A few weeks ago, when the Texas Longhorns pulled off one of the most dramatic comebacks of the season, storming back from down 23-3 against the Ohio State Buckeyes, head coach Steve Sarkisian was adamant about his aggressive play-calling and decision-making down the stretch of the game.
"That's how losers think; winners win," Sarkisian said. "You go for it. They didn't hire me to keep it close; they hired me to win."
However, this weekend the Longhorns took their first loss of the season, losing 27-24 in the Red River Rivalry to an unranked Oklahoma Sooners team that crawled into the Cotton Bowl on Saturday. And for Sarkisian, he strayed from his "they hired me to win" spiel as one of his conservative decisions late in the game became pivotal in the game's outcome.
Steve Sarkisian's Fourth Quarter Decision Proved to Be Costly
The Longhorns struggled to get out of their own way against the Sooners on Saturday, committing penalties, multiple turnovers and special-teams mistakes, turning the game into a dogfight that played right into Oklahoma's hands.
With the game late and even at 24, the Longhorns began a drive that looked like it would be the game winner, beginning on their own 27-yard line and moving the ball down well into Oklahoma territory.
The drive stalled ahead of the two-minute warning, setting the Longhorns up with a fourth-and-two on the Oklahoma 35-yard line.
And in many such cases, Sarkisian has been the aggressor, practicing what he has preached, and he did so earlier in the game, with Texas being 1-1 on fourth down on Saturday.
However, Sarkisian opted not to go for the kill and elected to kick a 53-yard field goal. The choice proved to be unsuccessful, as kicker Gianni Spetic missed the long field goal attempt just to the right of the right upright, leaving 1:54 on the clock.
It's fourth-and-two, and the ball is placed on the Oklahoma 35-yard line, and Sarkisian decided not to trust his offense, which is littered with five-star and four-star talent and has plenty of resources poured into it.
"Factor was, did I think we had a really good play call or not that could get us the first down," Sarkisian said. “We had a couple of third-and-shorts earlier that we didn't convert... so it was like, do we have enough confidence in what we had up that I felt like we were going to call to get the first down."
The conversation about Sarkisian hiring an offensive play-caller has been shut down by him countless times last season and once again this year; however, not having a play that can be relied upon to get two yards is detrimental not just for Saturday's result but for the future of the Longhorns this season.
Additionally, Sarkisian's decision to not go for it also showed no faith in his defense, which, at that point in the game, held Oklahoma's offense to just 10 points.
The way Sarkisian's defense was playing should have made him more confident that if the fourth-down conversion was unsuccessful, the Texas defense was playing at a high level, it could've quickly stopped Oklahoma, who would've had to drive a long field.
And the Texas defense showed that strength by forcing a quick three-and-out from the Sooners offense, which gave quaterback Arch Manning the ball back with 54 seconds left to go in the game.
But a panicked throw from Manning was intercepted near midfield, giving the Oklahoma offense just under 20 seconds left in the game and a short field to get into field goal range and set up the game-winning field goal. And Oklahoma did just that, with the Texas defense bending just enough to give the Sooners the chance to win the game.
Sarkisian justified his decision to kick the field goal as the smart decision at that point in the game.
"You're looking at the clock and the situation of the game, and you start playing all the factors in, I felt like the smart play was to kick the field goal," Sarkisian said.
However, the same head coach who confidently sat at the podium and gave an impassioned speech about how Texas hired him to win after Ohio State chose the safer option rather than putting all his chips in the middle of the table against Oklahoma, a choice that ultimately blew up in his face.
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