Steve Sarkisian ribbed Bijan Robinson speed during long-touchdown run vs UTSA

Texas star running back Bijan Robinson played the hero in Saturday’s win over UTSA. Knotted at 17 in the third quarter, Robinson took a routine halfback dive to the house for a 78-yard score. The Longhorns wouldn’t look back after the long run, and toppled the Roadrunners 41-20.

Following the hard-fought victory, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian joked about his star running back and how long it took him to cover the 78 yards needed to find the end zone – even though Robinson clocked 19 MPH during the scoring play.

“We track a lot of stuff from from a staff perspective. I don’t know if any of those are very intimidating, I’d like to think Bijan is faster than 19 MPH,” Sarkisian said. “I kind of ribbed him about it, quite frankly. But when you get the open field like that, sometimes you start your stride now, because Xavier [Worthy] looked really fast when he was kind of catching up to him.

“Those guys jab each other quite a bit on that stuff and we post some of those numbers for them. They’re definitely very competitive when it comes to the miles per hour things … And science is amazing these days, you know, and I’m a big believer in it as you grow through this and as we try to help our players prepare to perform, and put them in an optimal position to perform. I think science can be can be a huge factor in that and there’s a lot that can go into it.”

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Sarkisian said after the victory that before halftime ended, he told Robinson to run through the opposition. Minutes later, Robinson burst up the middle for the impressive score.

The score gave Texas a 24-17 lead and the Longhorns never looked back on their way to a 41-20 victory. The touchdown run for Robinson was the longest of his career, but far from his only highlight of the evening. The running back finished with 183 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 20 carries, and also had a 41-yard run for a score later in the second half.

Robinson will look to duplicate last Saturday’s performance during Week 4 when the Longhorns travel to Lubbock to take on in-state foe Texas Tech. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. CT live on ESPN.