On Texas Football’s Lunch with the Coach: Kudos aplenty to Longhorns’ running game, defense, overall depth
On the latest video edition of the season of On Texas Football’s Lunch with the Coach, Inside Texas’ Bobby Burton and former state championship-winning coach Bryan Erwin discuss the Longhorns’ win over Kansas State on Nov. 4 and how Texas outlasted the Wildcats fourth-quarter haymakers. Lunch with the Coach is sponsored by Laura Baker.
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Erwin, who coached La Marque to two titles after being a graduate assistant for Texas in the 1980s, said Texas was able to “hold onto the rope even though it was on fire” and had the gumption to make the plays it needed to win against a great Kansas State team.
“At that point in time, it was gonna be one of those resiliency things,” Erwin said. “’Our team is tougher than yours’ and ‘our team’s different because of our culture.’ By the time we got to that point in the game, the great win was in the past – we just needed to win. We were struggling. We just didn’t have that rhythm, the confidence right there from that point on in the game.”
Erwin said that the Longhorns’ running game was the difference in the win, even with an offensive line that was missing Christian Jones for the entire contest and Kelvin Banks for a few series in the second half.
“I’m really thrilled with where our running game is right now,” Erwin said “I thought we took leaps and bounds on Saturday. I feel like we’re really moving the line of scrimmage.”
Despite the success on the ground, both experts agree that quarterback Maalik Murphy has to be able to move the offense with accurate passing.
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“(Coach Sarkisian) is all in on Maalik — we’re all in on Maalik,” Erwin said. “We’ve still got to be able to throw the football to move the chains. We still gotta get the ball to Xavier (Worthy). We still got to get the ball out to (Jonathon) Brooks in space. We’ve got to go all in right there and say you know what, it’s ‘all gas, no brakes.’ That’s our model. That’s our belief system and it’s too late to change now.”
Burton opined that the Longhorns are still playing well despite a slew of injuries to some of the most important positions – quarterback, offensive tackle, EDGE and safety.
“It’s great to see the quality of our depth and the importance of stacking up class after class after class,” Erwin concurred. “And then the importance of the portal and going and getting some need and not only talent but stacking some depth.
“Our recruiters are not settling for anything less than the best. That’s why we’re in this position – we have that kind of depth to survive those injuries and get us deep into the season where we can still be playing for a championship.”
Go check out the rest of the video for plenty of additional insights from Bobby and the coach.
