For the first time in well over a decade, Texas football goes into the bye week with an undefeated record and a top-two ranking in the AP Poll and Coaches Poll this week. Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian are 5-0 (1-0 SEC) after a sluggish 35-13 defeat against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at home at DKR in the SEC opener last weekend.

Texas football has some issues to fix before the tougher schedule after the bye week in mid-October against OU and Georgia

The Longhorns’ schedule from here on out definitely has some big games, but it is very realistic to see Sarkisian and Texas go the regular season with one or no losses. The ESPN College Football Power Index gives Texas the best chance of any team in the nation to finish this regular season undefeated.

Texas also has the best chance of making the 12-team College Football Playoff of any team in the FBS. It’s also noteworthy that the Longhorns have the top spot in this week’s Coaches Poll and FPI rankings despite being ranked No. 2 in this week’s AP Poll.

While the undefeated start has put the Longhorns in a great

spot entering the thick of SEC play in October, there are a few issues Sarkisian and staff must resolve during the bye week. Texas has some challenging big games ahead in the SEC coming out of the bye week in the Red River Rivalry game on Oct. 12 against the Oklahoma Sooners in Dallas, and then against the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs at home on Oct. 19.

Here are three necessary adjustments for the Longhorns during the bye week before Red River next weekend against OU.

Get back to the basics with O-Line fundamentals

Texas’s offensive line play has been pretty good after the season’s first five games. But it would be easy to overlook some of the issues with the fundamentals and mental mistakes along the offensive line with how well the offense has played early this season.

Penalties and occasional miscommunications in run blocking and pass pro off the snap at the line of scrimmage have cost the Longhorns at times on offense. On the plus side of the 50-yard line, Texas’s blockers have four holding penalties called against them (per SIS Data Hub). That number is tied for the second-most holding calls in the SEC this season.

Texas has too veteran experience here with four of the five starters along the offensive line having came back for this season. Three of those four holding calls happened on drives where the Longhorns didn’t end up getting into the end zone.

Junior offensive tackle Cameron Williams is a good example of a microcosm of the offensive line play early this season. Williams has seven penalties called against him in the first five weeks, the most of any starting SEC offensive tackle.

You might look at all the penalties and mental mistakes from Williams early this season and think that he’s performed inconsistently for Texas’s offensive line so far.

Yet, he’s the fifth-highest-graded pass blocker among SEC OTs this season (per PFF).

Texas’s starting offensive line needs to get back to the fundamental basics and technique to get this unit firing on all cylinders this fall. Had Texas put more points on the board early on against Mississippi State, they could’ve rotated more young players to get valuable early live-game reps in the SEC opener last weekend.

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