Texas opens season against in-state neighbor Texas State
The Longhorns open at home this afternoon against a Texas State program they haven't played since 1930, with Steve Sarkisian already on record that this camp's Arch Manning doubts were never real.
Manning's doubters go quiet right as kickoff arrives
The scrutiny started with an NFL Draft outlet calling Arch Manning "underwhelming" in practice, and by midweek it had curdled into full social-media panic about the sophomore stepping into his first year as a full-time starter. Sarkisian killed it in one line at his Monday press conference: "Well, he's had a great camp, man. I'm really, I'm pumped about it," he said, according to SI.com. Two years after handing him a clipboard, Sarkisian isn't hedging on Manning heading into his first Saturday as the guy from snap one.
Manning himself pointed to something less flashy than a stat line: the work of actually getting to know the new faces around him. "Definitely really important building rapport," he said this week, per Yahoo Sports, and he singled out receiver Cam Coleman by name — "Cam wants to be great, which is a good thing. He takes coaching well" — as evidence the chemistry is further along than the outside panic suggested.
That's the backdrop Texas carries into kickoff at 2:30 this afternoon. Sarkisian has said Manning's rapport with Coleman, Ryan Wingo and running back Emmett Mosley is "really high," and that he's rebuilt his own play-calling around what the quarterback trusts rather than what the coach wants to prove. "I'm excited for him. I think he's going to play really well," Sarkisian said — about as clean a vote of confidence as a coach gives before his guy's first real snap of the year.
They closed last season with 41 on Michigan — now it's time to see if it means anything
Texas closed out last season by hanging 41 points on Michigan on December 31, a fifth win in its final six games after a rough stretch that included a 35-10 loss at Georgia in November. It was as good a way as any to end 2025, and it's the score most Longhorns fans will point to walking into this opener.
But the number that actually bothers this staff is 9-3 — the record Texas finished last season with, and the one that kept it out of the Playoff field entirely. Sarkisian brought it up unprompted this summer: "The committee's got to show us what happens now, and what's the value that they're placing on strength of schedule. Are we ever going to let a 9-3 team in as an at-large? We'll find out." Today's opener is the first entry in whatever résumé this team is trying to build to make sure that question doesn't come up again in December.
Front five looks settled with Goosby trending toward game day
Trevor Goosby practiced in full for a second straight week, and in Texas's first live scrimmage of camp he lined up as the left tackle in what SI.com described as the starting five: Goosby at left tackle, Laurence Seymore at left guard, Connor Robertson at center, Brandon Baker at right guard and Melvin Siani at right tackle. Sarkisian liked what he saw up front — "I was really encouraged with the first offensive line unit," he said. "I thought they played a physical brand of football." It's the clearest signal yet that the bone bruise in Goosby's left knee, diagnosed off an August 18 MRI, is trending toward game day rather than away from it — even if Covers' aggregated injury log still lists him Questionable and hedges that it remains to be seen if he suits up this afternoon.
The 2 weeks Goosby missed in August weren't wasted, either. Redshirt sophomore Andre Cojoe filled in at left tackle and left an impression Sarkisian didn't hide — "He's a big man, but he's light on his feet. He can move. He's explosive" — which means Texas has a real answer at tackle if the knee doesn't cooperate today. Covers also lists receiver D. McCutcheon as Questionable with an illness for this afternoon, a smaller line on the same log but one more name worth watching before kickoff.
Longhorns and their 30-mile neighbor meet for the first time since 1930
Texas and Texas State sit 30 miles apart on I-35, and somehow this is only the second time they've ever played — the first meeting since 1930. Sarkisian isn't treating it like a formality: asked about looking ahead to next week, he pushed back this week, saying, "I know everyone's wanting to talk about next week, this team we're playing this week, don't be surprised in the end of November if they're not in the talk of making the College Football Playoff." Texas State closed last season with a 41-10 win over Rice, its opponent_form line into this one, and comes in at 0-0 for the same reason everybody else does in Week 1.
The line opened at Texas -30.5 with the total set at 60.5, both numbers that read as a program expecting to blow the doors off a first-time in-state guest rather than sneak past one. That's a huge number for a rivalry renewal, but it also matches a Longhorns team that closed 2025 averaging 40-plus and a Bobcats team that has never faced anything like a Big 12 front seven. Kickoff is this afternoon at 2:30, and for a fan base that's spent camp arguing about Manning, the scoreboard finally starts saying something real.