Texas Football: 3 takeaways from frustrating Alamo Bowl loss to UW

Jonathon Brooks overcomes a slow start to have a solid close to the Alamo Bowl

To start this game, redshirt junior running back Keilan Robinson was getting the bulk of the touches over redshirt freshman Jonathon Brooks. But Keilan was having a hard time finding much room to run early on. The same could be said for Brooks in the first half, as neither was able to get an explosive play on the ground.

Although, Brooks was at least able to find the end zone on a nice 34-yard touchdown catch coming out of the locker room at halftime. That helped to get the offense going a little bit after a sluggish start. Texas put up just three points in the first half, its lowest point total in the first 30 minutes of a bowl game in more than a decade.

Fortunately, we did see Brooks make more impact plays on the game in the second half. I already mentioned the 34-yard touchdown catch. Brooks was able to find the end zone a second time, on a short rushing touchdown.

That score from Brooks in the fourth quarter kept Texas in the game, and ultimately nearly saw this team come one drive short of tying things up.

Moreover, there were some real positives to take away from this game in the second half in terms of what we saw from Brooks. He got some chunk plays on the ground and played a role in the receiving game in a positive sense.

The main thing that I would’ve liked the Longhorns to do differently is get Brooks involved in the offense in more of a variety of ways early on in the first half. Brooks has the ability to set the tone on the ground with his shiftiness and field vision to hit the hole quickly. But Sark wasn’t giving him the ball much at all out of the gates.

Coming out of the bowl game, I think Brooks did enough to give the coaching staff something to think about in terms of who takes the RB1 snaps in spring ball between him, Keilan, and incoming freshman Cedric Baxter Jr.