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Stats That Matter: Texas dominates in the Red River Shootout

by: Evan Vieth10/13/25
ut_vs_ou-1166_wisner
Quintrevion Wisner (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

You don’t need stats to tell you how important this game was for the Longhorns.

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Texas is in a must-win situation from here on out, but this one in particular had to be had. If Texas hadn’t beaten a banged-up John Mateer and a Brent Venables-led unit, there would need to be some uncomfortable conversations.

But those conversations won’t exist on the Longhorn side of things. Texas completely flipped the script with its offensive line, pushing around the vaunted Sooners’ defensive front and showing its best performance on the ground all season.

A few notable points of data stick out after this one.

Arch Manning

Was really good. He was the second-highest-graded SEC QB this weekend and showed an elite ability to play efficient and safe football—perfect for Steve Sarkisian’s script.

Manning was the only QB not to make a turnover-worthy play and was far and away the leader in adjusted completion percentage. The one thing that lacked was overall yardage and deep passing, but those are things we know he can do well. He looked like one of the three best QBs in the conference this week. That’s a first for him.

Quintrevion Wisner

Wisner was one of five SEC RBs to convert over 100 yards from scrimmage.

What really stood out on Saturday was his 4.27 yards after contact per attempt. He hasn’t been that efficient since the A&M game last year, where that number was closer to 4.5.

This was a signature game for Wisner and easily in his top three as a Longhorn. He’s one of the best “big game players” on this roster in terms of rivalries, given that three of his four best yards-after-contact numbers have come against the Sooners and Aggies (poor 2024 Mississippi State—he bullied them as well).

Edge Rushers

Texas’ edge rushers are truly elite. Sometimes you need to be cautious when using that word, but there’s no need for caution after Saturday.

Colin Simmons had his first three-sack game as a Longhorn. You could argue this was his best game in his young career—a dynamic game-breaker off the edge while also working relatively well in the run game.

It has been known that Simmons and Ethan Burke were the two starters on the defensive line, but a lot of questions have been asked surrounding their backups.

Those questions have completely vanished due to two players: Lance Jackson and Brad Spence.

Jackson was Texas’ highest-rated Longhorn via PFF. Reference the tweet below for his absurdity:

He’s clearly Texas’ second-best JACK defender.

But Spence might have been even more impressive. He led the team with six pressures in just 16 pass rush snaps. He had three sacks as well—that’s an elite conversion rate. He’s somehow tied for fifth in the SEC in sacks. Why did he not play last week against Florida? Zina Umeozulu played a solid game in 20 snaps, and Colton Vasek has improved, but the duo of Jackson and Spence need to be the prioritized backups.

Secondary

This was yet another great game for Texas’ secondary. It’s insane how different this defense looked against Florida compared to Oklahoma and even Ohio State. Texas DBs were targeted 19 times. They gave up just 102 yards and tormented Mateer for three interceptions. 5.4 yards per attempt, a 53% completion percentage, and just 33 yards of YAC when targeting Texas defensive backs.

The snaps are definitely interesting. Malik Muhammad and Jaylon Guilbeau are clearly still CB1 and CB2. They both had over 50 CB snaps; the next closest was Warren Roberson with eight. It was surprising that Roberson was prioritized over Kobe Black (five snaps) and Kade Phillips (zero), who previously had out-snapped him.

The two main safeties are still Jelani McDonald and Michael Taaffe, but Derek Williams played more snaps against OU than he did against OSU and Florida combined. That didn’t completely bump Xavier Filsaime out of the game, as he tied McDonald with 11 defensive snaps at STAR behind Graceson Littleton. You could argue Texas is 10 or 11 deep in this unit.

Misc. Snap Notes

Hero Kanu, Alex January, and Maraad Watson are the three main interior defensive linemen. Brevard is the main nose, while Travis Shaw played fewer snaps than Lavon Johnson. They combined for 15.

Nick Brooks played every snap in this one. He was Texas’ sole LG and played well from the eye test—PFF doesn’t agree.

Playmaker-wise, it’s clear that Sarkisian sees Ryan Wingo and Jack Endries as his two most important pieces. They each had over 50 snaps; no other pass catcher eclipsed 35. The WRs 2–4 will rotate, and Jordan Washington seems to have won the TE2 battle. He had more snaps than Spencer Shannon and Nick Townsend combined for the second week in a row.

Wisner played 54 of Texas’ 65 offensive snaps. Texas has two running backs from here on out: Wisner and CJ Baxter, when healthy.

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