Playoff Margin Gone: No. 11 Texas Hosts Mississippi State Under the Halloween Lights at a Sold-Out DKR
Texas has no room left for a third conference loss. Mississippi State arrives with its quarterback question answered only at kickoff — and the Longhorns will defend their season without their sack leader.
No. 11 Texas (5-2, 2-2 SEC) hosts Mississippi State (4-3, 2-3 SEC) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium, on ESPN with Joe Tessitore, Jesse Palmer and Kris Budden on the call. The game is a sellout — a Halloween night crowd, with UT's Parking and Transportation Services warning that game-day towing is being enforced across campus on a night when downtown expects up to 100,000 people of its own.
The stakes are plain. Last Saturday's 34-27 win over Ole Miss kept Texas' College Football Playoff hopes alive and lifted the Longhorns to No. 11; another loss would be their third in the SEC and, in the words of Sports Illustrated's conference roundup, would deal another blow to a playoff path that already has little room left in it. A win moves Texas to 3-2 in the league and keeps an SEC title-game route open behind it.
Mississippi State's offense arrives under a question mark that stayed up all week. Starter Kamario Taylor had season-ending foot surgery on Oct. 28 after missing two games, freshman Parker Puckett started the two losses that followed, and on Saturday morning CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz reported that senior AJ Swann — 18 career starts across Vanderbilt, LSU and Appalachian State, and not one snap yet for Mississippi State — has been handed the reins. Head coach Jeff Lebby declined to name a starter all week and said he would announce it just before kickoff, so the reports stand as reports until the Bulldogs' first snap.
Whoever plays quarterback will face a Texas defense missing its best pass rusher. Edge Colin Simmons, who has 10.5 sacks this season, was ruled out on the final availability report with a high ankle sprain, and left tackle Trevor Goosby is done for the year after tearing a patellar tendon against Ole Miss. The Longhorns did get two weapons back: receiver Cam Coleman — 21 catches, 348 yards and six touchdowns — and running back Hollywood Smothers were cleared and removed from the report.
On paper the matchup runs through the air. Mississippi State allows 267.4 passing yards a game, 129th in the nation, against an Arch Manning who has thrown for 1,507 yards this season — though turnovers have been a recurring problem for the Texas offense, and Mississippi State's own availability report is long, with eight players out. Texas scores on 92.9 percent of its red-zone trips, 18th nationally. The Longhorns lead the series 4-2, including last year's 45-38 overtime win in Starkville — and for whatever the calendar is worth, Texas is 15-3-1 all-time on Halloween.
