A wounded Texas defense won't get much of a breather this Saturday when the Texas Longhorns open Big 12 play against Kansas State.
The Longhorns (1-2) come into the game last in the Big 12 in rushing defense, having allowed 308.7 yards a game. Stopping the rushing game from the quarterback has been especially tough, as BYU quarterback Taysom ran for 259 yards two weeks ago and Mississippi quarterback rushed for 57 in Saturday's 44-23 win.
Neither of those quarterbacks is as athletic as Kansas State sophomore Daniel Sams, who has already run for 157 yards in three games for the Wildcats (2-1).
Texas head coach Mack Brown expects a heavy dose of the running game Saturday night.
"I think anybody right now will try to run the ball against us," Brown said. "We haven't stopped it yet. We feel like we'll see a very similar game plan to what we've seen the last two weeks. We'll see option. We'll see power. We'll see quarterback runs. That's what (Kansas State head coach) Bill Snyder's been so good at and we're not stopping it well at this point. We've had good looks at it the last two weeks. We've just got to continue to get better at it."
Brown said the team put together video clips of all the positive things the Longhorns have done this year. There probably weren't a lot of defensive highlights in the video.
Brown thought the team played better defensively Saturday under new coordinator Greg Robinson, who replaced Manny Diaz after the BYU loss.
There's still work to do though and Brown said the key has been the team's struggles to stop the option attack.
"At times we played really well," Brown said. "Greg Robinson only had three practices and was trying to get comfortable with our defense so it was very difficult for him to make adjustments against a really good offense. I think we'll be in a much better place for him this weekend to do that."
