Longhorns, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Welcome in.
You were locked on to the Texas Longhorns. I’m your host BK. Brad Kelner, Texas grad, Austin local, and longtime sports radio host here in the Lone Star State.
Thank you for making Locked on Longhorns a part of your day every single day. Texas 16, Kentucky 13 in overtime.
The final from Kroger Field in Lexington last night. Recording this Saturday night after the game, not posting it until Sunday, but Texas gets the win. Man, that was a tough watch. Wow. Here’s the good news.
In the standings, a three-point win in overtime counts the exact same as a 20point win, 30-point win, 40-point win, 50-point win, whatever. Texas got the W to improve to 5-2 on the year and 2 and one in SEC play. That was the number one goal of this road trip to Kentucky. find a way to get a win. That’s kind of where the good news stops.
This was an anemic offensive performance from Steve Sarkeesian, Arch Manning, and the Texas Longhorns.
I would argue maybe the worst offensive showing in the entire Steve Sarkeesian era. If you just look at the box score, if you didn’t watch and you don’t watch a single play of last night’s game, and you just look at the stats, you would think Texas lost this game by three scores, four scores, maybe more. I mean, Kentucky had 395 yards of offense. Texas only had 179.
Kentucky had 26 first downs. Texas had eight in a game that went to overtime. Only eight first downs for the Longhorn offense. Kentucky had 258 passing yards. Texas just 132.
Kentucky 137 rushing yards. Texas just 47 on 1.7 yards per carry.
The Longhorns had more than twice as many penalties as the Wildcats did. And of course, the craziest stat of the day, and it’s extra crazy considering the fact that the Longhorns somehow won this game.
Time of possession. Kentucky had the ball for 39 minutes and 23 seconds, nearly 2/3 of regulation, and they had the ball for a while in overtime as well. It’s funny, Kentucky moved the ball 24 yards in overtime. Texas had negative -2 yards of offense in the extra period, and the Longhorns outscored the Cats three to nothing in OT. of course, the huge goal line stand for the Texas defense, the difference of the ball game.
And then Mason Shipley, one of his three field goals, obviously the game winner for the Horns at the end of overtime number one.
It We’ll talk about the Texas defense and special teams. They deserve their own segment. That’ll be segment number two. They obviously carried the Longhorns to this victory last night.
They did their job and considering how little help they got from the offense, it was a ridiculously impressive showing from those other two facets of the game. This Texas offense though was so bad. Eight first downs for the entire game. Only two of them after halftime. That is remarkably bad.
I mean, it felt like the Texas offense had taken a step with what they did in the second half against Oklahoma. Felt like maybe they found something and it was one step forward, two steps back. That’s kind of been the theme of the Longhorn offense here throughout the 2025 season. Every time you feel like they’ve turned a corner and every time you feel like you have reason to believe, they go out and put together a performance like that. I mean, it was all bad.
Arch Manning, you know, coming off his best game of the year with what he did against OU.
12 of 27 for just 132 yards, 4.9 yards per attempt, a QBR of 24. The one good thing that Arch Manning did, he didn’t turn the football over. That’s the one good thing the offense did, right?
Zero turnovers last night. If they had one of those, then Texas probably loses this football game. So, it’s hard to say there was any semblance of complimentary football cuz Texas just kept going three and out and three and out and three and out. But, the fact that they didn’t turn it over, they at least made Kentucky have to move the football down the length of the field to uh to get things going on offense. But for Arch just look lost out there.
Uh some inaccurate throws. You think about uh some huge misses that he had in this football game. The um the one to EMTT Mosley over the middle. He missed a wideopen jack injuries 15 yardds down the field in the third quarter. The EMTT Mosley throw on that third and five slant in the fourth quarter.
Yes, there was pressure in his face, but still if he hits Mosley there in stride, Mosley still running.
