A Season to Remember but a game to forget: Texas falls to Florida

Fourth and Short: No. 7 Texas falls 27-24 to Florida, and the fix is in the inches

“Our inability to be effective on first down and also our inability to convert in short yard situations, third and short, fourth and short, really was the snapshot of it all,” Steve Sarkisian said.

The numbers back him up. Texas went 2-of-10 on third down and 1-of-3 on fourth. Two of those fourth-down stops turned into Florida touchdown drives.

That’s the game in one sentence. But it isn’t the whole afternoon. For one quarter in front of 103,989 on a perfect football day at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium, the Longhorns looked every bit like the No. 7 team in the country.

The opening script was sharp. Seven plays, 75 yards.

The first quarter Texas wanted

Arch Manning hit Ryan Wingo to move the chains. Then Raleek Brown broke loose for a 32-yard touchdown, his longest run since an 88-yarder at Colorado last November.

It was the first opening-drive touchdown Florida had allowed all season. For Texas, it’s becoming a habit: nine scores on opening drives in the last 12 games.

The next possession went 60 yards and ended with Gianni Spetic’s 38-yard field goal. He’s now 9-for-9 inside 50 yards this season. Texas led 10-0, and the defense had Florida backpedaling.

Then Ryan Niblett did what Ryan Niblett does.

Florida punted early in the second quarter. Niblett fielded it at his own 37 and took it 63 yards to the end zone. 17-3.

It was his third career punt-return touchdown, tying the program record. The last Longhorn to get there was Jordan Shipley. It was also Niblett’s first at home; the other two came at Mississippi State and in Dallas against Oklahoma.

Niblett in post game while holding his baby daughter said, “I feel blessed to be here.”

Where the inches went

Late in the first half, Texas was driving with a chance to make it a three-score game. Manning appeared to hit Jermaine Bishop Jr. for a first down, but replay review spotted him short.

On fourth-and-short, Hollywood Smothers went up the middle. Ty Jackson met him there.

Florida took over on the short field and went 49 yards in nine plays. Tramell Jones Jr. hit tight end Lacota Dippre for a 7-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left. 17-10 at the half.

The Gators came out of the locker room and took the third quarter for themselves. A 15-play, 69-yard drive ate 8:03 and ended with Dippre’s second touchdown, from 8 yards. Florida held the ball for 11:36 of the quarter. Texas had it for 3:17.

Patrick Durkin’s 28-yard field goal gave Florida its first lead, 20-17, with 10:40 left.

Texas answered with a Manning-to-Wingo first down. But a sack by Lagonza Hayward and Ben Hanks III set up another fourth-and-short, and Brendan Bett stopped Manning’s keeper. Florida needed six plays to cover 45 yards, and Jadan Baugh finished it with an 11-yard run.

27-17. Two fourth-down stops, 14 points.

The answer

What happened next is the part worth remembering.

Manning was sacked on the first snap of the drive. Three plays later, he stood in and threw deep down the left side. Emmett Mosley V ran under it for 62 yards, tying the longest catch of his career. It was Texas’ longest offensive play of the season.

Two snaps later, Manning found Coleman over the middle for the touchdown. It was Coleman’s sixth TD catch of the year and his second straight game with one.

75 yards, 2:01. 27-24 with 4:21 left.

The defense held up its end. Florida fumbled a snap, Lance Jackson stopped Baugh for no gain and the Gators punted. Niblett brought it back 17 yards to give Texas one more look.

On second down, Myles Graham got to Manning and knocked the ball loose. Kanye Clark recovered, and Florida ran out the clock.

The trenches tell it

Florida finished with five sacks for 29 yards and 11 tackles for loss. Graham, Jackson, Bett, Hayward and LJ McCray all won snaps that mattered.

That pressure, plus the short-yardage stops, gave Florida 81 plays to Texas’ 50. Baugh carried 25 times for 91 yards. Jones completed 22 of 35 for 155 yards and two scores, and ran for 41 more.

The Texas defense never stopped swinging. Colin Simmons had eight tackles, a sack and four tackles for loss. He now has 31.5 career sacks, third-most in program history, and a sack in five straight games. Over his last three games, he has 12.5 tackles for loss.

Linebacker Justin Cryer led Texas with 11 tackles and a pass breakup.

And Manning was efficient when he had time: 14-of-20, 173 yards, 8.7 yards per attempt, no interceptions.

Be careful what you wish for

After a loss like this, the message boards get loud. Three demands come up every time: fire Sarkisian, bench Manning, blow up the offensive line.

The frustration comes from a good place. Texas fans want championships. So let’s take each wish seriously and play it forward.

Fire Sarkisian.

Remember the years before him. Coaching changes, rebuilds, “Texas is back” said with a question mark. Sarkisian took over a program searching for an identity and delivered a Big 12 title and back-to-back College Football Playoff semifinal trips after the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

A change resets everything. Staffs scatter. Commits start answering other phone calls. The transfer portal, which brought Coleman and Rasheem Biles to Austin, becomes an exit instead of an entrance.

And listen to what he said Saturday. No excuses, no deflection: “We got a better team than … we are right now, and it’s my job to figure out to get us to play closer to and then ultimately to our potential.”

That’s a coach owning the fix.

Bench Arch.

The numbers don’t make that case. Manning completed 70% of his passes, averaged 8.7 yards per attempt and didn’t throw an interception. Down 10 in the fourth, on a drive that started with a sack, he threw the deep ball that kept Texas alive.

Behind him are MJ Morris, a senior transfer from Coastal Carolina, redshirt freshman KJ Lacey Jr. and true freshman Dia Bell. All have bright futures. None has Manning’s experience running this offense in SEC play. Benching him wouldn’t change the short-yardage math. It would just put a less experienced player behind it.

Replace the offensive line.

You can’t. Not in October. There’s no free agency in college football, and the portal doesn’t open midseason.

What Texas has is talent still coming together. Trevor Goosby was a first-team All-SEC pick last year. Brandon Baker arrived as one of the top tackle recruits in the country. Captain Connor Robertson, Dylan Sikorski and Melvin Siani round out the starting five. Lines are built over years of reps together, not swapped after one afternoon.

The fix is coaching, scheme and time. Those are exactly the three things the first two wishes would take away.

The road ahead

One loss in October doesn’t end a season. It sharpens one.

Texas still has Manning, Niblett, Wingo and Coleman. It still has Simmons coming off the edge. And it has a head coach who walked into the postgame room and named the problem in one sentence.

The inches are fixable. Next up Ole Miss.