Texas was #3. The defense was ranked in the top 5 There was speculation on how high Quinn Ewers would be picked in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft, and I heard a nationally syndicated sports talk host mention Steve Sarkisian as a candidate for upcoming NFL head coaching vacancies. Then Texas played their perennial nemesis Oklahoma. Texas was favored by 4.5-5.5 points and lost by 4. There’s no shame in that but the way they lost revealed that some of the issues that have plagued the Longhorns for more than a decade are still there.

The most glaring issue revealed in the Oklahoma game was on the sideline. Steve Sarkisian still hasn’t proved his mettle when facing top ranked teams. Through the Oklahoma game he is 15-27 all time versus top 25 teams and 2-8 versus the top 5.

I put this year’s Oklahoma loss primarily on Sarkisian. In laying blame, I could have included the defensive coaching staff, but Sarkisian is in charge of the whole team including the defense.

Let’s talk about Texas’ defensive gameplan against Oklahoma. Paraphrasing George Costanza, the defensive game plan can be summed up with one word. Passive.

This is how my football guru, Paul Wadlington opened his postmortem on the Texas defense against Oklahoma.

The Texas defense lost to a play style.

In a game where the calculated aggressor is often rewarded, it generally pays to sucker punch first and ask questions later. There is a massive risk to neutering Longhorn defenders by game plan when the opponent game plan is already premised on sowing hesitation and doubt to mask their own weaknesses. That’s how an OU offense that was unremarkable against Cincy and SMU managed to hit a superior Texas defense for 486 yards at 6 yards per play, 6 for 6 in the red zone, over 200 yards rushing (they only broke 200+ against Arkansas State prior) and 34 points (with a missed field goal and a dropped Walker touchdown pass). Of course, all with the understanding that they have had a “Texas Day” of practice every week since August.

Well, it worked. Fast pace and formational diversity transformed 11 attackers into observers. Texas lost the initiative early and never regained it.

If you watched the game, you might be saying to yourself, yes! That’s what I saw!

Here’s how Texas’ passivity played on two Oklahoma drives that greatly determined the outcome.

On Oklahoma’s last possession of the first half, they started in their own 25-yard line with 1:53 left in the half. They went 67 yards in 9 plays and kicked a field goal to end the half.  In their last possession that essentially ended the game without timeouts they drove 75 yards in 5 plays in 1:02. During that drive, Texas never rushed more than four players leaving 7 in pass coverage. All the players in coverage covered. . .grass.  During the drive I’m thinking rush 5 or even 6. If you get the quarterback on the ground once in bounds the game is over.  The closest they came was on Oklahoma’s touchdown pass with :15 left in the game. I know in arguments with your significant other, you’re not supposed to bring up ancient history but I’m going to. We saw Texas play this same passive defense against Alabama at the end of the game last year except for the play that Ryan Watts missed his shot at sacking Bryce Young.

For years and through several coaching regimes, we’ve witnessed Oklahoma as the aggressor in these games. I can’t account for Texas’ passivity.

Speaking of Oklahoma’s last drive, at most there should have been :30 left when they got the ball after Texas’ field goal not 1:17.  Texas got the ball with 4:49 left in the game on its own 13-yard line. I understand at this point Sarkisian isn’t thinking about clock management, he’s thinking about driving into scoring position. But when Texas got to the 50-yard line with 3:55 left Sarkisian should have started thinking about running the clock down as far as possible before Texas scored. But on 2^nd down and 1 with 3:55 left, Texas snapped it with :26 left on the play clock. On first and 10 from the Oklahoma 49 Texas snapped the ball with :22 left on the play clock. On 2^nd and 7 Texas snapped it with :24 left on the play clock. If Texas had snapped the ball near 0 on the play clock on those 3 plays, they would have forced Oklahoma to use their final 2 timeouts sooner and allow Texas to run the clock down. It’s hard to make a precise calculation here because we don’t know how Oklahoma would have used their last two timeouts but conservatively Oklahoma should have had no more than :30 for their last drive with no timeouts.

I don’t want to discuss at length Texas’ failure to score on first and goal from the 2-foot line. You saw it. It was pitiful. In the larger context. That failure was authored by one of the “great offensive minds in football.”  In 2023 Texas has scored only 11 touchdowns on 24 possessions in the red zone. Texas is 68^th in the country in red zone conversions.

One last game note. Texas was penalized 9 times for 70 yards. Not usually an earmark of a well-coached team. Oklahoma had 4 penalties for 30 yards.

