Why the Texas running game isn’t firing on all cyclinders

Injuries at running back and the decreased effectiveness of outside zone have been problems for the Longhorns.

AUSTIN, Texas — The end of Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian’s appearance on the weekly SEC coaches teleconference on Wednesday went down in a telling manner.

On a reporter’s second attempt to ask a question about the Texas’ ability to close games running against heavy boxes, Sarkisian offered a sharp response.

“Or we can throw it. I’m still not sure what you’re asking me. Next question,” Sarkisian said.

But Sarkisian’s time was up, just as time is running out for the Longhorns to figure out a running game that suffered a big blow in preseason camp when the projected starter, sophomore CJ Baxter, went down with a season-ending knee injury. Days later, freshman Christian Clark suffered a season-ending Achilles injury.

Then junior Jaydon Blue suffered an ankle injury in the win over Michigan that kept him out of the next game against UTSA, during which sophomore Quintrevion Wisner suffered an injury that caused him to miss the win over Louisiana-Monroe. Brought in during preseason camp to provide depth, Kansas and SMU transfer Velton Gardner suffered a season-ending eye injury that limited him to eight carries in two appearances.

So injuries, whether season-ending or more minor, have played a big role in a Texas running game that ranks ninth in the SEC in rushing yards per game at 164.1, sixth in average yards per carry at 4.7, and tied for seventh in rushing touchdowns with 18, causing Sarkisian to lean more heavily on the quick passing game with starting quarterback Quinn Ewers, who is averaging a career-low average depth of target of 6.3 yards, 4.2 yards less than the boom-or-bust 2022 season when taking deep shots to Xavier Worthy, whether they were effective or not, was an offensive preoccupation for Sarkisian.

In Sarkisian’s offense, balance is one of his trademarks, but over the previous three years at Texas, that has effectively meant leaning more heavily on the running game than the passing game — in 2021, the Horns had a 57-43 run-pass split with 111 more runs than passes, in 2022, it was a 54-46 run-pass split with 65 more runs than passes, and last year, the split was 53-47 with 52 more runs than passes.

This year, however, the run-pass split is nearly dead even with 313 rushes and 311 passes, a notable change for Sarkisian.

Just as notable? The fact that Texas is not on track to have a 1,000-yard runner for the first time in Sarkisian’s career as a head coach — Wisner leads the team with 409 yards, so even if the Horns play for the SEC championship and make it to the national title game, he would still need to average just over 84 yards per game to reach the 1,000-yard mark. Wisner has two games above that mark this season, but is coming off a game against Florida in which his four carries went for zero yards.

So, what’s happened to the rushing game for the Longhorns this season?

First of all, the injury to Baxter was particularly significant because he’s the biggest running back on the roster at 6’1, 220 pounds, giving him an advantage in pass protection and in pure mass running between the tackles.

Whether Baxter would have provided a significant upgrade over Blue and Wisner in that regard is somewhat questionable since he preferred to bounce runs outside as a freshman — of his 657 rushing yards last year, 385 yards came outside the tackles, 59 percent, with a relatively equal split between zone runs and gap runs, the latter his area of expertise since it was the primary scheme used at Orlando (Fla.) Edgewater.

But the size of Baxter is significantly different than the smaller Blue and Wisner, who also prefer running outside the tackles — 58.3 percent of Blue’s yards have come outside the tackles compared to 55 percent for Wisner.

Health has also impacted Blue because it took until the second bye week of the season for his early-season ankle injury to fully recover and allow him to make the open-field moves that are a key to his explosiveness.

Another significant story is how much Texas came to rely on outside zone for a critical stretch of the season, only to see its effectiveness plummet.

Because the Texas offensive line is at its best working on the move, whether on gap schemes like Counter or outside zone — the Longhorns were called one of the best on outside zone in college football below by Brooks Austin — running inside was never a credible option against Georgia, even if the current defensive tackles for the Dawgs aren’t as dominant as the program’s standard under Kirby Smart.

