Ohio State 28 Texas 14

The long off-season begins.

It was a long, cold walk after that game.

The shuttle bus was a couple blocks on the complete other side of the stadium. I had become detached from those that I went to the game with, but frankly I didn’t mind because one, I knew we were all headed to the same place, and second, I just needed a moment to myself just quietly reflect.

It happened again.

Texas was once again in the red zone at the end of the game. Last year against Washington, it was first down at the 12-yard line with little time left. Score a touchdown and the game is over.

They did not.

This year, it was first-and-goal from the one-yard line.

Score a touchdown and it is tied with minutes to go.

They did not.

Instead, the Longhorns are left with another long off-season wondering what if and what about and what not, while watching another team celebrate.

I encountered a few Ohio State fans on that walk.

I just said to them, “Congratulations, go beat Notre Dame, see you in August.”

There is a saying in parenting, “the days are long, but the weeks are short”.

Texas has 230 days until they play Ohio State again. That seems like an eternity for you and I, but there is a ton of work to be done in those 30+ weeks.

If I had told you in this space last week that Texas would hold Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka to 54 total receiving yards, you would have un-subscribed and called me the biggest Texas homer around.

The defense held the Buckeyes to 4-of-11 on money downs. Take away the 75-yard screen pass for a touchdown right before half (and believe me, I have tried unsuccessfully to purge it from my brain ever since), and Will Howard threw for a very pedestrian 214 yards at 6.7 yards per attempt and zero touchdowns.

Of course, you can’t take it away. It happened. And it was devastating.

That defense loses a ton this off-season, from Vernon Broughton and Alfred Collins to Jahdae Barron and Andrew Mukuba and perhaps Michael Taaffe, but there is a ton coming back and I’m confident that this coaching staff will plug the holes well enough to make this a top unit in the country once again.

In this space several weeks ago, I wrote how handicapped this offense was this season. Our wide receiver room was a downgrade from last season. The pre-season injuries to C.J. Baxter and Christian Clark took away guys that would have combined for a couple hundred carries. The tight end room wasn’t as deep as it was last season.

This offensive line was the biggest disappointment of the season for me. A veteran unit that has been playing together for multiple seasons with multiple first-round draft picks on it had numerous inexplicable stretches of just bad football and bad penalties. The same unit that manhandled a Michigan line that is one of the best in the nation looked very ordinary against an Arizona State line that doesn’t even have one of the best in the depleted Big 12.

Quinn Ewers had an up and down year. I’m thinking he was more injured than he let on and probably came back from injury too soon. Hell, he should probably still be out for all we know. This year was a step back for him, and while the past few paragraphs are a huge reason why, he himself would likely tell you that a season where he entered as a Heisman candidate and likely first-round draft pick and left it with rumors of hitting the transfer portal was not the final season at Texas he had in mind.

These deficiencies were never more apparent than they were Friday night, when I looked out there when Ohio State was on offense with super freshman Jeremiah Smith, first-round draft pick in April’s NFL Draft Emeka Egbuka and former five-star recruit Carnell Tate as the third receiver and NFL draft picks this spring in TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins in the backfield.

Any one of those guys would be at the very top of the depth chart at their position for Texas.

Look at Texas’s two scoring drives:

1st & 10 at TEX 41

(1:49 - 2nd) Quintrevion Wisner run for no gain to the TEX 41

2nd & 10 at TEX 41

(1:15 - 2nd) Quinn Ewers pass incomplete to Quintrevion Wisner

3rd & 10 at TEX 41

(1:11 - 2nd) Quinn Ewers run for 9 yds to the 50 yard line

4th & 1 at 50

(0:49 - 2nd) Arch Manning run for 8 yds to the OSU 42 for a 1ST down

1st & 10 at OSU 42

(0:49 - 2nd) Timeout Texas, clock 00:49

1st & 10 at OSU 42

(0:39 - 2nd) Quinn Ewers pass complete to Silas Bolden for 24 yds to the OSU 18 for a 1ST down

1st & 10 at OSU 18

(0:34 - 2nd) Quinn Ewers pass incomplete to DeAndre Moore Jr.

