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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…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/did-steve-sarkisian-fail-longhorns-164836023.html
Author : Longhorns Wire
Publish date : 2025-01-11 16:48:00
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