It's still two weeks until the season kicks off, and based on people's social media reactions, you would think that the Texas Longhorns' football stadium had gone up in flames at their second scrimmage of fall camp.
Between people taking a player's dismissal way too deeply, to one parent being shockingly upset online, to people believing quarterback Arch Manning had tanked, even fans were thinking the worst.
However, let's all take a deep breath and really delve into those three storylines:
1. Hayward Howard Jr.'s father's online tirade
After the scrimmage took place, the father of true freshman defensive back Hayward Howard Jr. took to X to express some clear displeasure with his son's team.
"A LOT OF BULL S--- GOING ON AT TEXAS AS A PARENT, I’M VERY DISAPPOINTED... I DID NOT PLAY THE POLITIC GAMES MY SON PLAY FOOTBALL [AND] HE DOES IT VERY WELL!!! IT'S A LOT OF S--- GOING ON YALL DONT KNOW IN IM ABOUT TO EXPOSE THIS S---," Hayward Howard Sr. wrote.
Well... that's certainly one way to air out your grievances.
Many responded to the tweet or reposted it with their own explanation, sharing that Howard Jr. simply hadn't played in that day's scrimmage, and as a four-star prospect who had committed to the Horns over a slew of other programs, his father was pretty upset by that fact.
Not exactly the end-of-the-world vibe that his initial message gave off to those who weren't willing to dig a little deeper into what was actually going on.
Nearly nine hours after Howard's initial tweet, he had yet to post anything further about the "bulls---" going on at Texas.
2. Ty'Anthony Smith dismissed from the program
Veteran linebacker Ty'Anthony Smith was dismissed from the team, and the news of his dismissal broke on Saturday morning.
Head coach Steve Sarkisian immediately addressed this fact with the media, saying, "Conduct detrimental to the team, and that’s just what it is. I didn’t like it. It’s an unfortunate situation for him individually. Again, I hate that. For us as a team, I hate that. He’s a quality player, but I have to think about the team first."
Young adults make poor choices sometimes, even elite college football players who have their whole lives ahead of them.
Of course, it was jarring to see that a junior, who had been with the Longhorns for three years, had been dismissed, especially after earning 59 total tackles (39 solo), two sacks, two interceptions, and two forced fumbles in 2025.
However, from what Sarkisian said, it sounds like he handled the issue at hand swiftly to do what was best for the rest of the program. And if we're going to trust anyone on the matter, shouldn't we trust the head coach himself and not random individuals on social media?
3. Arch Manning's "subpar" performance
Last but not least, after one sentence that Sarkisian made while describing Manning's performance on Saturday, the world was already jumping at the opportunity to drop him from the Heisman conversation.
"I felt like today, similar to last week at the start, a little bit inefficient. I feel like he could be better," Sarkisian said.
Not a glowing review, but far from Sarkisian actually saying anything bad about how Manning had played in the scrimmage.
At the end of the day, it was reported that Manning had two touchdowns, one to Ryan Wingo and one to Emmett Mosley, while playing roughly 50 snaps. That's a passing TD every 25 snaps. No, that isn't exactly ideal, but in a limited appearance in the scrimmage, what more would people really expect out of Texas's QB1?
Yes, you want your head coach to be raving about your QB1, but we all have bad days, and the season is still two weeks from actually kicking off.
Ultimately, everyone needs to take everything they read online with a grain of salt, take a deep breath, maybe unplug for a few hours, and wait until the Longhorns take the field in the actual season before they even look toward the panic button.
Add us as a preferred source on Google