Texas isn’t translating practice into games

AUSTIN — As momentum swung in favor of the Florida Gators after a late touchdown in the first half, head coach Jon Sumrall’s team mounted a grinding, 15-play, 69-yard touchdown drive that took 8:03 off the clock and tied the game at 17-17, keeping the Texas Longhorns offense off the field for half the third quarter.

The Texas defense had held Florida without a third-down conversion in the first half, but the Gators converted five straight third downs on their lengthy drive, but none was more frustrating than the final conversion, a 3rd and 3 from the 8-yard line that resulted in an eight-yard touchdown catch by tight end Lacota Dippre, his second of the game.

The most frustrating element of the touchdown?

Texas was well prepared for the play, a mesh concept with Dippre simply running up the seam after both tight ends shifted from the field to the boundary and the boundary wide receiver motioned across the field, because the Longhorns had practiced it four times before the game, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday.

“All of a sudden it comes in the game and we’ve got three guys guarding a running back and nobody guarding a tight end over the middle of the field,” Sarkisian said.

Senior linebacker Justin Cryer was the player responsible for the running back as senior safety Jelani McDonald and sophomore nickel back Graceson Littleton both blew their assignments, leaving the other tight end open in addition to Dippre.

The breakdown left Cryer visibly upset on the field after the inexplicable busts by a team leader who has played more than 1,500 career snaps in McDonald and a player in Littleton who has been reliable since he arrived on campus and immediately earned a starting role at an extremely demanding position.

“We’ve practiced this not even 24 hours ago, right?” Cryer said Monday. “So for us to go out there and mess that up, it’s like, man, we have to just have better focus in in the moment, right?”

The Florida State transfer believes the players have to take responsibility for those mistakes, which were not limited to that play defensively or even to that unit, because the coaches put the players in position to have success.

“I can count countless plays up that we practiced and we’ve gone over and we did not do a good job,” Cryer said. “So again, taking ownership of that, right? They’ve put us in the best position to go out there and do it. As players, we have to do a better job, and there’s no other way to put it.”

The persistent problems put the coaches in a difficult position — if players are making mistakes in practice, the coaches can work to fix those problems before games or remove offensive calls from the game plan if they aren’t working practice, but making those mistakes in games after practicing well changes games.

Sarkisian saw the same issues offensively, particularly in the run game, which found some rare explosive runs in a 31-yard effort by senior running back Hollywood Smothers and a 21-yard touchdown run by fifth-year Raleek Brown, but as the game went on, there were too many breakdowns as the Longhorns had six runs stuffed and 12-of-25 runs go for two yards or less.

“It’s hard to point out specific runs to you guys, but we’re calling specific runs, and we’re not blocking them the way that we practice those exact plays in practice during the week,” Sarkisian said.

The issues extend to special teams — Sarkisian wasn’t specific about any special teams mistakes on Saturday, when Texas struggled with short kickoffs and poor coverage that resulted in five returns for 105 yards, including a long of 30 yards, but the punt down the middle of the field against Tennessee returned for a touchdown and the simulated fair catch by punt returner Ryan Niblett that negated a significant return by Jermaine Bishop stand out, not to mention the blocked punt by Oklahoma that turned into a touchdown on a basic protection breakdown.

“We have to do a better job taking practice to the game and having a sense of belief and confidence that what you’re doing is the right thing to do,” Sarkisian said.

The Longhorns also have to avoid pressing to make plays instead of relying on their technique and fundamentals.

“When there’s a standard and expectation of performance, sometimes we can try too hard, and we can start chasing plays as opposed to just executing the play that you have,” Sarkisian said. “So I think we need to settle down a little bit offensively and just execute the play and let the flow of the game happen. Do it at a high level, but just execute the play. We don’t need to chase the play.”