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Instant reaction: Texas annihilates Sam Houston State, 55-0

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook09/21/25josephcook89
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Arch Manning (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Texas took Sam Houston State apart on Saturday night, shutting out the Bearkats and ending non-conference play with a 3-1 record after a 55-0 drubbing. Here are some instant reactions.

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***There should be little question about who the worst team on Texas’ 2025 schedule is. Sam Houston State saw most of its standout defenders from a 10-win team essentially transfer to North Texas after the 2024 season. The head coach left for Temple. Their replacements were not good. There aren’t even any Texas washouts on the roster. The Bearkats struggled to do ANYTHING on offense when there were starters or frontline Longhorn players in the game, and after that as well.

At the end of the first half, Sam Houston State quarterback Hunter Watson was 8-for-14 for 41 yards with an interception on the end-of-half Hail Mary attempt. The Texas defense didn’t even allow a first down until there were under 90 seconds left in the half. The offense also did a whole, whole lot, but the defense was in typical, excellent form and pitched a shutout. SHSU put up just 112 yards of total offense.

***Against a porous defense, Arch Manning put together the type of first half that tends to go viral these days. He was 14-for-17 for 227 yards and a scoring connection to Jordan Washington on Texas’ classic TE leak play.

***After a throw or two to start that looked good-not-great, Manning looked nothing like the player that struggled mightily versus UTEP.

  • His first drive? He was 4-for-6 for 55 yards.
  • Drive two? 3-for-4 for 31 yards. Manning finished this one with a rushing touchdown. More on that score later.
  • Three? Just the one 32-yard scoring pass to Washington. He hit an open guy while on the run and in a dirty pocket. Mission accomplished.
  • Drive four? 2-for-2 for 50 yards.
  • And on the fifth and final drive of the half? He was 4-for-4 for 59 yards and brought it into the end zone himself yet again.

Manning did great things great. Most importantly after last week, he did the little things great, too. He stood in the pocket, took hits, and made accurate throws. He looked downfield. He went through progressions. He was decisive when it came to RPOs. He handled operations well and threw the ball accurately, including in the second half.

***He finally, finally, finally connected with Ryan Wingo on a deep pass. And it, undoubtedly, was the prettiest pass of the night.

His next touchdown pass to Wingo looked nice, too. Manning makes the read on the RPO, pulls the football, and gets it to his guy in the end zone.

***There was a moment right after Manning’s first rushing touchdown where the competitive nature Steve Sarkisian talks about so often with regards to Manning showed up. Again, it’s Sam Houston State. And maybe the defender was mouthing off on the field. But Manning ran it into the end zone and got in Antavious Fish’s face. He probably should have been flagged for a taunt, but the fact that he did that after last week showed there’s a competitive fire in Manning that doesn’t want to settle, that doesn’t want to fail. Even if it is against Sam Houston State, that type of amp-up play after Sarkisian “calmed” Manning down with a few designed runs was a good way to get his guy going.

All in all, a great day at the office for Manning. He was 18-for-21 for 309 yards with three touchdowns plus two rushing touchdowns.

***SHSU head coach Phil Longo is an Air Raid guy, but he likes to run the ball a bit more than some of his Leach-ian brethren. Instead of trying to run the ball and make his way back to Huntsville with a few hundred thousand dollars for the Bearkat athletic department with as little damage as possible, he stayed true to his ways.

In the first half, the Texas defense was having none of it.

That was to be expected. The good news? The amount of players who helped in that effort. Graceson Littleton bounced between corner and star with a handful of defensive backs out (Kobe Black, Xavier Filsaime, Warren Roberson) and maintained his high level of play. Kade Phillips and Wardell Mack filtered in and did their job. Jelani McDonald probably should have batted down the end-of-half Hail Mary attempt from the Bearkats, but an interception looks good all the same. Texas used a wide cast of characters in the first half to stifle anything SHSU tried to do, maintaining elite play as seen throughout the month of September.

Plenty of other Longhorns got involved in the action. Lavon Johnson, Lance Jackson, Brad Spence, Myron Charles, and Jonathan Cunningham all jumped in and made plays on defense.

SHSU totaled 51 plays. And it seemed like someone new was making the tackle each time.

***Sacks were available to Texas defenders early, which was surprising considering you’d think SHSU would try to get the ball out of Watson’s hands as fast as possible. On the first play from scrimmage, Colin Simmons bumped his season total up to 1.5. Trey Moore added one win the first half as well.

Longo finally went toward a more thoughtful strategy that protected his O-line and quarterback. By the time he did, however, it was 45-0 Texas.

***Texas showcased the NASCAR package plenty against the Air Raid offense, making use of five defensive backs and then Ty’Anthony Smith at the dime linebacker spot.

***Connor Robertson started in place of Cole Hutson at center. He had a couple of penalties but overall had a decent game. He played center with the second-string line of Brandon Baker – Neto Umeozulu – Connor Robertson – Nate Kibble – Nick Brooks.

***Scattershot notes from a second half that should have featured running clock.

  • Jerrick Gibson had a quality game, scoring the first rushing touchdown by a Longhorn running back this season. Christian Clark joined him later in the game. All the backs had over 4.8 yards per carry. Clark led with 13 carries for 62 yards and a score. Gibson had 11 caries for 53 yards and a score. James Simon notched nine carries for 50 yards.
  • Ryan Wingo netted 125 total yards on five touches. He had four catches for 93 yards and two touchdowns, plus one rush for 32 yards.
  • Mason Shipley was 2-for-2 on field goals and 7-for-7 on extra points. He also took over kickoff duties and had a decent night but kicked one ball out of bounds.
  • Ryan Niblett had another nice punt return, bringing one back 49 yards in the third quarter. That area has improved in recent weeks, though there were a few catch that were more exhilarating than they should have been.
  • Matthew Caldwell with the wheels! He looked in command of the second-string offense and coordinated a touchdown drive in his first opportunity.
  • Jonah Williams made his debut at safety alongside Jordon Johnson-Rubell in the fourth quarter.
  • The 2025 wide receiver class has a lot of potential, but some of their limitations were visible in their opportunities late in the game.
  • Smith Orogbo got in on the action and forced a fumble late.
  • KJ Lacey made his Longhorn debut and entered as the third-string quarterback with 4:45 left in the game, which indicates Trey Owens in fourth in line.
  • The true freshman participation report is going to have a lot of green this week.
  • Santana Wilson did a nice job in coverage on a ball up the sideline late.
  • Brady Sarkisian, well done young man!

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