With some having reasons to panic after the Texas football team lost to the Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday afternoon, 14-7, there are multiple aspects that are being heavily criticized. While there are fans who point to Texas football star Arch Manning having a rough outing against the Buckeyes, a couple of analysts highlight the game plan of head coach Steve Sarkisian.
Both Paul Finebaum and Dan Orlovsky of ESPN would speak about the Longhorns and specifically Sarkisian's play-calling in the contest, with the former liking the performance of the team in the Cotton Bowl. Funny enough, the Longhorns also lost that game to Ohio State, 28-14, leading Finebaum to express what “concerns” him about Sarkisian on the show “Get Up.”
“This was a continuum of what we saw in the final drive in the Cotton Bowl,” Finebaum said, via On3 Sports. “Don’t forget, these two played each other in January. Texas has the ball on the three-yard line, first down, and they end up giving up a touchdown the other way, because Sark just completely lost it. And that’s what concerns me because we’ve all wrapped our arms around this guy … I know the defense on the other side was elite, but that’s part of winning a championship.”
There's no denying that it was going to be a tough game against the reigning champions in the Buckeyes, but Texas was ranked the No. 1 team in the country heading into the season, leading many to believe the team had been overhyped.
Texas football's Steve Sarkisian was “very disappointing”
While Sarkisian now has to deliver an urgent message to the Texas football team, many analysts believe that, besides other frustrating aspects like Manning, the head coach himself has to improve tremendously. Still, Sarkisian's name in college football rings huge as a top name in the sport, earning the respect of many within the media world as well.
However, when deficiencies arise, it has to be mentioned as Orlovsky did, prefacing his comments that he adores the coach, but was “very disappointing” in the loss to the Buckeyes.
“I love Sark [Sarkisian]. He was very disappointing to me,” Orlovsky said. “I mean, I’m talking quarterback runs, I’m talking perimeter screens, I’m talking running the football. I mean, I felt there was way too many run-run first. They averaged in the first three quarters, their down in distance to go on third down for Texas offensively was third and seven-plus. You want to get a young quarterback to play poorly on the road; that’s the model to do it. So there’s a lot of burden that has to get carried by coach Sark.”
For the team to live up to being ranked first in the nation, Sarkisian and Manning need to live up to the high standards they have set.
The Texas football team starts the season 0-1, but can quickly bounce back and get a win in the column as the program takes on San Jose State next Saturday.
