Sunday Thoughts: Longhorns experience groundhog day all over again
We’re through Week 4 of the 2022 college football season but it feels like we have lived through this story before.
Texas started the season strong, playing above their weight class against Alabama. Now they have two losses before Red River and have endured a downward spiral since the injury to Quinn Ewers.
Hudson Card has acquitted himself well since Ewers went down, and isn’t the reason for the Longhorns’ struggles. Unfortunately, he’s not the solution either.
While the offense has struggled since the Alabama game, the defense has been even worse. Texas dominated the Alabama offensive line, but has since been picked apart by UTSA and Texas Tech. And, frankly, it does not seem to be the players’ fault.
Let’s look at what we learned from Saturday’s upset loss in Lubbock.
Pete Kwiatkowski should be uncomfortable
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Look, Texas doesn’t need to fire another defensive coordinator, but they do if Kwiatkowski continually allows Texas to make the same mistakes. The Texas defensive coordinator opted not to adjust for much of the game. It’s time he make changes or Texas is duty bound to make them. He has to be better.
Texas has done the opposite of what they said they would in the offseason since the Alabama game. Either they lied or Kwiatkowski got comfortable and reverted to his nonsensical blitz-coverage combinations. There is no justification for allowing 34 points to Texas Tech, much less being as effective as unlocked turnstiles on third and long and fourth down.
No more RoCat on fourth down
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Fourth down conversions are hard. Predictable play calling makes fourth downs harder. Texas took away the threat of the pass on a failed 4th and 2 and handed the ball back to Texas Tech. Steve Sarkisian is much more trustworthy than Pete Kwiatkowski, but that play call was destined to fail.
When you play games too close, bad luck comes into play
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The Longhorns can’t afford to blame bad luck. Texas should be able to beat Texas Tech, the refs and all the bad bounces the ball takes. The issue was not bad luck, but that the game was close in the first place.
The next two games may tell us if Sark is the guy
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Steve Sarkisian has had strong moments at Texas, but Saturday’s game made it look like he does not know what he is doing. Whether it be road play calling or preparation, for whatever reason Sarkisian has been terrible away from Austin in his time as head coach. The good will from the one-point loss to Alabama is gone. He needs to win the next two games to inspire confidence. Texas plays West Virginia at home before traveling to the Cotton Bowl to face Oklahoma.
Texas needs Quinn Ewers
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Hudson Card played relatively well. Texas needs their quarterback to be elite. Though he wasn’t the cause for the loss, Hudson Card is not that guy. A number of players, certainly coaches, made critical errors that shrunk the Longhorns’ margin for error. Texas needs Ewers back to set things right and overcome those errors.
