Game Preview: No. 1 Texas vs Mississippi State

The Texas Longhorns enter their first game of Southeastern Conference play as the No. 1 ranked team in the nation. They welcome a struggling Jeff Lebby Mississippi State team to Darrell K. Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium on Saturday. Not only are the Bulldogs coming off of three straight losses, they’re fighting the injury bug as well.

Mississippi State lost starting quarterback Blake Shapen to a season-ending shoulder injury last week at home against Florida. True freshman quarterback Michael Van Buren will be making his first career start on Saturday, which is less-than ideal for the Bulldogs’ hopes of pulling off an upset in Austin. Running back Keyvone Lee had been splitting carries with Johnnie Daniels but Lee has also been ruled out for the game. Mississippi State is coming into this one outmatched and the Bulldogs are more than five touchdown underdogs for a reason… but the game isn’t played on paper.

Jeff Lebby vs Pete Kwiatkowski

Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby is a familiar face for Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski. Lebby comes from Oklahoma where he has faced Kwiatkowski the previous two seasons. This will be the matchup to watch in this game. While Texas had a good defense last year, it has clearly improved in 2024. Through four games Texas has allowed just 22 points. That is nothing to scoff at.

Lebby has put out some good offenses in his past at Baylor, UCF, Ole Miss & Oklahoma. However, he doesn’t have the talent like he had at previous stops. Given their history against each other, Lebby will likely have some tricks up his sleeve for Kwiatkowski and the Longhorns. It will be a big challenge with a true freshman under center, but Lebby’s scheme allows for big plays and it will be up to Van Buren to make those plays. Kwiatkowski is hoping his elite defense can stop those explosive plays from happening.

Arch or Quinn?

In the initial availability report required by the Southeastern Conference each Wednesday, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers is listed as questionable. Steve Sarkisian is therefore faced with a tricky proposition. He needs to decide, if Ewers is less than 100% from his abdominal strain, should he play or rest him another week before the bye week. The challenge is that following the off-week comes the Oklahoma and Georgia games. Should Ewers play at less than 100%, reinjuring his abdomen is always a factor. What Sarkisian doesn’t want is his starting quarterback missing more playing time due to a reaggravated injury that was almost healed.

The good thing for Sarkisian and Texas is they have Arch Manning on the bench as an insurance policy. Manning had his ups and downs in his start against UL-Monroe but it was his first-ever career start. Should he start this week against Mississippi State, look for improved efficiency along with better decisions related to checking down and throwing the ball away. People may worry about Ewers being rusty against Oklahoma as it would be a month since he last played. It’s important to remember that he missed almost five weeks in 2022 and he returned from that injury against Oklahoma and played well. The Longhorns will be in good shape at the quarterback position regardless of who is under center this week.