Just because the stakes are raised Saturday afternoon in Austin, Texas, when Southeastern Conference play opens against Mississippi State, don’t expect top-ranked Texas to break away from its “business as usual” mantra.
Sure, the Longhorns (4-0) will be playing an SEC opponent for the first time as members of the nation’s toughest conference, but Texas will face Alabama in both 2022 and 2023 and has been heartened by its consistency over the past two years, beating the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa last season.
“We believe in the formula for success and what that looks like,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday. “We respect the fact that this is our first SEC game at home and what that looks like. We’re going to embrace that aspect of it, but it’s not going to affect how we prepare for the game or how we play during the game.”
“The way we look at it, this is the SEC championship game.”
The Longhorns enter Saturday’s game coming off a commanding 51-3 home win over Louisiana-Monroe University last week, in which freshman quarterback Arch Manning passed for 258 yards, two scores and two interceptions in just over three quarters. It was the highly anticipated first collegiate start for Manning, and after the game he said the game “felt long.”
Manning played under center against the Warhawks because former starter Quinn Ewers was injured. Sarkisian said Ewers is recovering from an oblique strain and is questionable for the Bulldogs game. Ewers will be monitored throughout the week.
“Quinn has to be able to execute the entire game plan (when he returns),” Sarkisian said.
Texas is tied for first in the nation in scoring defense, allowing an average of 5.5 points per game. The top three teams in that statistic, Ole Miss, Texas and Georgia, are members of the SEC, with fellow league members Tennessee in fifth and Alabama in sixth.
The Bulldogs (1-3, 0-1 SEC) are coming off a 45-28 loss at home to Florida in their conference opener last week and are making their first trip to Austin since 1992. Mississippi State has lost three straight games in coach Jeff Levy’s first season on the job.
The Bulldogs will be without their starting quarterback, former Baylor point guard Blake Shapen, after suffering a shoulder injury in the fourth quarter against Florida. Shapen is out for the season.
Freshman Michael Van Buren Jr. took his place for the rest of the game and handled mop-up duties with two long drives, one that ended with a rushing TD and another that ended on the goal line as time expired.
“I was proud of the way Mike put together that drive for us in the fourth quarter,” Levy said Monday. “He’s a guy that has a lot of confidence in himself and the guys around him. He really focuses on the details, takes care of the ball, produces predictable results and puts us in good situations.”
Saturday’s game will mark the fifth meeting between Texas and Mississippi State and the first since the 1999 Cotton Bowl, which the Longhorns won 38-11. The teams are tied at 2-2 in their head-to-head games.
–Field Level Media
