Everything Steve Sarkisian said after Texas' win over Kansas State

MANHATTAN, Kan. — It took until the last minute for the Longhorns to seal the win, but when Jaylan Ford recovered an Adrian Martinez fumble caused by Keondre Coburn, Texas could start celebrating the first victory over a top 15 team in the Steve Sarkisian era.

[Get FOUR MONTHS of Inside Texas Plus for $1!]

Here’s everything the Longhorns head coach had to say after the game, an important one in the 2022 Big 12 race.

Steve Sarkisian’s postgame comments

Steve Sarkisian opening statement: “I’m really proud of our football team. That was a good team we just beat tonight in a pretty hostile environment. They prepared really well. They practiced really well. Then ultimately, I think they performed pretty well tonight. Obviously, we felt like we had to come in the game and run the ball well. We had to try to control the game that way. These guys were a turnover machine on defense. They lead our conference in interceptions so to come in and run the ball the way that we did with the success that we had, I think that was really impactful in the game. It’s unfortunate the couple turnovers that we did have on Roschon’s long run and on Xavier’s third-down conversion, the ball getting knocked out. Maybe it goes a little bit different direction, but that’s football. You’ve got to continue to fight. You’ve got to show resiliency. I thought a huge moment in the game was in the second quarter when we got the red zone stop. I thought that changed some momentum in the game. Then ultimately, our kickoff coverage and our special teams unit I thought had a fantastic game. Then, to finally make the play. The ball had been out three times previously to that last fumble recovery where we just didn’t get it. It’s kind of like, man, sooner or later the ball is going to bounce our way. Great sack by Coburn. Nice recovery by Jaylan Ford. All in all, it’s a really cool win for us in a tough environment. But we’ve got more to do. We knew this month of November was going to be a big month for us. We’ve got a great opponent coming in next week, and looking forward to seeing all of our fans at DKR next Saturday night. It should be a great environment.”

Steve Sarkisian on getting a road win and holding onto a second-half lead: “It’s not like we just have our head in the sand and we’re not aware that we’ve got work to do. First of all, we need to play better than we played in the second half tonight for whatever reason. I’ve got to keep digging. We didn’t have any false starts in the first half. We come out in the second half and every series in the third quarter we had a false start somewhere in there. Now you’re playing 1st-and-15 , 2nd-and-15 football. That’s hard to do. Our execution has got to improve. But in the end I thought the drive when they cut it to a one-score game, for us to get the ball back down there and get the field goal to put it back to a two-score game I thought was really critical. It allowed our defense to stay aggressive. PK called a really aggressive style there at the end and we kept trying to rush the passer to get the turnover. I know for a lot of us, it’s a great feeling that we were able to do this because we’re going to have to continue to do this: go on the road and win and play good football in tough environments against good teams. That part is a real positive, but we can play better than we played. That’s the real beauty of it.”

Steve Sarkisian on the second quarter sequence with the red zone stop followed by the interception: “It was huge. It was a huge turning point in the game. We’ve been preaching complimentary football. That’s the sign of a team that is understanding you get a turnover, it’s one thing to get turnovers. It’s another to turn it into points. We were able to do that in that sequence and it obviously changed a lot of the momentum of the game.”

Steve Sarkisian his decision to go for a field goal late: “When we got down there, I knew how valuable points were going to be. So when we got down there in the red area, we ran it on the first two downs. Third down came and I just didn’t want to put the ball in jeopardy again. We came in knowing these guys have 12 interceptions on the year. I just wanted to be smart and give Quinn something where it would be a clean read. We had Bijan on a wheel route on a defensive end. I’ll take that matchup again. Do it again right now if I could get it. We just missed it. So we took a shot right there, but I knew how valuable that field goal was going to be. Again, we got down there to do it. I would have loved to have scored a touchdown, but again, I didn’t want to risk the football in that moment to get the three points in order to get it.”

Steve Sarkisian on why the offense may have gone into a shell in the second half: “It felt great. Give a lot of credit to the players for buying into the plan, for their preparation, and their ability to practice. I really thought in the second half in the third quarter there we were moving the ball but we kept going backwards with things. Those are the things that we’ve got to improve upon, the false starts. Those are presnap penalties. I can understand a hold here and there, but the presnap penalties we’ve got to clean up, especially on the road.

Steve Sarkisian on what he’s seen from the team as far as not getting discouraged after Oklahoma State: “The thing I’m seeing is confidence. We’ve been preaching confidence. We’ve got to be confident in our ability. We’ve got good players. We’ve got good schemes. We’ve got good coaches. Let’s be confident in what we’re doing and having belief. We put ourselves in scenarios like that a lot in practice to get ourselves prepared for those moments. We did it on Wednesday as a matter of fact, the exact same scenario. The defense got a sack-fumble against the offense. We try to create those scenarios to get them comfortable in those scenarios when they come up and can be confident they can make their plays. I think our team has a lot of confidence in their ability to go play with anybody. That’s a really good football team we beat on the road, so to come out on top and in the fashion that we did, hopefully we gain more confidence from this one moving forward.”

Steve Sarkisian on the message coming from the off week: “The message was when you prepare well, when you practice really well, the performance will match because you have the confidence to go do it. We’ve been preaching opportunity. We have a great opportunity in this month of November to go do something special. With opportunity you have to prepare for the moment so you can capitalize on it and maximize it. I thought we prepared really well. I thought we practiced really well, and I ultimately I thought the performance followed suit. That’s really been the message, just preaching the confidence because of the preparation. Then, when you get the performance to match, your confidence can continue to grow. We’re going to need that. We’re going to play a lot more good teams as we keep moving forward. We’ve got another good one next week, and we’re going to need to continue to build on that confidence tonight.

Steve Sarkisian on controlling their own destiny and bowl eligibility: “I think the bowl eligibility thing, it’s great. I’m really happy for our seniors because they didn’t have that opportunity a year ago. To solidify that, that’s awesome. That’s something that we didn’t do a year ago. That’s great. Like I told the guys, we’re not done. We’ve got more work to do. We’ve got a great opportunity ahead of us in this entire month of November. What you do in November is what everybody remembers. We’ve got an opportunity to do something special, and I don’t think we’re done yet. I think our team is hungry. I think they know what’s in front of them. They recognize it’s one game at a time. As I told them on Monday, I’m asking for 30 days of focus. We need 30 straight days in November of ideal focus as we go through this month of dialing into the opponent, putting in a great week of preparation, and then performing. Tonight was a great start to go do that. Now I think they recognize we’ve got another one next week. So we’ve got to prepare to go tackle that task next.”

Steve Sarkisian on Quinn Ewers’ connection with Xavier Worthy: “Thought they were great, they really were. We’re going to continue to take our shots. We missed a couple. That’s okay. But if we’re going to run the ball like that, you’ve got to be able to play action pass and take your shots. That was fine. I think what Xavier is doing, I feel bad. Sometimes we probably don’t give it enough credit. This guy, I think he’s played 21 games now. In 21 games he has 21 touchdown catches, which is absolutely crazy to think a guy in two years is doing that at the wide receiver position. I think that connection with those two guys was on point today. It was unfortunate X had the fumble on the one third down, but I thought Quinn rebounded well. This is a tough environment. The conditions were not ideal. It was definitely windy. It was cool. I think definitely something to build upon.”