The Longhorns were relentless against the Wildcats and kept the offense in check.
It was once again the defense that set the tone for the No. 3 Texas Longhorns as they took sole possession of the top spot in the SEC on Saturday by dominating the Kentucky Wildcats at home in a 31-14 win. The Longhorns defense smothered the Wildcats, whichever quarterback was on the field, while Texas imposed their will on the UK defense in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
Rushing offense: 250 yards, 2 TDs for Texas, 21 yards for Kentucky
For the fifth time this season, and the second consecutive week, the Texas defense held the opponent completely in check when they tried to establish the run. Kentucky managed just 21 yards in the game, the defense’s best performance of the year. Even if you add back in the sack yardage to the total, it would rank No. 2 this year for the Texas ground defense just behind the 57 yards allowed to Louisiana-Monroe in Week Four. Kentucky’s 0.7 yards per carry is the worst performance in the last 10 years by a Wildcats offense, a number that jumps to just 2.6 yards per carry if you take out the sack yards.
On the other side of the ball, thanks to an ailing Quinn Ewers, the Horns had to close the game while keeping the ball on the ground. Texas put up a season-high 250 rushing yards, 86 of them coming on the Longhorns’ final drive, a drive that took 8:22 off of the clock and extended the lead to three scores. In the last two weeks, the Longhorns have put together game-sealing drives that total 15:12, primarily running the ball. The two drives featured just two pass attempts, one was a middle screen designed to take advantage of a defense expecting a run up the middle. The ground game also helped the Texas offense stay on-pace and ahead of the chains, averaging 7.2 yards per carry on first down, including 90 yards of rushes of 10 yards or more.
Texas defense: 6 Sacks, -57 yards
Part of why the Texas rush defense looked so impressive was the pass rush’s ability to get home against the Kentucky offense. The Horns tied their season-high sack total for the second week in a row, the second time this year they’ve had back-to-back six-sack performances. With one regular season game left, they’ve posted the most sacks since the 2016 season when they finished with 14. The Texas defense put themselves in an advantageous position all day playing on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage, bringing Kentucky down for a sack twice on first downs, contributing to an average third-down distance to go of 11.1 yards.
Anthony Hill led the team with a pair of sacks to jump teammate Colin Simmons for the team lead with 7.5 heading into the regular season finale. It may have been a measure of payback for the freshman phenom jumping Hill on the freshman record list for No. 3, sitting just three sacks behind Longhorn Legend Tony Brackens for No. 2 all-time by a freshman.
Texas: 2 interceptions
The ball-hawking ways of the Texas secondary continued Saturday, punctuated by hometown kid Andrew Mukuba’s game-sealing interception to give him four on the year, tying him with Thorpe Award candidate Jahdae Barron for a team-high four interceptions, which also ties for the SEC lead. That total marks the highest total by a Texas defensive back since Caden Sterns in 2018 and the most by any Texas defender since 2022.
That performance ties them for No. 2 in the country the year with 17 interceptions, the best in the Pete Kwiatkowski era of Texas defense. The Longhorns have seen a steady increase in the last four seasons, with 2021’s seven interceptions marking the second-worst performance in school history moving up to having a shot at leading the country when it’s all said and done this season.