Texas football mailbag: What's up with blown leads and Longhorns' onside-kick issues?

Texas special teams coordinator Jeff Banks' unit's issues with fielding onside kicks became an issue again in Saturday's win over Ole Miss. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman) AUSTIN - Another roller-coaster Texas performance, albeit in a win over Ole Miss, prompted plenty of questions from readers, more than we can fit into our weekly Longhorn newsletter (you can sign up for it below).So here's a crack at answering your questions about Steve Sarkisian, blown leads, and other Texas football issues of the moment.Q: With 13 penalties for about 140 yards combined with 3 turnovers, my Horns are undisciplined and definitely not contenders. - LBZKB: Actually, there were 14 but it was easy to lose count. Yes, this is a highly undisciplined team. Getting two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on Kosi Okpala is totally inexcusable. It's a miracle those troubling penalties and Arch Manning's three turnovers didn't get Texas beat. These problems are not even close to getting fixed. That's on coaching.Q: Can anyone teach this team how to recover an outside kick? You let the ball through the line and if you can't pick it up, knock it out of bounds. It's not brain surgery! - CoyKB: Apparently not. Emmett Mosley (and Graceson Littleton) and Ryan Wingo have not been able to corral two onside kicks by Ole Miss and Tennessee and easily could have cost Texas two wins. Special teams coordinator Jeff Banks is so embattled that Sarkisian needs to make a staff change in the offseason.Sign up for Kirk Bohls' newsletterSign up for Kirk Bohls' new newsletter for news, exclusive analysis and insights on University of Texas sports.Q: What is up with Texas and the collapses? They play lights-out in the first half and like zombies in the third quarter. Is it conditioning, overconfidence, arrogance, or what? - Jay WestKB: The Horns pucker up in the second half and especially in the third quarter at the first sign of trouble. It's just amazing that in the past six games, Texas has been outscored 44-6 in the third quarter and has yet to score a touchdown in that period since the opener against Texas State. It seems that at the first sign of trouble - like the sack-fumble touchdown Saturday - the team gets rattled and unnerved.Q: Why does Sark keep running his pro-style offense that Arch Manning clearly can't master instead of a simpler offense like Indiana runs in which Arch would have a better chance at performing at the level we expected? - VicKB: He's very attached to his style of football and seems too stubborn to change it. Simple as that. However, he did adjust for the first time and used more slant patterns, passes to tight ends and Manning runs to give Texas' offense a new look.Q: What is the main cause of the problems with the offensive line this year, as well as last year? Is it the churning of the players each year?  Is it the coaching of the players? Is it their talent? Is it something else? - Henry BernsteinKB: Hard to tell because Texas keeps raving about its offensive line, and it continues to be a problem. Other than Kelvin Banks Jr. and Trevor Goosby, there have been precious few stars up front. Kyle Flood has not developed this part of the team as he needs to.SubscribeThere’s more to Houston with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Texas football mailbag: What's up with blown leads and Longhorns' onside-kick issues?.