Skip to main content
Texas

LIVE UPDATES: Steve Sarkisian recaps Vanderbilt, looks ahead to the bye

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook20 hours agojosephcook89
ut_vs_vanderbilt-0497_team
Steve Sarkisian (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian will be available to the media today at 11 a.m. to recap the win over Vanderbilt and look ahead to the bye week and the remainder of the season.

[Sign up for Inside Texas TODAY for $1 and get the BEST Longhorns coverage!]

You can watch it on Longhorn Network here. You can watch on Longhorn Network here.

Updates from Steve Sarkisian

Steve Sarkisian: “It was a really good win for us. We knew going in that Vanderbilt was a really good team, a top 10 team in the country. The biggest thing about getting that win is to be 4-1 in the SEC and to put ourselves in position to compete for a conference championship here with three weeks to go. I think that’s huge for us.”

Steve Sarkisian speaks to his team’s efficiency in their win over Vanderbilt: “Who were we going to be in 3rd and 1-7? I think in this game, we were 6-of-7 in those scenarios.”

Sark: “I thought Arch played a fantastic game. Going back and watching the tape now numerous times, he was very efficient. I thought he threw the ball extremely accurately. It’s one thing not to throw the ball down the field all the time, but you’ve got to put players in position to make plays with the ball in their hands and I thought our receivers really did that. The accuracy in which he threw the ball on some of those throws, going back to the very first pass to Ryan Wingo.”

Steve Sarkisian: “The fourth quarter, there’s definitely things that we’re going to have to improve upon on that front. We should be better in those scenarios with the pass rush that we have. Clearly, we were banged up in the secondary. There was a moment in there where we didn’t have either starting corner, we didn’t have either starting safety. We were holding on a little bit. We’ve got to play more with the mindset of going to win the game, not just holding on to not lose the game.”

Steve Sarkisian says Ryan Wingo is going to be limited over the course of this week: “We don’t think he’s going to miss time, but I don’t think he’ll be 100% either.”

Steve Sarkisian speaks highly of Connor Robertson and Cole Hutson: “I don’t know if that’s the most physically gifted group of an offensive line that we can put out there, but surely they play well together and that showed up Saturday in the performance of the team.”

Steve Sarkisian on the opening script for each game, says he normally puts the opening script together on Wednesday night. On the plays that have opened the past few weeks, Sarkisian says it’s to help get Manning into a rhythm and also to take advantage of some of the numbers advantages the motion and opponent blitzes may create.

Steve Sarkisian on the CB rotation: “We’ve been exhausted defensively. I think we played 172 snaps in the last two games with Kentucky and Mississippi State combined. That’s a lot of football. That’s a lot of running. I felt like we were a little fatigued on defense and that’s why we adjusted a little bit of what we did practice wise. The plan was to play more people, then we kind of got forced into playing more people when Manny got banged up. I liked what Kade Phillips was doing. We kind of left him in there. Again, experience is a great thing to have. If we can generate a little more experience for Warren (Roberson), for Kobe (Black), for Kade to go along with Manny and Jaylon (Guilbeau).”

Sark says he’ll watch the CFP rankings release.

Sarkisian on what he’ll do to scout during this bye week: “We’ve got to dig deep into who we are right now. We’ve got to dig into the things that are causing us issues in all three phases. We’ve got to look at how people are attacking us in all three phases right now. We’ve got to be forward thinkers and what are people going to do when they look at our tape and how are they going to attack us? We’ve got to make sure we’ve got enough tools in our toolbox to combat that stuff. I want to get a head start on Georgia. We’ve got to look at ourselves first and we’ve got to make sure that we’re buttoned up in all three phases.”

Sarkisian on the late surge from Vandy against his pass defense, says it was “uncharacteristic to us around here and I think it caught everybody kind of off guard and a little surprised.”

Steve Sarkisian on his team’s composure, says he thought there was only one situation that was probably disappointing in the aftermath of Diego Pavia’s rushing touchdown: “Credit to our guys. Emotions are going to run high. They’re going to run high in November when there’s a lot at stake and there’s a lot on the line right now.”

Steve Sarkisian on his young DBs: “I think they’re getting better.” Says Xavier Filsaime has great speed and cover ability. Warren Roberson is in a similar category but both need to grow.

Steve Sarkisian on Arch Manning’s accuracy, says he seems less anxious, more calm and poise, and feels a little more protected.

Steve Sarkisian says Jelani McDonald is in concussion protocol.

Steve Sarkisian says redshirt conversations for players are not really happening at this juncture, says it’s more of an end of year conversation.

Steve Sarkisian on the SEC and if a 9-3 team can make it: “I don’t know. Our conference is tough. It really is, man. It feels like a playoff game every week. I don’t know if it feels that way in all the other conferences. I just know in our league, surely it does.” — Sark said he was able to watch a lot of games on Saturday, and noted the quality of the league.

Steve Sarkisian on Georgia: “The mindset of their team is they’re hard to kill, so you’ve got to play all 60 when you play them.”

Steve Sarkisian: “If you’re not willing to pay a coach what his contract is, maybe you’re not going to get one of the coaches you thought you might get.”

Steve Sarkisian: “We’re playing better football right now. We’re taking care of the ball. We’ve had one turnover in four games. We’re taking care of the ball better. We’re creating turnover. We’re stopping the run. We’re starting to run the ball better. We need to run it better. We’re converting third downs. We’re doing a lot of things really well. We’re playing better at the line of scrimmage now on both sides of the ball. So we’re getting better.”

You may also like