Steve Sarkisian sees ‘better football ahead’ for Texas this season

Texas is 8-1 on the season and ranked No. 3 in the latest College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings — but head coach Steve Sarkisian believes the best is yet to come.

After convincingly defeating Florida during its last time out, the Longhorns are looking to prove their head coach right during the final three games against Arkansas, Kentucky and Texas A&M, respectively. Week 11’s win over the Gators coming off a bye week was the perfect start.

“I thought we had spurts throughout the first eight games where we looked really good, but I felt like we had better football in us that we could go play, and they played better [vs. Florida],” Sarkisian said after downing the Gators 49-17. “I’m sure I’m gonna come in here [this week] and I’m gonna have areas where we can continue to improve. And I know that we’ve got to get our outside zone running scheme going again. For whatever reason, we’re just not quite in sync. … So I’m always going to find areas and things that we can improve upon, and need to improve upon.

“But this is a great starting point for November, just us playing the style of football that I think we’re capable of playing.”

The stellar play from Texas started under center against the Gators. Quarterback Quinn Ewers passed for over 300 yards for the first time this season during Texas’ 49-17 win over Florida on Saturday. He threw for 333 yards on a 70.4% (19 of 27) clip and threw five touchdowns en route to victory.

He picked the perfect time to play his best game of the season, as at the same Georgia lost its second game of the season. The loss slots the Longhorns as the highest-ranked team in the SEC despite being in a three-way tie for first place in the conference standings.

There’s little to no margin for error for the Longhorns if they want to make the trip to Atlanta and play for a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff.