All Hat, No Cattle: Longhorns Offense Falling Flat Despite Texas' Top Talent

The State of Texas is no stranger to rollercoasters, with one of the nation's most famous rides hailing from none other than Arlington.

However, the most whiplash inducing moments this year have taken place in Austin on the campus of the state's flagship university.

Texas has seen itself rise to the pinnacle of college football after rattling off a furious comeback to stun then-No. 1 Ohio State at home.

But the Longhorns have also had to suffer the brutal fall back down to harsh reality after back-to-back losses to unranked Oklahoma and Florida.

The Longhorns have been roped and tied by nearly all of their recent opponents, with Florida being just the latest foe to figure out how to shut them down.

While the level of competition faced by Texas this year is daunting for even the best in the sport, the struggles showcased thus far have been far more the fault of the Longhorns than anyone else.

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Texas has seemingly found new ways to give games away and dig itself deeper into a hole that is teetering on the edge of becoming inescapable.

In those two prior outings against Oklahoma and Florida, the Longhorns blew double-digit leads in both and committed a total of three turnovers.

Two of which were directly responsible for ending a potential game-winning drive for the Longhorns against Florida and creating the game-winning drive for the Sooners in Dallas.

The most glaring issue in Austin has undoubtedly been the offense for Texas, as the Longhorns look lost, to put it nicely, and flat-out awful, to be much more frank.

But that is also one of the most head-scratching facts after the lengths that head coach Steve Sarkisian and the rest of the program went to in the offseason to build a roster that could rival any team in the SEC and beyond.

Not to mention the amount of money needed to be rounded up to assemble the star-studded cast in the Lone Star State.

Wide receiver tandem Ryan Wingo and Cam Coleman have combined for nearly 700 yards and 10 touchdowns alone, as dynamic rusher Raleek Brown has tallied another 300 and five scores on the ground.

That does not even include Hollywood Smothers, who leads the team with over 300 yards and an average of nearly 4.5 yards per carry.

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Even with those stellar individual performances, it has yet to be enough to overcome the simplest of tests on Texas' schedule.

As with any other offense, the quarterback sets the tone for the rest of the unit and the man under center for the Longhorns has been less than ideal.

Arch Manning is one of the biggest names in college football in past memory, with a long line of tradition and success rooted in the name that ordains the back of his jersey.

While he has shown glimpses of that genetic greatness, Manning has been unable to string together consistent performances from week to week, even drive to drive, for the Longhorns.

All three of those aforementioned turnovers in the past two games have been credited to Manning, with six total across six games this year.

In fact, Manning has given the ball away in all but one of the previous games for the Longhorns, with the lone exception coming over UTSA.

For a quarterback reported to be making upwards of $6 million to lead the Longhorns back to the national forefront, it has been an absolutely nightmarish stretch.

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Manning is obviously not solely responsible for the underwhelming outings from the Longhorns and there is an unquestionably a large amount of pressure levied onto him for the name, both school and family, and logo he bears every Saturday.

However, the output coming from the second-year starter is becoming too much to bear for a program with serious national championship aspirations this season.

If Texas cannot find a way to eliminate these self-inflicted wounds and give life to an extremely talented offense primed to compete at the highest level, another year will go by with the biggest takeaway being summed up by two words.

What if?