The Texas Longhorns' Biggest Problem in 2025 Is Clear

Before the season started, Sarkisian talked about the difference between being a good team and a great team: the ability to limit how many times they hurt themselves with penalties. Recalling the loss in the college football playoffs against the Buckeyes, he said it was a point of emphasis before the week one matchup in Columbus.

Still, the Longhorns were penalized six times for 50 yards in their week one loss, including two considerable penalties on the same drive by Colin Simmons and Malik Muhammad. The Buckeyes broke the 0-0 tie of the game for their first touchdown of the day, after being on the benefiting end of those calls.

Now, at home, in a dominant win against the Spartans, they doubled the amount of penalties from week one, notching 12 of them for 115 yards. Eight were on offense, including a chop block call that nullified a rushing touchdown from CJ Baxter, and a holding call that would have set up the Longhorns on the Spartans' two-yard line after a 34-yard catch. Four of the eight penalties were on the offensive line.

The defense accounted for four of them, and three came from the leaders of that side of the ball. Simmons had two, Michael Taaffe had a roughing the kicker on a punt, and Xavier Filsaime drew a holding call on a punt. Despite their four takeaways, they struggled to play a clean game as a unit. Sarkisian addressed the issue after the game when asked about the penalty problems, saying:

"I'm definitely concerned about that as a coach... My foot's gonna get in their butt on Monday morning. That's unacceptable."

While the Longhorns were able to find their first win of the season in the Forty Acres, and with one more non-conference game before the bye week, followed by a trip to Gainesville for their first conference game of the season, they will look to clean up their most significant issue to start the season.