Ohio State’s scoop-and-score heard ’round the world will haunt Texas forever

Maybe there was nothing Quinn Ewers could’ve done.

Ewers trusted that one of Texas’ receivers would find a way to get open on 4th-and-goal in a 7-point game against Ohio State with a national championship berth on the line. He trusted the scheme, just as he did in overtime of the Peach Bowl when his 4th-and-13 touchdown pass to Matthew Golden instantly moved into Texas lore. Ewers trusted that his veteran offensive line would protect long enough to keep the Buckeyes’ loaded defensive line at bay.

Trust didn’t do Ewers any good in that moment. It instead led to his former roommate at Ohio State, Jack Sawyer, forcing an 83-yard scoop-and-score that’ll live in Buckeyes lore forever.

That play — and really that goal-to-go sequence — will haunt Texas forever after its 28-14 Cotton Bowl Playoff semifinal loss Friday night.

You see, Texas had done the impossible. It handled the buzzsaw that was Ohio State. After taking a haymaker to the jugular, it stared down the prized fighter and pushed it to the brink. That included the absurd feat of holding the scorching Jeremiah Smith to 1 catch for 3 yards on just 3 targets. If you would’ve told any Texas fan entering the night that such a thing would be a possibility, they would’ve asked if Smith had perhaps lost a leg in the first quarter.

Nope. That game was sitting there. A title berth was sitting right there. And this time, Texas couldn’t seize that moment. At least not like Sawyer did.

Again, maybe there was nothing that Ewers could have done but potentially throw up a jump ball into traffic against the nation’s top pass defense. Perhaps even if he had seen Sawyer, spun out of it and extended the play, he wouldn’t have been able to find the magic that he did on that out-of-nowhere 3rd-down flip that kept Texas’ eventual game-tying drive alive.

Before Sawyer made the play that’ll be turned into future Buckeye tattoos, go back to the sequence that led to the obvious throwing situation. That might be what haunts Steve Sarkisian.

Texas had 1st-and-goal on the Ohio State 1-yard-line. Sarkisian brought in defensive linemen to block on a power running play with true freshman Jerrick Gibson, who had been Texas’ most used back on 4th-down plays (4 carries). Using Jaydon Blue perhaps wasn’t an option with his fumbling issues late in the regular season, and maybe Sarkisian hesitated to use Arch Manning with his near-fumble earlier on a 4th-down conversion.

Nonetheless, Gibson was stuffed against the nation’s best red-zone defense.

But perhaps the real regret will be that 2nd-down call by Sarkisian. After running between the tackles went nowhere, Sarkisian opted to try and stretch the Ohio State defense with Wisner. Maybe Golden’s ankle injury that sidelined him for the majority of the game didn’t make Sarkisian as confident that he could have the same mobility to get separation or elevate for a potential goal-line fade. Or perhaps Sarkisian trusted that his veteran, bell-cow back could find a running lane that future first-round pick Kelvin Banks Jr. and that experienced Texas offensive line could open up.

Nonetheless, that also stuffed. But it wasn’t just stuffed. Ohio State defensive back Lathan Ransom blew it up for a 7-yard loss that changed the entire complexion of the next 2 plays.

Well, you know how that turned out.

Sarkisian will have forever to second-guess himself. Many will second-guess if the decision to stick with Ewers cost Texas a shot at a title, though it’s hard to argue that Manning would’ve been a lock to fare better against the No. 1 scoring defense in America. Could Sarkisian have incorporated more Manning looks? It’s easy to play the results with that, especially if Manning goes on to live up to those sky-high expectations.

What will stay with Sarkisian is that championship opportunities are extremely rare in this field. He knows that as well as anyone. Last year’s team also watched its season end with a 4th-down play in the red zone of a Playoff semifinal game. This team played in 15 games just to get back to this point, and it had to go toe-to-toe with the Ohio State buzzsaw for 4 quarters. And final score be damned, that’s exactly what Texas did thanks to some lights-out defense, some poise by Ewers and a couple of perfectly-executed touchdown grabs out of the backfield by Jaydon Blue.

Texas was capable of winning this game. Sarkisian deserves a ton of credit for that, regardless of how that goal-to-go sequence played out. Sure, Texas would’ve needed a 2-minute defensive stand and perhaps a little overtime magic. It’s no guarantee that a touchdown there would’ve led to the Longhorns being the ones under the confetti and of course, Notre Dame would’ve awaited on Jan. 20 in the national title game. The Irish are no pushover.

But it’ll always be fair to wonder.

The comforting thought for Texas is that it could start off No. 1 in the AP Poll next season. The less comforting thought is that 19 of the past 20 preseason AP No. 1 teams failed to win a title, and beating 4 consecutive top-12 teams en route to a championship is a grind unlike anything in the previous era of the sport.

There are no guarantees in this era of the sport. Texas is living proof of that. Sarkisian’s legacy will always be about turning a decade of irrelevance into a championship-caliber program. That shouldn’t be lost on the year that was. Texas came into the SEC and showed that it belonged. More importantly, it came back into the college football landscape and showed it was far more than a 1-year wonder.

Texas is back to expecting annual opportunities like it had on Friday night. Soon, perhaps, Texas’ time will come.

Sawyer made sure it wasn’t happening on his watch.

Connor O'Gara

Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.