Steve Sarkisian addresses how Texas responded to being called out by Iowa State

Iowa State offensive lineman Jarrod Hufford opened his mouth, and Texas closed it. Leading up to the pivotal matchup, Hufford boasted his bragging rights over the Longhorns while tossing in a few not-so-subtle jabs.

“It’s going to be one heck of a farewell present,” Hufford said earlier in the week. “They are going to come in here on senior night in the dark. I don’t think they really know what is going to be coming for them. We’ve beaten them 4 (3) out of the last 5 (4) times at home. They don’t have a good record here.

“They get all the 5-star recruits and have all the nicest stuff in the world and they just think they don’t stink. They’re just humans and that’s how I see them. They’re people that have such a high ego that need to be checked.”

Before Saturday, Hufford was 3-1 against Texas in his career. Iowa State was 2-0 at home in that stretch. Obviously, Texas took Hufford’s words personal. On Saturday, the Longhorns marched into Jack Trice Stadium and handed Iowa State a deafening 26-16 defeat.

After the victory, UT head coach Steve Sarkisian addressed Hufford’s previous comments.

“I don’t know why you’d ever call them out,” Sarkisian said of his players. “It’d be the last thing I would do if I was getting ready to play us. But, that was that was their choice to call them out and to call out our culture, quite frankly. That’s how we took it. I thought our players did a nice job of staying focused on what we needed to do.”

Two Texas Longhorns take exception

Texas defensive tackles T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy took special exception to the trash talk. After holding Iowa State to a mere nine rushing yards on 21 attempts, the pair didn’t hesitate to throw Hufford’s words back in his face.

“9 yards rushing … that’s all. Don’t write no check you can’t cash little guy,” Murphy tweeted. 

“9 rushing that’s tuff,” Sweat added.

The duo didn’t wait to look their opponents in the eye after the win. Sarkisian allow Sweat and Murphy to be Texas’ team captains for the game. They gladly accepted the chance to stare down the Cyclones before the battle began.

“Making 90 and 93 captains was intentional,” Sarkisian said. “You want to call out our culture, I wanted them to look those guys in the eyes at midfield.”

Texas will look to carry its momentum into Week 13. On Saturday, the Longhorns will close out the regular season with a matchup against Texas Tech at 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ABC.