Maryland Pulls Away Late, Maybe Texas Isn’t Back

As our own Austin Brown alluded to before, Texas is indeed, not back.

What was supposed to ring in a new era in Texas football ended in disappointment as Maryland squashed the hype and beat the Longhorns 51-41. Texas was unable to overcome an embarrassing first half, that included getting a field goal blocked that the Terps then returned for a touchdown.

Neither team seemed willing to play defense, combining to surrender 955 total yards. Special teams was an equal disaster for both teams, as both returned a blocked field goal for a touchdown, and Texas’s Reggie Hemphill-Mapps returned a punt for 91 yards and a touchdown.

After two quarters of play, Texas found themselves trailing 30-14. If not for Holton Hill’s pick-6 and blocked field goal return, Texas would not have scored at all in the first half. After scoring 20 points in an impressive third quarter, Maryland’s lead was cut to just three points. To make matters worse, starting quarterback Tyrell Pigrome was carried off the field after injuring his knee in that quarter as well. True freshman Kasim Hill filled in for Pigrome, completing all three of his passes for 44 yards, and adding a rushing touchdown in the middle of the fourth quarter. Pigrome went 9/12 passing for 175 yards and 2 touchdowns while adding 64 yards and a touchdown on the ground before his injury.

Perhaps the most concerning area for Texas was their run game. Faced with replacing last year’s Doak Walker Award winner D’Onta Foreman, the Longhorns managed just 98 rushing yards on 31 carries as a team, paced by Chris Warren III’s 31 yards. For Maryland, Ty Johnson had no problems running all over the Longhorn defense, rushing for 132 yards and a touchdown on just 12 carries. As a whole, the Terps torched the Longhorns for 263 yards and 4 touchdowns on the ground. Texas’s defense looked terrible almost all game, save for the one pick-6 on the first drive of the game. Maryland punter Wade Lees was called upon just four times out of 16 drives.

So, once again, after a preseason full of undeserving hype, Texas is not back. Not even firing Charlie Strong in favor of Tom Herman could bring the Longhorns back. Maybe this is finally the year that we can stop pretending that Texas is supposed to be good.