2nd & 10 at OSU 18

(0:34 - 2nd) Timeout Ohio State, clock 00:34

2nd & 10 at OSU 18

(0:29 - 2nd) Jaydon Blue 18 Yd pass from Quinn Ewers TOUCHDOWN (Will Stone Kick)

And the second one:

1st & 10 at TEX 33

(8:30 - 3rd) Texas Penalty, False Start (Jake Majors) to the TEX 28

1st & 15 at TEX 28

(8:26 - 3rd) Quinn Ewers pass incomplete to Ryan Wingo

2nd & 15 at TEX 28

(8:22 - 3rd) Quintrevion Wisner run for 5 yds to the TEX 33

3rd & 10 at TEX 33

(7:42 - 3rd) Quinn Ewers pass complete to Quintrevion Wisner for 14 yds to the TEX 47 for a 1ST down

1st & 10 at TEX 47

(7:06 - 3rd) Quinn Ewers pass complete to Jaydon Blue for 5 yds to the OSU 48

2nd & 5 at OSU 48

(6:26 - 3rd) Quinn Ewers pass complete to DeAndre Moore Jr. for 2 yds to the OSU 46

3rd & 3 at OSU 46

(5:51 - 3rd) Quintrevion Wisner run for 4 yds to the OSU 42 for a 1ST down

1st & 10 at OSU 42

(5:32 - 3rd) Quintrevion Wisner run for a loss of 2 yards to the OSU 44

2nd & 12 at OSU 44

(4:55 - 3rd) Quinn Ewers pass complete to Quintrevion Wisner for 11 yds to the OSU 33

3rd & 1 at OSU 33

(4:21 - 3rd) Quintrevion Wisner run for 4 yds to the OSU 29 for a 1ST down

1st & 10 at OSU 29

(3:52 - 3rd) Quintrevion Wisner run for 3 yds to the OSU 26

2nd & 7 at OSU 26

(3:19 - 3rd) Quinn Ewers pass incomplete to Quintrevion Wisner

3rd & 7 at OSU 26

(3:12 - 3rd) Jaydon Blue 26 Yd pass from Quinn Ewers TOUCHDOWN (Will Stone Kick)

No catches from Isaiah Bond. No catches from Matthew Golden, who missed a lot of the contest with an ankle injury.

This offense had to GRIND for everything they got on Friday.

And they had to do that for much of the year for one reason or another.

Much like the defense, I trust the coaching staff to fill the holes where needed, but some introspection must be done to figure out the red-zone issues that have plagued this team for two years running.

This is one of those instances where the final score would not be reflective of the game itself, as Texas only had 29 fewer yards than the Buckeyes did. The culture that Steve Sarkisian has installed was apparent, even if it won’t show up in the box score.

It just wasn’t enough on this January day for the second-straight year.

When hanging with friends pre-game that I hadn’t seen in months, were were not reminiscing about the games of lore – there was no talk of Vince Young or Colt McCoy, but of the gamedays.

We had two dear tailgate friends pass away this season and another pass away recently. One would have been too many for a guy only old enough to have Eric Metcalf as my first Texas man crush. Guys who we had traveled with, who we had gotten into sports arguments with, who we celebrated with, who we drowned our sorrows with and with whom we had many memories.

Pre-game we toasted to them and said it was for them. I would give anything to spend another afternoon with any of them with a frosty beverage discussing the best way to attack the Notre Dame defense in 8 days. And I would give anything to spend another afternoon with any of them with a frosty beverage discussing what went wrong about Ohio State.

It was just a reminder that once again, it is about the journey, not the destination.

We were talking about the 2009 Big 12 Championship game and how we were all there with one of our departed friends, how the weather was so similar that day, and how we all knew it was for a shot at the national championship game after the Alabama win over Florida earlier that day.

I made a video photo montage after that season, with the We Are Scientists song “After Hours” the backing track.

It’s a song about friendship and camaraderie, and how we’ve all been there at the end of a night we don’t want to end. It’s a race against time.

The time that Steve Sarkisian has as the head coach of the Longhorns gets shorter by the day, but I have zero doubt that he will deliver a national championship to us.

And when he does, I plan to gather around with family, friends (new and old) and reminisce about the journey to get back on top of the mountain.

And toast our dearly departed friends.