Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian wasted no time playing the underdog card for the Cotton Bowl Classic.
Speaking to reporters on Friday afternoon, Sarkisian talked about Ohio State being favored over Texas in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff. The Longhorns punched their ticket to the Cotton Bowl with a double overtime victory over the Arizona State Sun Devils earlier this week. The Buckeyes, meanwhile, made a statement by dismantling the Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl.
As of now, oddsmakers have Ohio State listed as a one-possession favorite over Texas. Apparently, that’s enough for Sarkisian to claim that “nobody” is picking the Longhorns to advance to the national title game.
“Clearly, we’re massive underdogs. Nobody’s going to give us a shot. So we’re going to need all that we can to try to win this game,” Sarkisian told reporters.
Sarkisian then referred to Ohio State as the “best team in college football.” He thinks it’s imperative that his defense disrupts Will Howard and the rest of the Buckeyes offense.
“We’ve gotta be really good at the line of scrimmage against the run and the pass. Ohio State is similar to us that way. When they have balance, they’re very difficult. Gotta be good against the run. We gotta try to affect him in the pocket, and we need to disrupt timing in the back end,” Sarkisian explained, via 247Sports. “We need to disguise our coverages well. We need to be sticky in coverage. We need to get hands on footballs. We need to make throwing lanes difficult. We need to get our hands up at the line of scrimmage. There’s a lot of factors to that. Not an easy task, I’ll say that, but one that I think is necessary if we want to be successful.”
If Texas is going to take down Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl, quarterback Quinn Ewers has to be great. He started off extremely slow in the Peach Bowl before throwing a pair of clutch touchdown passes in overtime.
Ohio State and Texas will square off on Jan. 10 at AT&T Stadium. ESPN will televise this incredible matchup.
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