LEXINGTON, Ky. — Mason Shipley kicked a 45-yard field goal in overtime and No. 21 Texas beat Kentucky 16-13 on Saturday night, despite a sub-par outing from Arch Manning and the Longhorns defense.
“Once a year, you have a culture win, where the game’s not pretty, but because the team is so close, finds a way to win the game,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “These guys found a way to win when the game was sliding in the wrong direction.”
Texas quarterback Arch Manning threw for 132 yards, while running back Quintrevion Wisner ran for Texas’ lone touchdown in the second quarter.
Sarkisian, who reiterated that he is not considering making a quarterback change, said Manning had his moments, but was inconsistent and wasn’t helped by his offensive line at times.
“We need to play better up front to protect him. It’s not fun when you’re at quarterback and you’re getting hit. It was way too leaky for him, and in turn that can create some uneasiness when you have opportunities to make throws and you don’t,” Sarkisian said. “I do think there was a couple of critical passes that he didn’t make. The third down conversion to DeAndre Moore was a huge play for us, that play to DeAndre that we hit out of the backdoor. But we’ve got to find ways to get him more completions.
“That’s our job as a staff to find that comfort level for him because there were some really good plays in there. That ball to Emmett (Mosley) across the middle for an explosive. There are good things there, but there are some layups that we’ve got to hit for him too, that he needs to hit, but we need to find more of those opportunities.”
As for Shipley, he also kicked a 39-yard field goal with a minute remaining to give the Longhorns (5-2, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) a 13-10 lead.
Kentucky (2-4, 0-4) tied the score at 13-all on Jacob Kauwe’s 45-yard field goal with 9 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime.
The Longhorns managed just 179 total yards, but used two big punt returns by Ryan Niblett to hold off the Wildcats.
The Longhorns had a goal-line stand at their own 1-yard line, stopping the Wildcats on four straight running plays within the 5-yard line.
Sarkisian praised his team’s ability to overcome the struggling Wildcats.
“Absolute credit to our defense,” Sarkisian said. “What a tremendous goal-line stand in overtime. What a tremendous job by our special teams … half the SEC lost today, and we were on the other half that won.”
Niblett’s 43-yard return in the fourth quarter set up Shipley’s late field goal. Shipley also connected on a 53-yard field goal in the third quarter.
Kentucky’s defense limited Texas to 93 total yards in the first half. The Longhorns scored their only touchdown following Niblett’s 45-yard punt return on DJ Campbell’s fumble recovery in the end zone with 6:22 remaining in the first half.
Trailing 10-3 in the fourth quarter, Kentucky tied the score on quarterback Cutter Boley’s 16-yard run with 12:04 remaining.
Boley threw for 258 yards and rushed for for 27 more for the Wildcats, who doubled the Longhorns’ offensive output with 395 yards.
“What a win,” Sarkisian said. “I’ve said this all along. You go on the road at night in the SEC this league is tough. It’s hard, and for us to find a way to win this game tonight.”
Takeaway
Texas: The Longhorns, who play at Mississippi State on Saturdday, have won five of their past six games after opening the season with a 14-7 loss at No. 1 Ohio State.
Texas visited Lexington for the first time in program history and a first appearance in the Bluegrass State since a 41-10 loss to Louisville in 1993. Texas improved to 3-0 against Kentucky.
Texas is 32-8 in its last 40 games and has won 15 of its last 17 conference games, dating back to its membership in the Big 12.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian won his 90th game as a head coach and his 43rd at Texas. The Longhorns are 21-1 after scoring first since the 2023 season.
Kentucky: The Wildcats, who host Tennessee on Saturday, fell to 0-3 against ranked teams this season and haven’t defeated a ranked team at home since a 33-14 win over then-No. 22 Florida in 2023.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops is now 31-66 against conference foes. Kentucky has averaged just 15 points per game in four conference games this season.
Those struggles continued against the Longhorns. Kentucky was stopped on fourth-and-1 at the Texas 16-yard-line on its opening drive and missed a 53-yard field-goal attempt with 8 seconds remaining in the first half.
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