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Texas

Kentucky's strong run game creates yet another challenge for this Longhorn defensive front

by: Evan Vieth4 hours ago
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Texas defense, Javonnie Gibson (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

With two losses already looming over a slow-starting season, the Texas Longhorns have zero margin for error going forward.

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The Longhorn players have been adamant that they’re treating each game as if it were an SEC Championship game, because any loss immediately translates into a season without meaningful postseason football.

Texas was tested last weekend against Oklahoma, but the players would have been turning up for that game no matter the optics surrounding the rest of the season.

A real test for these players’ mental fortitude is Kentucky.

That may be a surprising thing to read given what this program is—a 2-3 team that won just four games last year and is still without a win in three SEC attempts.

But those are the exact types of teams that will catch you off guard. Just ask Ole Miss, which went into Lexington in Week 2 and was challenged heavily in a one-score game where Kentucky ran the ball 37 times for 4.6 yards per attempt.

“As we know, playing on the road in the SEC at night, it’s going to be a tough environment, and so we’ve got to buckle up. We’ve got to be ready to go,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “This is a tough challenge. You know that the one SEC home game they’ve had, Ole Miss at home, that was a one-score game down to the end, and they’re a top-five team in the country.”

Sarkisian’s Longhorns are going to have to do something similar to the Rebels—go to Lexington to play this Kentucky team, but this time at night.

The biggest challenge Texas will face in a game like this is limiting Kentucky’s ball control and ability to run the football.

“They want to run the football and then create explosives off the run game, and they do a very good job of that. They’ve played very good defense all year. They run the football really well,” Sarkisian said.

A strong run game in an opposing SEC stadium was what caught Texas at Florida, with Gators RB Jadan Baugh rushing for 107 yards, most of which came in the first half.

Kentucky doesn’t have a runner the quality of Baugh, but they do have an extremely efficient back in former Sooner Seth McGowan, who ran for 431 yards and seven touchdowns on 5.5 yards per carry in five games. Coming off a bye, he and running mate Dante Dowdell will be the freshest they’ve been since Week 1.

“Kentucky is a team that you can’t underestimate,” Texas DT Hero Kanu said. “They’re a big, physical team. They play hard. That’s the one thing that really stands out on tape—they play really hard.”

The Wildcats boast an offensive line with players ranging from 311 to 342 pounds and two tight ends measuring right around 6’4″, 250. That’s not to mention that McGowan and Dowdell combine for 440 pounds of mass.

Texas’ defensive line was exposed against a really good running team in Florida. It could be argued that Kentucky is the second-best team of the first seven they’ve faced at working the ball down the field using the ground game.

This won’t be a game many fans circle or neutral observers tune in to, but it will mean a lot for this defensive front to have an A+ game against the Wildcats this week. It won’t be getting any easier when they face Mississippi State or Vanderbilt, two of the best running teams in the nation.

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