4 overreactions from Texas football’s paramount win over Kansas State

For the first time as the Texas football head coach, Steve Sarkisian was able to get a road win over a ranked opponent. On Nov. 5, No. 24 ranked Texas took down the No. 13 ranked Kansas State Wildcats and head coach Chris Klieman on the road at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan by the final score of 34-27.

There were a lot of things that this road win over Kansas State should be able to do for Sark and the Longhorns moving forward.

First and foremost, it gets the often-discussed road monkey off of Texas’ back at a key point in the season. Texas only has one more road game remaining at this point of the season, which will come on Nov. 19 against the Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence.

Texas was sitting on a five-game road losing streak with Sark as the head coach entering this critical matchup against Kansas State.

Moreover, this key road win also showed that Texas can hang onto a double-digit second-half lead. Granted, Texas didn’t make it easy after holding a comfortable 31-10 lead over the Wildcats heading into the locker room at halftime.

Overreactions to the win for Bijan Robinson and Texas football over Kansas State in Week 10

And there are a few other big takeaways coming out of this win. Here’s a look at four overreactions following the Longhorns’ triumph over the Wildcats in Week 10.

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Keilan Robinson still isn’t touching the ball enough on offense

A good portion of the overreactions we have for this week has to do with the offensive side of the ball.

Texas was good on offense throughout most of this game. But there were some lapses, especially in the second half. After scoring a whopping 31 points in the first half, the Longhorns came up with just a field goal in the final 30 minutes.

And I think a big reason for that lack of offensive scoring in the second half largely has to do with the conservative play-calling from Sark. Texas wasn’t taking any chances down the stretch in this game, and it showed as the targets to the likes of redshirt junior wide receiver Jordan Whittington, star sophomore wide receiver Xavier Worthy, redshirt junior running back Keilan Robinson, etc. largely went by the wayside in the final 20 minutes or so.

But the lack of targets that Keilan got in this game is where I want to start the conversation.

Keilan finished this game with three total touches for 19 yards. And essentially all of his production came in the receiving game, where he put up two catches for 20 yards.

And despite averaging double-digit yards after the catch per reception for the sixth straight game (among outings where he’s targeted at least once), Keilan was on the field for fewer than two-dozen offensive snaps.

Keilan is showing way too much explosiveness and overall effectiveness for him not to be getting utilized more often, namely in the receiving game. But there are ways to get him at least a few more touches in the ground game to get him in space.

This might be hard to believe for some, but Keilan is actually the highest-graded receiver of any Longhorns player so far this season.

It would be nice to see him at least get double the number of snaps and touches down the stretch this season than he got in the first nine games.