Don’t expect top-ranked Texas to shake off its “business as usual” rhetoric just because the numbers are up as it opens Southeastern Conference play against Mississippi State on Saturday afternoon in Austin, Texas.
Yes, the Longhorns (4-0) will be playing their first game against an SEC opponent as a member of the toughest consensus conference in the country. But Texas is guaranteed to play Alabama in 2022 and 2023, beating the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa last season, and by consensus the past two years.
“We believe in our formula for success and what that looks like,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday. “We respect that this is our first SEC game at home and what that looks like. We’ll take that side, but that won’t affect how we prepare for the game and how we go about our business. in the game.
“The way we look at it, this is the SEC championship game.”
The Longhorns will head into Saturday’s rematch of a huge 51-3 home win over Louisiana-Monroe last week, in which freshman quarterback Arch Manning passed for 258 yards, two scores and two interceptions in just over three quarters of play. It was Manning’s first start with many problems, and afterward he said the game “felt long” to him.
Manning was on the back burner against the Warhawks due to an injury to Quinn Ewers, whom Sarkisian called questionable for the game against the Bulldogs as he bounces back from being tough. Ewers will be monitored throughout the week.
“Quinn has to be able to run the whole game (once he’s back),” Sarkisian said.
Texas is tied for first in the nation in scoring defense with an average of 5.5 points allowed per game. The top three teams in the number — Ole Miss, Texas and Georgia — are members of the SEC, with fellow league members Tennessee fifth and Alabama sixth.
The Bulldogs (1-3, 0-1 SEC) travel to Austin for the first time since 1992 on the heels of a 45-28 home loss to Florida last week in their conference opener. Mississippi State, in its first season under coach Jeff Lebby, has dropped three straight games.
The Bulldogs will be without quarterback Blake Shapen after the former Baylor signal-caller suffered a shoulder injury in the fourth quarter of the loss to Florida. Shapen was ruled out for the season.
True freshman Michael Van Buren Jr. replaced him for the rest of the game and led two extended drives in mopup duty, one that ended in a rushing TD and another that ended in a goal line drive as time expired.
“I was proud of the way Mike was able to rally us in the fourth quarter,” Lebby said Monday. “He’s a guy who has a lot of confidence in himself and the guys around him. It’s about focusing really little, taking care of the ball a lot, creating possible results, and putting us in good situations.”
Saturday’s game is the fifth between Texas and Mississippi State and the first since the 1999 Cotton Bowl, in which the Longhorns cruised to a 38-11 victory. The team series is tied at 2-2.
–Field Level Media