Texas beat Mississippi State 31-3 in front of 103,586 fans at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, and it's tempting to file that under "Texas is back." Don't. The game told you almost nothing new about Texas and plenty about how far Jeff Lebby's program has fallen.
Texas, 6-2 and ranked 11th, did what a well-built roster is supposed to do against an opponent that showed up with its depth chart in shreds. Mississippi State lost its starting quarterback for the season to a toe injury, then spent the week flip-flopping between a redshirt freshman who'd struggled in back-to-back SEC losses and a transfer who hadn't played a meaningful snap all year. They settled on the transfer, AJ Swann, days before kickoff. That's a program admitting it doesn't trust anything on its own roster, and it showed: 187 total yards against a Texas defense that's held every SEC opponent it's faced this season to a season-low output. That box score makes the point on its own.
Some of the frustration aimed at the broadcast and at Arch Manning's performance Saturday isn't crazy. If you watched the game and think Manning played a solid, controlled night instead of the disaster some commentary made it sound like, that's a reasonable take, and it doesn't change the larger argument. Whether Manning threw well or just adequately has nothing to do with whether Mississippi State's offense is in freefall. Those are two separate questions, and only one got settled Saturday night.
This win doesn't erase the fact that Texas already lost this season to an unranked Oklahoma team, on a field goal as time expired, in the Red River Rivalry. Steve Sarkisian's résumé since 2023 is excellent: wins over Alabama, back-to-back victories over Oklahoma before this year's loss, a comeback over Ohio State, a Citrus Bowl win to close last season. His 100th career win is a nice round number. But a team with two losses already, one to an unranked rival, doesn't get to claim it's "back" off beating an opponent that couldn't settle on a starting quarterback. Texas looked like what it is: a good team that was going to beat this particular Mississippi State team no matter who was coaching it.
The collapse Saturday is on Lebby. He was hired to be the offensive answer, the guy who'd fix a program that had been a laughingstock before he arrived. Three seasons in, his team walked into the biggest game on its schedule unable to answer who should play quarterback, and the unit he's supposed to be building produced one of the worst offensive performances you'll see in this league all year. His administration laid out the terms before the season started: win enough games, preferably with an upset or two, or start looking for a fourth head coach in four seasons. Saturday night in Austin was that preview coming true in primetime, and Lebby has to own it.
