Kenny Dillingham takes blame for Texas' game-tying touchdown in overtime

The Arizona State Sun Devils had the Texas Longhorns on the ropes in the Peach Bowl, looking to pull off an upset and advance in the College Football Playoff. However, that’s when head coach Kenny Dillingham saw his team give up a 4th and 13 in overtime for a touchdown.

That fourth-down conversion by Texas for a score ended up tying the game in overtime and forcing a second. There, the Longhorns had taken momentum back and were able to quickly score again and, ultimately, win the game.

Get your team’s official College Football Playoff watch from AXIA by CLICKING HERE: “Watches that tell so much more than time”

In hindsight, there are plenty of decisions both coaches will regret. However, for the 4th and 13 overtime touchdown, Dillingham made sure to shoulder the blame for Arizona State.

“To be honest, it’s all on me,” Dillingham said. “We’re in a Cover 0 look. Late in the play clock [Quinn] Ewers did a phenomenal job checking out, recognizing the Cover 0 look, checking into a max pro, and I didn’t have the ability to get out of it. That’s on me. We left our guys iso’d in Cover 0 into a max pro there. I’ve gotta go into a game with the ability to get out of that call.”

Cover 0 refers to a defense where there isn’t help over the top. Arizona State was bringing pressure on the play to pressure Ewers, but when that pressure didn’t get home, thanks to the max protection, it just took one coverage bust for Texas to score an easy touchdown.

In a college overtime period, you get one timeout per overtime period. Dillingham had already used Arizona State’s, meaning he couldn’t stop the play from happening.

“Like I said, there’s a lot of things that I’ve got to do better to help our guys to win the football game,” Dillingham said. “That’s one of the many things that as I reflect, I’ve got to be better because our guys played good enough to win. Our guys battled good enough to win and this game is 100% on me.”

With that play, Texas snagged momentum and would go on to win the game in the second overtime period. With that, the Longhorns won the Peach Bowl and advanced in the Playoff. Meanwhile, Arizona State was left to look on and figure out how to get back to this point next season.