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The "another break for Texas" talking point disrespects the Longhorn defense

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook09/23/25josephcook89
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Pete Kwiatkowski (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

With Florida quarterback DJ Lagway reportedly in a boot and Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer out for some amount of time due to a hand injury, a talking point that has been prevalent throughout Texas’ time as football-playing members of the Southeastern Conference popped up again Tuesday.

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“Another break for Texas,” is typically the tenor of the chirp.

Billy Liucci and one of his TexAgs co-workers Luke Evangelist exchanged this on Twitter.

There is a small — small — amount of merit to that argument. Van Buren, Warner, Boley, and Stockton were backup quarterbacks thrust into starting or playing against Texas due to injury. And an offense does look different without QB1.

To call Hawkins or Reed backups, however, ignores the actual circumstances. Brent Venables benched Jackson Arnold. Mike Elko benched Conner Weigman. The signal-callers Texas faced may have entered the season as respective QB2s, but is the point that if Arnold or Weigman had played the Longhorns that OU or A&M would have fared better?

Anyway, to the point about the backups. Sure, Texas’ defense did make easy work out of those passing offenses. Just going by yards per attempt, Van Buren, Warner, Boley, and Stockton combined to average just over 6.2 ypa. Tyrone Swoopes averaged 6.3 yards per attempt in 2014, to put that number in perspective, and that’s ignoring interceptions and anything else going on with those teams at the time.

So what about Hawkins, Beck, Pavia, Green, and Reed against Texas in 2024? A worse 5.07 ypa. So those backups, strictly on a ypa basis, did better than the “starters.”

Credit is due here to Clemson’s Cade Klubnik, who recorded the only 300-yard passing game against the Texas defense in 2024.

Texas held Sam Leavitt to 4.8 ypa in the Peach Bowl. His season-long average was 8.2. Will Howard averaged 9.5 yards per attempt in 2024. Texas limited that national championship caliber offense to 8.8 ypa and we all know where 75 of the yards that went into that equation come from.

What about in 2025?

Ohio State QB Julian Sayin was 13-for-20 for 126 yards with one touchdown against Texas. He tested the Longhorn secondary once and Texas failed on his long pass to Carnell Tate. Against the Buckeyes’ other two opponents in Grambling and Ohio? Those teams are what they are, but Sayin is averaging an absurd 12.8 yards per attempt against anyone not named Texas this year.

12.8 is over double the ypa he picked up against the Horns in Columbus.

San Jose State’s Walker Eget is averaging 6.7 yards per pass. Texas held him to 4.4 ypa.

UTEP’s Malachi Nelson is sitting at 7.5 ypa in 2025. Texas kept him to a lowly 5.8 ypa.

Sam Houston State’s Hunter Watson is averaging a brutal 5.1 ypa this season. He picked up 3.4 yards per attempt against Texas.

Texas is No. 6 in rushing defense in 2025 and was No. 14 in 2024. It’s not just quarterbacks having problems against the Longhorns.

Reducing Texas’ defensive excellence to facing multiple backup quarterbacks in 2024 or likely seeing someone other than QB1 in upcoming 2025 contests to “luck of the draw” ignores and disrespects how good Pete Kwiatkowski‘s defense is and has been. Lagway and Mateer could come back and play against the Longhorns, and they’ll probably look better than whoever sits behind them on the depth chart.

But they’ll find out that Texas’ defense doesn’t simply feast on backups. No, it makes life difficult for just about every quarterback, offense, and offensive coordinator that have to try to put points on the board against the Longhorns.

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