Texas football has two wins in SEC play after Saturday's 34-27 triumph over Ole Miss. Both victories were nearly fumbled away thanks to a recurring headache for Steve Sarkisian's squad.
The Longhorns secured their latest victory on the final play of regulation at Royal-Memorial Stadium, a Hail Mary attempt from Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss intercepted by Longhorns defensive back Jelani McDonald. The heart-stopping heave ended in a clutch play from Texas' defense. It followed another frustrating gaffe for Texas' special teams unit, in which the Longhorns allowed Ole Miss to recover an onside kick with 1:15 remaining.
OLE MISS RECOVERS THE ONSIDE KICK FROM TEXAS OMG 🤯 https://t.co/093ft8L0w9
- ESPN (@espn) October 25, 2026
Have déjà vu, Texas fans? Your memory doesn't deceive you. The Longhorns' 20-17 win at Tennessee last month ended on a Hail Mary pass from Volunteers quarterback Faizon Brandon that landed incomplete. That incompletion came four plays after a Tennessee onside kick attempt, which was then recovered by the Volunteers.
OLE MISS RECOVERS THE ONSIDE KICK FROM TEXAS OMG 🤯 https://t.co/093ft8L0w9
- ESPN (@espn) October 25, 2026
Were Texas' pair of late-game gaffes unfortunate miscues, or is there a larger issue at play? We checked the film to find out.
Breaking down Texas onside kick struggles
Texas' struggles on offense or defense need a close examination to properly diagnose. That's not the case with Texas' onside kick failures.
See the pair of images below. Texas is in proper position to recover both onside kicks against Ole Miss and Tennessee, with a wide receiver ready to receive the ball without an opponent within three yards. The same error then befell Texas twice.
Wide receiver Ryan Wingo attempted to field the onside kick at Tennessee, but a skipping football flew under his arms, hit him in the chest and sprayed behind him toward midfield. Fellow wideout Emmett Mosley V was the designated onside-kick receiver against Ole Miss, but the ball hit him in the chest after a third hop before shooting into the air.
Both plays ended in clear recoveries for Texas opponents. Both created frantic finishes in what should have been tidy wins.
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said postgame Saturday he had no problem with the design of Texas' onside-kick recovery. The issue came from the Longhorns' poor execution.
"I don't know if there's, like, [a] fix special teams," Sarkisian said. "We didn't field the ball on an onside kick. It wasn't like they had a free runner and they just got the ball, but we dropped it twice and they got it. That's human error."
Glaring gaffes
Texas' coaches can chalk the pair of botched onside kicks to human error. But those two plays aren't isolated incidents for Texas' special-terms unit, an increasingly criticized group under special teams coordinator Jeff Banks.
Texas allowed a blocked punt that resulted in an Oklahoma touchdown in this year's Red River Rivalry loss to the Sooners. Florida generated 105 kick-return yards in a win in Austin the next week, and the Longhorns paired Saturday's onside-kick error with two personal-foul penalties on special-teams plays from freshman linebacker Kosi Okpala.
The Longhorns sport one of college football's most expensive rosters. Banks is reportedly the sport's most expensive offensive coordinator with a $1.2 million annual salary. His unit isn't living up to the billing through four SEC games, hindering a Texas team clinging to its College Football Playoff hopes.
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This article originally published at Texas football film review: Longhorns can't recover an onside kick. Who's to blame?.