4 overreactions after Texas's sloppy win over Vanderbilt

Texas's punting game is broken

One of the underrated contributing factors that led to Vandy hanging around late into the fourth quarter in yesterday's game was Texas's field position and punting game struggles on special teams. Sarkisian and the Longhorns lost the field position battle big-time in this game, with every single Vandy scoring drive coming no further than their own 40-yard line from Texas's end zone.

Two of the three touchdown drives for Vandy were set up with the Commodore offense in plus territory after Ewers' tipped-ball turnovers on interceptions.

Freshman punter Michael Kern struggled to pin Vandy deep in this game, with the average starting field position for the Commodores offense being nearly in Texas territory.

Since Week 5, Texas ranks in the bottom half of the SEC in average defensive starting field position and net punting yards on special teams. Texas's defense has been at or within 10 yards of field position starting in its own territory on nearly half the opponent offensive drives in the past two games vs. Georgia and Vandy in the SEC.

In these close games, Texas is hampering its own defensive ability to win the possession battle while it needs to be helping the offense with advantageous field position right now as much as possible in the SEC against these tough opponents.

It might be worth asking the question if Texas should be starting Kern or Ian Ratliff for the punting duties. Ratliff pinned Georgia inside its own 20 yard line once and averaged over 38 net yards per punt in Week 7.

Check out our latest Texas football articles on Hook'em Headlines