Florida puts No. 7 Texas' CFP hopes in peril with upset in Austin — SkimNews
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- Florida upset No. 7 Texas 27-24 at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium behind Tramell Jones Jr., who went 22-of-35 for 155 yards and two touchdowns in his first career start.
- Arch Manning was sacked five times, finished with 173 passing yards and one touchdown, and lost a fumble on a sack with 1:58 left that Kanye Clark recovered to seal the Florida win.
- Texas ran just 50 offensive plays — the fewest since Steve Sarkisian arrived as head coach — and the loss ended a 22-game home winning streak against unranked opponents.
- According to ESPN Research, Texas became just the third team in AP Poll history (since 1936) to be ranked No. 1 and then lose consecutive games to unranked opponents, and it was their largest blown home lead vs. an unranked team since 1965 (vs. Rice).
- Sarkisian said 'everything is up for consideration,' explicitly including his own play-calling and the possibility of a quarterback change: 'It would be easy for me to say, Hey, Arch was the problem today. Was Arch perfect? No. But nobody was perfect on offense today.'
- Colin Simmons recorded eight tackles, four for loss, and a sack but suffered a lower-leg injury in the third quarter and did not return, with Sarkisian saying he did not yet know the severity.
- Manning now has three fourth-quarter turnovers this season — the most in the SEC — while Florida had entered the game having lost 45 straight games when trailing by at least a touchdown at halftime against a top-25 opponent.
Why it matters: Texas, which began the season at No. 1 and is now just the third AP No. 1 since 1936 to drop consecutive games to unranked opponents, has its College Football Playoff hopes severely damaged and faces a coaching staff review of play-calling, quarterback usage, and Sarkisian's own role — all while awaiting the severity of a lower-leg injury to star edge rusher Colin Simmons.
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