“He failed his team”: Steve Sarkisian faces fans' wrath for not giving Arch Manning a chance over Quinn Ewers during Cotton Bowl loss

As the Texas Longhorns fell short in the semifinal of the College Football Playoff, Steve Sarkisian was a popular target for fans to pile on. The Texas head coach was heavily criticized for sticking with Quinn Ewers over Arch Manning at quarterback.

The Longhorns lost 28-14 to the Ohio State Buckeyes, who will now face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish for the national championship on Jan. 20.

Despite the fans' outrage, Sarkisian stuck with Ewers during the entire season, and the quarterback delivered taking the Longhorns to the doorstep of the championship game. However, some fans believe the team could have done better.

“Steve Sarkisian not having a package for Arch Manning blows my f***ing mind. Terrible. He failed his team.” A fan said.

"Arch Manning should’ve been the starter for Texas at the Ohio State game.," another fan added.

A couple of fans were confused as to why Sark didn't turn to Manning during a crucial play.

"They had used him all season on short yardage downs and on the 1 yd line he doesn’t bring him in at all?! What a way to lose this game!", a fan questioned.

"Instead of putting Arch Manning in the game on 1st and goal at the 1 and guaranteeing a score, Steve Sarkisian chose to have the worst play calling series I have ever seen in my life. That 2nd and goal call will live in infamy with #HookEm fans," one fan said.

But Steve Sarkisian wasn’t only panned for not playing Arch Manning. To a lot of fans, his playcalling at the goal line with the game on the line in the fourth quarter may have been worse.

“Steve Sarkisian's play-calling at the goal line was horrendous.,” a fan posted.

"Steve Sarkisian needs to never call a play again after that toss on 2nd and 1. The worst play call I have ever seen", a fan posted.

Steve Sarkisian explains sweep call at the end of the game

After the loss to Ohio State, “Sark” was questioned about his playcalling at the goal line. The head coach explained what the process was once they got into the scoring situation.

"Yeah really, the first two plays, we threw the ball into the end zone, we got back-to-back PIs. When we got down to the one, we went to a heavy package, which is Jerrick's package. We ran it, and we obviously didn't get much movement at all.

"And we had a plan to try to get the ball on the edge when we got down there. They went to big people. I can't quite tell — It was on the far side of where it got leaky. But that's one of those plays, if you block it all right, you get in the end zone, and we didn't, and we lose quite a bit of yardage,” Steve Sarkisian explained.

After the loss of seven yards on second down, Jack Sawyer pressured Ewers on third down, forcing an incompletion. On fourth down, Sawyer took the ball away from the Texas quarterback and ran it back for a score.

Perhaps Sarkisian’s explanation cleared up the playcalling process. Even so, Texas fans will be left to wonder what could have been.