Week 7 was the most interesting slate of college football results yet this season in the state of Texas. The 13 FBS programs in the Lone Star State were a combined 6-6 on the week with Baylor the lone squad idle. We imagine three teams – Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Texas – are ranked in the AP Top 25 when it is released later on Sunday. Eight of the 13 are above .500 and two more – Texas State and UTSA – are 3-3. 

There is beginning to be a true separation between the Power Four and the Group of Five teams. All seven of our P4 teams enter Week 8 above .500 and they’re combined record this season is 33-9. The six G5 squads are a combined 1-9 since the start of Week 6 and are 15-22 on the season. UTEP and Sam Houston are a combined 1-11 and they face each other in Week 8. 

But before we start looking ahead, here are 10 thoughts from Week 7. 

Arch Manning Emerges

Manning sure didn’t play like a flop in his first start against Oklahoma. The much-maligned first-year starter finished 21-of-27 for 166 yards and a touchdown, adding 34 yards on the ground. Nine different Longhorns caught passes from Manning in the win. Ryan Wingo and Tre Wisner tied for the team lead with five each. 

Those aren’t video game numbers and maybe box score watchers won’t give the former five-star any credit, but anyone who has watched this Texas offense through the first five games of the season could see the improvements, especially in the second half. Manning was picture perfect for the Horns, orchestrating a season-defining type of drive to start the third quarter. 

Manning received an outsized amount of preseason hype and that’s been overcorrected to an outsized amount of criticism. He hasn’t been great through five games, but he was by no means the biggest problem with the Texas offense, especially last week against Florida. The truth is in the middle. He’s a young, inexperienced quarterback with a ton of potential and he’s seemingly improving with each successive start. That’s how quarterback maturation typically goes. 

Did Texas A&M punch College Football Playoff Ticket? 

The win over Florida was enormous for the postseason hopes of Mike Elko’s Aggies. They’re 6-0 after outlasting the Gators and pulling away to a 34-17 victory at home. Reaching the SEC Championship game will require a 5-1 finish most likely, but a 10-2 regular season record guarantees Texas A&M its first trip to the CFP. Maybe even a 9-3 record depending on what the losses look like and what happens around the rest of the country. One of the games left is against Samford, so the Aggies are essentially 7-0. 

That leads five games and Texas A&M needs to win three. The bad news is that four of those five are on the road, starting with Arkansas in Week 8. The Aggies also travel to LSU, Missouri, and Texas. The lone SEC home game remaining is against South Carolina. Beat Arkansas, knock off South Carolina at home and then steal one of those three SEC road games and the Aggies are in. Steal two of them and they’re in Atlanta for the SEC Championship game. 

TCU’s Kryptonite 

The common denominators in most of the losses by TCU since Kendal Briles became the offensive coordinator are turnovers and a poor run game. That was true again in the 41-28 loss to Kansas State, the fourth straight road loss against the Wildcats for the Horned Frogs. Kansas State outrushed TCU 145-72 and won the turnover battle 3-0. In the road loss two weeks ago against Arizona State, the Frogs were outrushed 220-10 and lost the turnover battle 3-1. 

The trend was true in 2024, as well. In nine wins, TCU ran 33 times a game for 131.89 yards per game with a 4.0 average per carry. In four losses, the Frogs only ran it 25.75 times per game for 73.5 yards per contest with a 2.85 average per carry. TCU’s turnover margin in four wins this year is +6. It is -5 in the two losses. It was +2 in nine wins last year compared to -8 in the four losses. In 2023, the turnover margin was +1 in five wins and -8 in seven losses. 

The turnovers and the lack of run game are interconnected. Briles’ tendency to ditch the run game when it struggles leads to quarterback Josh Hoover trying to play hero ball and that leads to mistakes. He threw two picks in both losses this year. Against Kansas State, there wasn’t a need to ditch the run so early. Kevorian Barnes was averaging 6.8 yards a carry but only received 12 attempts. TCU threw the ball 47 times compared to only 22 runs. 

Texas State’s October Struggles Continue 

GJ Kinne is 3-6 in October as the head coach of Texas State following the collapse against Troy. He’s 16-7 outside of October. I’m not smart enough to know if there is anything to that, but it is interesting. The Bobcats typically start strong, knocking off Baylor in 2023 and UTSA in Week 2 in each of the past two seasons. But the start of Sun Belt play has been a struggle and its kept Texas State from reaching its ceiling as a conference contender. 

The defense was the main culprit against Troy. The unit allowed 48 points as Texas State was outscored 41-13 after the first quarter. The Bobcats allowed 458 yards, including 415 through the air. The Trojans racked up 27 first downs and their quarterback completed 30-of-39 passes. Eleven of his 30 completions were gains of 20 or more yards. That is a staggering number of big plays allowed. 

Walden’s Offensive Woes 

Scotty Walden was chosen as the head coach at UTEP because he provided energy and a successful offensive system. Coaching searches aren’t much different than dating. We all tend to find the 180 of our exes in our next partner. If it didn’t work with the party animal, we looked for the homebody. If the girl-next-door broke our hearts, we’re searching for someone we might not bring home to mom. Walden was seen as the antithesis of Dana Dimel – young, energetic, fast-paced, high-scoring. 

