Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian walks the field during the College Football Playoff semifinal game against Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium on Friday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Arlington, Texas.
On Friday night in AT&T Stadium, the Texas Longhorns lost a heartbreaker to the Ohio State Buckeyes. Beyond the mistakes and bad plays at times by the players, much of the blame for UT’s season crashing and burning lays on the shoulders of Texas coach Steve Sarkisian.
Sark’s red zone play calling in the final quarter has fans and analysts alike scratching their heads. As USA TODAY Sports columnist Blake Toppmeyer said, “Sark got cute and it wasn’t pretty.”
Down a touchdown with less than 3 minutes left on the 4th quarter clock, the Horns drove down to the Ohio State one-yard line. Four plays to go three feet. But, as Toppmeyer says, “Sarkisian earns acclaim for being one of the nation’s premier play callers, but he fell into a familiar coaching trap Friday of trying to show just how very smart he is with a play sheet in his hands. Only, Ohio State’s defense made Sarkisian look foolish at the close of the Buckeyes’ 28-14 victory in the Cotton Bowl.”
There were a lot of plays it looked like Sark “got too cute” this season, but none were more glaring than the four play red zone series with the game on the line.
On first and one, the Longhorns audible into a Power-I formation. Texas QB Quinn Ewers hands off to Jerrick Gibson who runs up the middle, but the play is stuffed. Fine.
But his second and one play is the one that’s being called into question and honestly is an inexplicable call at the wrong time. Sark calls a toss sweep off left tackle out of the shotgun. Quintrevion Wisner tried to get around the edge, but he was tackled for a six-yard loss.
It was a bad concept and was clearly defended. Ohio State had five defenders to UT’s four blockers. The play was never going to work. It shouldn’t have been called, but it also should have either been audibled out of or a time out called when the defensive set was revealed.
Instead, Texas put itself way behind the 8-ball. First-and-1 is now third-and-8.
Running sideways on the goal line with a berth in the national championship on the line might be the single worst play call of Steve Sarkisian’s career,” said Wescott Eberts of Burnt Orange Nation.
Running sideways on the goal line with a berth in the national championship on the line might be the single worst play call of Steve Sarkisian’s career.
— Wescott Eberts (@SBN_Wescott) January 11, 2025
Steve Sarkisian calling a toss out of shotgun on 2nd and goal from the 1-yard line in the fourth quarter of the College Football Playoff semifinals might be the worst play call of the entire college football season.
Texas deserves to lose for that play alone.
— Brandon Koretz (@BrandonKoretz) January 11, 2025
After the game, Sark stood by the play call. “That’s one of those plays if you block it all right, you get in the end zone,” Sarkisian said. “We didn’t.”
Ohio State safety Caleb Downs said the Buckeyes were ready for the toss sweep, “You could see it on film,” Downs said. “They like that play when big moments come up. They’ve done that throughout the year – crack tosses to the boundary.”
Two plays later, Jack Sawyer ended Texas’ comeback hopes with a strip-sack of Quinn Ewers. Sawyer scooped up the fumble and ran 83-yards for the game sealing touchdown.
Why call a high-risk wide run there? Why not insert Arch Manning, like Sark had earlier in the game to great effect?
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian reacts as he heads to the locker room after his team’s loss to Ohio State in the 2025 Cotton Bowl at A&T Stadium in Dallas.
The second worst play call of the game, and season, came courtesy of Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski. After struggling to put anything together on offense during the entire first half, UT finally scored with :29 seconds left in the second quarter to tie the score a 7-7. It looked like the game would go to the locker room tied.
But OSU offensive coordinator Chip Kelly called a screen and the Longhorns fell for it hard. As Toppmeyer said, “Any football novice knows to expect a screen in that situation. Sure enough, Buckeyes offensive coordinator Chip Kelly dialed one up.”
Ohio State kept its two offensive tackles home to block, while the three interior linemen inched forward to block. Four UT defenders rushed toward Ohio State QB Will Howard on the slow developing play. Howard flipped the ball to TreVeyon Henderson and the Texas defense was walled off. Henderson ran 75-yards to the endzone untouched. Momentum killed.
The pivotal failures in key moments will be picked apart for months. Much of the focus will be on Ewers. But Sark and his coaching staff need to look in the mirror at their own mistakes if Texas wants to be a championship team.
This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Did Steve Sarkisian fail the Longhorns in Texas’ Cotton Bowl loss to Ohio State?
