Texas vs. Mississippi State: Pressure Mounts on Sark

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Texas Faces Mississippi State With Pressure Mounting on Steve Sarkisian and Arch Manning

Texas hosts Mississippi State in Austin with the Longhorns favored by roughly 20 points. The matchup comes at a critical time for Steve Sarkisian and Arch Manning, as Texas continues to play with its back against the wall.

Texas entered the season expected to be one of the best teams in college football. However, the Longhorns failed to meet those expectations against Ohio State and surrendered double-digit leads in consecutive games against Oklahoma and Florida. That has increased the pressure on Sarkisian, particularly after last week’s game against Ole Miss.

An 8-4 season would be viewed as an unacceptable result, regardless of the difficulty of the schedule. That makes every Texas game significant, whether the Longhorns are favored by two points or 20. Despite being one of the country’s most popular teams, Texas remains a difficult team for bettors to trust.

Laying close to 20 points with Texas was described as poor financial advice. Mississippi State is missing its quarterback, and its game against LSU showed how much that could matter, but backing Texas at such a large number still carries considerable risk.

The discussion also connected Sarkisian’s situation with the pressure facing Lincoln Riley at USC. Both programs expect to compete for playoff spots, and both coaches would be expensive to replace. An expanded playoff could help protect their jobs by giving Texas and USC a better chance to qualify regularly, even in seasons when they fall short of their highest expectations.

There is also a possibility that Sarkisian could eventually argue that Manning was not the quarterback best suited to lead his team. Sarkisian reached two semifinals in the previous college football era with Texas, but he has not done so with Manning. That could lead him to seek another quarterback whom he considers his own choice to lead the program.