The Reheat: Arkansas

Texas gets a 20-10 anaconda squeeze like win on the road against a longtime rival? Sounds good to me.

Welcome to The Reheat, a weekly recap of the previous day’s game, just popped out of the microwave. Look for it every Sunday, rain or shine.

An old Gregg Popovich quote about Manu Ginobili sums up the Quinn Ewers experience perfectly: “I went from trading him on the spot to wanting to cook him breakfast tomorrow.” Here are the blunt-force facts about Quinn Ewers: he’s a flawed early-round NFL draft prospect, he misses throws viewers think he should make—particularly those of the deep-post variety—and he’s actively fighting off a curse from Dr. Pepper. But what else is true about the Longhorns quarterback? Ewers is a bona fide winner (a factual statement-he’s lost two games in two seasons), he has the support of his coaches and teammates and he’s a passer who can make throws most other quarterbacks miss. 

Yesterday’s 20–10 victory over the Razorbacks was a grind-it-out, win-by-an-anaconda-squeeze conference road win against a rival. A rival that beat Texas by 19 just three years ago and beat Tennessee in Fayetteville earlier this season. So, I’ll take a 10-point victory in a dominant defensive performance all day, especially when Texas holds the ball for the last seven minutes and grinds the Pigs into sausage.

But back to Quinn: when the game got shaky thanks to the defense being gassed and Andrew Armstrong picking on true freshman Kobe Black, Ewers put together a 75-yard drive to give Texas a two-score lead. He capped it with an incredible throw for a touchdown to Matthew Golden. Ewers and Golden have been inevitable in the red zone this year. You can’t criticize the throws Ewers doesn’t make without pointing out that the laser to the front corner of the end zone is a weapon he didn’t have in his arsenal last year. If Quinn had that throw last year in the Sugar Bowl, Texas would have played for a National Championship. He didn’t at the time, and that’s okay. That’s part of development. Coaches, players, and programs add to their bag of tricks, and it’s that progression that makes this whole journey one hell of a ride.

When a program arrives at contender status, fans—especially Texas fans—somehow think that their players and coaches are now finished products. If they were, there would be no joy in any of this. There wouldn’t be the pride in seeing the juggernauts players like Alfred Collins and Jahdae Barron have morphed into during their five years on the Forty Acres. There wouldn’t be amazement at Steve Sarkisian’s story: going from offensive play-calling guru to total football coach. There wouldn’t be that fist-pumping “that’s my mother-bleeping quarterback” moment when your signal-caller dials his own number, puts the game on his back, and secures the first down and the victory. If there wasn’t joy found in the result yesterday, then none will be found.

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Fire The Cannon for: Jahdae Barron. Seven tackles, four stops, two tackles for loss, one sack, a key pressure, a pick, and a pass breakup. Another great one in the long history of DBU. Barron is the best player on a defense that is truly special. I think Travis Hunter deserves the Heisman, and he’s certainly the best all-around player in college football. But make no mistake, Barron is the best defensive back. Start engraving the Thorpe Award with his name on it now. Pete Kwiatkowski and the defensive staff have done a masterful job in allowing the senior corner to line up all over the field and do what he does best: make plays.

Horns Up on Offense for: I’m 34 years old and have almost three kids, so I probably missed the boat on doing cocaine at this point. But I think I know what the white powder feels like. Why am I qualified to make this comparison if I’ve never done the drug? Well, I’ve seen a lot of movies, I’ve read Bill Simmons for 20 years now, and Jaydon Blue is the running back of my favorite team.

Horns Up on Defense for: Alfred Collins. Besides wrecking Arkansas’ game plan yesterday, Big Alfred made himself some money with his performance. He’s been doing it all season, but yesterday was his best game at Texas. A sack that took Arkansas out of field goal range in the first half proved huge, and he forced a Razorback fumble that led to the Longhorns with the ball in victory formation.

Bevo’s Bucket for: My biggest concern with this team isn’t the offense or what throws Ewers is or isn’t making—I trust he’ll make the throws he needs to when the moment comes. What I don’t trust is the special teams. The Longhorns have the best defense in the country, and that’s made even clearer by the fact that Texas punts are never pinning their opponents deep. The lack of field-flipping in the punt or return game is hurting Texas significantly.

Schadenfreude of the week: I didn’t take as much joy at the expense of other fanbases yesterday as I laughed at Texas fans' lack of perspective, especially online. Granted, message boards and Twitter are where you typically find the most unhinged versions of us all, but it was still alarming to see. The Longhorns improved to 9–1, beat a feisty rival fighting for their coach's job (coming off humiliation and a cupcake) by 10 points on the road, and still fans in burnt orange complained. Let’s look at what else happened among the contenders, shall we? Seven ranked teams struggled yesterday, four of them lost outright, and only one covered the spread. Oregon narrowly beat a mediocre Wisconsin team and their backup quarterback, BYU’s undefeated season ended to the Jayhawks, Tennessee lost big to Georgia, and LSU’s season effectively ended. I’ll take what Texas accomplished.

This piping Hot Take burned the roof of my mouth: Yesterday’s result will jumpstart the Longhorns’ best play of the season, just like last year’s similar victory in Ames propelled Texas forward to an incredible close of the regular season.

Hype Train Level: How could you not feel tough as nails with the Texas defense bolstering the team? The Longhorns have a special unit behind the aforementioned Barron and Collins. But with Anthony Hill being himself, Trey Moore coming on, and Colin Simmons bursting through the freshman wall—watch out.