The Oklahoma game illustrated that Texas was probably not the third best team in the country going in. Did you watch the Oregon-Washington game? Have you noticed what Michigan is doing? Not to mention Georgia. For now, Texas is #8 which seems about right although I’m not sure they’re better than #9 Oregon.

Hopefully now the talk of Quinn Ewers’ first round draft status is over. I’ve been an Ewers advocate. I think he’s a good college quarterback. As far as the NFL, he’s a project, a 4^th round pick at best. He should stick around for at least one more season.

As for Sark being considered for an NFL opening. Please. Until he wins something not even an NFL owner is stupid enough to gamble on Sarkisian.

Buy or Sell Survey Results

What a perfect time to reveal the results of Willie Earl’s survey question, are you buying or selling Texas having an 11-1 regular season record?  Out of 24 respondents, there were 6 buys and 18 sells.  The survey was taken after the Wyoming game and before the Baylor game.

I’m buying 11-1 now. Have you perused the rest of Texas’ schedule? Nary a ranked team in site and it’s debatable if there’s a good team left on the schedule.

I’m not buying that Texas will beat Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship because I’m not yet buying Steve Sarkisian in a money game.

Private Remarks.

Willie Earl’s readers don’t use the opportunity to comment on the website, but I do receive numerous comments by text and email. Here’s a recent sampling.

Quinn Ewers comps.

Ewers is like Ron Burgundy. He’ll read whatever is on the Teleprompter.

Ewers is like Nuke Laloosh. “Don’t think, just throw.”

A fan in despair

I’m over it, but this team and its coach can’t get out of its/his own way. I’m not at all sanguine (like apparently everyone else) that they won’t duck up at least another couple games.

In the immediate aftermath

Worst clock management ever.

More on clock management. This came over the transom during Texas’ second to last drive.

Are they going too fast?

From a fan in attendance

It was a good time but the mood at the fair was kind of tense. I saw a fight for the first time in the years I’ve gone. Also saw a UT fan punch another UT fan in the face.

Texas Longhorns vs Houston Cougars

This doesn’t seem like old times. When Houston joined the old Southwest Conference in 1976 it started a series of blood feud games with Texas. In 1976 Houston beat Texas in Austin 30-0 and ended Texas’ home winning streak that started in 1967. In what was considered a scandalous display in that era, Houston quarterback Danny Davis did a celebratory dance on the Longhorn logo at midfield after the game.

The next year in Houston at Rice Stadium Earl Campbell rushed for 173 yards and scored 3 touchdowns on 24 carries as Texas got revenge 35-21. Earl also knocked Bevo down behind the end zone punctuating one of his touchdowns. 

This game is one of my favorites from 1977 and not because Earl Knocked down Bevo. I picked up Larry Campbell at the Sig Ep house around 10am the morning of the game and then headed for Houston. The pledges were busy building the elaborate decorations for next weekend’s Red Garter Party. It was gratifying to be seniors and watch the pledges working on a Saturday morning. In my white 1976 Mustang ll with a red interior, Larry and I enjoyed an easy two-and-a-half-hour drive to Rice Stadium. We sat about 30 rows up in the end zone. There really weren’t any bad seats in Rice Stadium which was configured almost identically to the Cotton Bowl. The game, played before a sold-out crowd, couldn’t have been more enjoyable except that quarterback Randy McEachern banged up his knee and would miss the next game and a half. After the game Larry and I drove back to Austin and went to dinner at Sid’s on Lamar. Pretty much a perfect day.

In 1978 #8 Houston took down #6 Texas back in Austin 10-7. The game was more exciting than many of you youngsters can imagine in a game where 17 total points were scored.

In 1979 in the Astrodome #8 Texas beat #4 Houston 21-13 in a breakout performance for Texas quarterback Donnie Little. 

I could go on about this series, but you get the idea.

In 2023, Houston isn’t very good. They’re 3-3 including a win last Saturday over West Virginia on a hail Mary touchdown to end the game. Earlier in the season, they lost to Rice in overtime.

Houston is giving up 31 points a game versus a weak schedule. They have forced 10 turnovers in 6 games. So, they got that going for them.

The Houston quarterback is Donovon Smith a transfer from Texas Tech. He has 13 touchdown passes against 3 interceptions. At 6’5”, and 240 he’s a short yardage and red zone run threat who has touchdowns running.

This should be a nice game for Texas to rebound from the Oklahoma loss. Texas is currently favored by 23.5.

Songs of the Week Twin Spin