Three keys to a Texas Longhorns win over Mississippi State

The No. 1 Texas Longhorns take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the University of Texas' SEC debut. Here are three keys to a Longhorns win ahead of their first bye of the season.

Own the moment

The Texas Longhorns are making their SEC debut, if you haven't heard. While there's no major hoopla with College GameDay, SEC Nation, or anything like that, this game will gain a lot of attention for it being the first game of a new era for Steve Sarkisian's program.

Texas has been in two different conference debuts in its history. The first was in 1915 when Dave Allerdice's team defeated the Rice Owls 59-0. Texas had success again in their second conference debut, when John Mackovic's Longhorns defeated the Missouri Tigers 40-10.

Steve Sarkisian can lead the Longhorns to a 3-0 record in debut league games, but it's still no reason to make the occasion more than a 60 minute contest against the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Like Sarkisian mentioned, Texas will acknowledge the moment but the Horns can't let it dominate their thinking. Their focus needs to simply be on beating the team across from them regardless of what league they are in.

Running back it up!

Four of the 10 running backs on the Texas roster were listed as out on Friday night's injury report. The three who are likely to play? Jaydon Blue, Jerrick Gibson, and Quintrevion Wisner.

The bye week could not be arriving at a better time for Texas, but they have one more battle they have to get through in order to make it to a rest and recovery period.

Blue, Wisner, and Gibson are going to be worked early and often on Saturday, and Blue even showed he can handle the 20-plus carry workload. He may not need to do that against Mississippi State, but they'll need to be ready to get after it early and often.

Clean game no matter who is under center

Quinn Ewers' status for Saturday's game will be made clear during warmups if not in the SEC Student-Athlete Availability Report that's due to come out 90 minutes before the game. Whether it's Ewers or if it's Arch Manning making his second career start, the Longhorns can ill afford to turn the ball over multiple times.

Mississippi State is no major threat, they lost 41-17 to Toledo after all, but they are a team more capable of punishing turnovers than others like Colorado State, UTSA, and Louisiana-Monroe.

This isn't just a quarterback thing, either. Silas Bolden needs to ensure he makes the right decision on punt returns. All the backs need to hang on to the football.

But if Ewers or Manning play, turning the ball over should be curtailed.