Laken Litman
Football and college soccer analyst
In 2008, Nick Saban gave one of his most memorable and famous pregame speeches. Alabama was going to Baton Rouge to play LSU for the first time since Saban left the Tigers for the NFL, and he enraged his players in the locker room before they ran onto the field.
โHow much does this game mean to you?โ Saban said, raising his voice. โBecause if it means anything to you, you canโt sit still. You understand? You play fast. You play hard. You go out and dominate the guy youโre playing against and make him give up. Thatโs our trademark. Thatโs our modus operandi as team. Thatโs how people know us.โ
The โmake him quitโ part became part of the identity of future national championship-winning Crimson Tide teams, including those that Steve Sarkisian was a part of.
Sarkisian, who left Tuscaloosa to become the head coach at Texas in 2021, has always been open about how much he values โโhis mentor, Saban, and everything he learned while coaching under him. Heโs adopted many of Sabanโs principles at Texas, and the Longhorns are closer than they have been in years to recapturing their reputation as an elite-level program. Sarkisian took a 5-7 team in 2021, a tight end from the team that Gunnar Helm said had a โhorrible cultureโ and that โnobody wanted to be here,โ and turned it into one that has made back-to-back appearances in the football playoffs. university. .
This season, Texas reached the SEC championship game as a league debutant, has a top-notch defense and has NFL talent on both sides of the ball. But one fundamental thing is missing: Texas has not forced anyone who knows what to give up.
In fact, it has been quite the opposite. The Longhorns have let their opponents hang around after building leads. Take the recent 39-31 win over Arizona State in the Peach Bowl, for example. Texas got off to a good start, scoring 14 points in 66 seconds of action, putting together a strong and explosive first quarter. The Longhorns then gave up a 16-point lead as Cam Skattebo made big plays, only to come back and win, 39-31, in double overtime.
Against Clemson, Texas was up 28-10 at the half, but the Tigers rallied and nearly made it a one-score game on two different occasions in the fourth quarter. If not for a goal-line stop and a deflected pass, things might have been different.
Texas led Georgia 6-3 at halftime of the SEC title game, but it should have been a larger margin. Turnovers, penalties and a missed field goal doomed the Longhorns, and the Bulldogs won 22-19 in overtime.
Does Texas lack that killer instinct to annihilate teams?
โNo, I donโt feel like thatโs a concern,โ Texas safety Michael Taaffe said this week. โObviously, we have to keep insisting on finishing. We started very fast last week, and we always have to preach on finishing. I lost one of my first goals this year at the end of the game on a deep pass against Skattebo. I went to the bench and I said, โThatโs up to me.โ If youโre preaching it, you have to do it too.
โI think there were so many situations that happened in that game where the football gods, if there were any, were on Arizona Stateโs side the entire second half. And it seemed like nothing could go our way, and that happens in football. . . But at the end of the day, we got a W. And no matter what it took, we were willing to do it.โ
The problem for Taaffe and the Longhorns is that Ohio State, which will face Texas on Friday night in the CFP semifinal at the Cotton Bowl, has been feverishly dominant in this tiebreaker. After a surprising loss to Michigan that kept the Buckeyes out of the Big Ten Championship, they bounced back and came out swinging. In the first round of the CFP, the Buckeyes defeated Tennessee, 42-17. Jeremiah Smith and the OSU offense scored 21 points in the first quarter and the Volunteers were never close. In the Rose Bowl, Ohio State crushed Oregon, 41-21, after taking an insurmountable 34-8 halftime lead.
โThe goal is, week in and week out, you have to get better,โ said Buckeyes tight end Gee Scott, who caught a 30-yard pass on the first play of the Rose Bowl. โThatโs the big motto we have on this team. That team you were on last week or the team you were on in Week 5 just isnโt good enough to compete in the College Football Playoff.
โAnd because of that, our mentality is to get better and better. Call it what it is. The last time we played [Oregon]We fell short, but here we areโฆ we can see who updated the most. It looked like it was the Buckeyes. And then the goal is to continue updating every week, and then youโll look back and see how far youโve come.โ
Ohio State Buckeyes
USO
Texas Longhorns
TEXAS
Texas has the talent, depth and ability to combat Ohio Stateโs strengths. So how do they execute that plan?
1. The Longhorns have to finish quality drives with touchdowns. They are scoring touchdowns in the red zone just 64% of the time, while Ohio State does so on 76% of their trips inside the 20. This is especially relevant after halftime, where Texas has been outscored 60-16 in the red zone. third quarter in the last eight games.
2. The Longhorns canโt turn the ball over. Entering this semifinal, Texas ranked 126th nationally with 24 turnovers this season; only six FBS teams have more. Quinn Ewers is known for his calm and steady demeanor, but he has thrown 11 interceptions this season, five of which came in the last four games. On the other hand, Texas has forced the second-most turnovers in the country with 30 (only Notre Dame has more with 31).
3. The Longhorns canโt miss crucial field goals. Kicker Bert Auburn, who has made his way into the Texas record books and has made the most field goals in a single season in program history, has been struggling lately. In the Peach Bowl, he missed two go-ahead field goals and missed one in the SEC championship game.
4. The Longhorns need to establish themselves early on the offensive line. Ohio Stateโs defense has 12 sacks in the last two games, including eight against Oregon. The Longhorns have allowed 33 sacks this season, while the Buckeyes have allowed 12. The unit is expected to return at full strength after starting right tackle Cam Williams missed the last game with an injury, which should help what has been an inconsistent running game. . After rushing for 292 yards against Clemson, Texas mustered just 53 yards on the ground against Arizona Stateโs smaller defensive front.
โI would just say that we as an offense, the running backs room, the tight ends room, the offensive line room, we know what weโre capable of and what weโve filmed is not the best weโve been able to do.โ Texas center Jake Majors said. โWe understand that there are high expectations and we have to meet them.
โWe were frustrated, but at the end of the day we were able to win. But what we did was not good enough for our standard. The next day, we were all walking around with resentment, ready to get back to work and get this running game going.โ
Sarkisian has said his team has yet to play its best game of the year. Is Texas capable of doing it against a Buckeyes team that is gelling and performing at an elite level? Friday night in the Cotton Bowl will serve as a marker for Texas and its trajectory, especially after losing in the CFP semifinal round last year, albeit in a four-team playoff format.
โOhio State is playing very good football right now and if we want to have a chance, we have to match it and surpass it,โ Majors said. โSo we have to give our best and get out on the right foot and quickly.โ
Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of โStrong Like a Woman,โ published in spring 2022 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Title IX. follow her on @LakenLitman.
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