ARLINGTON, Texas — A year ago, Texas was one play away from playing for a national championship.
But Quinn Ewers’ last-second pass to Adonai Mitchell in the end zone was batted away by Washington, ending the Longhorns’ season in the College Football Playoff semifinals.
As the pain set in and hugs were exchanged in the losing locker room at the Sugar Bowl, there was quiet confidence and determination about getting back to that position and going a step further.
“We had a look with one another,” safety Michael Taaffe said Friday night, recalling that scene. “I saw the vision for this team.”
On Friday, the Longhorns were again within striking distance of playing for a national title, back in the Playoff semifinals, this time against Ohio State at the Cotton Bowl. Trailing by a touchdown with four minutes to go, all that stood between Texas and a chance to keep its season alive was 3 feet of AT&T Stadium turf. Just 1 yard needed for the Longhorns to potentially tie the score.
That’s when Texas’ title dreams fell completely apart, during a four-play sequence that will stick in the Longhorns’ memories, but a series that they’d rather soon forget. They failed to gain a yard and lost 7 yards on the first three downs. On fourth down, Ewers was sacked, fumbled and Ohio State’s Jack Sawyer recovered, taking the ball 83 yards the other way to seal a 28-14 win that left the Longhorns in a daze.
“First-and-goal on the 1 and we don’t score, quite frankly, you probably don’t deserve to win that way,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said.
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After consecutive pass interference penalties on Ohio State set up Texas with first-and-goal from the 1, the Longhorns mostly went backward. On first down, they brought in a heavy personnel package, which included offensive lineman Jaydon Chatman lining up at fullback in front of true freshman Jerrick Gibson in the I-formation and 315-pound defensive lineman Jermayne Lole as extra beef as a tight end.
But in much the same way Texas stonewalled opponents on short-yardage situations in the past seven weeks, Ohio State’s front penetrated the middle and dropped Gibson for no gain.
“Obviously, we didn’t get much movement at all,” Sarkisian said.
The second-and-goal call, a toss left to Quintrevion Wisner, blew up in the Longhorns’ faces.
Left tackle Kelvin Banks pulled and shoved Ohio State safety Lathan Ransom toward the left sideline. Wisner was supposed to shoot the gap, but he couldn’t because Buckeyes’ star Caleb Downs instinctively screamed through the open space between Banks and left guard Hayden Conner, who was occupying defensive tackle Ty Hamilton.
Wisner caught the pitch from Ewers at the 8 and by the time he reached the left hash mark, Downs was already at the 5, untouched, closing in quickly. Wisner stiff-armed Downs to the turf, but his presence forced Wisner toward the sideline, giving Ransom enough time to recover from Banks’ block. Ransom dived at Wisner’s right ankle and cornerback Davison Igbinosun finished off the tackle for a loss of 7 yards. Even if he hadn’t, four other red jerseys were in the vicinity, ready to finish the play.
“I thought there was going to be a big hole behind me because that’s how the play is designed,” Banks said. “I’m supposed to kick (the defender) out and Tre is supposed to hit the hole behind me. … But I turn to my left and Downs is making the play.”
Sarkisian said the plan when Texas got close to the goal line was to attack the edge. “If you block it all right, you get in the end zone,” he said. “We didn’t, and we lost quite a bit of yardage.”
Added Banks: “Downs just made a great play.”
A third-and-goal pass to freshman Ryan Wingo in the left corner of the end zone fell incomplete, as Wingo tried to escape a handsy Igbinosun. But the throw was rushed because Sawyer was in Ewers’ face as he released the ball.
Fourth down was a catastrophe. As Ewers dropped back to pass, Sawyer showed impressive bend and blew by right tackle Cam Williams — who struggled to contain edge pressure for much of the night in his first game back from a sprained knee — and within three seconds, he was knocking Ewers to the turf.
“I felt him,” Ewers said of Sawyer. “I started drifting away. I thought I was going to be able to get the ball off before he got there.”
