Coming into Saturday’s matchup against the Texas Longhorns, the Florida Gators football team had been ranked 135 out of 136 FBS teams in terms of sack rate at 2.3%. With just three sacks on the year, going up against one of the most mobile quarterbacks in the conference, fans would expect them to have little to no luck pressuring Arch Manning, let alone bringing him down.

When they left Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on that Saturday evening, not only had they set their season record, but they tripled that number of sacks. Six times Arch had been dragged to the turf, six times had he been forced to lose yards, six times the Florida Gators sacked Texas’ starting quarterback.

Obviously, this stat line is going to draw eyes to a younger, inexperienced offensive line that Texas is dealing with. So, where exactly did things go wrong? How was Florida able to create pressure on a staggering 59.5% of Manning's dropbacks on Saturday?

Over the offseason, Texas had to deal with losing most of an all-elite offensive line to the NFL. Big names and even bigger fellas like Kelvin Banks, Hayden Conner, Jake Majors and Cameron Williams had all gone off in hopes of making a career outside of college. With the recruiting success Texas has had in recent years, it’s almost like everyone seemed to overlook just how hard it’d be to reload such a stacked offensive line.

Texas football and Sarkisian have been known for developing their own lineman, straying away from the transfer portal when it comes to this position. Having to replace four seasoned players on that o-line isn’t impossible with homegrown talent but it is a lot harder. And that inexperience has shown tenfold.

Penalties have been a consistent issue this season, and the game against Florida was no different. Every one of Texas’ first six penalties came from the offensive line, instantly putting them in a swamp-filled hole. Fast forward a half, and Texas fans saw one of the most glaring examples of inexperience when freshman Nick Brooks took back-to-back false start penalties that put Texas at 2nd and 19 on the Florida 39. The very next play would see Arch force an inaccurate throw downfield that’d be picked off by Jordan Castell, seemingly pushing the knife deeper into Texas’ back.

With the amount of money this Texas football program both brings in and spends each year, it’s almost inexcusable to see such poor offensive line play. While you may be able to cut them some slack and say, “they’re young and inexperienced, you just have to give them time,” at some point you have to ask, “just how much more time?”.

Up next, the Oklahoma Sooners who are currently averaging a sack rate of 16.2%, one of the best in college football. It’s a terribly hard test for an offensive line that has yet to amaze let alone satisfy anybody, but if Texas wants to bounce back and find its way into the playoffs, it starts in the trenches. Protecting Manning has to be the number one priority, and if they can do that, then the Longhorns just might come out of Dallas with an upset.