Texas football won't be killing any trees to craft its scouting report on Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr.

What the Longhorns know about the Bulldogs' true freshman quarterback can fit on a single sheet of paper in a big, bold font. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound native of Bowie, Md., has 30 snaps of football on his collegiate résumé — 27 of which came against Florida last week when he replaced injured starter Blake Shapen, who is out for the season.

Van Buren will start his first college game when Mississippi State (1-3) visits Royal-Memorial Stadium to play the Longhorns (4-0) on Saturday. Tasks don't get much more daunting than that.

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But it also makes things awkward for the Longhorns, who spent the week preparing for an offense led by a quarterback they know little about.

"That's the biggest challenge right there," coach Steve Sarkisian said Thursday. "It's a small sample size. They've had a week now to prepare a game plan for the things that he does well, and that's what we're going to have to kind of sort through and figure out."

But what does that process look like, exactly? How do you game-plan for someone with very little college experience and no tape showing what the offense looks like when it's designed around him?

Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea spent more than a decade as a defensive assistant, culminating in three seasons as Notre Dame's defensive coordinator. His first step when faced with that situation, he said, is to use the quarterback's high school tape to identify his skills.

Lea then shifts his focus to the system the quarterback will play in. Offenses will make small tweaks to adapt to their quarterback's traits, he explained, but the principles usually remain the same.

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"On the whole, I feel like most college offenses are built around the system," Lea said. "And they recruit to the system. So a lot of times the way that they're going to get the ball into space, the formations they're going to use, are going to be consistent.

"So it's more important to understand how the coordinator is creating leverage and advantage and making sure that you're countering that leverage and advantage in the way you line up to force them down the call sheet and into plays they don't like."

Developing that understanding forms the bulk of Lea's preparation. Once he's established that foundation, he then begins to ask himself how the opposing offense might adjust its structure to fit the new quarterback's skill set, and how the QB might improvise when faced with problems in real time.

"We try not to overthink it," he said.

Texas football: Longhorns familiar with Jeff Lebby's offense

Texas knows the structure Van Buren is jumping into pretty well.

Jeff Lebby, the Bulldogs' first-year coach, spent the past two seasons as Oklahoma's offensive coordinator. Under his purview, the Sooners experienced mixed results against the Longhorns' defense. Oklahoma put up 34 points to beat Texas last season, but the Longhorns shut Lebby's Sooners out in 2022.

"Knowing Jeff Lebby, he's a really good offensive mind; he's going to put him in a good position to have some success," Sarkisian said. "They're going to do the things that he does well. They're going to utilize other aspects of their offense to kind of get some easy completions, the jet sweeps, the different things. I'm sure we'll see some wildcat to alleviate some of the pressure there as well. All of those things add up to: He's going to be in a good position to perform well."

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Chasing a late deficit against Florida last week, Van Buren completed seven of his 13 pass attempts for 100 yards.

Notably, he faced pressure on seven of his 17 dropbacks. Mississippi State has given up 13 sacks through four games, which is tied for eighth-most nationally.

Could Saturday be the day the Texas pass rush finally asserts itself?

"Our job is to try to get him uncomfortable," Sarkisian said. "We'll see how effective we are."

Saturday's game

Mississippi State (1-3, 0-1) at No. 2 Texas (4-0, 0-0), 3:15 p.m., SEC Network, 1300, 98.1, 105.3 (Spanish)

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas vs. Mississippi State: 1 key challenge facing Longhorns