LIVE UPDATES: Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian recaps Alabama, previews home matchup with Wyoming

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian will be available to the media today at 11 a.m. to recap the Longhorns’ 34-24 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide and to preview the upcoming matchup at Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium versus the Wyoming Cowboys.

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The press conference will be available on TexasSports.com, Longhorn Network, and 1300 The Zone in Austin.

Updates from Steve Sarkisian

Steve Sarkisian: “I thought this was a really good team win. We talk a lot about being a versatile football team and having the ability to win multiple ways. Quite frankly, we needed all of our ways on Saturday night.”

Steve Sarkisian praises the effort guys like Jonathon Brooks and Ja’Tavion Sanders made attempting to recover fumbles, as well as Kitan Crawford helping to down a punt inside the five. “Just a quality, quality effort that I was really proud of the guys.”

Steve Sarkisian: “We’ve got to take care of the ball better than we did. That thing cannot be as loose as it was. We still missed a couple opportunities in the red area where we had chances to score, which is somewhere we definitely need to improve. We got a little sloppy in our coverage and allowed them to make some explosive plays there in the fourth quarter.”

Steve Sarkisian: “We get to be back at DKR Saturday night. 7 o’clock kick. We’re looking forward to DKR being rocking and it should be an electric environment.”

Steve Sarkisian says Wyoming is a well-coached team with a lot of fourth, fifth, and sixth year players. “Great challenge, 2-0 team coming in here confidently.”

Steve Sarkisian: “The best thing that can happen to me is when I get a text from a colleague in the profession about the way we played, and how hard we played. That was kind of aa common theme of the messages I got.”

Steve Sarkisian on his special assistants: “I think all three of those guys all have pretty clearly defined roles in the organization.” — Payam Sadat is praised as a sounding board for Pete Kwiatkowski. Paul Chryst serves a similar role because “schematically, what he did and what we do is very similar.” Joe DeCamillis is praised as a “special teams guru.” — “On gameday, I don’t know if we’ve really seen it all with what the clock is doing to us yet, but I think it will show up. We’re just trying to be as prepared as we can be.”

Steve Sarkisian: “I think one of the mistakes I can make is try to beat them down and try to knock the confidence out of them. I’ve spent 2.5 years trying to instill confidence into them, so I want to be mindful of that, but I have to point out areas for us to improve and where we can get better as a team. I think ultimately for me being transparent with them all the time, good, bad, ugly, whatever that is, I’ve earned their trust that I would never guide them in a direction that wouldn’t be in their best interest to perform at the highest level.”

Steve Sarkisian on CJ Baxter: “Knock on wood, not quite as serious as we may have originally thought. We’re going to monitor him day-to-day. He was at practice today, very limited. We’ll monitor him on that front.”

Steve Sarkisian says Morice Blackwell is “still in the rehab process. He was running almost full speed today. He’ll be day to day as we move throughout the week.”

Steve Sarkisian: “One of the keys was the look was there. It’s one thing just to run guys deep. I think we got the coverages we were looking for. I think the receivers ran the routes and ran them to the spot they were supposed to be. There was consistency in the route running as we ran them in practice so that they know the spot on the field where that ball would be thrown. The third component was Quinn put nice air on the ball, then he allowed the receivers, both those guys, to adjust to the ball in the air.”

Steve Sarkisian said Savion Red was the Jalen Milroe analog on the scout team: “Everybody on our team has a role to the team’s success, and the job he did last week was really beneficial to our defense.”

Steve Sarkisian on the picks: “Both those interceptions were things they carried over from practice to the game that played off.” — Said Barron’s pick was a coverage for specific Bama route concepts he made a play on. With Thompson, it was recognition of the tight end blocking and getting under the deep route.

Steve Sarkisian on the Wyoming run defense: “They play blocks really well. They play well together. They’re very gap sound. So it’s going to challenge us on a lot of levels.”

Steve Sarkisian: “When we fell behind 16-13 there, we played it pretty aggressively. We went after them a little more aggressively than maybe it would have a year ago. Obviously, it worked. It worked this past Saturday and we were able to score I think in three plays to regain the lead.”

Steve Sarkisian: “I felt like we found a little more rhythm pass-game wise, and I thought we played faster. I could sit here and attribute it to the heat in week one or it’s a different opponent, but I think at the end of the day as a competitor, speed is an advantage of ours and I thought we played fast football. Especially offensively.”

Steve Sarkisian says there were probably a few too many times Jalen Milroe was able to scramble to his right, but for the most part he was pleased with the way his team was able to maintain what he likes to call “rush lanes.”

Steve Sarkisian says he practices being backed up near the goal line every week. Said there was an adjustment on the deep pass to Adonai Mitchell that got Texas out of the shadow of its own goalposts: “This week, what was cool was that wasn’t the original route but that we knew if we got that look, Quinn could signal that go ball to AD.”

Steve Sarkisian calls the third-down pass-rush group the “NASCAR unit.”

Steve Sarkisian on the trick play: “We’ve been working on some stuff. The players, to their credit, have been executing those things and not just in scout team stuff but good on good.” — “I think ultimately when they take some ownership on those things and they have a little bit of fun with them and they can make them come to life, you want to give them those opportunities.”

Steve Sarkisian: “I got to go in the locker room and put a cigar in my mouth and take a picture with my son. Who would have thought that would have happened 10-15 years ago?”