College football week 7 overreactions: Big changes needed at Texas with former No. 1 Longhorns in freefall — SkimNews
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- Texas Longhorns lost 27-24 to unranked Florida after leading 17-3, becoming the first top-10 team since 2003 to blow double-digit leads to unranked opponents in consecutive games and dropping to 4-2.
- Steve Sarkisian's play-calling has produced 3.66 yards per carry (117th nationally) and the SEC's worst three-and-out rate at nearly 29 percent; postgame he said: "We're going to evaluate everything from an offensive perspective. Part of that is play-calling."
- Arch Manning has regressed to the point one SEC head coach told CBS Sports "you don't know what you're going to get, whether it's good Arch or Dazed and Confused Arch," with the QB looking closer to being benched than a No. 1 overall pick.
- Texas's College Football Playoff odds fell to 43 percent per CBS Sports projections, with remaining games against No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 16 Mississippi State, at No. 13 Missouri and at No. 22 LSU.
- Sarkisian's $50 million buyout gives AD Chris Del Conte the leverage to demand an overhaul of his offensive staff, including QBs coach A.J. Milwee and offensive line coach Kyle Flood, units that have underwhelmed with five-star talents like Manning and Quinn Ewers.
- Missing the 12-team playoff for a second straight season "would be egregious" given the program's massive roster investment, the column argues, after disappointing 2024 and 2025 campaigns.
Why it matters: Sarkisian now faces four ranked opponents with shrinking margin (43% playoff odds) and a visibly impatient athletic director who has already issued strongly worded public statements this season. Texas's $50M buyout makes wholesale staff changes — and arguably a head-coaching change — financially feasible for Del Conte, meaning the next month will determine whether the sport's most expensive roster gets a reboot or a reckoning.
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