The Texas Longhorns enter their second season in the SEC as a rising team. They made a deep run in last year’s playoff, knocking off Tennessee in the first round and Arizona State in the quarterfinals before losing to the eventual champions, Ohio State, in the semifinals.
So, while Arch Manning is now the quarterback, that doesn’t mean all of their problems are solved. According to one former Longhorn quarterback, they must fix one specific issue to win a championship.
What Does Texas Have To Do To Get Over the Hump?
Vince Young led Texas to its last national championship following the 2005 season, when he and the Longhorns beat USC in the Rose Bowl. Young appeared on “The Stampede” podcast and discussed how the Longhorns have their identity squared away but must also improve once they cross the opponents’ 20-yard line.
“They’ve been through the adversity,” Young said. “When you have a coach that is somebody that you want to play for and understands what we need to do to get there.”
“The last two years have just been mistakes,” Young added. “I feel just knowing who you are, what we said about who your identity is, and then that red zone has to be fixed. That’s going to make or break Texas football this year.”
The Longhorns look good on paper in the red zone. On 69 trips inside opponents’ 20-yard line, they scored 79.71% of the time, with 44 touchdowns and 11 field goals.
However, when you scratch the surface, it’s apparent the Longhorns have work to do. Their red zone scoring rate was 87.88% against nonconference opponents, compared with 72.22% against SEC teams.
There’s also a glaring difference between wins (81.97%) and losses (62.5%), a 19.47-point discrepancy, and likely the culprit Young is referencing.
This isn’t a recent problem. It has haunted coach Sarkisian and the Longhorns for a while, rearing its head in the semifinal playoff game against Ohio State.
According to Gerald Goodridge at Burnt Orange Nation, the Longhorns failed on fourth-down chances in three pivotal games (2025 Cotton Bowl, 2024 Sugar Bowl, and the 2023 Red River Showdown), showing that Sarkisian has been unable to convert big plays on the big stage.
Texas’s most deficient area in big games has been its running game. Against the Buckeyes, they were held to just 58 rushing yards — not inside the red zone, but for the entire game.
For the Longhorns to reach the next level, they must improve red zone execution and find a way to establish the running game against elite opponents.