Texas Football: 5 overreactions after Longhorns’ stomping of BYU

Texas will dominate the rest of Big 12 play

If Sark and the Longhorns still had Ewers healthy, leading the offense into the final month of the regular season, it wouldn’t be out of the question to say that Texas would be significant favorites in each game remaining on the schedule. But with Texas starting a redshirt freshman with some issues getting settled into the game early on against BYU, Vegas is more skeptical of the Longhorns’ chances down the stretch.

Texas opened as just a 5.5-point favorite against head coach Chris Klieman and the No. 25 Kansas State Wildcats for this crucial Week 10 matchup at home at DKR. Kansas State is a red-hot team that has decimated its last few opponents, including a 41-0 shutout win over the same Houston team that pushed the Longhorns to the brink on the road in Week 8.

The schedule doesn’t get much easier after the Kansas State game, either. Texas has road games against an unpredictable TCU squad in Fort Worth on Nov. 11 and a rapidly improving Iowa State team in Ames on Nov. 18. That Iowa State game is starting to look pretty challenging, with the Cyclones winning its last three games and two in a row at home.

The good news is there is a chance that the Longhorns have Ewers back either for the TCU or Iowa State game on the road in mid-November. Sark originally said that the timetable for Ewers’ return from the shoulder injury he suffered against Houston last week was “week-to-week”.

And given what we saw from Murphy and the Longhorns in a tough spot against BYU this weekend, covering the spread with a convincing 29-point win at home, it’s plausible that Texas wins big against some of these challenging opponents in November.

Sark has found plenty of success against some quality Kansas State teams in the last two seasons. Texas is 2-0 against Kansas State in the last two seasons under Sark, including a big road win last year over the Wildcats.

Texas was the only conference foe to beat the Big 12 Champion Kansas State in Manhattan last season. Sark and the Longhorns also found a way to beat Kansas State amid a plethora of quarterback injuries when these two teams met at DKR on Black Friday two years ago.

That 2021 meeting between Texas and Kansas State essentially saw running back Roschon Johnson with the game on his shoulders at quarterback for the Longhorns.

Sark had to get creative in some challenging games in the last two years against Kansas State. He’ll be tasked with the same challenge to beat a top-25 Kansas State team at home with Murphy at quarterback next weekend.