After almost a month away from home, the Texas Longhorns welcome the BYU Cougars to the Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium for an intriguing Big 12 matchup.
The BYU Cougars are 5-2 overall and 2-2 in conference play, and of all the newcomers, they're faring the best since their move to the Big 12.
The Longhorns lost influential quarterback, Quinn Ewers in the clash against the Houston Cougars with a right shoulder joint sprain. Redshirt freshman Maalik Murphy will be his replacement, with Arch Manning providing backup.
The coaches of both teams, Steve Sarkisian for the Longhorns and Kalani Sitake for the Cougars, played football for BYU. Sarkisian was full of praise for the Cougars' coaching staff in his news conference.
"My relationship with Kalani is one that I cherish,” Sarkisian said. “We definitely talk and share ideas and thoughts and different things. This isn’t just since my time here (at Texas), this has been going on here for the last couple of decades.
"I know a lot of those coaches well," Sarkisian said. "Kalani and I were teammates back in the day, and I can't believe he's in Year 8 and doing a heck of a job. Aaron Roderick, their offensive coordinator, was a receiver of mine when I was there."
Texas vs. BYU game announcers
The ABC game announcers will be Dusty Dvoracek, Dave Pasch and Tom Luginbill.
What time is the Texas vs. BYU game today?
The Longhorns clash against the Cougars will start at 3:30 PM ET and it will be televised on ABC Network. The game can also be streamed on FuboTV.
What to expect in the Texas vs. BYU game today?
Surprisingly, the Cougars have won four of the last five meetings between the sides, with the Longhorns narrowly winning their last clash 17-16 in 2011.
The loss of Quinn Ewers is a huge blow for the Longhorns since he is one of college football's most talented quarterbacks, and his production has been immense this season.
Maalik Murphy is now the man under the spotlight, and Sarkisian detailed his expectations of the QB.
“In a perfect world, he finds rhythm, stays hot, plays a great four quarters, and that’s how the game goes,” Sarkisian said. “The reality of it is, most football games don’t go that way. I’ve yet to find a quarterback that goes 30 for 30 and everything is perfect and makes every perfect read.”
The changeover from Ewers to Murphy might give BYU a chance to continue its great track record against the Longhorns and make the game much closer than is predicted.
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