Offensive line coach Herb Hand’s unit hasn’t been great for the Texas Longhorns. On Saturday they provided no help for a struggling offense.
There are plenty of areas of the Texas Longhorns football team that can be highlighted as an issue for this football team. On Saturday, offensive line coach Herb Hand and his unit moved to the forefront of the conversation. This season that unit has been under fire all year. Against the Sooners in Dallas, Texas the offensive line didn’t provide any relief for a struggling offense.
This isn’t something new for Hand. During his final year at Auburn, it was also a problem. They were ranked 10th in the Southeastern Conference in sacks allowed. It seems to be a common issue for Hand’s units. When Tom Herman wiped out most of the staff, he kept Hand and running back’s coach Stan Drayton. Hand hasn’t been able to fix some of these issues that continue to bite them.
Using Pro Football Focus numbers, the team as a whole allowed 23 pressures by the Sooners defense. Of the times that Sam Ehlinger dropped back to pass, he faced pressure on 32.8% of the time. Essentially a third of the time, the quarterback faced some sort of pressure. On those passes he was sacked a total of six times in this game. Ehlinger had an amoebic 2.6 yards per attempt. Longhorns Wire will have more on Ehlinger’s struggles a bit later on.
Up front the line was unable to give Ehlinger enough time in the pocket. Christian Jones led the team with allowed pressures. He allowed eight total pressures and one sack. No one on the team had more than three pressured surrendered in this game. Left tackle Samuel Cosmi was the lone blocker to not allow a single pressure on the quarterback.
Derek Kerstetter and Junior Angilau both allowed three pressures and one sack apiece. Angilau also was called for two different penalties that hurt the football team. The lone penalty from Kerstetter cost the football team a shot at a touchdown. After a long run by Ehlinger, the team was set up with a forth and short inside the five-yard line. The personal foul after the play forced Texas to kick a field goal and take the decision to go for it off the table.
Kerstetter as a whole has struggled at the center position since moving over from right tackle. Denzel Okafor allowed two pressures and a sack. All in all they haven’t been a very solid unit. Their struggles fall at the feet of Hand and head coach Tom Herman. With the bye week for the Texas Longhorns before they host Baylor, it would be as good a time as any to make some changes on the line.
The Longhorns have a highly touted center listed behind Kerstetter. Jake Majors was one of the top recruits from the 2020 cycle. His rankings according to 247Sports Composite put Majors as the No. 5 center in the country as a four-star recruit. Kerstetter was one of the highest graded right tackles, it might be a better move to fix the center and right tackle. Isaiah Hookfin should also get some looks at the guard spot in place of Okafor.
The big issue with Hand’s unit is not only the struggles with protecting the quarterback but also running the football. The Longhorns team is much better when they can get the running game going. Outside of breaking some long runs, this team has been unable to get any semblance of a run game going.
The team has run for 474 yards this year without Ehlinger’s 242 yards included. The team needs to get more from the run game and it starts up front. The team hasn’t been able to have a consistent run game to help out the offense that has shown some struggles over the last two games. The offense needs to be better and while no one unit or player is to blame, it would benefit from an improved effort in the trenches.
