Texas Football: 5 takeaways from Longhorns’ messy win over Kansas

Texas still has special teams issues that must be fixed before Red River

Speaking of miscues, one of the messiest parts of this game for the Longhorns was the field goal kicking. Auburn struggled to hit any field goal kicks from distance, missing both attempts from over 30 yards.

After going 21-of-26 on field goal tries last season, Auburn is just 9-of-14 on field goal attempts this season. He already has as many misses through five games as he did all last season.

It’s good that Texas didn’t need Auburn to hit those two field goal tries in the middle of this game since the offense was able to start putting many points on the board late in the second half.

The most glaring number for the field-goal kicking is that Auburn is just 2-of-6 on attempts of at least 40 yards this season. He was 2-of-4 coming into this game.

It’s probably worth special teams coordinator/tight ends coach Jeff Banks giving second-year kicker Will Stone a try with the field goal unit this week. Stone hasn’t attempted any field goals in his time at Texas in the last two seasons. But given Auburn’s struggles in the kicking game this season, I have to think giving Stone a shot makes a lot of sense at this point.

The good news for Banks and the Longhorns is that they cleaned up the mistakes in the punt return game after muffing two punts in last week’s win over the Baylor Bears on the road.