Texas' Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Loss To Alabama In 2022 Turned Longhorns Around

NEW ORLEANS - Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has lost 13 games since he became the Longhorns' coach before the 2021 season.

But there is one he and some of his players remember more than the others.

Alabama 20, Texas 19 ... Sept. 10, 2022, in front of 105,213 - the largest crowd in the history of Texas Memorial Stadium that opened in 1924. The 20-point underdog Longhorns led 19-17 with 1:29 to play on a 49-yard field goal by Ben Auburn. Yes, Auburn. It just didn't feel like Alabama's day that day.

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian arrives at Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas, on September 10, 2022, before losing to Alabama, 20-19, in the final moments. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)

The Longhorns even recovered from losing starting quarterback Quinn Ewers to a shoulder injury in the second quarter. In that short span, he shredded Alabama's defense on 9-of-12 passing for 134 yards. Texas led 16-10 in the third quarter, and that could have been 19-10, but Alabama blocked a 20-yard field goal.

Texas Had A Win Over Alabama In 2022 In Its Grasp

Texas outgained the Tide for most of the game. Ewers and backup Hudson Card combined to throw for 292 yards, while Bryce Young threw for just 213 for Alabama. Officials whistled a sluggish Tide team 15 times for 100 yards to just 30 yards in penalties by Texas.

The game was there for Texas. Sarkisian was on the verge of becoming the first pupil of Alabama coach Nick Saban to beat him after more than 20 losses in such affairs.

Alas, as Alabama has been wont to do for decades, it won 20-19 on a 33-yard field goal by Will Reichard with 10 seconds left.

Steve Sarkisian Has Texas Better At Critical Times

"Nobody gave us a chance," Sarkisian cried after the game. "None of you. None of the national media. We didn't lose today. We just ran out of time."

Those last two sentences did not play well in Austin and throughout Texas, and got laughed at heartily throughout Alabama and other Southeastern Conference states. That's not the way a coach about to enter the SEC two years from that point should be talking. He sounded like a Sun Belt coach.

"Looking back, that game turned it around for us," Texas senior linebacker Jaylan Ford of Lone Star High and Frisco, Texas, said Saturday at the College Football Playoff Sugar Bowl Media Day at the Superdome. "We haven't lost games like that since."

Texas, Bama May Meet Again In College Football Playoff Final

No. 3 Texas (12-1) plays No. 2 Washington (13-0) in a national semifinal on Monday (8:45 p.m., ESPN) in the Superdome. The winner advances to the national championship game in Houston on Jan. 8 against the winner of No. 4 Alabama (12-1) and No. 1 Michigan (13-0), which also play Monday (5 p.m., ESPN) in the Rose Bowl.

"We had that game," Jones, a senior offensive tackle from Cypress, Texas, said. "We let it get away."

That did not happen in the rematch as Texas left no doubt at Alabama on Sept. 9 in a 34-24 win. The only game the Longhorns let get away this season was 34-30 to Oklahoma on Oct. 7.

"To play them the way we played them, I think for the players it was an Ah-Ha moment in that everything Coach is talking about, we actually are capable of," Sarkisian said Sunday morning at the Sugar Bowl head coaches' press conference at the Sheraton Hotel.

"Naturally, now, I think there is a level of belief in the fourth quarter of these games," Sarkisian said. "When the games are tight, we believe we can find a way to win, and that we're versatile enough to find a way to win in whatever phase - offense, defense, or special teams - to make that play in that critical moment."

Texas is a field goal or so favorite to do just that.

Texas, Steve Sarkisian Now More Confident At Crunch Time

Sarkisian and his team came away from that point loss to Alabama more than two years ago knowing how close it was getting to flipping the switch.

"I do think there's something to be said for playing those types of games early in the season, because it does give you a sense of a little bit of a bar of where you are at," Sarkisian said. "Where you need to improve, and what another one of the best teams in the country looks like. And how you measured up against them."

Texas lost four of its six games in 2022 that were decided by a touchdown or less in finishing 8-5. This season, the Longhorns are 3-1 in such games.

“That was a whole process of learning how to finish," Sarkisian said. "That took a whole other year to really get that done for us. Now we have to put the final pieces together and finish."