Steve Sarkisian on Texas' injuries: 'I feel good'
Steve Sarkisian isn’t fretting regarding Texas‘ health, as the Longhorns prepare for their final game of the regular season in Week 13.
Texas Tech is on the docket. It’s the final time these teams will meet as members of the Big 12, so there’s sure to be a ton of juice to the clash. Additionally, Texas needs a big win, to keep pace in the College Football Playoff race.
Thankfully, the Longhorns are feeling as healthy as they’ve been over the last couple of weeks, coming off a physical game in Week 12, which is good news for Texas.
“Injury wise, I feel actually pretty good on a Monday, coming out of a physical game Saturday night,” Sarkisian delineated. “We had a variety of guys that kind of went down. I don’t foresee any of those guys being out Friday.
“So obviously we need to monitor that as the week goes, but I do feel confident enough today that we’ll be, we’ll have — everybody that was available Saturday night, will be available Friday. Again, probably a better served question for later in the week, when we really get to practice.”
Evidently, Texas will be at full strength against the Red Raiders. It’s bound to be a phenomenal showdown, and we can’t wait to see how this chapter in the rivalry between the Longhorns and Texas Tech comes to an end.
Texas vs. Texas Tech point spread: Picking Longhorns vs. Red Raiders
Continuing, the primetime Black Friday matchup between the Texas Longhorns hosting the Texas Tech Red Raiders will be a doozy.
A conference showdown with over 70 games in the series, it’s the final one before the 40 Acres officially becomes SEC territory. This one is going to mean a lot to both sides and may be given some extra fuel by Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark.
Texas is fresh off a win against Iowa State although they gave up 323 passing yards to Rocco Becht. Jake Crain, who joined Andy Staples to give his pick for Friday’s game, believes Texas Tech could expose a Longhorn secondary that was poor in Ames.
“Jonothan Brooks has nothing to do with the secondary getting torched by Iowa State,” Crain said. “Make no mistake — Behren Morton, who replaced Tyler Shough — he’s been playing pretty good. They’ve been winning games. Texas Tech can move the ball through the air. The longer Texas lets them hang on in there, the more Tech is going to believe. But I think Texas finds a way to win.
“I’m going to take Tech to cover the 14, though. This kind of feels like a 41-28 type game. I do think Texas might be able to score. But they better not give Tech hope. Joey McGuire, he can get them ready.”
On the other hand, Staples does not have a hard time believing Texas will find a way to win big against Texas Tech. After all, they may need to put up some style points for College Football Playoff reasoning.
“I think Texas covers this one,” Staples said. “I’m worried about Texas in the Big 12 Championship game, whoever they wind up playing… I think they’re going to be fine this week. It’s next week that I start to worry.”
On3’s Griffin McVeigh contributed to this article.