Same story, different Saturday: Texas’ OL continues to struggle against UTEP

It's no secret that Texas' offensive line has been fairly underwhelming in 2025 so far, regardless of the opponent. To no surprise, they're continuing to struggle today against UTEP in the run game.

To their credit, pass protection has been pretty good but they can't get anything going on the ground due to immediate penetration on the interior. It's getting to the point to where the offense is becoming one-dimensional for Steve Sarkisian. The worst part about underperforming in the run game is that it hinders the Longhorns' offense in more than just one way.

Yes, the overall ground game is suffering heavily, which is an enormous part of winning football games, but it also renders the offense useless in play action as well. There needs to be some sort of run threat in order to influence defenses in this department.

PA passing was a huge topic of conversation this week amongst the media, and it's not hard to see why Arch Manning hasn't been effective; There's been absolutely no run game for Texas in 2025.

As we've continued to see in the 1st half of this game, UTEP's defensive line is routinely getting interior penetration and making stops in the backfield. Cole Hutson and Connor Stroh have a bad habit of "reaching" or lunging at defensive tackles, which makes it easy for defenders to swipe their hands away at the point of attack. They need to play more controlled and do a better job of staying on their blocks.

There were two specific plays early on in the game where Hutson fell of a block early, which led to Jerrick Gibson being tackled for a loss. This UTEP defensive line is no joke and has a couple of legitimate playmakers that transferred in this offseason.

Let's see if anything changes over the course of the night for Texas' run game.