Urban Meyer expected Texas to play Arch Manning on goal line try

Urban Meyer was stunned Arch Manning didn’t come in on Texas’ goal line series against Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl.

Down 21-14, Texas was one yard away from the end zone. The pivotal play was a toss on 2nd and Goal from the 1 and it was a massive loss.

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Quarterback Quinn Ewers was stripped on 4th and Goal, giving Ohio State another touchdown via Jack Sawyer. So Meyer was definitely surprised Manning wasn’t in, since he’s been used before in that situation as a running quarterback.

“You got this far to go, it’s bare zero,” Meyer said on The Triple Option. “How do you equate numbers? Rob, see if you remember, how do you equate numbers? There’s only two ways. How do you equate numbers? You run the quarterback is number one. Single wing offense … So I almost thought I was going to see Arch Manning running there like they did on the fourth down call early in the game on time. Where is he? Here he comes. He didn’t come. He didn’t come. So I knew it wasn’t a quarterback because Quinn Ewers isn’t a quarterback runner. And then the other way to do it is some type of option football where he’s not that. I got news. 

“There’s no other way to run the football down there against bare zero. Okay, bear zero. There’s two extra hats. So one is the quarterback. Next snap is called single wing offense, which they did on fourth down. And they didn’t do that. And then the second, you know, the lateral play, which I know Sark and so much respect for him, he’s good. I mean, that’s going to haunt him for a while.”

Arch Manning nowhere to be found on goal line

Steve Sarkisian had to answer questions regarding that play call, which ultimately ended the game. Manning was not seen on the field during that series.

“The first two plays, we threw the ball into the end zone, we got back-to-back PIs,” Sarkisian said. “When we got down to the one, we went to a heavy package, which is Jerrick [Gibson’s] package. We ran it, and we obviously didn’t get much movement at all.

“We had a plan to try to get the ball on the edge when we got down there. They went to big people. I can’t quite tell — it was on the far side of where it got leaky. But that’s one of those plays, if you block it all right, you get in the end zone, and we didn’t, and we lose quite a bit of yardage.

“And at that point, you’re kind of stuck behind the eight ball because we knew we were in four-down territory because of the score of the game.”

Manning will be back next year while Ewers is expected to head to the NFL. With Manning, Texas could very well be a national title contender again.

But this loss to Ohio State, as Meyer alluded to, is going to sting.