ESPN’s Paul Finebaum named Texas’ 27-24 home loss to Florida the most damaging result of a chaotic Week 7, placing the blame on head coach Steve Sarkisian and his refusal to give up play-calling duties.
“My answer would be Texas because I just can’t get over what Texas is doing,” Finebaum said Sunday morning on SportsCenter. “It seems like about eight days ago, they were No. 1 in the country, and they’re not even in the universe anymore.”
Why Paul Finebaum blamed Steve Sarkisian
Florida rallied from a 17-3 deficit behind quarterback Tramell Jones Jr., who made his first career start. The Gators held Texas under 300 yards and sacked Arch Manning five times, and Myles Graham’s strip-sack on the final drive sealed a second straight loss for the Longhorns.
“And the blame does go on Steve Sarkisian, whose arrogance continues to put him as the play-caller, and he’s doing a miserable job of that,” Finebaum said.
Sarkisian kept play-calling duties after the 27-24 loss to Oklahoma, and he defended Manning by arguing a quarterback named Joe Smith would be praised. Finebaum mocked that line, saying “it’s easy to blame Arch Manning or Joe Smith or whatever name he goes by this week.”
Sarkisian spread the blame across the whole offense after Saturday’s loss. “Was Arch perfect? No. But nobody was perfect on offense today,” he said. Texas entered the game with the SEC’s worst three-and-out rate at nearly 29%, and Manning finished 14 of 20 for 173 yards while gaining zero yards on 10 carries.
Arch Manning’s job status before Ole Miss
“He has been really hard to watch for people who really admire him and respect what he’s tried to accomplish,” Finebaum said. “But you can’t play like that, and I think Sark opened the door for whether Arch would even start next week against... Are you ready for this? Ole Miss.”
Sarkisian said after the game that everything will be evaluated, including the quarterback spot. In a separate appearance on The Matt Barrie Show, Finebaum conceded that Manning will start, though he called Sarkisian’s handling of the quarterback “embarrassing.”
The Longhorns dropped from No. 1 to No. 7 after losing to unranked Oklahoma, then fell to No. 19 in Sunday’s AP Top 25. It’s the program’s first two-game losing streak since 2021.
No. 7 Ole Miss (5-1) visits Austin on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC, and Texas follows that game with Mississippi State and Missouri.
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