The ball came loose as Ewers tried to throw it. Sawyer, who was once Ewers’ roommate at Ohio State, picked it up at the 17 and sprinted to victory.
“I saw Jack running with the ball down the sideline. It sucks, man,” Ewers said. “But he’s a great player, great individual, great person. … It just sucks. It sucks. Jack’s a good player, and he made a good play.”
Quinn Ewers was sacked four times against Ohio State in the semifinals. (Jerome Miron / Imagn Images)
The goal-line sequence was the rekindling of an old problem that persisted at Texas in 2023 but that the Longhorns seemingly corrected in 2024: finishing red zone drives with touchdowns. Last season, Texas ranked 120th in the FBS, scoring touchdowns on just 50.8 percent of red zone trips. It became a point of emphasis this offseason and in the first six games, looked rectified: Texas ranked 10th nationally at midseason, scoring touchdowns on 78.8 percent of red zone drives.
But since mid-October, the Longhorns reverted to old habits, scoring on just half of their red zone trips in the last 10 games, ranking 107th nationally. At the most critical moment of the Cotton Bowl, that flaw proved fatal.
“That’s been the key point of the whole year, finishing in the red zone, finish, finish, finish,” Banks said, pounding his open left hand with his closed right fist for emphasis. “It definitely sucks because in that big moment, when we really needed it, we couldn’t get it done.”
It wasn’t Texas’ only misstep in a game the Longhorns were good enough to win. They didn’t look overmatched by the uber-talented Ohio State team. After giving up an opening-drive touchdown, the Longhorns defense settled and kept the Buckeyes quiet for much of the first half. Ohio State did itself few favors with penalties and unforced errors.
But Texas’ protection issues persisted, particularly on the right side, where Williams struggled. Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau gave the Longhorns everything they could handle and then some.
Even with those shortcomings, and a late first-half touchdown Texas relinquished on a screen pass to TreVeyon Henderson, the Longhorns continued fighting. An early third-quarter interception by David Gbenda kept them in it, and Texas tied the score at 14 after an impressive third-quarter drive, when Ewers led Texas to a 4-for-4 showing on third downs before hitting Jaydon Blue for his second touchdown.
But Ohio State finished when Texas could not. The Buckeyes’ seven-minute, 45-second drive that included a fourth-down conversion by Will Howard was a championship drive when the Buckeyes needed it. Texas, with all its talent, and an experienced, SEC-ready offensive line, couldn’t. And because of that, the Longhorns won’t be playing on Jan. 20.
“It sucks being on this side of things,” Ewers said. “Back-to-back years, pretty much a game decided on one play. It’s hard. All the work that we put in, being in the final four back-to-back years and coming up short two years, it’s tough.”
Said Banks: “That was really our determination the whole offseason: getting to that stage and finishing. When it doesn’t happen again for the second time, you think, what could we have done better?”
The Longhorns will spend the coming weeks and months playing the what-if game. But the team will be drastically different in 2025. Ewers is likely headed to the NFL Draft, which he told ESPN this week. Banks is likely headed there too, though he didn’t say it Friday night (he said he’d talk to his family and his agent before deciding on his future). Most of the offensive line will be gone. Thorpe Award winner Jahdae Barron will graduate and so will tight end Gunnar Helm and several other key players.
The Arch Manning era will begin in Texas’ second SEC year. But the climb back to this point, and getting past it, isn’t easy, even with as much talent as the Longhorns have.
Taaffe believes they’ll get back because of the standard that has been set. Texas is 25-5 in the past two years with consecutive Playoff and conference title game appearances. They were up to the challenge in the first year of SEC membership. And it’s noteworthy that the Longhorns were the only one of last year’s final four teams in the bracket to even make the 12-team Playoff.
But that wasn’t the goal. The plan was to be playing in Atlanta for a national championship. Instead, they’ll have to dwell for an entire offseason, once again, how close they were to getting there.
“I hate this feeling more than I like winning,” Taaffe said. “I’ll have no regret because I left it all out there and my teammates should have no regret because I know they left it all out there.”
(Photo: Tim Heitman / Imagn Images)
