Texas Football: 5 takeaways from the Longhorns 2019 regular season

5. The offensive line was a big detriment to the offense

There wasn’t much to boast for the Texas football program in the trenches on the offensive side of the ball this season. The tight ends didn’t stay healthy enough to consistently block well and make an impact in both the ground game and through the air.

Junior tight end Cade Brewer was figured to be the centerpiece of this position group this season, but he wound up playing in only six games. Pretty much every year of Brewer’s career that he had any shot at regular playing time was plagued by injury. He is dealing with an ankle injury at the moment and might not even be back for the bowl game.

Without a solid tight end to rely on in the blocking game, which Herman likes to have in the mix, the Longhorns had to turn to hoping the offensive line would come through. And boy were they not able to do that. Junior quarterback Sam Ehlinger was sacked often this season. Texas allowed the most sacks in the Big 12 this season. And Texas ranked outside of the top 110 teams in the FBS in sacks allowed this season (33.0 total).

It was good that the Longhorns had one of the better duos at running back in the Big 12 this season. If not, then Texas wouldn’t have come close to touching 4.5 yards per carry this season. An offensive line that will keep a focus on redshirt sophomore Sam Cosmi and redshirt freshman Junior Angilau moving forward has to get better in the bowl game.

The advanced analytics (thanks to Football Outsiders) didn’t like the Texas offensive line either, who ranked outside the top 85 FBS programs in sack rate and power success rate.