Texas Longhorns' Explosive Run Game Crucial to Success in College Football Playoff

The Longhorns offense had a field day against the Clemson Tigers, recording a new season-high in total rushing yards.

Texas Longhorns running back Jaydon Blue (23) runs into the endzone for a touchdown against Clemson Tigers cornerback Avieon Terrell (20) and Clemson Tigers linebacker Sammy Brown (47) in the second half of an NCAA College Football Playoffs first round game at Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium, Austin, Texas, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. / Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Chemistry between the run game and the offensive line has been flowing for the Texas Longhorns lately, and their performance against the Clemson Tigers on Saturday proved just how crucial it has been to winning football games.

The Texas offense rushed for nearly 300 yards against Clemson, recording a season-high of 292 rushing yards and its second-most rushing touchdowns with four.

Following the team's 38-24 win over the Tigers, head coach Steve Sarkisian said that it was ultimately defined by his team's ability to be continuously explosive with the run game.

"The story of the game I think obviously is us finding the run game offensively," Sarkisian said. "To have two 100-yard rushers in the game and establishing ourselves on the ground to create balance offensively, I thought was critical to the game."

Starting running backs junior Jaydon Blue and sophomore Quintrevion Wisner each ran for over 100 yards, individually tabbing new season records. Blue had the longest rush of the season with a 77-yard burst for a touchdown in the fourth quarter and ended the evening with two scores, his most since Sept. 21 against ULM. Wisner himself also had two touchdowns for a single-game career high.

Sarkisian said he reiterated the importance of utilizing the run game prior to the first round and that it's going to take the same amount of effort and drive seen against Clemson if Texas hopes to advance further in the College Football Playoff.

"You know, I always put up what it takes to win each game, and I cover it from a special
teams standpoint, an offensive standpoint, a defensive standpoint and then a team standpoint," Sarkisian said. "One of the first bullet points I put up in this room was run to win, [and] that we needed to run the football to win this game, and we're going to need to run the football to advance in these playoffs, and that's what playoff football is about. We really challenged them on the run game."

Blue has especially felt the pressure of upholding that winning standard, suffering ankle problems early on in the season and having four fumbles to his name. After having a combined nine rushing yards against Texas A&M and Georgia, he was finally able to shine on one of the biggest stages in college football.

He accredited the positive shift in momentum to what the team has been focusing on during practice for the past two weeks.

"Like I said coming into this week, we made an emphasis that we were going to have to run the ball in order to win this game, and the O-line and us in the backfield took a lot of pride in working on that so we'd be able to run the ball effectively," Blue said.

Texas' matchup against Clemson marked its fifth game with over 200 rushing yards, with four out of five touchdowns being rushes into the end zone. The recent success will need to carry over into the quarterfinals of the Playoff against an Arizona State team that has held its opponents to 3.8 rushing yards per attempt and 117 yards per game.

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