The No. 1 Texas Longhorns have played 360 minutes of football this season on their 6-0 run to the top of the rankings. Of those 360 ​​minutes, they were only 3:50 minutes behind.

(Meet Inside Texas TODAY and get 7 days for just ONE DOLLAR!)

This brief period occurred toward the end of the first quarter last Saturday against the Oklahoma Sooners. OU kicked a field goal to take a 3-0 lead, and Texas scored a touchdown just minutes later to retake the lead and secure a 34-3 win.

Playing with an advantage seems to be an extremely easy goal that all teams strive for in every game. Teams want to have more points than their opponent at the beginning, in the middle and especially at the end.

But Texas has been unique this year in creating and defending advantages. The Longhorns are one of three teams, along with Indiana and Army, that have allowed teams to lead by less than five minutes. To their credit, the Hoosiers and Black Knights didn’t fall behind at all in 2024.

Once Texas moves forward, it never looks back. Start a comeback against the Longhorn defense if Steve SarkisianIn the 2024 season, it was impossible for opponents to rush forward on offense.

While it may seem simple, what are the specific reasons why playing with a lead is so important?

“When you have the leadership, the entire game plan is available to you,” Sarkisian said Monday. “You can make the necessary adjustments because you can anticipate and see what’s coming. When you play from the back, you are more in a scramble mode. Sometimes you have to scrap the original game plan. You need to go to your emergency plans. If that Plan A didn’t work, you need to move on to Plan B and Plan C.”

Texas has been operating with Plan A for most of the year, even though Arch Manning had to step in Quinn Ewers for a few games. So it should come as no surprise that the few minutes the Longhorns fell short of Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl were, for several players, the most adversity the team faced this season.

On Monday, Barryn Sorrell, Jaydon BlueAnd Kelvin Banks Everyone identified that 3:50, when the Longhorns were behind, as the most adverse situation the Longhorns have faced this year. Banks also mentioned the moments before DeAndre Moore Jr. caught a 50-yard touchdown pass from Manning against Mississippi State, marking another try for Texas this season.

There aren’t many other times players could even call Monday difficult in the 2024 season, and that’s a testament to how well the Longhorns played on both sides of the ball.

Texas is No. 7 in total offense and No. 11 in yards per game, among a number of other high statistical rankings.

Texas is also No. 1 in ESPN defensive stop rate, No. 1 in yards allowed per game, No. 1 in total defense and No. 1 in scoring defense. Even looking beyond some raw stats, Texas is the No. 2 team in adjusted stats like defensive pass efficiency and advanced stats like defensive FEI.

To put it simply, it was easy mode for UT for most of the season. And this ease creates difficulties for opponents, causing them to scrap significant parts of their pre-game plans in order to intensify the competition. These efforts were unsuccessful.

“We try to get cues that we think have a chance to move the football and score,” Sarkisian said. “We try to play really solid defense. If we can get that lead, especially in the second half, and it’s a multiple-point lead, then you’ve got to start really throwing the ball now, and that’s something we’re doing compared to a year ago (in the defense). Now they have to throw it. Now let’s attack the passerby. Now we can influence the quarterback, create turnovers and so on.”

In six games this season, Texas was able to build a double-digit lead and change the game. Here are the scores in all six games in which the Longhorns had at least a 10-point lead that never returned to single digits.

• Colorado State – 10:56 2Q
• Michigan – 8:24 2Q
• UTSA – 0:06 1Q
• Louisiana-Monroe – 5:28 1Q
• Mississippi State – 0:06 3Q
• Oklahoma – 2:21 Q2

“We were fortunate to be able to play like that all year,” Sarkisian said. “This is the ideal way. We must also be prepared for the opposite path, because that day will probably come at some point. We have to make sure that we are well prepared for this too.”

Maybe even Saturday against Georgia, a team with experience in throwing the best-laid plans for a comeback.

During their memorable battle against the Alabama Crimson Tide on September 28, Georgia trailed 30-7 at halftime. The Bulldogs gave up four touchdowns Jalen Milroe-led offense, plus a safety towards the end of the half.

The plan for Kirby SmartThe team had to be changed at short notice.

“It’s changed quickly, I can promise you that,” Smart said Thursday. “There was a regrouping point at half-time.

He would say it later. “Before the end of the half we realized that we had to win every possible possession.”

Georgia has performed heroic deeds Carson Beck and Co. to level the ball game and even take the lead before Milroe and Co. committed heroics Ryan Williams gave the flood victory.

The Longhorns have forced their opponents to abandon their schedules early all year long due to large deficits. On Saturday an opponent will come to town who has managed to catch up with these leads.

If Texas is lucky enough to build a lead, Georgia will have to change its game script. The shoe could end on the other foot, and Texas may have to employ strategies it hasn’t used since the Sugar Bowl at the climax of last season.

Or it could be a close game, an experience the Longhorns haven’t had this season.

(Subscribe to the Inside Texas YouTube channel!)

Sarkisian himself describes game plans as formulas. Others call it a script. The outcome on Saturday at Campbell-Williams Field at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium will definitely be action-packed, but Georgia will be looking to say something to avoid becoming the seventh team in falling victim to Texas’ efficiency this season.