Texas vs. Kentucky Replay: Major takeaways from a rewatch and looking to A&M

Over on @NashTalksTexas on X or at @TexasClips on YouTube, you’ll find full replays of every game this season. The latest replay is live on the channel. While going through the game, here are some rapid-fire thoughts I had.

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1st Quarter

-Quinn Ewers looks like he is really establishing a connection with Matthew Golden with Isaiah Bond still having lingering injury issues

-The first drive the offense did a good job of negating lost yardage and converting a 3rd and 11, Quinn had some nice throws

-Wilcox breaks off an 18 yard run for the Kentucky first play, this was one of three 10+ yard rushes our defense allowed all day

-Anthony Hill Jr. is such a menace that even when blocked he creates a sack, the defensive line and linebackers were flat out dominant in rushing the passer on Saturday

-Texas doesn’t convert on 4th down but Gunnar Helm had fallen on his route, without that Texas at least gets a field goal opportunity that drive

-The Texas defense swarms to the football, it is rare to not see orange jerseys around a ball carrier

-Quinn has one of his better deep balls on 3rd and 13 fall without hitting anyone’s hands, refs likely missed a DPI there

-Texas allowed 16 yards rushing the rest of the first quarter after the 18 yard run

2nd Quarter

-The first defensive drive (continued from the first quarter) was almost the epitome of Pete Kwiatkowski’s philosophy, bend but don’t break. Kentucky earned that TD.

-Amazing touch throw from Quinn Ewers to Isaiah Bond, Quinn is looking comfortable but he is injured on this drive

-Texas gets lucky to have the drive extended from a dumb Kentucky penalty, we score off that mistake

-Jaydon Blue and Tre Wisner are showing some really nice runs early, good solid blocks up front too

-The Texas kickoff coverage unit bottles up a dangerous returner with speed in Barion Brown

-Jelani McDonald shows off why he can be such a special player with an extremely high ceiling, this is up there with the Wardell Mack INT vs. Colorado State

-Quinn Ewers looks like a statue for the most part trying not to move and is getting rid of the ball sooner than usual, but this looks like it is helping him and his accuracy is unimpeded

-A great example is the beautiful throw to Gunnar Helm for his second TD of the day

-This Texas team was abusing Brock Vandagriff

-Silas Bolden kicks off what is about to be a huge fumble party, all in all there were 9 fumbles from both teams… did the footballs come from P Diddy’s house?

-Another great deep ball from Quinn with another possible DPI missed

3rd Quarter

-The new freshman enters the game and is immediately swallowed up by Trey Moore

-Jahdae Barron in a rare moment gets greedy allowing the speedy Brown to get open for a 43 yard gain, the only catch allowed by Barron and the highest yardage allowed in a game this year

-This Texas team continues to assault this new QB but Cutter Boley looks up for the challenge, talented QB. GREAT 4th down stop to get him and the offense off the field.

-Jaydon Blue fumbles the ball, giving it away on what probably should’ve been a death march to put us up 31-7

-Boley might be the best QB Texas has faced all year when it’s all said and done, this dude is impressive against a TOUGH Texas pass defense

-This drive is a prefect example of bend but don’t break, Kentucky misses the field goal after 3 plays from 7 yards or less out

-This offense had a forgettable 3rd quarter, right as we get the ball back Quinn fumbles/throws an INT into the defenders hands after the ball comes out funny on a pass attempt. This play goes for 6.

4th Quarter

-Texas misses another FG after what should be a drive adding more points, Bert has had an inconsistent season going 9-13 on FG attempts

-Texas looks like they want to impose their will and they do running the ball with Tre Wisner who is looking REALLY good

-This is the death march Texas was looking for, with a 10 point lead this time. Texas runs the ball 15 straight times, eating away 8 and a half minutes of valuable clock

-Kentucky drives the ball down the field but an amazing INT from Andrew Mukuba (after just missing another earlier) seals the game for Texas

-Love victory formation

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Overall Thoughts

-Quinn looked pretty good, even after the injury. We will see how much of that was adrenaline.

-Tre Wisner was running the damn ball

-We need to focus on ball security, the whole team

-Kentucky was a far different team with Boley leading the charge, but Texas would’ve won a 4Q game still

-Defense played amazing, the level of trust in that side of the ball is at an all-time high

-We won, not worried about how close it was… fix the details and it’s a blowout