"You don't beat Ohio State without your fastball": CFB insider snaps Steve Sarkisian back to reality after pointing out Quinn Ewers' restrictions 

With the way Ohio State looks heading into Friday's Cotton Bowl, a lot is being made about how difficult it will be for Steve Sarkisian to figure the Buckeyes out. He's tasked with strategizing just how Texas can upset the frightening crew from Columbus.

On3's J.D. Pickell has an idea as to how Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns can gain some traction on offense. He believes Texas must find a way to run to get its ground game rolling.

"That's who they are," Pickell said. "That's who they wanna be. Now, Quinn Ewers is Quinn Ewers, and I think they still would like to push the ball vertical to some extent. But, you have to run the football. That is your fastball. You don't beat Ohio State without your fastball. Period, mic drop, the end."

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The run game, Pickell added, would ideally set up more manageable down-and-distances for Steve Sarkisian and Ewers, the Longhorns' passer, to work with.

"He's had, it's funny to say, struggles because of the way he looked against Arizona State, in terms of like his overall stat line," Pickell said. "But anybody who watched that game [realized] it was very stick shifty offensively. It was very stop-and-go. You start out hot if you're Quinn Ewers, kind of walk through the rest of the game blindfolded, get to overtime, do what you've got to do on 4th-and-13, and get it done."

What is Steve Sarkisian up against?

Pickell likened Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles to a mad scientist. He believes that an effective turf-based approach would help the Longhorns keep Knowles from getting creative with his play calling.

"Quinn Ewers has got to see the total picture for Texas to win," Pickell said. "If they're living in 3rd-and-passing, I mean, Jim Knowles gets to cook up whatever he wants. I don't have a ton of faith in a situation that totally favors Ohio State from a down-and-distance perspective that Quinn Ewers will see it at the level he needs to see it at in order to win this football game."

Knowles' unit made life hard on Oregon's Dillon Gabriel in the Rose Bowl, as ESPN's broadcast team pointed out on multiple occasions. Keep in mind, Gabriel is about as experienced as a college signal-caller comes, and he couldn't decipher what the Buckeyes' defense was showing him. If Ewers finds himself in a similar situation, things could play out as favorably in this game as they did the last for Ohio State.

As an aside, Ewers was ironically once a Buckeye. He transferred out of Columbus after one season with very limited playing time, joining Steve Sarkisian in Austin. A lot of the guys Ewers will be up against are ones that he joined the Ohio State program with.