That’s a touchdown for Texas. Uh he threw a ball in the dirt to Ryan Wingo on a crossing route midway through the fourth quarter. Like some of the stuff that we saw in Columbus in week one that we really haven’t seen that much of from Arch since reared its ugly head last night. Just horrible mechanics, awful inaccuracy, and he just reverted back to what he was at the start of the season.
Not good enough. Now, he got no help from the guys around him. I want to make it clear. I feel like a lot of Longhorn fans are like, “It’s either Arch’s fault or it’s the offensive line’s fault.” No, it’s everybody’s fault.
And obviously, it’s the head coach/offensive play caller’s fault, too.
I thought the game plan was horrible for Texas last night. What worked for Texas against OU? Short quick passing game. I thought maybe they had finally found an identity with that in the second half of the Red River shootout.
What did Texas go back to doing last night? The same stuff they did against Florida. Longer developing routes down the field. It’s like this offensive line is not good enough for that. There was nothing that you’ve seen from Texas trying that part of their offense this year that gave you any reason to believe that that was going to work.
And Kentucky was playing two high safeties pretty much all night. Like they they were asking you to dink and dunk underneath and and Stark wasn’t patient enough. I was so impressed with Stark’s patience last week in Dallas and I was curious if he would be willing to do it again and he wasn’t. It was right back to the same offensive game plan that we saw not work against Florida.
insane, insane ineptitude.
We’re seven games into the season now and we are still seeing these problems with the offense. There’s no identity with that side of the football. The running game was obviously atrocious. I mean, 28 carries for 47 yards as a team. One step forward, two steps back.
That’s what it was for Arch Manning. That’s what it was for Trey Weisner. Didn’t have a lot of holes, didn’t have a lot of running lanes. Obviously, not nearly the performance from him as what we saw seven days prior against Oklahoma.
Uh, and the offensive line, I mean, Cole Hudson was missed.
Not that Cole Hudson has been very good, but Kentucky was getting all sorts of pressure between Connor Robertson at center and Nick Brooks at left guard. They they were kind of getting pressure everywhere on the offensive line, but like that those two guys had a really rough go. And uh, you know, pressure up the middle, that’s a quarterback’s worst nightmare. And obviously, it’s hard to get the ground game going when guys are getting pressure up the A and B gap pretty much all night long. And that’s what was happening there.
Uh the Texas game plan for the run game also didn’t make a lot of sense.
Like outside zone worked really well for them against Oklahoma. It was deep into the football game before they dialed up an outside zone play. Like they tried a variety of different things. Inside zone, counter gap schemes, a lot of power sweeps to the perimeter.
Like this off, you have to keep it simple with this offense. You’ve got to find, we said this weeks ago on this show, find a couple of things work and then just pair your offense down to that. Just do that time and time again. This group is not good enough to run the full playbook. You can’t do what you did at Alabama in 2020.
Sark, you just don’t have the personnel for that right now. Stop trying to do a whole bunch of different schemes and concepts and rules and pair this thing down to stuff that works. I don’t know why Texas went away from the outside zone in the quick passing game. Everything that worked against Oklahoma, it’s like it felt like they found something. They had a breakthrough in Dallas and then they they just didn’t do it.
Made no sense. Made no sense. Obviously, the offensive line talked about them a little bit. One step forward, two steps back. Uh yeah, that that group’s just bad.
That group’s just bad. And it’s something we’re going to have to deal with all year. So, they all have to be better. Arch has to be better. The O line has to be better.
The run game has to be better. Sarkc has to be better. The whole operation has to be better. And unfortunately, at this stage in the year, I don’t have a lot of faith that it is going to be better this season. I mean, the most successful drive for the Texas offense last night, six plays, 40 yards that resulted in a field goal.
Obviously, the only touchdown drive that Texas had came after that great Ryan Nibblet 45 punt return. Shout out to him. We’ll talk more about him in segment two, but yeah, six plays, 40 yards, field goal. The closest Texas got to scoring a touchdown outside of that 5 yard drive that they had was the 21 yd line and that includes the overtime possession where they started at the 25.
