The Texas Longhorns continued their winning ways with a dominating win over the Sam Houston State Bearkats. Arch Manning put together his best performance of the year, finishing his day 18/21 for 309 yards and 3 TDs through the air, while adding 2 more TDs on the ground. The Texas offense finally clicked in this one, and the defense continued to play at a National Championship level.
This game was Longhorn domination from the first to final whistle. The Longhorns outgained the Bearkats by nearly 500 yards, 607-113. The Longhorns finished the day with 607 total yards with a nice pass to rush split (343 passing yards, 264 rushing yards). Arch Manning and the Longhorns started the game with nine consecutive scoring drives, with seven of them ending the endzone. The Longhorn defense continued their elite play, holding SHSU to 2-13 on 3rd down and just 27 yards rushing.
To start the game, the Texas defense quickly forced a three and out and then Texas did something they hadn’t done all year: had a TD scoring drive of 70+ yards. That drive was capped by a Jerrick Gibson 13-yard run, and Manning made a number of nice throws throughout. From there, the floodgates opened, and the Longhorns started to pour it on the Bearkats.
HORNS WIN 🤘‼️ pic.twitter.com/bAUveibdKK
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) September 21, 2025
The Longhorns followed the first TD drive with a 9-play. 60-yard TD drive capped by the first of Manning’s two first half rushing TDs. The scoring continued on the offense’s third drive, with a 32-yard end around to Ryan Wingo followed by a 32-yard TD pass to Jordan Washington to extend the lead to 21-0. From there, Texas had one drive before the half stall at the SHSU 11-yard line, settling for FG, but quickly bounded back with another 70-yard TD drive, with another Manning rushing TD to cap.
We told y’all @archmanning got swagger 😏 pic.twitter.com/WsiNPGiJPb
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) September 21, 2025
The first half was near picture perfect for the Longhorns, scoring on every drive and only giving up two first downs to the Bearkats. Texas went 4-5 on third down, outgained Sam Houston State 361-50 and scored TDs on three of the four trips to the red zone. Arch Manning looked as strong as he has thus far in 2025, and the defense continued their high level of play. In the first half alone, Texas had four plays of 30+ yards and on defense, an acrobatic INT from Jelani McDonald to cap the half.
After a near perfect first half, the Longhorns wasted no time, scoring in 1:09 into the second half, on a beautiful 53-yard deep ball from Manning to Ryan Wingo. The defense continued their domination and Ryan Niblett added with a 49-yard punt return, in route to yet another Arch Manning to Ryan Wingo TD, this time a 13-yard connection. With the lead extended to 45-0, Arch Manning would not take another snap.
Arch 🤝 Wingo pic.twitter.com/p7R6IWYeRS
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) September 21, 2025
From there, it was the Matthew Caldwell show, which proved to be equally as fruitful for Texas. After a short FG drive, Caldwell led a 8 play, 91-yard TD drive. That drive included a 50-yard run by the QB and was capped by Christian Clark’s first career TD, pushing the Longhorns lead to 55-0 with 13 minutes left.
In the final 13 minutes, Texas was able to just sit on the ball, continuing to run clock and get more touches for the young RBs. Despite the RBs being the centerpiece, there were a number of other young players that got to make their debut, including 4-star freshman QB, KJ Lacey. He came in for the Longhorns final drive of the day, completing his first pass of his collegiate career. If the day couldn’t get more perfect for Sarkisian, his son, Brady Sarkisian, capped the game with a TFL.
The Longhorns set out to have a “get right” game against Sam Houston State after three frustrating performances, and they did just that. Arch Manning looked confident and crisp, the offense worked like a well oiled machine, the defense continued to look like one of the best in the country and the Longhorns came out with a comfortable win.
Moving forward, the Longhorns get some time to catch their breath, with a bye week coming up. Following the bye week is the toughest portion of the Longhorns schedule, when they play away from Austin for the entire month of October, starting with a trip to Gainesville. We will see if Texas can continue building off this encouraging performance against Florida on October 4th, but for now, it looks like the Longhorns are finding a groove.
This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Arch Manning, Texas Football dominate in big rout of Sam Houston State
