Steve Sarkisian defends heavy usage of Bijan Robinson, Roschon Johnson

Texas’ run game was missing in action over the weekend. Whether because of mistakes by the Longhorns or success by the TCU defense, both Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson were neutralized in the 17-10 loss to the Horned Frogs. However, when asked if he’d rely on them just as much if they were to play the game again, Steve Sarkisian was short and to the point.

Sarkisian stood up for his rushing attack during his press conference on Monday. He said that they as a staff are more than comfortable putting the ball in their back’s hands because of the success they’ve had as early as the last few weeks.

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“We just did it two weeks ago. So (we’re) very comfortable,” said Sarkisian.

With Quinn Ewers struggling with 17/39 passing and an interception, Texas needed its running backs more than ever. However, Robinson and Johnson struggled just as much with only 43 rushing yards on 17 attempts.

To Sarkisian’s point, though, the two had combined for 213 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 29 rushes just three weeks ago against Oklahoma State. They followed that up with 271 combined rushing yards and two touchdowns on 37 more attempts against Kansas State two weekends ago.

At the end of the day, you’re going to live and die by your best players. Ewers’ struggles didn’t help either, which put even more responsibility on Robinson and then Johnson behind him. They just couldn’t get enough done, though, for Texas to be able to come out on top.

Steve Sarkisian reveals what went wrong against TCU

No. 18 Texas fell against No. 4 TCU on Saturday, finally caving late in a defensive struggle. Coach Steve Sarkisian attempted to discuss what went wrong against TCU on Monday, putting the loss into context.

Simply put: The Longhorns couldn’t get much going on offense.

“I think offensively we just didn’t play well,” Sarkisian said. “We had one of those nights where if it wasn’t one guy it was another guy. And if it wasn’t that guy it was the next guy. We all just kind of took our turns, to where we couldn’t get out of our own way.”

Texas didn’t even manage to get to 200 yards on the evening, finishing at 199 total yards in the contest. Sarkisian was clear, though: It wasn’t just one player at fault.

“I think at times we showed a little bit of our immaturity, a little bit of our youth in that we didn’t respond great once the game gets hard,” Sarkisian said. “Credit to them, they played a good game defensively but we sure didn’t capitalize on some of the opportunities we had. It’s easy to point out the two red-area opportunities we had, but there was opportunities early in the game that we just didn’t take advantage of.”