Urban Meyer: The checkmate moment in Alabama vs. Texas

A ton of eyes were locked in on the Alabama–Texas in Austin as the game with a double-digit spread wound up in a last-minute game-winning drive. Former DI and NFL head coach Urban Meyer was among the throng taking in the spectacle.

On Urban’s Take with Tim May, Meyer described the drive as one of his “checkmate” moments of the week.

“I lived it up there, I was watching it closely,” Meyer said. “You hear people talking and I’m trying to lock in on this moment because you play 60 minutes of football and here is about a seven or eight-second window that wins or loses the game. It’s a checkmate moment.”

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

Bryce Young drove the Alabama offense down the field and pulled what Steve Sarkisian called a “Houdini act” to get the Tide within safe field goal distance for kicker Will Reichard.

“Texas was on defense, Alabama was driving the ball with the Heisman Trophy, what a great quarterback he is, by the way, 35 seconds left, one timeout, and they get it down to the 37-yard line,” Meyer described. “… At the 37, the defensive coordinator for Texas, I’m sure Sarkisian’s involved, they need to do something. They brought a quarter blitz, beautiful blitz, the guy was clean, no one touched him.

“If he gets hit, he’s back to the 45-yard line… he’s out of field goal range. They burn a timeout and I think the game ends up differently if he makes that tackle. Bryce Young slipped it and scrambled down to the 17-yard line. The coaches at Texas had the right call. What overcomes the right call though? A great player.”

Alabama moves to No. 2 after close win over Texas

Young saved Alabama from taking what would have been a devastating early-season loss. His heroic performance also helped erase the memory of the Crimson Tide’s numerous mistakes and penalties versus the Longhorns.

After games versus ULM and Vanderbilt, Nick Saban’s squad takes on three ranked programs to start October. Although they’ll play Texas A&M in Tuscaloosa, Alabama will once again deal with hostile environments at Arkansas and Tennessee.