Steve Sarkisian reflects on what he learned about Texas in Red River Rivalry

Having already lost two games this season, going into Red River, Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns desperately needed a win to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive. That’s exactly what they got too, taking down Oklahoma 23-6.

After dropping their first two games against Power Four opponents, the Longhorns needed to make changes. Those changes were there for Sarkisian in Red River. In particular, he feels Texas has learned how to fight for the game.

“I think that we learned how to fight today,” Steve Sarkisian said. “And I think that we don’t have to wait till the 12th round to try to knock somebody out to win a game. We can win rounds, and we can continue to fight for four quarters.”

Texas got off to a slow start on Saturday, only scoring three first-half points. After struggling on offense in their previous Power Four games, it was a tense environment around the offense. However, in the second half, the Texas offense seemed to take off, scoring 20 points to pull away. Meanwhile, the defense clamped down Oklahoma, forcing three interceptions.

In particular, quarterback Arch Manning seemed to take a major step forward. He completed 21 of 27 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown. He’d also rush for 34 yards, which was second on the team for the win.

“And like I said,” Sarkisian said. “I think we saw the true character of the men in that locker room today, their connectivity, their love for one another. You heard these two guys just say it — staying connected. Continuing to grind with one another. Because it’s easy to succumb to the outside noise. And there was a lot of shit getting talked about our team, about these guys, and I think they responded.”

Now, Texas needs to keep on rolling. Making the College Football Playoff with three losses is very difficult and, already with two, the Longhorns need to now build on this and grow moving forward in SEC play.

Steve Sarkisian admits he was glad John Mateer played, preventing ‘what if’ questions

Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer played in Red River despite a hand surgery that he underwent just over two weeks prior. That was a relief of sorts to Steve Sarkisian, because it presents any “what if” type of questions about the game.

“First of all, I’m glad the quarterback played and John Mateer is a heck of a player,” Sarkisian said. “But I didn’t want to come up and hear and answer ‘what if he would have played.’ The fact that we created three turnovers. We got five sacks. When you look at our defense, there were a lot of great playmakers today and a lot of guys did some different things.”