So effectively running outside zone was a key for Texas offensively to have any semblance of a running game in that contest. Ultimately, the Bulldogs defense was able to take it away by reading whatever tips they were getting from the Longhorns offensive line, as passed on by the Georgia defensive braintrust of Smart, Glen Schumann, and Will Muschamp, allowing them to easily blow up key blocks and leverage runs with great coordination.

Was Texas tipping off outside zone against Georgia? Burnt Orange Nation asked Blue and senior center Jake Majors about it recently.

“They’re a good team. They have good coaches. We knew that it was going to be tough to run the ball against those guys,” Blue said.

Majors addressed the question a little bit more directly.

“I can’t really say. I feel like Coach Sark and the offense is a good job of not giving away our plays. Maybe they found something on film that gave them a tip, but I’m not too sure,” he said.

But are the Longhorns too reliant on outside zone?

“No, I think that we’re capable of all sorts of schemes. We had a couple explosives in gap schemes against Vanderbilt, so I don’t think we’re overly reliant on outside zone,” Majors said.

“I think we’re really good at it. I think our offensive line has mastered what it means to run outside zone. We’re taught a lot of good techniques by [offensive line] coach [Kyle] Flood, but I think that we’re capable of anything.”

Asked if the Bulldogs were able to key on tendency, Blue said he didn’t think so, crediting Georgia’s experience and talent for helping to limit the Texas running backs to 57 yards on 16 carries.

Against Vanderbilt, however, junior left tackle Kelvin Banks was called for a holding penalty on outside zone when the Commodores lined up a defender in the gap between junior right guard DJ Campbell and junior right tackle Cam Williams, forcing Williams to make a difficult reach block he couldn’t execute as the defender slanted away from him and play side, the type of alignment and movement that indicates Vanderbilt either had a tip on the play or guessed it was coming based on tendency.

By this week, Sarkisian was officially, publicly concerned with how Texas is executing outside zone coming out of the Florida game.

“We’re just not in sync. Like any style of running game that you have, timing and being in sync is really important, and confidence is really important. So whether it’s angles on blocks, whether it’s run timing with the running back and the offensive line, whether it’s vision by the runners, whether it’s our combination of blocks on the front side or combination of blocks on the back side, it just hasn’t quite been in sync,” Sarkisian said.

“We’ve got to emphasize it more. We’ve got to put in the time and the effort, which I think that we’re doing, and then we’ve got to start to find our rhythm there again. I talked a lot about going into last week’s game about finding our mojo as an offense, which I think that we did. This week, it’s been about, ‘Okay, how do we get back to our timing and execution of our outside zone?’”

When the timing and execution is working, the Longhorns offensive line, which was just named a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award as the nation’s best, is capable of executing the play at a high level.

“I think it’s just understanding the track of the running back and how to fit on defenders. Also lateral techniques — if we feel like we’re getting pressure, we’ll be more lateral to pick up the pressure, so then the running back can hit wherever he needs to,” Majors said.

“But I think we’ve done a good job over the past couple years of just really getting the details of outside zone and being able to rely on it when we need it most.”

BON also asked Majors about getting better on inside zone and duo to improve the ability to run between the tackles.

“We don’t really call that as much as outside zone, so what we need to do is just remember our rules, communicate across the line, communicate pressures, communicate who the Mike [linebacker] is, be ready for movement, stuff like that. It’s just the real technical, fundamental stuff that we need to really hone in on and I think we’re capable of that, and we’ll be able to do that,” Majors said.

Whether that actually happens remains an open question, especially since the best fit for those schemes, freshman running back Jerrick Gibson, has fumbled the ball three times in 64 carries this season, prompting the Texas staff to force him to carry a football around campus this week.

Regardless of whether the Longhorns can improve running inside the tackles and create some explosive plays against the Razorbacks on gap schemes, it’s clear that getting back in sync on outside zone is a huge key for Texas on Saturday.

And equally clear that if the Longhorns need to close out a game running between the tackles, they might just have to throw the ball instead.