Steve Sarkisian explains Texas' baffling goal-line plays late in CFP loss to Ohio State

The game was within Texas’ reach with about half of the fourth quarter left against Ohio State. Or, at least, tying it was within reach — until it suddenly wasn’t.

Trailing the Buckeyes by a touchdown in Friday’s College Football Playoff semifinal game at the Cotton Bowl Classic, the Longhorns were marching up the field, and with the help of a couple pass interference calls against Ohio State, they were at first-and-goal on the one-yard line with less than four minutes left.

First up was a run from Jerrick Gibson for no gain. Then it was running back Quintrevion Wisner’s turn to try, and while he briefly looked like he had a chance, he was ultimately taken down by Buckeyes safety Lathan Ransom for a loss of seven. Then an incomplete pass from Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers on third down, followed by the final dagger: a strip-sack from Ohio State’s Jack Sawyer (and Ewers’ former roommate) that he returned for a touchdown.

Ohio State won, 28-14, and advanced to the national title game, while the Longhorns lost in the CFP semifinals for the second straight year.

The goal-line play calling was certainly confusing, and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian shed some light on it after the game.

He said (just after the seven-minute mark):

“When we got down to the one, we went to a heavy package, which is Jerrick’s package. So we ran it, and we obviously didn’t get much movement at all.

“And we had a plan to try to get the ball on the edge when we got down there. They went to big people. I can’t quite tell — it was on the far side of where it got leaky.

“But that’s one of those plays, if you block it all right, you get in the end zone, and we didn’t, and we lose quite a bit of yardage. And at that point, you’re kind of stuck behind the eight ball because we knew we were in four-down territory because of the score of the game.”

Of course, the strip-sack turned touchdown sealed the win for the Buckeyes, but you could argue they had already lost after going from first-and-goal on the one-yard line to third-and-goal at the eight.

Moving backwards, especially that close to the goal line, is never good.

JACK SAWYER SCOOP-AND-SCORE

Ohio State is one step closer to advancing to the national championship! pic.twitter.com/BPoV5FBRGZ

— ESPN (@espn) January 11, 2025

Sarkisian continued to explain that he was prepared if the Longhorns didn’t score on that drive, figuring Texas would have a shot at one more possession after Ohio State’s hypothetical subsequent drive would have started with terrible field position. Sarkisian continued:

“I was OK even if we didn’t score. Not that I didn’t want score, but thinking, ‘All right, they’re going to have to be backed up, and we’ll probably get one more possession with good field position.’

“The last thing you think is the sack, and it’s going to bounce right to the guy, and he’s going to run for a touchdown. So it’s unfortunate that that was the circumstances because it was a really nice drive by the offense to get all the way down there.

“First-and-goal on the one and we don’t score, you, quite frankly, probably don’t deserve to win that way.”

Not sure how comforting that is to Texas fans, but at least we now have a clearer picture of the late-game strategy.