Obviously they went backwards a couple of yards in OT before settling for that gamewinning field goal.
That is insane. Eight punts for Jack Bowester. Eight. He was awesome by the way. He did his job but just brutal anemic offense for Texas.
I mean, stunningly inept at this stage of the Steve Sarkeesian era. Seven games in to year five. That may have been the worst offensive performance we’ve seen from Texas in a decade. It’s it’s unbelievable that they won that football game, but this offense, they’re a 4-8 offense. They might have a 12-0 defense.
They’ve got a 4-8 offense right now.
And look, you’re going to have to score against Vanderbilt. You’re going to have to score against Georgia, Arkansas&M, and probably have to score more than 16 against Mississippi State next weekend. You’ve got to find a way to figure this thing out, man. I obviously you’re running out of time, but you have to find a way to get this offense doing something cuz that was pathetic last night against the worst team in the SEC for goodness sake.
Wow. All right, we’ll take your thoughts. Comment below. Uh just brutal from the Texas offense. Brutal, brutal, brutal.
Not much more you can say. Uh just an ugly, ugly showing.
All right, let’s get to the good. Uh, we’ll talk about the Texas defense. We’ll talk about the Longhorn special teams.
And then we’ll try to figure out where Texas goes from here. It’s coming up next right here on the Locked on Longhorns postgame show. Oh, but first, it is Sunday. Got another great slate of NFL action coming your way. Plus, a Monday Night Football double header tomorrow.
Oh, yeah. It’s a beautiful thing. And our friends at FanDuel have an offer that you don’t want to miss for this NFL season. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get 300 bucks in bonus bets if your bet wins. Yeah, that’s the deal.
You pick a bet, you put down five bucks. If that hits, you’re going to unlock $300 to instantly use across the FanDuel app.
So many ways to win, so many ways to play. You can build parlays. You’ve got player props.
You have live in-game betting as well. Whether you’re a casual fan or you love deep diving into the stats, FanDuel makes the game day experience so much better. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com today and download the FanDuel app to get started.
Also, a shout out to our friends at Quo. One of the tools that helped make a huge difference for business owners is Quo, formerly Open Phone. It’s the same great business phone system y’all have heard me talk about for a long time, just with a new name. And here’s why it matters. Every missed call is money left on the table.
When every customer conversation counts, you need a phone system that keeps you connected 24/7. Quo is the number one business phone system that streamlines customer communications. It works right through an app on your phone or computer. So, no more carrying two phones or relying on a landline. Whether you’re a solo operator juggling everything on your own or if you’re a part of the larger team, Quo makes it easy to stay responsive and professional.
See why more than 90,000 businesses trust Quo, formerly Open Phone. Get started for free and get 20% off your first six months. Just head to quo.comlockedonol. That’s qo.
comlockedoncol. It’s quo. No missed calls, no missed customers. All right, welcome back to Locked on Longhorns, your team every day. Enough with the bad.
There was a lot of it. Could spend two hours talking about the bad from last night’s win, but let’s talk about the good. The Texas defense was very good, especially considering that they were on the field for 40 minutes last night. 85 snaps for Kentucky, 52 plays for the Texas offense. Again, 26 first downs for Kentucky, eight for Texas.
It was a lot of bin don’t break. Texas gave up first downs, they gave up some yards, but when they needed to get stops, they did just that. And obviously to only give up 13 points in an overtime game when you’re on the field for twothirds plus of the contest.
That’s a big deal right there. That is a big deal.
Anthony Hill was amazing. Amazing. All three of Texas’s preseason all-Americans on defense were sensational. Anthony Hill led the team. 12 total tackles, eight of them solo.
Obviously had the interception, the one takeaway for either team in this football game. Had a PBU as well. He got hurt at one point. And then like two plays later, he comes away with the interception.
