Texas Longhorns Football Schedule 2024
The Texas football team will face college football playoff contenders such as Michigan, Georgia and Oklahoma.
Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian had to laugh when he saw what the quarterback of Evangel Christian Academy, a high school powerhouse in Shreveport, Louisiana, did in the early 2000s.
Sarkisian, then an assistant coach at Southern Cal, recruited and trained John David Booty, who was under contract to Evangel Christian. When faced with an opponent’s blitz, Booty’s reaction was to retreat further back in the shotgun, unfazed by the extra distance, and looking for more time to load his right arm.
“They would be about 8 meters deep and would really make a bang,” Sarkisian said.
When Booty graduated from USC, he ranked fifth in career completions (518) and passing yards (6,125).
When Sarkisian and his Longhorns (3-0) host Louisiana-Monroe (2-0) on Saturday (7 p.m., ESPN+, SEC+), he will be greeted by an offense led by a familiar name.
General Booty, the nephew of John David, is the Warhawks’ starting quarterback and is helping lead the program into a new era under new coach Bryant Vincent.
“General can throw, he can throw it, and that’s natural for him,” Sarkisian said. “It’s not like he’s trying too hard to throw the ball, read it and throw it under pressure.”
ARCH’S NEED FOR SPEED: How Arch Manning’s top speed for Texas football was calculated – and why it went viral
Booty has helped bring much-needed stability to a ULM offense that stumbled under former coach Terry Bowden. From 2020-2023, the Warhawks never averaged more than 22.3 points and finished under the 20-point mark twice.
Things are different under Vincent. ULM scored 30 points in its season-opening win over Football Championship Series opponent Jackson State, then defeated Trent Dilfer’s UAB team 32-6 in Week 2.
And the Warhawks have done that by keeping it simple for Booty, who came over from Oklahoma in the offseason. (He hasn’t thrown a single pass in two seasons as a Sooner.) Booty has attempted a total of three passes of 10 yards or more in two starts. It’s not the rushing approach Sarkisian knows from Booty’s uncle, but it’s working.
He is completing 63.3% of his passes, with 191 yards and one touchdown on the season, and has never given the ball away after ULM lost it 18 times in 12 games last year.
Texas Football vs. Louisiana-Monroe: A look at the weapons on ULM’s offense
While the numbers may be skewed by play, they show that the Warhawks operate one of the most run-heavy offenses in the country. ULM has run nearly 45 runs per game this season, ranking 12th nationally. By comparison, only the three Division I military academies attempt fewer passes per game than the Warhawks’ 15.5.
True freshman running back Ahmad Hardy leads the ULM backfield, rushing for 161 yards on 33 carries and finding the end zone twice. James Jones, a junior college product, has been a bit more efficient, carrying the ball 20 times for 110 yards and a touchdown in two games.
BASEBALL LATEST: Pitching is one of the issues that Jim Schlossnagle must address in his first fall
The Longhorns, however, have proven they can handle this type of offense. Against Michigan, which won the national championship last season thanks in large part to a strong running attack, Texas allowed just 3.5 yards per carry.
Over the past two weeks, Texas has been particularly impressive in defending the third down run. Out of nine opportunities to run on third down with less than 4 yards, UTSA and Michigan were only able to capitalize on two of them.
“I think we defended really well in short yardage,” Sarkisian said this week. “That’s something we’re very proud of. We’ve been good the last few years. We lost a couple of really good players that made some of those plays: T’Vondre Sweat, Byron Murphy. But if you turn around and come back this year, we played really well again in short yardage. Alfred Collins in particular played really well there.”
Follow the American-Statesman on Facebook and X for more. Your subscription makes this work possible. Get access to all our best content with this great offer.
