Arrogance brings down empires and for Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, his reluctance to make tough, coaching staff adjustments during a season in which all resources have been pushed to the center of the table may come back to haunt the Longhorns. Sarkisian stiff-armed the idea of giving up play-calling duties or shuffling his special teams staff following Saturday's 27-24 loss to Oklahoma, a rivalry matchup that exposed some of his team's season-long flaws. "Not a chance," Sarkisian said of stepping away from his dual-role of coach and calling the offense.
"We have to play better." Matched up with one of the SEC's worst offenses coming into the Red River Rivalry game, Texas whipped up a recipe that made the setting ripe for an upset after giving up a special teams score in the first half on a punt block and a defensive touchdown later. It marked the second straight game the Longhorns failed in the kicking game after Tennessee's Qua Moss scored on a 57-yard punt return in Knoxville. Sarkisian quickly fired "no" to a question about "reevaluating Jeff Banks' responsibilities on special teams" in the aftermath, backing an assistant coach who has failed to deliver in big spots recently.
During last season's loss at Georgia, the Longhorns were fooled by a successful onside kick and through five games, Texas ranks in the bottom-half of the SEC this season in kickoff and punting average, kickoff return average and is one of eight SEC teams without a blocked punt or kick yet. "I feel like we've missed some opportunities on special teams quite frankly," Sarkisian said. "I felt like we had a couple return opportunities that we didn't get.
Clearly, two weeks in a row we've kicked the ball out of bounds on kickoffs. We're better than that, and so I've got to find a way to get our guys playing with more confidence from a specialist standpoint. But again, that's my job to try to get that done." Sarkisian has shouldered much of the special teams blame, but hasn't looked in the mirror yet to determine why the Longhorns are battling offensive deficiencies — despite one of the most-talented personnel groupings nationally on his side of the football.
Texas went three-and-out seven times against Oklahoma and currently leads the SEC in three-and-out rate this season, averaging just 1.63 points per possession in two conference matchups (which ranks 103rd in college football). The Longhorns' 5.4 yards per play average coming out of Saturday's loss this season ranks 104th nationally, only ahead of Power Four offensive doormats like Arkansas, Clemson, Texas A&M, Michigan and Colorado. Arch Manning's pick-six in the third quarter was a momentum-changer for the Sooners, then came the ill-advised mistake in the final minute on a forced attempt to Cam Coleman in the face of pressure that led to Oklahoma's game-winning field goal.
Lack of execution is magnified after a loss and often get covered up following wins, but the cracks have been there for Texas throughout the season. Three points over the first three quarters of play during the win over Ohio State left much to be desired offensively, along with the 20-17 victory at Tennessee that was punctuated by 10 sacks from the Longhorns' front seven. Special teams errors aside, some of that could be absorbed if Sarkisian's offense was simply more productive.
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