Uh he was a man amongst boys last night.
Colin Simmons, three sacks. How about five and a half sacks for Colin Simmons in his last two games. Yeah, sort of a breakout showing against Oklahoma. Then he backs it up with three more sacks. Looking very much like the preseason all-American.
Little bit of a sluggish start to the year the first month. Not the Colin Simmons that we were hoping to see, but he has put things together over these last few weeks. He has been fantastic. My god, we get him for another year after this one. Like that guy would be a first round pick if he was draft eligible in 2026.
He’s got to come back for one more year. That dude is uh wow, what a player. What a player he is. One of the best pass rushers in the conference, one of the best in the country. And that was on full display against a very experienced and very big Kentucky offensive line.
It did not matter. Michael Taff on the back end, second on the team with 10 tackles, five solo. He was flying to the football. Manny Muhammad was great. I mean, the Stars showed up.
Everybody kind of showed up for the Texas defense, but the Stars, your three preseason all-ameans, and then Manny Muhammad, your number one corner, who had a sack on a corner blitz in addition to great coverage throughout the evening. Also a PBU as well. Like those guys really shined last night.
And again, Texas needed them. Obviously, a bunch of guys showed up on that goal line stand in overtime.
They were phenomenal. The defense remains stout. Again, it’s an offense that’s 4-8. It’s a defense that looks like they’re 11-1, 12-0 good. And it sucks that Texas may end up wasting one of the what could end up being one of the best defenses in school history.
I know Kentucky doesn’t have a ton of juice on offense, but we we’ve seen enough from this Longhorn defense all season long to know that they are legit.
And obviously Texas doesn’t win this game on the road without uh those tremendous performances on that side of the football. And yeah, just you know, Texas not being able to do anything offensively. So many three and outs. It’s tough to play a bend don’t break style defense like PK wants to do when your offense is not controlling the football at all at all.
But again, they bailed the offense out of an abysmal road showing. Wow. Special teams, got to give them some love, too. Uh the two transfers, hey, Cark, you can uh maybe get some transfers for offense. How about the offensive line?
A lot of the transfers you brought in are uh making a difference for this team, including the kicker and the punter. Talked about Jack Bow Master a little bit in the first segment. Eight punts, none for touchbacks, six of them pinned inside the 20 yardd line. I know punter stats don’t really get the people going, but that should get you excited because that was that was good stuff. He flipped the field a lot for Texas and made Kentucky have to drive the length of the field a lot last night.
Mason Chiplet obviously three for three on field goal attempts including a 53 y of course the gamewinner in overtime with the crowd going nuts on the road. He was unbelievably clutch. Uh, great to see him bounce back from, you know, a game against Oklahoma where he missed two field goals. I’m sure there were a lot of Texas fans nervous when Shipley trotted out on the field for that 53 yard after he missed two from 50 plus last week. Made that one barely, but hey, he made it.
And then, yeah, the clutch kick. We haven’t really needed Mason Shipley to uh to attempt the clutch field goal this year. Obviously, that’s that’s as clutch as you can get. End of overtime uh from 45 yards on the road, he delivered.
So, shout out to Mason Shipley.
Of course, he’s good. He’s a Shipley playing at Texas. We didn’t have any doubts about him going into the year, did we? Night and day difference from the kicker that Texas had last year. And of course, Ryan Nibblet.
Man, I was pretty critical of Ryan Nibblet. I think a lot of Texas fans were critical of Ryan Nibblet early on this year, but obviously the 75 yard punt return touchdown against Oklahoma and then the 45 to set Texas up for the only touchdown of the evening for the Longhorn offense.
That was tremendous stuff. I was honestly a little nervous when Nibblet got tackled at the five. I’m like, “Oh my god, we we might not score here.
