Ad Disclosure
College football fans, media react to ill-fated play that cost Texas chance at title berth
Published:
College football has seen a lot of dramatic moments this season, but Friday night’s College Football Playoff semifinal had 1 that will live in infamy in Texas football history.
With the Longhorns seemingly ready to re-tie Ohio State at 21-21, having a second-and-goal at the Buckeyes’ 1 with a little over 3 minutes left, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian had maybe his worst moment as head coach of the Longhorns. Instead of taking the simple play up the middle, Sarkisian called a pitch to the left with Quintrevion Wisner, and it didn’t just go nowhere.
It went backwards.
Like 7 yards backward, all the way back to the 8-yard line. Suddenly, that certain tying score turned into chaos, and soon Jack Sawyer was running the other way for a touchdown return and the Longhorns were finished.
Nobody will know what would’ve happened if Sarkisian took the simple route and had Wisner go up the middle instead of calling that complex pitch that gave the speedy Buckeyes defense a chance to make a big play.
What we do know is that it didn’t work, and it turned into disaster. It also helped end Texas’s season, and Sarkisian and Longhorns fans will be mulling that call for the next several months.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
