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We'll learn how strong the Texas offensive foundation is soon

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook10/03/25josephcook89
Steve Sarkisian
Steve Sarkisian (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Back in 2023 during the Big 12 Championship, which happened to be game 13 of the season for the Longhorns, Steve Sarkisian dialed up a trick play that showed how Texas was playing a different game that day than the Oklahoma State Cowboys. It took planning, cohesion, and execution. The most inexperienced player involved with the play was CJ Baxter, who simply had to lateral the ball to Adonai Mitchell.

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Mitchell tossed the ball back to Quinn Ewers, and Ewers’ job from that point was easy. The second-year quarterback just needed to throw the ball near third-year tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders. As Texas fans remember fondly, that’s exactly what happened.

Then last year, in the Longhorns’ ninth game of the 2024 campaign, Texas ran a play that still goes viral on social media almost 365 days later. Dan Casey, a staple on X’s and O’s Twitter, called this long rush by Isaiah Bond “Orbit Sweep + Spinner GH Counter + Bluff Reverse.” It took proper execution from a veteran quarterback in Ewers, an offensive line with four future pros, and a veteran wideout in Bond to advance up the field as Texas routed Florida.

This year, those plays haven’t shown up quite yet. And it’s not solely because Sarkisian has elected to hold things back before conference play, though it’d be naive to think that didn’t play a small role.

Rather, the list of players who were involved in those plays, and who are expected to play an active role on Saturday against the Gators in Gainesville, is not very long.

Trick plays are complicated by nature, but a lot of Sarkisian’s offense is complex, too. That complexity does take time for players to turn it into second nature. With a new starting quarterback in Arch Manning, four new starters on the O-line, and fresh faces at the skill positions, Texas maybe hasn’t put as many different things in front of opposing defenses as observers might like. For almost the entire Ohio State game, Texas bounced between 11 and 12 personnel.

Sarkisian in the past has said he likes to be able to run a lot of different plays from a lot of different looks. He also wants to run those plays well, and avoids variety for variety’s sake.

So with a younger team and experience building on the offense, what’s his approach? Does he pare back his playbook or are we about to see more from the Longhorn offense?

“What we actually try to do is implement schemes and then as the season goes on find multiple ways to run the same schemes out of different personnel groupings, formations, motions, shifts, so on and so forth,” Sarkisian said Thursday. “We really don’t make up new plays once the season starts going. We find more creative ways to run the same plays. When I talked earlier in the week about laying the foundation, that’s really what we did throughout training camp and the first four weeks of the season. We had to make sure we laid that solid foundation for some of these guys that were new to our system or new to playing so that we could expand on that and find more creative ways to do the things we are doing well.”

Inside zone is inside zone, split zone is split zone, GH counter is GH counter. But what if the play is from shotgun as opposed to under center? What if the blocker splitting out gets a running start from a wide position? What if GH counter uses an attached tight end one play and a player in the H-back position the next?

Passing concepts are in the same boat. The three-level deep-to-short play-action concepts that are staple Sarkisian plays don’t vary much, but Texas can run them with different personnel, alignments, and more.

Mastering those concepts and then utilizing them from different looks is a process, one Texas has a chance to show is going well at Florida.

Remember how Texas ran 11 and 12 primarily at Ohio State? Against UTEP, there was some 13 personnel. With Wisner returning, there’s a chance Sarkisian could put two running backs on the field at once. Ryan Niblett is versatile enough to almost break personnel numbering conventions as he could take handoffs just as easily as he could run a slot fade. Those Orbit motion handoffs for Ryan Wingo? Maybe it’s time to play off that in a way opponents have never seen.

Those developments against UTEP signified that Sark wasn’t off when talking about laying a foundation. Of course, execution looked off across the board for that contest and it took a get-right game against Sam Houston to further solidify the offensive foundation ahead of Southeastern Conference play. But that 55-0 drubbing and a bye week to prepare for the SEC gauntlet gave Texas plenty of opportunity to see what they do well and can develop over conference play and what they might need to keep as simple as possible, if even use at all.

Texas just needs to look to its defense. There’s only one player in Graceson Littleton who is in the regular rotation and also in his first season of college football. Whether it’s Michael Taaffe or Jelani McDonald or Anthony Hill or Trey Moore or Colin Simmons or Alex January or Hero Kanu, those players understand the types of concepts they’re going to be running regularly and have them mastered to a point where Texas is considered one of the best defenses in the nation. And even they showed a bit more against Sam Houston, though that may fit more into the “holding things back for conference play” category than the “developing an aspect needed for the rest of the season” department.

Sarkisian’s team will face a stout defense on Saturday. The Longhorns will need to run their offense efficiently. It could be a first to 20 points wins game, after all. For Arch Manning, who is in his third year of college football but at the position with the most responsibilities, it’s a chance to show his game is built on solid ground.

A way to increase that efficiency? Show a bit more than they showed against Sam Houston, or San Jose State, or even Ohio State. Not because they were holding it back.

“I think you just don’t show up in week one and run a bunch of crazy plays with 19 different formations,” Sarkisian said.

But rather based off progress made from the beginning of the season by an offense that’s taken a good amount of time to jell.

“It’s more about we’ve got to lay a solid foundation so we can build upon it as the season goes,” Sarkisian said.

And who knows, maybe they’ll throw some of that crazy stuff out there anyway. It’d make more sense now as Texas has built up reps on offense to lay a foundation. Saturday provides an opportunity to go prove it is strong enough to support the attempt to reach the heights of the sport this year.

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