Jeff Howe

The team practices hard, Mark said. They need to do a better job of carrying it over from practice to the games.

Mark felt like Texas made an effort to run Vanderbilt off the 3-point line in the second half. Swain said Mark challenged him to not allow any easy baskets in the second half and not let Tyler Nickel get any clean looks at the rim.

Matas, Dailyn Swain and Tramon Mark are meeting with the media in the press conference.

We're waiting on Sean Miller and the Texas players.

Byington: "SEC games feel like this. It's difficult on both ends... I thought we could dig in there a little bit and put pressure on them, but they made the plays the last eight minutes of the game."

Byington said Matas is on his way to becoming a really good player. Matas had a game-high 22 points (7-9 FG, 8-9 FT) along with seven rebounds.

Byington on Texas: "They've had moments where they've played like this."

Byington said Texas forced Vanderbilt to settle for a lot of mid-range shots and the Commodores didn't make them.

To Byington's point, the Commodores were 8-for-30 from the field in the second half, including 1-for-10 on 3-pointers.

Byington said Texas didn't do anything different defensively in the second half. Vanderbilt just missed shots, he said.

"We were there, we played good defense, he just made the shot," Byington said of Tramon Mark, who scored 21 points on 6-for-12 shooting, including 4-for-7 from beyond the arc.

Texas led No. 10 Vanderbilt for almost 35 minutes in Wednesday's 80-64 upset of the previously-undefeated Commodores at Moody Center. The Longhorns took a 42-37 lead into halftime and, along with Tramon Mark scoring 16 of his 21 points in the second half, Matas Vokietaitis spearheaded a 13-for-16 effort from the foul line to help Texas (11-6, 2-2 SEC) open things up in the second half en route to its second consecutive ranked win. The Longhorns built on Saturday's 92-88 road win over then-No. 13 Alabama with a hellacious defensive effort in the second half. Vanderbilt (16-1, 3-1) went 8-for-30 from the field after halftime, including a 1-for-10 performance from beyond the arc.

BTW, Arch's PFF grade on deep balls was the fourth-best (minimum 13 attempts) in the SEC in 2025, behind only Trinidad Chambliss (95.7), Joey Aguilar (93.9) and Diego Pavia (92.9).

@Rod Babers and I did a video breakdown on Cam Coleman today, where we take a deeper dive into some of the numbers I broke down in this article. I'll link it here when it goes live.

There are two ways Cam Coleman should positively impact the Texas offense when the former Auburn wide receiver, who committed to Steve Sarkisian's program on Sunday, takes the field in 2026. The first way is Coleman's contested catch ability down the field. According to Pro Football Focus, Coleman faced 11 contested targets on passes thrown to him 20 yards or more down the field as a sophomore. Coleman caught nine of them, contributing almost exclusively to the 10 receptions for 323 yards and three touchdowns he recorded on deep balls. For context, Coleman’s production on contested deep balls in 2025 was better than Lil’Jordan Humphrey's (seven receptions on 11 targets) or Colin Johnson's (six receptions on 10 targets) in 2018. Coleman was also better than what the offense got from Matthew Golden (seven receptions on 10 targets) in those situations in 2023. Given Arch Manning’s prowess throwing the ball down the field (26 for 65 for 934 yards with 13 touchdowns, three interceptions and a PFF grade of 91.5 on pass attempts of 20 yards or more beyond the line of scrimmage) without a receiver with Coleman’s ability to win 50/50 balls, the 2026 offense could feature the best downfield passing attack of the Sarkisian era. The second is Coleman’s ability to win against man coverage. Coleman’s PFF grade of 79.1 against man coverage (14 receptions for 163 yards and two touchdowns on 18 targets) was better than any Texas wideout posted in 2025 (Kaliq Lockett’s grade of 76.7 came on just five targets, making Parker Livingstone’s grade of 70.1 the closest to Coleman among the receivers who were regulars in the rotation). The only Longhorn wide receiver with a better single-season grade against man coverage under Sarkisian is Xavier Worthy’s 82.3, which he earned as a freshman in 2021, when he caught 14 balls for 319 yards and four touchdowns on 21 targets against man coverage. When Coleman hits the field for his first practice, he’ll immediately become the best wideout Sarkisian has had at Texas on 50/50 balls and arguably the best he’s had at being able to win against man coverage. What the Longhorns lost with the departures of Livingstone (a threat down the field) and DeAndre Moore Jr. (arguably the best wideout in Chris Jackson's room working against man coverage when healthy) has been replaced with one player (one with the potential to be selected in the top half of the first round of the NFL draft). Two areas that have been hit or miss for the Texas passing attack under Sarkisian should be remedied upon Coleman’s arrival to the extent that they become strengths for the Longhorns in what should be Manning's last season at the controls. View full news story

Next for Vic Schaefer's team is a trip to No. 2 South Carolina on Thursday (6 p.m., ESPN2):

FINAL: LSU 70, Texas 65 The Longhorns suffer their first loss of the season. Texas drops to 18-1 overall and 3-1 in the SEC.

Texas trails LSU, 39-30, with 6:01 left in the third quarter. This is the largest lead of the game for either side.

A really good sequence at both ends by Oldacre to help Texas get it back to a four-point game, 34-30.

According to Matt Zenitz, Cam Coleman has signed with Texas. Also, Zenitz confirmed our report that even with Hollywood Smothers flipping to Texas, Raleek Brown intends to stick with the Longhorns.

Lavon Johnson has signed with Maryland, where he spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons before transferring to Texas.

HALFTIME: LSU 30, Texas 25

For those interested in where the outgoing Longhorns are headed, here are those moves following the recent commitments elsewhere of Bo Barnes and Jordan Washington: — RB Jerrick Gibson to Purdue — PK Will Stone to UCF — QB Trey Owens to Arkansas State — DL Melvin Hills to UConn — WR Aaron Butler to Oregon State — DB Santana Wilson to Louisville — OL Connor Stroh to Kansas — LB Liona Lefau to Colorado — RB Tre Wisner to Florida State — WR Parker Livingstone to Oklahoma — DB Caleb Chester to Arizona State — OL Nate Kibble to Baylor — LB Bo Barnes to Kentucky — TE Jordan Washington to North Carolina

Ahead of the dead period, here's the Texas 11-man transfer portal class as of Sunday morning: — Raleek Brown, RB, Arizona State — Michael Masunas, TE, Michigan State — Dylan Sikorski, IOL, Oregon State — Ian Geffrard, DL, Arkansas — Zion Williams, DL, LSU — Rasheem Biles, LB, Pitt — Justin Cryer, LB, Florida State — Bo Mascoe, CB, Rutgers — Gianni Spetic, PK, Memphis — Mac Chiumento, P, Florida State — Trey Dubuc, LS, New Mexico