One of the many intriguing questions heading into next season for the Longhorns Nation is who will be WR1 for Texas. With the arrival of the $3.3 million man, Cam Coleman, it seems like a no-brainer. The question then arises: what about Ryan Wingo? Will he be pushed into a WR2 role after leading the team in receiving yards and touchdowns last season? Not exactly, according to J.D. PicKell of On3. In fact, it may be a blessing in disguise for the Longhorns’ veteran receiver, and could even work in his favor.

“If I’m Ryan Wingo or anyone else in that room, I’m saying, ‘Okay, I want to go make a play like that too.’ Cam made a play,” J.D. Pickell said. “I got to go make a play. I got to go strut my stuff a bit here, like it should push the envelope. It should change the temperature. There’s that word again. It should change the feel in that room, to pull the best out of everybody.”

Basically, it’s going to be an iron sharpens iron situation at Austin next season. When a big-time player like Cam Coleman is in the receiver room, it raises everyone’s level and standards or benchmark. When he makes a huge play in practice, the other guys naturally want to match it. It creates competition in a good way.

And that will have a positive domino effect on game day. It’s not an absurd thing to say that the Longhorns could have the best WR duo in college football. And Arch Manning has the potential to throw for over 4,000 yards with Coleman and Ryan Wingo on the outside.

Coach Steve Sarkisian plans to use Ryan, who was named to the Coaches’ All-SEC second team in 2025, as the “Z” receiver, meaning he and Coleman will essentially be a “two-WR1” punch. Having Coleman on the other side is actually great for Wingo because it should draw away double teams, giving him way more room to work his magic in open space.

The plan for Wingo is to keep him as a primary starter, likely lining up on the opposite side of Coleman. Since Wingo was Manning’s favorite target last year, they already have that chemistry locked in.

While the transfer portal’s No. 1 wideout stretches the field vertically, Wingo can use his physical 214-pound build to bully defenders and rack up yards after the catch. Regardless, whatever the Longhorns plan ends up planning with, it’s a win-win situation in Austin, even if it comes at the cost of a WR2 tag for Ryan Wingo.

However, all this wouldn’t mean much if the Longhorns fail to clean things up as per a Longhorn legend.

Vince Young on Longhorns’ glaring issue

Last season was a rough one for the Texas Longhorns when it came to following the rules. They ended up ranked 128th out of 136 teams in penalty yards per game, giving up about 69.7 yards every single time they played. In total, they got flagged 108 times for a massive 906 yards lost, making them the least disciplined team in the SEC for the second year in a row.

Vince Young hasn’t been shy about calling this out on his podcast, The Stampede.

“I just told you in the huddle, on two, on one, and why are you false-starting on a clap, anyway? They’re clapping, right? So that’s got to be discipline. A lot of times, you know, to me, when I’m a leader of that team, I’m telling y’all, like, ‘Hey man, this is not a coach’s penalty right here,’” VY said.

“This is accountability on us. I hope Arch and the rest of the leaders are in there like, man, this is not coaching. It’s our job to stay onside — stuff that we can control. That’s what I was saying earlier. These are the type of things that you have to work on as a player.”

He pointed out that about a third of those flags were “pre-snap” penalties (stuff like false starts and offsides), which are just mental errors that shouldn’t be happening at this level. VY’s message is simple: they’ve got to clean it up if they want any shot at natty.