The phrase “road trip” evokes so many fond childhood memories. Our parents willingly risked our lives and allowed us to sit in the back of a station wagon, and we never complained about being tossed around like popcorn kernels in a Jiffy Pop. We had “Punch Buggy,” which meant the moment someone spotted a Volkswagen Beetle, you had the right to channel your inner Muhammad Ali and punch a friend or sibling in the arm, and our parents just laughed like it was quality family entertainment. We spent hours looking for out-of-state license plates like The Hardy Boys chasing down a lead. There was “I spy with my little eye …” which usually ended with siblings arguing over whether a tree counted as “something green.” Meanwhile, our parents were wrestling with a road map the size of a bed sheet, unfolding it like some sort of pirate treasure chart to get us to a hotel where you checked in at a tiny front desk, received an actual room key, and parked right in front of your door. If the hotel had a pool, it wasn’t just a perk – it was like hitting the lottery jackpot with bonus numbers.
We are 12 days from taking a road trip to Columbus, Ohio. It is time for us to discover The Scioto Mile. Let us see if the Thurman Café and Schmidt’s Sausage Haus live up to their reputations. There are so many things to do before we get to The Shoe, 13 days from now. We need a tour guide and recommendations to fully experience Columbus. Surely, former Ohio State assistant coach Zach Smith is not tweeting about Tom Herman anymore and could help us out.
Many of us will start packing for that trip in less than two weeks. The majority of us will fly into Columbus instead of taking a trip down memory lane and driving there. We will make all the essential items for that trip. Some of you are in the process of figuring out what you will wear to the game, or you have already ordered new Longhorn gear. I have never been to The Shoe, and I am looking forward to visiting another historic college football stadium.
There is one thing we know Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian will bring with him.
One of the best defenses in the country.
“As you all know, man, we go on the road, you’ve got to pack your defense and pack your run game, and then whatever happens after that, hopefully we got a shot,” Sarkisian said.
Ohio State is currently a 2.5 favorite against Texas, according to BetMGM.
We know Texas has a shot because of this defense.
Texas rolled into Tuscaloosa in 2023 and faced the challenge of playing Alabama. That was Alabama with Nick Saban. This was a Texas team that finished 8-5 the previous year. Many outsiders believed that the game would be a reality check for Texas. Good luck winning against a powerhouse SEC program on the road.
However, Texas’ defense played with their hair on fire throughout the night. Former Longhorn defensive tackles T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy II were matchup nightmares during that game. The Longhorns had two interceptions. Alabama converted only 5-of-14 third-downs. Texas defeated Alabama by double-digits (34-24).
Last season, Texas went on the road to play against Michigan, the defending national champions. And before the haters say this team was not as talented as the dominant Michigan squad the previous year, just remember the Wolverines did defeat Ohio State last year.
Texas dominated the line of scrimmage, forced three turnovers, and dominated during a 31-12 victory.
I asked Sarkisian to expand on the importance of packing a defense in road games.
His answer was nearly as good as his team’s defensive performances:
“I think one thing when you go on the road on defense, winning on first down is really important,” Sarkisian said. “And part of winning on first down is, one, stopping the run, because you want to create second-and-long situations.
“I think the second part of winning on first down is eliminating the explosive pass plays and keeping the ball in front of you. And then the third part is minimizing those advantage throws to the perimeter, whether it’s the bubble screens, the receiver screens, the tunnel screens, and playing that way.
“When you can do that, when you can play second-and-long defensive football, now you’re starting to force the offense’s hand. And then if you can get them to third-and-long, that’s when we can really cut our guys loose. So, I think first down defense is really important for us on the road. That’s what we try to do.
“And we pose a lot of problems that way, because we can play a multitude of defenses. We play a lot of fronts. We’ve got a lot of really good pass rushers, and we’ve got a very savvy secondary that knows how to play with one another. That’s what we try to do.”
Sarkisian shifted to the offense.
