Steve Sarkisian assesses play on Maalik Murphy, Texas offense vs. BYU

No matter how the game ended in Austin, the storyline coming out was going to be Maalik Murphy making his first career start. Texas was playing its first game of the season without Quinn Ewers, who suffered a shoulder injury the week prior. Murphy earned the right for the starting role over Arch Manning throughout the week of practice and got a big win.

Following the game, Steve Sarkisian gave his impression on Murphy’s play, admitting there were some nerves heading in. The biggest thing for the Texas head coach is making sure players around Murphy are playing up to their standard, helping him out as much as possible.

“First career start, there is always going to be some butterflies,” Sarkisian said during a postgame interview with ESPN’s Tom Luginbill. “There’s some things to clean up. The area I want us to improve and he needs to improve — we need to play better around him.”

Murphy committed two turnovers in the first half but settled in afterward. Sarkisian relied on the ground for most of the afternoon but admitted moving forward, figuring out a consistent passing game will be key.

“We need balance on offense for us to be efficient,” Sarkisian said.

Of the 354 total yards Texas had against BYU, 184 of them came on the ground. Jonothan Brooks was the leading rusher, going for 98 yards on 16 touches and adding a touchdown. Add in four receptions for 40 yards and Brooks is a key role in Sarkisian’s desire to have a balanced offense.

Steve Sarkisian knows red zone success could result in bigger win

Red zone struggles have been a problem for Texas, most notably against Oklahoma in Dallas. There were still struggles against BYU, even if Sarkisian liked the versatility throughout the game. If the Longhorns were able to capitalize on a couple of those possessions, it’s potentially an even bigger blowout in favor of the home team.

“What I like about our team is that we’re versatile,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve got a lot of different ways to go about it. Today, our defense was on fire creating turnovers, getting big-time stops. We were efficient enough offensively. Just got to be a little better in the red or the game could have been a lot different.”

Putting points on the board when available will be crucial next week, with a good Kansas State team coming to town. Sarkisian will have a week to prepare his team and will be hoping for improvement.