As the sun rose over Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, fans hurried into the stadium for an 11 a.m. kickoff, eager to see the Longhorns play football at home for the first time in about a month among gorgeous weather.
They also anticipated that Texas would right its wrongs after the Oklahoma loss, while getting revenge against Florida after the season-wrecking loss last year at The Swamp.
The energy was palpable.
But roughly three hours after kickoff, it didn’t feel like a home game anymore. Texas was down 10 points and found itself pinned up against the wall in the fourth quarter. DKR fell silent, and the small but mighty cluster of fans in blue drowned out the fans in burnt orange.
The impossible seemed possible after Texas senior quarterback Arch Manning threw a touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Cam Coleman to cut the deficit to three points, followed by a Florida three-and-out.
Like last week, inconsistencies and turnovers came back to bite Texas when it mattered most. With two minutes to go, Manning was sacked and fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Florida, washing away any chance of another valiant comeback as the Longhorns fell to the Gators 27-24 in their second-straight loss of the season.
“We played very good football today outside about the first quarter,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We bled out. They ended up controlling the ball in the second half. Our inability to be effective on first down, and also our inability to convert in short yardage situations … really was the snapshot of it all.”
It was a disaster performance from Texas in every sense of the word. Sarkisian has taken pride in how hostile it is for opponents to play within the confines of the stadium walls.
But this time, Texas got bullied in its own house.
It didn’t start that way, as Texas got off to a double digit lead. In fact, the Longhorns scored on its first two drives. But the offense fell back into old patterns, having many opportunities in the first half to put the game out of reach, but failing to capitalize. The Longhorns couldn’t win on first down, completed just four passes beyond five yards and were stopped on nearly every 3rd-and-short or 4th-and-short situations.
It’s a recurring theme with this team — taking the early lead and controlling the game, but lacking the ability to lay down the hammer. It happened with Tennessee, but the Longhorns escaped. It happened with Oklahoma and they lost on a neutral field.
This time, it happened at home against one of the worst defenses in the conference.
The Longhorns let them creep up methodically. It was just a matter of time, as Florida scored on the first drive of the second half and carried that momentum for the rest of the game, even with a backup quarterback. Florida started 0-7 on third down and finished the day converting 8-12 without turning the ball over, compared to Texas’ 2-10.
The defense can’t do all the heavy lifting, especially with an egregious lopsidedness in time of possession, as Florida had the ball 16 more minutes than Texas.
While the Florida fans stayed and celebrated after the final whistle, Texas went back to the locker room to contemplate the season, becoming the first AP Top-10 team since 2003 to blow a double-digit lead in back-to-back weeks against an unranked opponent.
In many ways, it feels like this season is on life support, and the blame is beyond just Manning or Sarkisian — these issues are systemic, especially as Texas is playing far below its talent level.
What is assured is that the Longhorns need a full factory reset heading into next Saturday.
“Men only die when they give up, when they don’t believe no more,” fifth-year defensive tackle Hero Kanu said. “I’m telling you, we still believe. So whatever happened today happened today. We have to move on.”