Dimel was a play-caller in his own right but he cut his teeth under Bill Snyder and was admittedly a more conservative offensive coordinator. A former offensive lineman, he wanted to establish the run and use play-action for big plays through the air. Not a dinosaur and more modern than given credit for by the Miner fan base, but not the type who aimed to score 50 each week. He left the Sun City with a 20-49 record and an offense that averaged 21.58 points per game during that stretch. 

Walden has delivered off the field. He’s brought a much-needed energy to the job and engaged with the community from the moment he became the head coach. He’s signed the highest rated recruiting class in Conference USA in back-to-back cycles. He added a former five-star quarterback through the transfer portal. But what he hasn’t delivered on is the promise of more points. UTEP is averaging 19.23 points per contest through 18 games of the Walden tenure, two full points below Dimel’s offenses. 

The Miners are 1-5 and winless against the FBS in 2025 after the Wednesday night loss to Liberty at home, the third straight loss in the Sun Bowl. Walden said after the game that he was at a loss for what is wrong with his offensive unit after shuffling quarterbacks Skyler Locklear and Malachi Nelson during the 19-8 loss, the lowest offensive output of the season for the Miners. He’ll need to find some answers by Week 8 for UTEP to pose any threat down the stretch. 

Eighteen games aren’t enough to judge a tenure at UTEP. It’s a hard job with unique challenges. But Walden & Co. need a strong close to the season to breathe any momentum into the program into 2026 – the first in the Mountain West. The stands on Wednesday night painted a picture of a fan base ready to check out. 

Bearkat Heartbreak 

A 19-yard touchdown pass from Hunter Watson to Chris Reed, their second scoring connection of the game, put the Bearkats up 27-26 on Jax State with 52 seconds left in the game. Phil Longo & Co. were less than one minute away from earning a much-needed Conference USA victory that would’ve served as his first win as the head coach at Sam Houston. Instead, Jax State drove into field position and nailed a 52-yarder in Houston to knock off the Bearkats and push them to 0-6 on the season. 

Sam Houston looked improved in Week 7. The offense, which was averaging 15 points per game through five contests, scored 27 points, all after the first quarter. The defense forced a turnover that resulted in the team’s first touchdown one play later. There was a fight within the team that didn’t exist early in the season. Sam 10-0 and 17-7 at different points of the first half and never blinked. That’s growth for a team that lost each of their first five games by at least 17 points.

Growth isn’t enough, though. Winning is what matters. Sam Houston won’t go bowling in 2025 because the idea that the Kats can rip off six-straight wins is farfetched. But they can build some momentum into 2026 like the 2023 squad did after an 0-8 start. 

Mean Green Lose Game, Crowd 

North Texas hosted No. 24-ranked South Florida on Friday night with a chance to claim the inside track to the American Conference Championship game and to the College Football Playoff. A late arriving crowd was still piling into the parking lots during the first quarter. Cars were stuck in traffic leaving those same parking lots by the start of the fourth quarter after a 28-0 South Florida run over a four-minute stretch from the end of the second quarter to the start of the third. 

The defeat felt like more than just a loss on the field, which is unfortunate because this North Texas team still has a lot to play for. The Mean Green could find themselves in the AC Championship game thanks to a favorable schedule that doesn’t include Memphis or Tulane. But a win, or even a close loss, would’ve ensured another big crowd in eight days for UTSA. It’ll be interesting to see what the attendance is for that one after the 63-36 loss. 

Coogs Chunk it Deep 

Houston quarterback Conner Weigman returned from concussion protocol with a virtuoso performance in a 39-17 victory over Oklahoma State on the road. He was 21-of-30 for 306 yards and two touchdowns. Weigman completed his first six passes and was 14-of-18 late in the second quarter. And it was just dinks and dunks. The Coogs created seven pass plays of 15 or more yards, including one over 40 and five of at least 29. They were one of the worst offenses at creating big pass plays in 2024, recording 25 completions of 20 yards or more in 12 games last year. They’re at 21 through six games in 2025. 

SMU’s Defense Ponies Up 

The SMU defense lost a ton of talent in the front 6 of the defense after 2024, including edge rusher Elijah Roberts. The Mustangs have struggled to create pressure and negative plays for most of the 2025 campaign. That changed in the 34-10 win over Syracuse when the Ponies recorded six sacks and eight tackles for loss. They entered with 13 sacks and 32 tackles for loss on the season. Six different plays recorded at least .5 a sack with Cam Robertson leading the way with 1.5. SMU will need some of that production on the road against Clemson next week. 

Roadrunners Batter Rice 

UTSA was either going to respond from the crushing loss to Temple last week by laying an egg or a butt whooping on the Owls. Turns out it was the latter. UTSA scored 61 points in three quarters and cruised to a 48-point win at home against the Owls. Owen McCown threw three first half touchdowns, the run game accounted for 191 yards and three scores, and the defense added a pair of touchdowns, as well. It was exactly what the doctor ordered for a program that is .500 in the regular season since the start of 2024. A big game in Denton awaits against North Texas in Week 8. 

It was the third straight loss for Scott Abell’s Owls and it is the first time Rice has allowed more than 30 points to a G5 team this season. The most points scored against Jon Kay’s defense in 2025 prior to the UTSA game was 35 by Houston in Week 2. A bowl trip was the stated goal for Abell in Year 1 and his team needs three more wins to make that happen. It’s hard to find three wins on a schedule that still includes Memphis, North Texas, and South Florida.