The Texas Longhorns suffered an incredibly frustrating defeat to the Georgia Bulldogs in week 12 by a score of 35 to 10. Aside from their College Football Playoff hopes most likely being squashed unless they get a huge win against Texas A&M in two weeks, Longhorn Nation has to deal with another crucial loss due to self-inflicted issues.
The running theme for Texas in 2025 continues to be "Death, taxes, and offensive penalties". It's truly unbelievable how undisciplined this team is week in and week out. The Longhorns continue to go through spurts of excellence, followed by untimely penalties that kill drives more often than not.
With all that being said, here are three huge observations from the loss:
1. Ryan Wingo needs to catch 100 balls every day in practice
Much like the penalty issues, it's hard to fathom how Wingo continues to drop as many passes as he does this deep into the season. I'm not sure what the coaching staff has been doing to fix the issue up to this point, but it's obviously not working.
He needs to spend extra time before and after practice on the Jugs Machine because he's hurting the offense every single week.
2. Kade Phillips isn't ready to play as much as he currently is
Phillips is young and has tons of potential, but he's just not ready for the type of snap share that he's currently getting. He's made a few nice plays this year, but his youth and lack of experience have been taken advantage of a few times this season.
He shows great hustle and isn't afraid to step up and make plays against the run, but he still needs to learn a few things in coverage. Georgia targeted Phillips tonight on quite a few plays, and the Bulldogs were pretty successful when doing so.
3. Texas needs to have a penalty intervention
The Longhorns have to stop shooting themselves in the foot every week with these unnecessary penalties on offense. The number of false start and holding penalties that Texas' offense commits on a weekly basis is sickening.
Something (still) needs to change, and fast.