Texas Longhorns football offense faces third quarter struggles; analysis and solutions discussed ahead of the matchup against Mississippi State.
Texas Longhorns fans are questioning how one of college football’s most talented offenses keeps stumbling in the crucial third quarter. After three straight games without a third-quarter point, all eyes turn to the upcoming matchup against Mississippi State—a perfect chance to break the slump and capitalize on a vulnerable Bulldogs defense that just lost Kamario Taylor. Can Steve Sarkisian script the perfect adjustments to reignite the Longhorns’ fire after halftime?
Key statistics highlight the issue: Texas would rank among the country’s best scoring offenses if not for their third-quarter woes, averaging just two yards per play during that period. The discussion explores the importance of halftime mentality, play-calling tweaks, and the need for well-planned “probability plays” right out of the break. With a talented roster and favorable odds, the question remains—will the Longhorns finally overcome their third-quarter stagnation and reclaim their offensive identity?
Longhorns fans, in 3 straight games the Longhorns offense has been shut out in the 3rd quarter. That's unacceptable, but this weekend is an opportunity to right our wrongs for this Texas offense. What's going on everybody, it's your main man Madison Davis. This is Longhorns Hit, your twice a day 5-minute quick hit on your favorite team, the Texas Longhorns. This hit is sponsored by Kaushee. Download the Kaushee app, use promo code HIT to get $25 when you trade $25. Coming up, what could fix this offense and what can fix the 3rd quarter woes pertaining to this offense? Now, offensively, we could be one of the best units. Oh, and this is my football, by the way. I'm sorry if you guys see me twirling around. His name's Jeremy, actually Wilson. But anyway, um, you know, as it pertains to this offense, we have one of the best offenses In college football. Potentially, potentially you could have one of the best offenses in college football, right? But the— and the numbers show it. You really do. But you'd have to remove the 3rd quarter for that, for that statement to be true, right? And shout out to Inside Texas for this stat right here. If you remove the 3rd quarter, uh, Texas is the 24th best scoring offense. With 24, 27.3 points per game. We're like in the high 60s as it pertains to scoring offenses, which is not really good for the amount of talent that you have on the offensive side of the football. So I mean, and, and, and it sucks because over the last 3 weeks we were leading going into halftime and coming out of halftime. Obviously we were leading the game, you know, against Ole Miss, against Florida, against Oklahoma. We were literally leading. Yeah. And then the third quarter happens, and then doom, you know. And and really, really, it's like it shows in in the yards, yards per you know per play. Right in the first, second, and fourth quarter, you're averaging like six point seven yards per per play. In the third quarter, it's two. Oh my! It's two yards per play, man. And shout out to Inside Texas on that stat as well. This is nuts, and we, we have to get this figured out. And, and I, I, I, I know how we can do it. I really know how we can do it. And I feel like Sark knows how he can do it as well. They're just not— and that's also on Sark as well. It's confusing. It's so confusing. And it's like, it's like, what, what do you do during halftime, right? What goes on during halftime? What, what is being said? What's not being said? What, what's, what's changing? Because the team in the first half looked totally different from the team in the second half, at least in the third quarter. So gotta get this figured out, and this is the best opportunity to do so against this Mississippi State defense, right? It's perfect. It's perfect timing right now. This weekend, tomorrow, it's the best time to do it. It's the best time to do it. These guys are— they're, they're mentally not there. Mississippi State. They, they're not as, as of, you know, as their last competition, they're not there. You know, they just lost their leader in Kamario Taylor. So you have, you have to capitalize off of this and it's there. It's there for the taking. It's there for the taking. And again, like I told you guys earlier, I think I have an idea on how to fix the 3rd quarter woes as it pertains to this offense. I'm gonna let you know in just a few moments. But first, this hit is sponsored by Calci. Download the Calci app, use promo code HIT. To get $25 when you trade $25. Look, let me let me hit you with a fun fact. Over there on Kalshi, right? We are trading at 91% to defeat the Mississippi State Bulldogs. It doesn't get any better than that. So what you can do to participate again: download the Kalshi app, use promo code HIT to get $25 when you trade $25 on us. Again, that's Kalshi K A L S H I Kalshi trade on anything. Look. This is how we can fix this offense in the 3rd quarter. Now, being at the game last weekend, the offense comes out and they don't, they don't come out with the same fire, the same moxie. This is just, it just doesn't look the same. We look, we, we don't look right. We look complacent. There we go. We look complacent when we come out of halftime, right? And it shouldn't be that way. And it shows, it constantly shows itself. It rears its ugly head. in almost every single 3rd quarter, uh, in all of the games this season. So what you have to do, I, I believe if you come out, treat the, the first play for offense in the 2nd half like the first play on offense in the 1st half, in their very first drive. You have to come out, I mean, scripted, right? Have like 5 to 7 probability plays designed specifically to test to see where, okay, the defense made this adjustment, they made this adjustment. Okay, okay, well, we'll do this, we'll do that. We do this, easy money. We're back in, we're back in the game. That's how you have to do this thing. Because if you come out with the same game plan, because you know they're going to make adjustments, obviously they're going to make adjustments. You come out, try to test and see where they've made adjustments. We're good because you have the talent to do so, right? Rather than just guessing and, and just— it— you look stagnant, right? So I would think I would, you know, draw up some 5 to 7 probability plays, see, you know, how they made adjustments here, there. Okay, let's see if this works. Okay, that doesn't work. Let's see if this works. Oh, I And we have a little bit of success right there. I like that. I like that. We're going to stay with that right there. It's, it's really simple. Football's not, it's not a hard sport, right? It's not. It's really not a hard sport. There's, they're not, there's, you can't make that many adjustments at halftime. That's just the fact of the matter. But I digress. But that's it for me on this hit. Remember, it's your main man Madison Davis. This is Longhorns Hit, your twice a day, 5-minute quick hit on your favorite team, the Texas Longhorns. I will see you all in the next hit. Hook 'em.