” Thankfully, the offense was able to cash in on that golden opportunity. But obviously, Ryan Nibblet, just catch the ball, man. when he catches the ball, he can make things happen. He’s one of the best athletes on the team. And uh he’s proven that over the last couple of weeks.
So, game ball to him, game ball to the special teams, game ball to the defense. Those guys again, they took care of their business. So, where do we go from here? Right. Next week at Mississippi State, Mississippi State is on a 15game conference losing streak.
That is the longest active streak in FBS college football for most conference losses in a row. It’s not a team you want to lose to. Now, they look better this year than they did last year, but that’s the reality of the situation. It’s been a long time since Mississippi State has won an SEC game. You would like to not lose to them.
You played the worst team in the conference last night. They’re the second worst team that you’re getting next week. Uh find a way to take care of business, but you’ve got to fix the offense. I I expect the defense to play great. Nice to know your special teams, which has been inconsistent up and down this year, but good to see them put it all together against Kentucky.
The offense has to figure it out. Coaches are problem solvers. The best coaches are the ones who solve the problems the fastest. We’re going into game eight. This offensive problem is not solved.
But can can it be fixed? Can it be like patched worked enough together for Texas to make a run at this thing in the final month and a half of the regular season? I don’t know. It’s hard to feel really confident about that right now. I mean, this offense had nothing going for it.
Absolutely nothing going for it last night. So, it’s it was a chore. It was a chore to watch Texas offense yesterday. It was offensively bad. And uh they got to figure it out.
They have to find a way because you’re going to need to score points against some of these good teams that you have the rest of the way. So, we’ll take your thoughts. Um a win is a win is a win. a road win in the SEC. I know Texas fans shake their head when Steve Sarkeesian talked about that in the postgame presser, but uh it’s, you know, Georgia beat Kentucky on the road last year by one.
Kentucky beat Old Miss last year. Like they still have some talented dudes on that roster, but yeah, you know, I’m going to stop the praise right there. That was that was a pretty rough showing for Texas. It almost felt like the and this is a bit apples to oranges. Probably a lot of apples to oranges comparison here.
The 09 Big 12 championship game, Texas, Nebraska. Texas was so bad offensively somehow someway. Game-winning field goal, last play of the game to get the win. They needed it to win the conference and obviously to get to the national title game that year. Uh it it felt like a loss.
That game was so bad. It felt like a loss. And even 15, 16 years later, whatever it is now, I still think about Dominoo and Jared Creek. They still haunt my nightmares. Uh that was that was last night.
Kentucky not nearly as good. It’s a Kentucky team that may be 3 and N or 4-8 this year and they were 4-8 last year. They’re not good at all. Nebraska was good enough to play for a conference title, but it it felt like that where it’s like, man, it was a win, but goodness, what did we just watch? What did we just watch?
The postU hangover, that’s real. All five games for Sarkc right after OU. Texas 0 and5 against the spread. They are three and two, but the three wins against a 4-8 Iowa State team in 2022, a 4-8 Houston team in 2023, and we’ll see what Kentucky is.
They’re now two and four here in 2025.
Bounce back. Put this one behind you, figure it out offensively, and go win a game next weekend in Starkville. But that’ll do it for the Locked on Longhorns postgame show. Texas gets the win, 16-13. I keep checking.
going to keep looking at the stats and then making sure the score is right. The Longhorns get the victory. That’ll do it for tonight’s show.
If you made it this far, God bless you. Thank you so much.
Please remember to like, subscribe, leave a comment, share, all of those great things. Can’t thank y’all enough for your continued support of Locked on Longhorns. We’ll be talking about this game all week long. And of course, we’ll uh we’ll start to turn our attention to Mississippi State as well. So, keep it right here for all of your Texas football conversation.
That’ll do it. Thanks. so much for tuning in. Until next time, horns up, mics off. We’ll see y’all soon.
This is Locked on Longhorns..
Read More: BRANDY B.NPC COMPETITOR BACK ROUTINE
