Steve Sarkisian’s 2024 season will probably be remembered much less for the second consecutive playoff they made. But more so, for the missed moments that might have cost their national championship hopes. One would expect that Texas would have learned from the Georgia games’ losses, which were marred by turnovers, red-zone inefficiencies, and defensive lapses last year. But instead, Texas crumbled to the same mistakes against Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl semifinal, as they lost 14-28. Now, 7 months after the game happened, Steve Sarkisian clarifies one of the most talked-about blunders of the game, highlighting missteps by two players.
With just 3 minutes left on the fourth quarter clock, and Texas trailing 14-21 against Ohio State, the team had a second and goal from OSU’s 1-yard line. What would you expect the call to be? Well, Steve Sarkisian called a toss sweep off the left tackle out of the shotgun, Ewers handed off to Quintrevion Wisner as he tried to get around the edge, but was eventually tackled for a six-yard loss. The problems? Ohio State had stacked the box with five defenders as opposed to Texas’s four blockers. According to some, it was “mathematically impossible.” The result?
Instead of getting first and 1, it was then third and 8th, and just two plays later, Jack Sawyer grabbed a fumble and rushed 83 yards touchdown, sealing the game for Ohio State. Steve Sarkisian, even after the game, defended the call, but now he has detailed what exactly went wrong. According to Coach Sarkisian, it was a well-rehearsed play as the team had practiced it a whopping 9 times before that game.
“We had two players not do what they had done the nine previous times we had practice….We had been prepping this play, and we prepped it against the same defense the first time, the second time, and we were about the 5th, 6th time into it…We ripped it four more. We practiced playing nine times that week to get ready for that moment,” said Coach Sarkisian. However, according to Sarkisian, the two players not doing what was anticipated was a “failure in coaching” on his part.
On #MartyandMcGee Talkin’ Season, I asked Sark about the Cotton Bowl pitch play that will forever haunt Longhorns from Austin to Australia.@SECNetwork pic.twitter.com/5QCtyHnxE0
— Marty Smith (@MartySmithESPN) August 13, 2025
“I’m never going to say exactly what could happen, but understand, and so to me, that’s a failure in coaching. Right, because our job is to put our players in the best position to be successful. Maybe we score, maybe we don’t, but we surely don’t lose eight yards. I don’t disagree with the design of the play. And everything was great. The execution was not so good; well, the lack of execution is on me,” said Steve Sarkisian in a recent interview. Despite Sarkisian’s confidence, even OSU players knew what was coming on that play.
Sarkisian was mainly criticized for the predictability of the call as Texas went into a Power-I formation, even when Jerrick Gibson (RB) was stuffed. Even Ohio State’s Caleb Downs, after the game, recalled how Texas had used the same calls in the red zone, and even before the play the defense was anticipating that toss sweep by Quinn Ewers to Wisner. “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.” But this year, with the first game pitting OSU against Texas in Week 1, Steve Sarkisian is looking for redemption.
Governor Abbott predicts a secret strategy through which Steve Sarkisian could win against OSU in 2025
Less than 20 days are now left for the 2025 season to begin, and the anticipation is sky high. However, the Texas and Ohio State showdown in Columbus is still by far the most anticipated one, having already been dubbed as “the game of the century.” Many expect Ohio State to win, considering their home advantage, but according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Texas has a slight advantage, and that has nothing to do with Arch Manning.
“Texas has probably the best defense in college football in the upcoming season. Coupled with Arch Manning, with great running backs, and a good offense. They don’t need to score 50 points. I think they can score 17 to 24 points, and that’s going to be all they need,” said Governor Abbott in a recent interview. And he is quite right, too.
Texas’s defense is easily among the top 5 in college football, with players like Anthony Hill Jr having produced 59 solo tackles last year. Not just him, the team also has Colin Simmons, returning after notching up 9 sacks last season, along with Michael Taaffe, Malik Muhammad, and Jaylon Guilbeau, in the secondary, making the defense and the D-line a formidable unit. All in all, Texas would only need Arch Manning to be reliable, and the rest of it, the defense can most certainly handle.
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