Texas finally played complementary football again in 49-17 win over Florida

In 2023, playing complementary football defined a remarkable season for the Longhorns. Against the Gators, Steve Sarkisian’s team played that way for the first time in weeks.

AUSTIN, Texas — Saturday’s post-game press conference by Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian finally took on a familiar theme, harkening back to 2023 — on the way to the program’s first Big 12 championship since 2009 and first-ever College Football Playoff appearance, Sarkisian’s post-game comments — outside of the last-second loss to the Oklahoma Sooners in the Cotton Bowl — generally sounded similar.

Sarkisian would open by praising his team’s versatility and ability to play complementary football across all three phases as the Longhorns finished the season with a plus-six turnover margin, three special teams touchdowns, and the No. 6 offense and No. 13 defense in the final SP+ rankings from ESPN.

That set the program standard entering Sarkisian’s fourth season on the Forty Acres as the Horns made their much-anticipated SEC debut amid expectations of competing for conference and national championships.

In recent weeks, however, the inability to play complementary instead took center stage — the defense now ranks No. 4 nationally in ESPN’s SP+ rankings coming out of Saturday’s 49-17 win over Florida in Austin, but the offense has sputtered at times with penalties and other self-inflicted wounds, particularly turnovers.

After giving the ball away 18 times in 14 games in 2023, the Longhorns have 14 turnovers — eight interceptions and seven fumbles.

Of those fumbles, both miscues by junior running back Jaydon Blue came against Mississippi State and contributed to his subsequent demotion that reduced further to a one-dimensional pass-catching role in the loss to Georgia, prompting Sarkisian to publicly mention the need to avoid becoming pass-only on Blue’s snaps.

Freshman Jerrick Gibson has now fumbled three times in low-leverage moments that nonetheless help explain why he only had 11 carries in conference play entering Saturday, all of them coming in blowout wins over Mississippi State and Oklahoma. With 16 carries for 100 yards on Saturday against the Gators, Gibson flashed, but his fumble early in the fourth quarter highlighted his continued ball-security issues.

The interception rate has also jumped to 2.6 percent from 1.9 percent, a number inflated last year by the three interceptions thrown by backup Maalik Murphy on 71 pass attempts (4.2 percent, a poor number in a relatively small sample size).

This year, though, starting quarterback Quinn Ewers is responsible for the increase because of his 2.9-percent interception rate, up from 1.5 percent last year, an elite number that was wasn’t just luck, either, as Pro Football Focus credited him with just eight turnover-worthy throws contributing to his six interceptions.

Some of it is pure bad luck this year — take out the two tipped interceptions against Vanderbilt and Ewers is at an interception rate of 1.9 percent, a much more respectable number.

Of course, Ewers has also been worse with his overall decision-making this year, evidenced by 11 turnover-worthy throws, seven of which came against Georgia after he lost his composure after whatever hard-earned improvement with his oblique strain was perhaps negated by a massive hit from Daylan Everette on a cornerback blitz that also produced a key early fumble and sudden-change score by the Bulldogs.

Had Bulldogs players secured balls that hit their hands or chests, most of those turnover-worthy throws would have been interceptions, a shocking meltdown for a quarterback as experienced and as talented as Ewers.

That’s also a turnover-worthy throw rate of 5.1 percent in 2024 after sitting at 3.0 percent last year.

The special teams units, coordinated by Jeff Banks, deservedly considered one of the best in the country at his job, haven’t performed well, slotting at 116th nationally in SP+. Covering kickoffs and punts, Texas has been good, a baseline expectation given the available depth of talent, but place kicker Bert Auburn is just 3-of-6 from beyond 40 yards, Banks is getting mediocre punting from freshman Michael Kern, who has dealt with an injury over recent weeks, and sophomore walk-on Ian Ratcliff, special teams have been plagued by 10 penalties, mostly committed by the return units, punt returner Silas Bolden muffed a punt near the Texas goal line, and the Longhorns haven’t come up with a blocked punt yet this year.

Especially in the loss to Georgia, the inability to play complementary football across all three units was noticeable — the offense turned the ball over in its own territory and couldn’t produce any points after an early interception at the Georgia 42-yard line, special teams were unable to contribute to positive field position, and even the defense, which generally performed well until the clinching touchdown drive by the Bulldogs in the fourth quarter, lost field position in the first quarter on an interception by Longhorns senior cornerback Jahdae Barron that came in the defensive red zone, but did at least save some points.

The only time the Texas offense did convert a turnover into points, a category the Horns lost 17-7 to the Bulldogs, it took a huge complement from the defense on the 36-yard interception return by Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron to the Georgia 9-yard line that was initially ruled defensive pass-interference, sparking the debris-throwing incident in the student section that produced a large fine for the school because of the four-minute delay during which the officials ultimately decided to pick up the flag.

