No. 7 Texas will look to work on itself and build momentum for the gauntlet ahead when it clashes with UTEP on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
The Longhorns (1-1) play at home for the second straight week after bouncing back from a 14-7 season-opening loss at Ohio State. Texas easily handled San Jose State 38-7 on Sept. 6 as quarterback Arch Manning passed for 295 yards and four touchdowns and added another TD on the ground.
“I thought Arch had a very good football game,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “He was not perfect. I do not expect him to be. We obviously challenged Arch from one week to the next. He obviously responded. And I think there’s still growing pains in there.”
The Longhorns’ defense was stifling and opportunistic, producing four turnovers led by All-America linebacker Anthony Hill Jr.’s two forced fumbles. Parker Livingstone had 128 receiving yards and two touchdown catches and CJ Baxter rushed for 64 yards for Texas.
“There’s some growing pains from a staff perspective, too,” Sarkisian said. “What do we really like? What works, what doesn’t? Even when things don’t go exactly the way we want, are we able to adjust it in game and get better?
“We have some new faces. There’s going to be some growing pains. I wasn’t naive to that, to think we were just going to be a well-oiled machine the first month of the season. But I want to see some incremental growth, and there were some errors Saturday that need to improve.”
The UTEP game is the second of three in a row at home for the Longhorns, after which Texas has an open week and then travels to Florida for its Southeastern Conference opener. The Longhorns will face Sam Houston State on Sept. 20 and won’t play at home again until squaring off against Vanderbilt on Nov. 1.
The Miners (1-1) head to Austin after a dominating 42-17 win over UT Martin on Saturday, in the process producing their largest margin of victory since 2022.
UTEP got 278 passing yards, four passing TDs and another score on the ground from quarterback Malachi Nelson in the victory. In two games this season, Nelson — who played at both USC and Boise State before transferring to UTEP — has completed 36 of 60 passes in the Miners’ “pace and space” offense.
Hahsaun Wilson rushed for 117 yards for UTEP that included a 94-yard scoring sprint, the longest play from scrimmage in program history. And the Miners’ defense controlled the line of scrimmage, allowing only 76 yards on 40 rush attempts (1.9 yards per carry), the fewest rushing yards by a UTEP opponent with at least 40 attempts since 1971.
“We played one of our first complete games since we’ve been here,” UTEP coach Scotty Walden said. “I thought we played extremely physical. We have a lot to clean up and a lot to get better … but very proud of the win. Proud of the football team and our coaching staff in bouncing back from the first-game loss.”
The Longhorns have won all six times they’ve played UTEP, most recently a 59-3 victory in 2020 in which Texas scored 45 points in the first half.
