Don’t expect top-ranked Texas to move off its “business as usual” mantra just because the stakes increase as it opens Southeastern Conference play against Mississippi State on Saturday afternoon in Austin, Texas.
Yes, the Longhorns (4-0) will be playing their first-ever game against an SEC opponent as a member of the consensus toughest conference in country. But Texas is steeled by the fact that it played Alabama in both 2022 and 2023, beating the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa last season, and by its consistency the past two years.
“We believe in our formula for success and what that looks like,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday. “We respect that this is our first SEC game at home and what that looks like. We’re going to embrace that side of it, but it’s not going to affect the way we prepare for the game and the way we go about our business in the game.
“The way we look at it, this is an SEC championship game.”
The Longhorns head into the Saturday clash off a dominating 51-3 home win over Louisiana-Monroe last week, when redshirt freshman quarterback Arch Manning passed for 258 yards, two scores and two interceptions in just over three quarters of play. It was the much ballyhooed Manning’s first collegiate start, and afterward he said the game “felt long” to him.
Manning was behind center against the Warhawks because of an injury to erstwhile starter Quinn Ewers, who was listed as questionable on the SEC injury report this week due to an abdominal strain. Sarkisian told reporters Thursday that he would decide Friday which quarterback will start against Mississippi State.
“It won’t be a secret. We’re not trying to pull the wool over anybody’s eyes,” Sarkisian said. “Just want to give Quinn every opportunity to see if he’s ready to play and what he looks like. I’d say he’s improved every day. I think Arch has had a very good week.”
Texas is tied for first nationally in scoring defense with an average of 5.5 points allowed per game. The top three teams in the statistic — Ole Miss, Texas and Georgia — are members of the SEC, with fellow league members Tennessee fifth and Alabama sixth.
The Bulldogs (1-3, 0-1 SEC) travel to Austin for the first time since 1992 on the heels of a 45-28 home loss to Florida last week in their conference opener. Mississippi State, in its first season under coach Jeff Lebby, has dropped three games in a row.
The Bulldogs will be without starting quarterback Blake Shapen after the former Baylor signal-caller injured his shoulder in the fourth quarter of the loss to Florida. Shapen has been ruled out for the season.
True freshman Michael Van Buren Jr. replaced him for the remainder of the game and led two extended drives in mop-up duty, one that ended with a rushing TD and another that ended at the goal line as time expired.
“I was proud of how Mike was able to put a drive together there in the fourth quarter for us,” Lebby said Monday. “He’s a guy that has great confidence in himself and the guys around him. It’s about focusing really small, taking great care of the football, creating predictable outcomes, and putting us in good situations.”
The Saturday game is the fifth all-time between Texas and Mississippi State and the first since the 1999 Cotton Bowl, in which the Longhorns earned a 38-11 victory. The series between the teams is tied 2-2.