Against Vanderbilt, Texas had forced a fumble and intercepted a pass, but ultimately lost the points-off-turnovers battle 14-0 when the Commodores converted both tipped-pass interceptions into touchdowns and the Longhorns were unable to turn a fumble recovery at the Texas 42-yard line into points thanks to a third-down sack that pushed them out of field-goal range after an interception by redshirt junior Michael Taaffe early in the second quarter resulted in a possession that stalled thanks to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on junior right tackle Cam Williams and a holding penalty on junior left tackle Kelvin Banks. That drive also ended in a sack that caused a punt instead of a field-goal attempt.

Self-inflicted mistakes hurt the Horns, too, mostly in terms of penalties and their outsized impact on the game, a category that includes a negated interception return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter due to a targeting penalty on Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia after the throw.

Sarkisian’s post-game press conference after the 49-17 win over Florida, though? It sounded like 2023 vintage Sark.

“I think first of all, for our players and our team, this was probably our most complete game as a football team,” Sarkisian said in the wake of Saturday’s 49-17 win over Florida at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

“At the end, it gets a little sideways, but just the way we played in all three phases, the fact that we played really well from a complementary football standpoint, that was something that we really challenged the players on that we’re good in all three phases, but we’re at our best when all three phases play well together, and I thought that showed up tonight for today.”

Against the Gators, Horns still committed eight penalties, costing the team 40 yards, and also gave up 17 points to Florida after halftime as the Gators ran for, but the penalties didn’t derail possessions and everything that went sideways only mattered to the final margin and whatever burgeoning concerns there might be about the leaky run game as the Horns rotated heavily across the defense.

More importantly, Texas was more opportunistic in a critical portion of the game — right before halftime.

The Longhorns defense started by flipped 17 yards of field position in two plays when senior defensive tackle Alfred Collins drew a holding penalty and junior nickel back Jaylon Guilbeau hit home on a nicely-called blitz by defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski for seven-yard loss that punched Florida out of field-goal range just after the two-minute warning.

In the spirit of complementary football, the offense responded when Blue finally looked healthy again in ripping off a 45-yard gain on a swing pass delivered on time and in stride by Ewers to blow up a poor angle by the defender in coverage before the speedy Texas running back made a defender miss in space to take the sideline behind a heads-up blocking effort by junior wide receiver Isaiah Bond that was initially flagged and then picked up, and rightly so.

After Ewers misfired on a wheel route by Blue, Sarkisian dialed up a motion by senior tight end Gunnar Helm that forced Florida to adjust their zone defense and freed up junior wide receiver Matthew Golden on a slot fade as Helm ran a post — a classic switch route concept that the Florida cornerback didn’t adjust to quite fast enough — that featured the Houston transfer showing off remarkable body control to flip his hips and secure the 32-yard touchdown reception with strong hands.

The defensive side of the complementary football came from a youthful source when freshman linebacker Ty’Anthony Smith came up with his first career interception on Florida’s ensuing second play from scrimmage, giving the ball back to the Texas offense at the 50-yard line with 58 seconds remaining before halftime.

In a rhythm since scoring the game’s first touchdown about 10 minutes into the second quarter, the Longhorns offense maintained it as Ewers hit senior wide receiver Silas Bolden on a crossing route and Bolden made several defenders miss for a 20-yard gain, Blue got open over the middle for 20 yards after sophomore wide receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. bobbled a touchdown catch, and the junior running back ended the drive with a five-yard touchdown run as Texas took a 35-0 lead.

“We got three turnovers on defense — we turned all three turnovers into touchdowns. We got 21 points off of that,” Sarkisian noted.

Texas also recovered its explosiveness on offense with Blue and Bond both back to full health coming out of the bye week, producing 12 plays of 20 or more yards and explosive plays (passes of 15-plus yards and runs of 10-yards). Four plays went for 40 or more yards, 26.6 percent of the current season total. On a simple per-play basis, the Horns averaged 8.8 yards per play, the second-best mark of the season after averaging 9.2 yards per play against the Roadrunners.

“I think the explosiveness of the offense showed back up today,” Sarkisian said.

First-down success played a big role in the strong offensive showing by Texas — as Sarkisian likes to point out, third-down success is often dependent on first-down and second-down success, especially first-down success. Against the Gators, the Longhorns averaged 8.9 yards per play on first down, rushing for 9.7 yards per carry and going 11-of-16 passing for 130 yards, 8.1 yards per attempt.

“We’re at our best as an offensive football team when we’re really good on first and second down and I thought that showed up tonight,” Sarkisian said.

Texas also received contributions from a number of different players — six different plays scored touchdowns for the Horns, Sarkisian praised the play of Collins, whose deflection on a pass contributed to the interception by senior safety Andrew Mukuba, and junior edge Trey Moore had his best statistical performance at Texas, recording tackles for loss on consecutive plays, his first full tackles for loss this season, and narrowly missed recording his first sack when Warner was able to just get across the line of scrimmage on the play. In addition, Black finished with six tackles (four solo), third on the team, and Smith finished with five tackles (two solo), fourth on the team, and his interception.

For the Longhorns to close well down the stretch and reach the team’s goal, continuing to play complementary football is paramount.