No. 1 Texas vs. Mississippi State: The opposite spectrums of complementary football

The Longhorns excel in an area where Jeff Lebby’s program is still trying to find its footing.

AUSTIN, Texas — As the Texas Longhorns have outscored opponents 190-22 in the four non-conference games to open the 2024 season, key moments in each game have illustrated the ability of head coach Steve Sarkisian’s team to play complementary football to consolidate momentum or ensure that opponents don’t gain it.

In Starkville, head coach Jeff Lebby and the Mississippi State Bulldogs have stumbled to a 1-3 start to his first season on campus as mistakes have compounded and knocked the Bulldogs out of games, providing a stark contrast to the crisp execution of the Longhorns.

Texas vs. ULM

With the Longhorns leading the Warhawks 7-0 midway through the first quarter, Texas was still looking for a momentum-changing play when sophomore linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. recognized the glance run-pass option ULM was running, undercut the route, and deflected the ball to himself for an interception.

Flashing the running back ability that Hill honed at Denton Ryan, he finished the play with a 35-yard return for a touchdown quickly negated on a questionable block on the back call on junior edge Trey Moore near the goal line.

Texas had to settle for taking the ball at the ULM 13-yard line, exactly the type of situation last year’s Longhorns struggled to convert. And it appeared that the offense was set to stall quickly when redshirt freshman quarterback Arch Manning was pressured into an incompletion on first down and freshman running back Jerrick Gibson lost two yards on second down. But when senior tight end Gunnar Helm won on a slant and was pulled down by his jersey, the Warhawks were flagged for a personal foul and Texas got a fresh set of downs with Manning hitting junior running back Jaydon Blue for a three-yard touchdown pass on the next play.

“It’s one thing to get turnovers. It’s another, are you getting points off those turnovers?” Sarkisian said on Monday.

Late in the third quarter, Texas led 35-3, but had gone three and out on consecutive possessions. The battle of field position played out more favorably in favor of the Longhorns, though, and freshman punter Michael Kern hit a 49-yard punt that walk-on linebacker Marshall Landwehr downed at the 3-yard line after bouncing for more than 20 yards.

Then the 100,000 fans at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium made it difficult on the ULM offensive linemen trying to work their way off their goal line, contributing to two straight false starts by the Warhawks.

When the visitors were finally able to get a play off, running back Ozzario Smith was only narrowly able to avoid a safety when he was quickly met by a swarm of Texas defenders.

A subsequent delay of game penalty was basically unenforceable with the ball virtually spotted on the goal line and the next play saw the Horns finally break through as sophomore linebacker Liona Lefau as the first of many Texas players to stuff Smith for a safety, shooting a gap and hitting Smith several yards deep in the end zone.

The combination of kicking off from the 20-yard line and a 24-yard return by Texas junior wide receiver Matthew Golden resulted in solid field positions for the Longhorns at their own 37-yard line.

With Sarkisian adjusting his play calling to emphasize some easier completions for Manning, Texas started to move the ball again, including converting a 3rd and 7 with an eight-yard run by freshman running back Jerrick Gibson. The nine-play, 63-yard drive ended with a one-yard rushing touchdown by Blue.

“That’s us playing really good complementary football together. I thought that was exciting,” Sarkisian said.

Mississippi State vs. Florida

Reflecting on a 45-28 loss to the Gators that featured Bulldogs starting quarterback Blake Shapen suffering a season-ending shoulder injury, Lebby pointed to his own team’s inability to play complementary football.

Early in the second quarter with the game tied at 7-7, Mississippi State went three and out after a holding call on a first-down scramble by Shapen, an especially disappointing outcome for a drive that started at midfield. And instead of pinning the Gators back at their own goal line, the Bulldogs punter Nick Barr-Mira, a fifth-year Bruins transfer who handles all the kicking duties for Lebby, shanked a 24-yard punt out of bounds.

The Mississippi State defense responded by allowing six straight completions by Florida quarterback Graham Wertz for 62 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown pass by the Wisconsin transfer, for a 14-7 lead. It was a theme on the day for the Bulldogs secondary, which allowed Mertz and DJ Lagway to combine for 26-of-28 passing for 277 yards and three touchdowns.

Then the game quickly got away from MSU — the offense went three and out again when consecutive runs netted only five yards and Shapen threw incomplete on third down, a booming 55-yard kick from Barr-Mira resulted in a 35-yard punt return, and Florida’s aerial assault predictably continued with a 35-yard touchdown pass on the ensuing drive’s second play.

“Those 8-10 plays right there in the middle of the second quarter is what truly changed the game and gave us the hole we were in,” Lebby said on Monday.

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Sarkisian opened his weekly press conference by reminiscing on his own first year as the head coach at Texas.

“We weren’t a great team and the crowd was here, but they were trying to figure out who the heck we were. To go to where we are today and I think the product on the field is a much better product, and it’s a great job by our administrative team to create the environment that they’ve created, so it’s really poured itself into being a tremendous home-field advantage that I think our team feeds off of, and I know it makes it difficult on our opponents,” he said.

On the opposite sideline Saturday, Lebby is trying to build an identity for his program as those early-season failures highlight how far the Bulldogs have to go and how far the Longhorns have already come.