“I think naturally, for us offensively, when you’re on the road, one, we’ve got some new faces on the offensive side of the ball,” Sarkisian said. “That goes without saying. Arch [Manning] has a couple starts under his belt, but this is his first start on the road. We’ve got some new faces on the O-line. We’ve got new faces at tight end. We’ve got a couple returners at receiver.
“I think having some poise, having some composure offensively early on is big for us. And as we work our way through that, we’ve got to make sure that we’re sound defensively in doing the things we need to do.
“Hey, I hope we come out and go right down the field and score. If we don’t, we’ve got to play really good defense. We’ve got to play really good on special teams. We’ve got to find the run game while that aspect of the offense finds itself. And shoot, like I said, I hope it happens right away. It might take a minute. We’ll see.”
Why does the offense start slow on the road as opposed to home?
“I don’t know that it happens that way,” Sarkisian said in response to my question. “I feel like we’ve performed actually pretty well on the road as an offensive team.
“But hey, we’ve got new faces. It’s a tough environment. It’s crowd noise. First game of the year with crowd noise. We simulate it as best we can, but real crowd noise – first game jitters, first at-bat. Do you take a pitch or do you come out swinging?
“There’s a mentality that you have to have. What are we calling? And all that will formulate over the next 14 days to try to put ourselves in the best position to have success after the improvements.”
However, we know that if a team has an elite defense, it has a strong chance of winning a national championship.
Here are the total defensive rankings for 10 of the previous college football national championship teams:
2024 – Ohio State (2nd in the nation), 254.6 yards per game
2023 – Michigan State (1st in the nation), 247 yards per game
2022 – Georgia (10th in the nation), 296.7 yards per game
2021 – Georgia (2nd in the nation), 267.9 yards per game
2020 – Alabama (32nd in the nation), 352.2 yards per game
2019 – LSU (31st in the nation), 343.5 yards per game
2018 – Clemson (5th in the nation), 285.9 yards per game
2017 – Alabama (1st in the nation), 260.4 yards per game
2016 – Clemson (8th in the nation), 311.5 yards per game
2015 – Alabama (2nd in the nation), 276.3 yards per game
What happened in 2020 and 2019?
Mac Jones was Alabama’s quarterback in 2020. According to Alabama’s website, Jones “set the NCAA single-season record for completion percentage (77.4) … finished with an NCAA-leading 201.1 passer rating and 96.1 QBR … led all Division I quarterbacks with 4,500 passing yards while averaging 346.2 passing yards per game, good for third nationally.”
Joe Burrow was LSU’s quarterback in 2020.
I am pretty sure you have heard of him.
It is almost time for another road trip.
Who is ready to ride shotgun to Columbus?
Oh yeah, make sure you pack that Longhorn defense.
“You guys have heard me say it time and time again: we’re enamored with us,” Sarkisian said. “We try not to get caught up in the opponent. We try not to get caught up in the environment, the crowd, the weather, whatever it is. We try to be as tight as we can as a team, and we try to lean into one another.
“Sometimes, going on the road, you’ve got fewer people. You can only travel so many. It’s a tighter-knit group, and I think that’s very helpful that way. I think there’s something about the poise and composure that we operate with on the road in the way that we go do it. And there’s something about when everybody’s against you, there’s something about in our the pride and the way that we need to stand up and handle our business.
“I don’t know that there’s some secret sauce. We’re a routine operation. As much as some of us want to change our routine on the road, we’ve stuck with it way back in the day when we weren’t a great road team. Over time, guys found the routine of what we did and why we did what we did, and we started to change the narrative of who we were as a road team.
“Now we’ve built confidence through that, and the guys knowing, ‘Hey man, when we do X, Y, and Z and we do it the right way, we’re going to put ourselves in position to have some success.’ Ultimately, you have to perform, you have to play with the right sense of physicality, execute at a high level, and make plays at critical moments when they’re needed. But you have to put yourself in a position to do those things.
“I think the routine in which we go about it allows us to put ourselves in that position. And we’ve been fortunate enough that our players have responded at critical moments on the road when we needed.”
