Everyone talking about Texas as a playoff contender this season keeps pointing at Arch Manning and the skill position talent, and they are missing the one thing that will absolutely sink this team if it doesn't get fixed. The Longhorns special teams unit was a complete disaster last year. Dead last in the Power Four in punt return average. Bottom 20 nationally in kickoff return defense. You cannot have a championship-level offense and defense while giving away 10 to 15 yards of hidden field position every single time you punt or kick off. It erodes everything. The margin for error in the SEC is too thin.
Sam Acho can have all the championship expectations in the world for Arch Manning and that makes sense given the talent around him, but what happens when Texas has to punt from its own 25 and the return man gets a clean 20-yard runback? What happens when the kickoff coverage unit gives up a big return and the opposing offense starts at the 40 instead of the 25? That is how you lose games you should win. Georgia does NOT have this problem. Alabama does not have this problem. Oregon certainly does not have this problem. Texas finished 112th in punt return average last season. That is not a blip. That is a systemic failure.
The coaching staff brought in a new special teams coordinator this offseason and that is a start, but the roster construction needs to change too. You cannot just throw third-string freshmen out there on coverage units and hope for the best. The best teams in the country treat special teams as a priority. They put starters on kickoff coverage. They scheme up punt blocks. They invest practice time. Texas has not done that consistently and it shows up in the numbers every single season.
If the Longhorns want to be a real CFP threat and not just a team that gets exposed in November, the special teams has to go from a liability to at least average. That is 15 to 20 spots of hidden field position per game that could be the difference between a 10-win season and a 12-win season. Arch Manning cannot fix a broken punt coverage unit.