Hooked: UT Football through a UK lens.

Oh boy. For all the ESPN College Gameday and Fox Big Noon Kickoff hype, here we are. Disappointment alley. Population: Longhorn Nation. And two much less happy faces than the ones pictured..

Let’s not be hasty, now. Pregame analyst coverage had us losing this game 52% of the time. Sportsbooks had us losing this game yesterday, shifting to winning today. Could have gone either way ahead of the first snap. But, after the first snap, that changed — despite some 4th quarter heroics.

14 -7 the final score in a highly anticipated Cotton Bowl rematch. Longhorns with long-heralded, and finally starting, QB1 Arch Manning. Ohio State with the two best players in college football on either side of the ball in Jeremiah Smith and Caleb Downs. The debate will rage around whether this outcome and resulting disappointment is a failure of expectations, or a failure of the team. My take is a bit of both.

It is so SO easy to get lost in hype cycles. I know I sure as hell did. Arch is a prodigy. The best of his uncles. The best of his grandfather. And, the best of his mother. A beacon of success, before delivering any.

Who’s to blame for the weight of crushing expectation there? We are. The fans and the media for fanning the flames of expectation into an insufferable inferno.

To expect new-QB1 to walk into the fires of Mount Doom, albeit a Shoe in Columbus, OH, and deliver a scintillating victory without fully acknowledging the task ahead is a reality I, and I’m sure many Longhorns fans, found themselves in.

The Buckeyes were ready. The Buckeyes were prepared. Matt Patricia: 3 Superbowl rings, 20 years in the NFL, including a stint at my beloved Philadelphia Eagles. If there’s something Matt Patricia knows, it’s how to bend offences to his defensive will. We saw that today.

What was expected to be a cagey game from the off, was. Two new quarterbacks trying to find their feet and deliver on the biggest of stages. Neither offence popped, arguably until the 4th Quarter. Late in the 4th we finally saw a flash of what Arch Manning can do.

A dime-ball to Livingstone for 6 (which was arguably lucky not to be overturned) was the first. Livingstone will quickly have to build on today’s game to establish himself as a high-value target for Arch going into the rest of the season given what little I saw from Moore and Wingo today. The second flash came in the form of a deep ball caught in stride by Jack Endries, who’s filling the gargantuan boots vacated by Gunnar Helm.

It’s arguably a shame that a matchup like this had to be the first game of the season. Had this been week 5 or 6 we could have seen a real test. Both sides of the ball, for both teams, would have been established and settled. We could have had a real slug-fest, barn-burner, pick your adjective, a real test of what two teams in stride could have done to each other. A more tactical matchup.

Speaking of a tactical matchup, I’m excited to see the development of Longhorns safety, Littleton. The true-freshman made 3 huge plays, and will become a great ally to Taaffe this year if he continues on the trajectory this game has put him on.

The Longhorns offensive gameplan was fine, I think. And probably would have come good had this game been in week 5 when our blocking and designed-run plays had time to mature. Steve Sarkisian appeared to be staunch in his decision to run his designed plays until push came to shove. The pressure ratcheted up to insufferable in the 4th, and we finally saw him break that mould and introduce creativity (specifically the reversal to Wingo) that finally gave those of us in burnt orange something to shout about.

It seems we miss Matthew Golden and Isiah Bond. Arch couldn’t seem to find the passes he was looking for, whether that’s because Moore and co. couldn’t get open down to great secondary defense, or because of poor route-running. It was hard to tell from watching on TV. Arch seemed to have good pocket protection for the most part, but seemed to hold on too long, or fire too quickly.

I’m optimistic. We’ve weathered a hostile environment that was always going to be difficult to overcome, and corrections can be made. We’ll see Ohio again this season I’m sure. But to do so, we cannot afford penalties like the ones we gave up in the opening scoring drive. We cannot rely on Arch’s legs. And we cannot rely on Minister of Culture, Matthew McConaughey, to vibe us there.

It’s time to dig in. It’s time to go to work.

Hook ’em.