Texas Football: 4 overreactions from Longhorns’ bumpy win over Rice

While it wasn’t as impressive as many Texas football fans would’ve liked, head coach Steve Sarkisian and his squad managed to come up with a 37-10 win over the Rice Owls at home in the regular season opener on Sep. 2. Texas got off to a slow start on offense in the first half of this game, taking a 16-3 lead into the locker room at halftime.

But the Longhorns came out firing in the third quarter, as the offense put up 21 points to take a more commanding lead on the Owls. Texas got enough separation on Rice in the third quarter to put the backups in on both sides of the ball in the final 15 minutes of the game.

A long drive from the Owls that lasted over nine minutes got Rice its first touchdown of the day to give the Longhorns the 27-point win when it was all said and done.

While there were many highs and lows for Sark and the Longhorns in this game, the team has to refocus and learn from their mistakes before the massive Week 2 non-conference showdown against the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa.

Overreactions from Texas football’s win over Rice in Week 1

Here are four overreactions from Texas’ 37-10 win over Rice to open the season at home on Sep. 2.

Jaylan Ford primed to win Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2023

It was nothing new for the preseason Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, senior standout linebacker Jaylan Ford, to make some big, game-changing plays on defense for the Longhorns. Ford came up with a huge pick in the first half for Texas to give the offense another chance to get in rhythm.

Ford’s first-half interception was his fifth pick in the last eight games. He’s also forced well over a half-dozen turnovers in the last eight outings.

While the interception was easily Ford’s highlighting play for him against Rice, he had multiple other important stops for this defense. Ford had three defensive stops, good for second on the Texas defense, and no missed tackles in the win over Rice.

Ford essentially had a spotless performance with multiple big-time plays on defense this weekend. He’s on track to get the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year honors that the conference voters robbed him of last season.