Everybody in the major outlets was head over heels for the Texas Longhorns and Arch Manning heading into the 2025 season. The AP Poll ranked them No. 1 in the country. ESPN had them as the best team in the nation. Analysts like Paul Finebaum swore Arch Manning was the best QB since Tim Tebow. They also picked the best tight end out of the portal in Jack Endries. Many believed it was written on the wall, after back-to-back semis, Texas was finally going to get their lick. Unfortunately, things did not play out as the preseason expectations suggested.

Fast forward to Week 11, even though Texas bounced back, there is still too much side-eye being thrown at the Longhorns offense. And now Longhorns insiders are revealing what is actually wrong with this offense and who the real culprit is.

On November 7, Texas Insider hopped onto the Texas Insider podcast and broke down what is going on with the Texas offense. Do they need to go get the No. 1 wideout from the portal? The insider started it off with a simple icebreaker: “I don’t think so, for a couple of reasons. First, I think they’ve got much bigger fish to fry. They’ve got to repurpose that money towards offensive line. We’ve seen how important offensive line is. Texas had one game with a good offensive line pretty much this entire season.”

According to the insider, the Longhorns should be in the market for top-tier offensive linemen, not wideouts. And for four or five games, Longhorns fans pointed fingers at Arch Manning and the receivers before realizing the O-line was the actual issue. Why is the offensive line struggling? Steve Sarkisian lost four offensive linemen to the NFL and failed to replace them properly in the portal. Instead, they took a gamble on sophomores and inexperienced trench players.

The offensive line struggles are obvious from their 2025 numbers. They have given up 18 sacks in their first 9 games. But their worst performance came against the Florida Gators. They allowed six sacks and constant pressure. But credit where it is due, the line stepped up twice in clutch spots. They were absolutely locked in against Oklahoma and Vanderbilt. In that Vanderbilt game, they did not allow a single sack and kept pressure minimal. Even though there are glimpses of improvement, this unit remains a major weakness.

The insider called the offensive line a force multiplier, meaning that when this group plays well, the entire offense rises. If Texas fixes this one issue, there is no reason they should not make the playoffs easily. Meanwhile, the receiving corps has been a bright spot and has performed better than expected despite all the roster turnover. The insider gave props to the receiver room.

Texas Longhorns wideout corps gets the benefit of the doubt

According to the insider, the young receivers are already incredibly talented and just need better protection up front so the quarterback actually has time to get them the ball. Ryan Wingo has had some drops, but he is averaging 19 yards per catch and can house a 75-yard screen or win deep on a post.

The insider also likes Emmit Mosley and DeAndre Moore, who have both shown upside even though Texas has not had time to consistently go vertical this season. “The more reps he and Arch get, the better he is going to get,” the insider said about Mosley. He added that Moore has been “really, really good this year, quietly.” 

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Texas already has enough talent in that receiver room to become one of the best wideout groups in the nation. He also gave credit to Parker Livingston for filling in for Gunner Helm and winning contested catches. The insider summed it up perfectly: “There is gonna be a wide receiver one that emerges from them. But just as a group, they are very good. And then next year, you also have Daylan McCutcheon and Taliq Lockett. Both those guys have got to play next year. They have got a lot of money invested in this room. It is time to develop the pieces that they have.”

Bottom line: Fix the offensive line first, and the wide receivers will take care of the rest.