Additional involvement from Isaiah Bond, Ryan Wingo would be a boon for Texas' offense

Texas’ passing offense has struggled this season relative to expectations, there’s no way to sugarcoat that.

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Yes, the Longhorns are 16th in passing yards per game on the season, but with an offense that entered the year featuring a Heisman-hopeful quarterback in Quinn Ewers, a potential Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line, one of the best offensive minds in the sport, and six blue-chip receivers, many expected Texas to exceed last year’s passing yards per game numbers.

Plenty of reasons exist for the step down. But what has been most surprising, especially over the last two weeks, is the inability to get the ball in the hands of two of the most important players on Steve Sarkisian offense.

There has been a significant lack of contributions from Isaiah Bond and Ryan Wingo in recent weeks.

Bond is the most electric pass-catcher on this roster but a lingering ankle issue has limited his effectiveness since a scintillating start to the season.

Wingo, on the other hand, is Texas’ largest receiver at 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds and is freakishly athletic. His first catch as a Longhorn saw him fight off a 6-foot-3 Colorado State defensive back for a tough grab.

The problem is that even with these two talented receivers playing a high-impact position, the flow of the offense has not allowed them to thrive in these last few weeks. Below are charts showing the difference in stats between weeks 1-3 and the last three weeks heading into the A&M game, and how little Bond and Wingo are getting involved compared to other top targets Matthew Golden and Gunnar Helm.

In games like the season opener against Colorado State, all three players occupying the roles of boundary WR, field WR, and tight end were able to feast and create chances. But in the last three contests, Wingo especially has been basically non-existent, and Bond hasn’t hit 100 all-purpose yards in a game since Mississippi State.

There are plenty of reasons that this may be the case, none of them with easily fixable answers. Generally, Sarkisian likes Bond and Wingo winning downfield, and with Ewers sitting in the bottom ten among Power Five QBs in deep-ball completion percentage, it’s hard to expect those two to make huge plays downfield with how poorly the deep ball has been completed this year.

Because of this, teams have often cheated up in the passing game. Arkansas’s three-high safeties really pushed Texas’ passing game to its limits, and Ewers threw the ball mostly to Helm, who averaged five air yards per target in the game. The Longhorn tight end is effective at fighting for tough catches, at least more so than players like Bond and Wingo. If not Helm, the ball has often found a running back in the pass game or other wideouts in the screen game, plays that aren’t typically conducive to big yards.

In addition to the inability to find Wingo and Bond, DeAndre Moore Jr. has also been nearly non-existent in recent games. Though he has battled some injuries as well, Moore has just 14 receiving yards in his last three games, a surprising slump given his 97-yard breakout performance against Vanderbilt. Silas Bolden has taken on some extra responsibilities, but his value is less as a traditional pass catcher.

Ewers’ two best games of the season were against Vanderbilt and Michigan, averaging 267 passing yards and three touchdowns in the two games. Two distinct things happened in those two games that need to show up again against Texas A&M for Texas to out-duel a strong A&M front.

Against Michigan, Texas didn’t use the young Wingo much in the passing game, but an end-around run broke open the Wolverine defense for 55 yards to ice the game in the third quarter. Wingo’s legs were a consistent threat in Ann Arbor, even with Sarkisian hesitant to scheme passes to a player in his second collegiate game. Ewers also targeted Helm, Golden, and Bond very evenly, connecting with Bond on a 33-yard pass and averaging over 13 yards for his average depth of target.

Seven weeks later against the Commodores, with Bond sidelined, Moore rose to the occasion and diced through a Vanderbilt team that prioritizes size at nickel and safety, not coverage ability.

Take a guess at the biggest personnel weakness on A&M’s defense. The Aggies have bounced between two nickels this year, neither of whom have been the most impressive in coverage. Moore was the engine that drove the offense when Bond was out and Golden struggled, which is why Sarkisian needs to find ways to get these guys involved despite the limitations at the quarterback position to put the offense in a strong position to succeed in Kyle Field.

Whether it’s scheming jaw-dropping end-arounds like Bond’s against Florida, or simply having Ewers find Wingo deep downfield like Arch Manning did against UTSA, it’s hard to expect Texas beats Texas A&M with Bond, Moore and Wingo combining for just 50 yards on the day.

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Sarkisian has been prepping for this game for months now, it’s time to get his best playmakers involved.