Oct 25, 2025; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian reacts after beating the Mississippi State Bulldogs in overtime at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

This Decision By Steve Sarkisian Was Critical To Their Win Over Mississippi State

Originally posted on Texas Longhorns on SI
By Henry Hipschman | Last updated Oct 28, 2025 10:12 AM ET

Texas football claimed a 45-38 overtime win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Saturday, marking one of the team's best offensive performances this season. Before the game, the Longhorns decided to change some things on the offensive side of the ball, including taking co-offensive coordinator AJ Milwee off the field and putting him in the coaches' box.

Head coach Steve Sarkisian said the decision to move Milwee, who joined Texas alongside Sarkisian after the two worked together at Alabama, allowed the Longhorn co-coordinator to provide Sarkisian a better view of the field.

How the Decision to Move Milwee Contributed to a Longhorn Victory

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

"As the season went on, I just felt like, man, AJ knows me so well," Sarkisian said. "We've been together so long that I felt like some of the information from him, was going to be helpful for me in-game in real time, and allow him to watch the game, as opposed to being on the sidelines with the same view that I had."

Milwee, who also takes on the role of quarterbacks coach with the Longhorns, originally worked in the coaches' box during games when he first joined the Longhorns, but was moved to the field to work more closely with former Texas starting quarterback Quinn Ewers.

"When we first got here, [Milwee] was up top," Sarkisian said. "I felt like Quinn needed to have somebody on the sidelines with him to really talk to...so we brought him down."

Now that Ewers has moved on to the NFL and Sarkisian felt the need for a change, Milwee has taken on a role in the box once again. In return, Sarkisian brought assistant quarterbacks coach Mike Bimonte onto the field.

"I thought Mike could provide a little more energy and juice," Sarkisian said. "He's got great rapport with the all of our players, not only Arch [Manning], but all of those guys on offense and so I thought it was a win, win...and it proved that way."

In the win over the Bulldogs, Manning had one of his most impressive games this season, passing for 346 yards, a season high, and three touchdowns. The offense as a whole put up 421 total yards and five touchdowns. A seemingly much improved offensive performance when compared to past weeks, perhaps this rotation of Milwee to the box is one move that could prove beneficial to the Longhorns going forward.

Texas will now look forward to taking on No. 9 Vanderbilt this weekend in Austin for its first home game since September.

This article first appeared on Texas Longhorns on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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