The Longhorns have lofty goals for the 2024 season but still have a long way to go to achieve them.

The No. 2 Texas Longhorns enter what head coach Steve Sarkisian calls “Phase 2” of the season next week in the annual Red River Rivalry game against the No. 19 Oklahoma Sooners. That game kicks off a seven-week gauntlet of SEC contests that includes hosting the Georgia Bulldogs, a trip to the unfriendly confines of Fayetteville for the Arkansas Razorbacks, and ends with the rivalry renewed in College Station against the Texas A&M Aggies.

It’s no secret that Texas has goals that extend far beyond the next set of games and well into January, but the grind of SEC play will test them both mentally and physically every week. If Texas wants to reach its goals of playing into January, there are a few areas of focus they can hone in on based on Phase 1 of the season.

Turnover margin

Taking care of the football is obviously paramount for every team, but when you look at what Texas accomplished in the first five games of the season compared to their turnover success you can see room for improvement. The Longhorns rank No. 45 overall in turnover margin at plus-two, but sit at No. 83 in turnovers lost with seven, three of which are fumbles lost. The average is floated because Texas has been just as effective taking the ball away, ranking No. 16 in takeaways with nine, seven of which came on interceptions.

“We’re turning the ball over more than we have historically and that’s on us as coaches. We have got to emphasize it more, and it’ll be a point of emphasis this week, and it’s easy to point at a Jaydon Blue this week or an Arch Manning the week before,” Sarkisian said on Monday.

“I look at it as just, hey, is there a way for us to secure the football better? Can we protect better? Can we do our turnover circuit drills better? It’s one thing just to point out what the issue is, but it’s another of how do we rectify that and how do we improve upon that?”

Losing the turnover battle was rare for Texas a year ago, coming up in the negative on just four of their 14 contests. Texas was 2-2 in those matchups, losing to Oklahoma and the Washington Huskies in the playoffs. That four-game sample also includes the overtime nail-biter against Kansas State that saw two turnovers let the Wildcats back into the game.

In the next phase of the season, Texas faces three of the top teams in the SEC in turnover margin, including league-leading Oklahoma, and just one team with a negative turnover margin on the year.

“We can’t continue to play games with two turnovers and false starts and holding penalties and playing behind the chains — that’s a recipe for disaster. So we’re gonna have to clean that stuff up,” Sarkisian said after the Mississippi State win.

Explosive plays

One of the ways that Texas maintained its dominance in the early parts of the season was its ability to both generate and limit chunk plays on both sides of the ball. The Longhorns’ defense ranks No. 4 in the country in plays longer than 10 yards allowed (31) and No. 5 in passes longer than 10 yards allowed (19). On the other side of the ball, the offense has produced 86 plays longer than 10 yards, good enough for No. 10 in the country and is No. 4 in plays longer than 20 yards with 36.

“There’s been a lot of explosive plays. I think Saturday we averaged 8.4 yards per play, which is nearly a first down a play and that was about 23-percent explosive play rate. So one out of every four plays was hitting as an explosive — that was something we talked about this offseason. How do we become a more explosive offense to create those yards in chunks? That has shown up,” Sarkisian said.

Surprising nobody who has watched Texas play, the majority of the chunk plays have come through the air, with 61 of the 81 coming via the pass game. However, that means Texas has struggled to do the same on the ground, ranking No. 46 in rushes longer than 10 yards, including just one 100-yard rusher on the year. Finding a level of balance and explosiveness on the ground will go a long way to keeping defenses honest during SEC play.

“Too many players are getting hit behind the line of scrimmage or for no gains that we need to improve upon,” Sarkisian said.

Sacks and TFL

The ability of Texas to create havoc in the backfield has grown over the last few games, with 12 of their 13 sacks and 30 of their 38 tackles for loss coming in the last three contests. They rank No. 5 and No. 3 respectively in the SEC for both categories and rank No. 1 in the country in opposing drives that ended in a touchdown, thanks to their ability to put opponents behind the chains.

While they’ve done an excellent job of late playing on the other side of the line of scrimmage, the offense has also struggled to keep opponents out of the backfield. The Texas defense ranks No. 79 nationally in sacks allowed with 25, seven of which came in the SEC opener against Mississippi State, and while the Longhorns are slightly better in keeping their own quarterbacks upright, giving up just one sack per game, three of the five sacks came with Arch Manning in the backfield, who struggled at times to get rid of the ball quickly — on short and medium passes, Manning is holding the ball 0.36 seconds longer than starter Quinn Ewers.