Last Saturday\u2019s matchup between Texas and Ohio State reminded fans across the country exactly why they dedicate their precious Saturdays to watching college football.<\/p>\n
It was chaotic, dramatic and, for Longhorn fans, exhilarating in the highest degree.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Texas\u2019 performance also contained one of the worst first-half breakdowns I have ever witnessed as a college football fan \u2014 and head coach Steve Sarkisian knows it\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur ball security is awful right now,\u201d Sarkisian said blatantly on Monday. \u201cThat\u2019s not something that we take pride in at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas fumbled the ball four times against Ohio State. Receivers dropped multiple passes that could\u2019ve turned into big plays, such as junior wide receiver Cam Coleman bobbling the ball right into the hands of Ohio State safety Jaylen McClain.<\/p>\n
Faults that would otherwise be considered unacceptable were ultimately outweighed by Texas\u2019 valiant comeback, but that doesn\u2019t erase the fact that they happened. The Buckeyes came up with the ball defensively without even doing the dirty work.<\/p>\n
Luckily, Texas has one more home opportunity against UTSA to right its wrongs before Southeastern Conference play commences. Winning decisively won\u2019t be convincing enough \u2014 the Longhorns need to win cleanly for this weekend\u2019s matchup to be considered successful.<\/p>\n
And a clean victory won\u2019t necessarily be a walk in the park.<\/p>\n
The Roadrunners haven\u2019t turned the ball over yet this season, but they have forced five turnovers on the defensive side of the ball. While their personnel isn\u2019t typically regarded in the same category as that of Texas, their ball control could pose problems for the Longhorns if they aren\u2019t careful.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Texas has made somewhat of a habit of making avoidable mistakes against lower-ranked opponents. A recent example would be senior quarterback Arch Manning throwing an end zone interception less than 10 seconds before halftime against Texas State.<\/p>\n
These mistakes might not alter the game\u2019s outcome, but they promote poor tendencies. And the last thing the Longhorns can afford right now is to establish bad habits.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s going to be another hot one at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, and fans likely won\u2019t stay to watch the Longhorns drop passes and use their star running backs as a crutch on the way to a sloppy nonconference win.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll want to see big plays and big stops, with as few errors as possible.<\/p>\n
If playmakers like junior wide receiver Ryan Wingo continue to bobble the ball, Texas should deploy the next-man-up mentality. There is no reason for talented younger receivers like sophomores Kaliq Lockett and Daylan McCutcheon and freshmen Jermaine Bishop Jr. and Kohen Brown to sit on the bench and watch the players in front of them on the depth chart drop passes.<\/p>\n
Not many teams have the kind of depth the Longhorns have within their wide receiver room, and it\u2019s safer to test different options out at home than it will be in Knoxville next weekend against Tennessee.<\/p>\n
Texas fought hard for its 24-23 win \u2014 it wasn\u2019t luck that propelled the team to triumph, and I don\u2019t want my criticism to undermine the remarkable nature of the Longhorns\u2019 last-minute victory. But winning in a chaotic comeback fashion isn\u2019t a foolproof method, and it\u2019s not a great thing to get in the habit of before conference play starts.<\/p>\n
Texas simply can\u2019t afford to make some of the mistakes it made this past weekend again in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Saturday\u2019s matchup between Texas and Ohio State reminded fans across the country exactly why they dedicate their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-439586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}