This preview is the fifth of a 12-part series breaking down the upcoming KU football schedule.
It may be a Big 12 Conference farewell tour for Texas in 2023, but that won’t stop head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns from playing their hand for a league title. Kansas will take a road trip to Austin in Week 5, at the end of September, and the Longhorns will arguably be the Jayhawks’ toughest test of the year.
Top to bottom, Texas returns seemingly all the right pieces from last year’s eight-win campaign (8-5, 6-3 Big 12), when it finished No. 25 in the AP Top 25. The Longhorns’ upcoming schedule gets considerably bumpier, jumping from a home opener against Rice to a heavyweight battle at Alabama in Week 2.
The Texas team that KU beat in Austin two years ago is long gone. Sarkisian and company made that clear with a 55-14 rout of the Jayhawks in Lawrence last year, racing out to a 31-0 lead by halftime thanks to hard-nosed running back Bijan Robinson.
Robinson has since gone pro, and he’s easily the most important player the Longhorns will have to replace in Sarkisian’s third year as head coach. He racked up 1,580 total rushing yards as a starter in 2022 — 243 of them against KU — and now it’s up to returning backs Jonathon Brooks, Keilan Robinson and Jaydon Blue to replace that production.
Texas will, however, return another offensive producer: Quinn Ewers. The sophomore quarterback made a strong impression last year, totaling 2,177 passing yards for 15 touchdowns at a 58.1% completion rate. Challenging Ewers will be five-star true freshman Arch Manning.
Those two young QBs are complemented by receivers like junior Xavier Worthy, senior Jordan Whittington and Georgia transfer Adonai Mitchell — three players who had nearly 2,000 combined receiving yards last year.
Additional returning offensive contributors include All-Big 12 tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders and All-American left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr.
There’s a lot of continuity on the Longhorns’ defense, as well. Defensive tackles T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy and defensive end Barryn Sorrell will be back up front this year. Last year, Texas finished fifth in sacks across the conference.
Pressure will also come from senior linebacker Jaylan Ford. Ford racked up a team-best 119 tackles (10 for loss), four interceptions, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries in 2022. New faces will join the secondary, however: Arkansas transfer safety Jalen Catalon and Wake Forest transfer cornerback Gavin Holmes.
This game will be the 22nd time KU and Texas have met on the gridiron, but it will be their last meeting for the foreseeable future because the Longhorns are leaving for the SEC in 2024 along with Oklahoma. In the history of Kansas’ matchups against Texas, which spans beyond the birth of the Big Eight and Big 12, KU has won just four times — 1901, 1938, 2016 and 2021.
