Texas Football: 3 adjustments Sarkisian must make before Big 12 play

Continue to get Xavier Worthy the ball more often

One of the few sources of success in the passing game for the Longhorns in the 58-point win over Rice last weekend was the developing connection between speedy freshman wide receiver Xavier Worthy and redshirt junior quarterback Casey Thompson. Texas

Since the regular season opener, we haven’t seen much out of the former five-star recruit and redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jordan Whittington. In the last two games, Whittington has had six catches for just 39 receiving yards and no touchdowns. That all comes after a season opener where he registered seven catches for 113 yards and one touchdown.

Texas needs to continue to press to get Whittington involved. But Worthy is the target in the passing game that is really looking like a good fit with Thompson. Worthy has gone from a single-digit number of yards after the catch in the season opener, to a double-digit in the loss to Arkansas, to a real breakthrough in the win over Rice.

Worthy specifically had a whopping 66 yards after the catch against Rice. He also hasn’t dropped a single pass through three games, has six first downs, and four missed tackles forced. Worthy is making plays almost every time he gets the ball in his hands and is not making many mistakes at all in any phase of the game.

Whittington just wasn’t targeted very often against Rice, but there will definitely be situations to get him involved against Texas Tech. He has missed two opportunities to come down with contested catches against Arkansas and Rice, though. That compiles with two drops from the Arkansas game

Meanwhile, Joshua Moore hasn’t been very involved at all but doesn’t have many mistakes that he’s made on the season. He’s still an option to be a threat on the outside for Thompson and the Longhorns.