When Arizona State takes the field on Wednesday to face the third-ranked Longhorns in the Peach Bowl, they'll be facing a daunting task. Only the Georgia Bulldogs, national champions in two of the past three seasons, have managed to beat Texas.
Their offense, led by quarterback Quinn Ewers but featuring playmakers everywhere, poses one of the biggest challenges for defensive coordinator Brian Ward and this scrappy Sun Devil defense. The chess match between Ward and Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, who calls the offensive plays, will be one to watch.
The Longhorns caught the football world by surprise when they hired Sarkisian, just a few hours after dismissing Tom Herman. They had just gone 7-3 and Herman was 32-18 in four seasons with the Longhorns, taking them to four straight winning seasons for the first time in eight years.
Meanwhile, Sarkisian had just finished his second season as the offensive coordinator at Alabama, leading them to a national championship. Prior to that, Sarkisian had been the Falcons offensive coordinator, a job he got after working as an analyst at Alabama in 2016.
That stint marked the start of a new chapter for Sarkisian, and a much-needed one. A quarterback guru who came up under Pete Carroll at USC, Sarkisian turned a successful stint as the Washington Huskies head coach into his dream job, leading the Trojans. But a scandal involving the revelation of his deep-rooted alcoholism seemingly destroyed his career.
The coach deserves all the credit in the world for where he is now, though. Sarkisian went through rehab, spent time working on himself, and then got into coaching at a low level of responsibility learning from the legend himself, Nick Saban. Every step of the way, he's proven himself as a model citizen and a brilliant football coach. Now, back in the saddle as a head coach, he's got Texas in the quarterfinals of the first ever 12-team College Football Playoff.
There are many reasons for Sarkisian's meteoric rise, but his acumen as a play caller is a big part of it. Sarkisian was always an offensive wunderkind, with much of his offensive philosophy being forged under longtime USC coach Norm Chow. But when Sarkisian ran the Falcons offense, filling the shoes of Kyle Shanahan, he got a crash course in the tenets of what is now the most popular scheme in the NFL, which he has now fully integrated into his own offense.
At its base, Sarkisian's scheme is built around the spread RPO. By spreading defenses out horizontally with formations, the offense can then identify specific areas and target them with the run-pass option, putting defenders into conflict one way or the other.
The two biggest things Sarkisian added into his offense after his time in the NFL relates to his run game and play action game. Philosophically, these aspects are one in the same, as Sarkisian has married his pass game to the run game. What that means is every play action pass looks the same as a run play, and Sarkisian has an expansive list of run schemes he can utilize to build a wide range of play action plays off of it.
The most devious innovation that Sarkisian, a bit of a mad scientist, has drawn up at Texas has been tweaking his play action sets at the mesh point to more closely resemble RPO's. Often times, you'll see the quarterback pump fake an RPO throw and then hit a receiver over the top of the defense. It's a way of tricking defenses into thinking the quarterback is pulling for a quick RPO hitter but in reality they're throwing a deep play action shot with a creative double move.
Some of this stuff is just innovative play calling from Sarkisian, who may be the best offensive play caller in college football right now. Another part of it is just the fact that Texas has the talent to make these plays work.
His offensive coordinator, Kyle Flood, is also the offensive line coach. A former head coach at Rutgers, Flood has followed Sarkisian everywhere since his days in Atlanta. When the two came to Texas, one of the first priorities was to beef up their offensive line. In the four years since, Texas has seen two offensive linemen get drafted and are likely going to have a couple more this year.
Having one of the best lines in the FBS helps, but Texas also possesses elite speed on the boundary. Xavier Worthy graduated after last season and then went on to reset the record for fastest 40-yard dash in NFL Combine history. They have five different players with 400+ receiving yards on the year, including tight end Gunnar Helm, who is second on the team with 688 yards.
The diverse running game features a strong tandem of Tre Wisner and Jaydon Blue, who have combined for 1,683 rushing yards. Each has at least 700 rushing yards and five touchdowns, while Jerrick Gibson has served well as a change-of-pace back, tallying 377 rushing yards on just 77 carries.
Then there's Ewers, a former 5-star quarterback who's played great football all year despite having Arch Manning peeking over his shoulder. Texas has used Manning too, mostly as a running threat, which may be a first for the Manning family. But Ewers is the one who runs the show, despite having missed some time with injuries. His quick processing and ability to play within the structure of Sarkisian's offense has made him the ideal player for the Longhorns.
Fundamentally, this offense is built around putting the defense in conflict and giving them zero answers to what Sarkisian throws at them. The closest thing Ward and the Sun Devils have seen to this kind of scheme would probably be Iowa State, though the Cyclones don't have anywhere near the talent level that Texas does.
This figures to be the best offense Arizona State has faced all season long. They've been a scrappy defense that makes plays when they need it most, but Texas doesn't leave much room for error for their opponent. It will take a near-perfect game from the Sun Devil defense on Wednesday to pull this off.