As Texas move forward with the season, analysts are ringing the alarm over how head coach Steve Sarkisian is managing his prized quarterback. Longhorns have been relying on Arch Manning repeatedly to bail out the offense. While this might have done its magic in the last few games, Josh Pate and Will Compton are not so sure this strategy would work for them anymore.

“We got to throw out the playbook and just let him go playground mode,” Josh Pate said on the Get Up podcast on September 23. “While that worked against Ohio State, that’s not a sustainable strategy. So that’s what I was watching for early on.”

College football analyst Josh Pate has a mere understanding of what might be plaguing the Texas Longhorns offense. Looking back at Texas’s SEC road games of last season, the Longhorns’ leading rusher consistently failed to even reach 45 yards on the ground. When the Longhorns are on the road, they fail to stand the pressure of not being in their comfort at Austin.

The main anchor of their offence, Manning, is also much more comfortably playing in the friendly confines of Austin. However, he has been seen struggling to sustain that same level of production when playing in hostile away environments. 

Manning has never lost a home game or a neutral-site game. It includes leading Texas past Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry and beating Michigan in the Citrus Bowl. In contrast, his 2-3 record in true road games includes losses at Ohio State, Florida, and Georgia.

At home, Manning plays with extreme comfort, dealing a lethal 4.5-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio. On the road, that number plummets dramatically to almost 1-to-1. However, his overall completion percentage falls by nearly 6% when he travels.

It dips below the 60% baseline when he faces tougher blitzes and crowd noise. In his five road starts, Manning had 101 of 175 for 1,162 yards with seven touchdowns and five interceptions. Which, compared to his home stats of 205 of 324 attempts for 2,858 yards and 27 touchdowns against six interceptions, is pretty low.

Neyland Stadium is one of the loudest stadiums to play in, which can easily accommodate 101,915 fans. It will be a difficult challenge for Manning to overcome, and Will Compton also believes that.

“You’re playing in a place like Neyland, which will probably be the most electric crowd on a Saturday afternoon that you’re going to find,” Compton added to Pate’s views. “Can this run game travel? Arch Manning, he hasn’t performed well when being tested on the road. He hasn’t performed well when he’s throwing the ball over 10 yards. I want to say he’s in the 40th percentile when trying to win through the air plus 10 yards. So for me, it’s all about Arch Manning.”

While the Longhorns were able to pull a lucky comeback win against Ohio State, it might not be the same scenario with the Vols. Edwin Spillman has back-to-back 5-tackle games and a forced fumble. He also has Arion Carter, Amari Campbell, and Jeremiah Telander to wall up the middle of the field.

Sarkisian will have to be smart with pulling up a strategy for their SEC opener and might have to relieve some pressure off of Manning. He has two RBs to fall back on, and they would need to pull up their socks for this game. Hollywood Smothers logged 939 yards and 6 touchdowns last year. His presence is needed in Texas to gain tough yardage on early downs. However, Smothers’ name was on the injury list for their game in Neyland. Apparently, he is suffering from a lower-body injury.

With Smothers limited or potentially out, former Arizona State RB Raleek Brown would take over as the definitive backbone for the run game. Brown has proven he can handle pressure, as he has racked up 129 yards on 4.2 yards per carry so far this season.