Sarkisian Talks What’s Next for Texas

 Head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns were the target of much criticism and doubt after they lost their second game of the season to the Florida Gators a little over a week ago, but plenty of the noise has been silenced after the Longhorns secured their first win of conference play by beating No. 6 Oklahoma 23-6 on Saturday.

A Week 1 loss left many unhappy, but hopeful, knowing that Texas only lost to the No. 1-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes by a touchdown. However, weeks of struggles and another loss followed.

After the Longhorns lost to the Gators, the team knew that it had to fix its issues and get right, and that’s exactly what it did.

Texas showed up in Dallas ready to compete, and it did so for 60 minutes as it dismantled the Sooners’ offense and held them to just six points in the first half, which was all that Oklahoma would score all game.

Now that Texas has seemed to turn the tables and get right, it’s leaving many wondering if the Longhorns have what it takes to go all the way, which would be beating teams like Vanderbilt, Georgia, and Texas A&M to secure a spot in the playoffs.

After the win on Saturday, Sarkisian spoke about the trajectory of the team.

“I think this: we’re 1-1 in the SEC. I said this last week, I don’t think people wanted to hear me when I said it: we were 0-1 in the SEC last week. We won the conference a year ago in the regular season by going 7-1 in conference play,” Sarkisian said. “If we can play the way we played today, we’re plenty good enough to compete with any team in our conference. But we got to play that way. And just as I told the team in the locker room, we have more work to do, right? We’re going to celebrate this until we get back to Austin, and then we’re going to we’re going to switch gears and we’re going to get ready for Kentucky at night.”

It’s all true; just win out, and the team is in a good spot. But the three teams aforementioned are all Top 25 teams, so it won’t be an easy task for the Longhorns, who have seen some struggles recently.

The good news is that this win will be highly motivating and something that Texas can carry with it. Texas also gets the advantage of facing Kentucky and Mississippi State over the next two weeks before really getting deep into things.

The Wildcats and the Bulldogs should not be overlooked, as both games will be on the road in environments that can always pose a threat, along with the teams themselves, but it is still better than jumping straight into Georgia or Texas A&M.

So, the Longhorns should use the next couple of weeks to continue building momentum before hosting a No. 17-ranked Commodores team, then hitting the road to face the Bulldogs in Athens.

As for Kentucky, Sarkisian also gave a little preview of the game that will take place in Lexington at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

“It’s going to be a tough environment,” Sarkisian said. “It’s going to be a hard football game. But that’s what this conference requires. It requires mental and physical toughness week in and week out. And so the way we prepared this week for this game is the way we need to prepare for next week’s game. It’s going to take the same, and so we don’t have time now to take a deep breath and relax. We’ve got to go further. We got to dig deeper. We got to require more and demand more as coaches, and the players got to give more. And that’s what it takes in this conference. But if we can play this way, surely we’re good enough to put ourselves in position to win a lot more football games.”