Texas Football: 3 reasons the Longhorns can upset Iowa State

This isn’t the best version of Brock Purdy

A lot of the usual progressions that you will witness from a quarterback as talented and prominent as Iowa State’s senior signal-caller Brock Purdy aren’t happening in the last couple of seasons for the 6-foot-1 and 220-pound fourth-year starter. While Purdy is turning the ball over fewer times this season compared to the last two or three, that’s largely because of how much of the offense was simplified for him.

Given how explosive a lot of the plays Purdy was making during his freshman and sophomore campaigns were, you would figure that Campbell and his staff would be more willing to open the offense up as the years went by. Instead, the opposite has happened.

Purdy went from averaging around 10.5 adjusted yards per passing attempt and north of 11 average depth of target in the passing game as a freshman, to 7.6 average depth of target and around 8.5 adjusted yards per passing attempt this fall. Considering the fact that Purdy is getting more than three seconds in the pocket to throw per dropback, it looks like he does have ample time to go through his reads.

But Iowa State is limiting the offense to get the ball to the trio of star running back Breece Hall, wide receiver Xavier Hutchison, and tight end Charlie Kolar most of the time. That limits what Purdy can do in the passing game and using his legs.

And if you take Purdy’s offensive grade against teams with .500 records or better this fall, he’s got one of the three worst in the Big 12 among quarterbacks this season. He’s struggled at times when facing at least decent teams this season, even at home.

This is something that the Longhorns need to take advantage of. Don’t let the experienced Purdy use his supporting cast to get a second-half rally going like Baylor, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State did against Texas.