On Texas Football’s Lunch with the Coach: Texas put on a show versus Iowa State and made Longhorns fans proud
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’ huge road win over Iowa State and look ahead to Texas’ Black Friday regular-season finale at home against Texas Tech.
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Lunch with the Coach is sponsored by Laura Baker of Keller Williams Realty.
A win over Tech will guarantee the Longhorns a spot in the Big 12 championship game.
Erwin, who coached La Marque to two titles after being a graduate assistant for Texas in the 1980s, said anyone who watched the Longhorns win over Iowa State had to come away impressed with their play and the coaching as well as the team’s determination to win and ability to deal with adverse circumstances.
“For the Longhorn fans and Longhorn Nation, my gosh that great football, that was November championship football,” Erwin said. “We played outstanding – had a couple of touchdowns get called back but overcame some penalty deficits at halftime.
“I’m just proud of the way the guys battled back and showed a lot of toughness, a lot of resolve in a very physical football game. It was a November championship style of play and anybody that watched that game can come away thinking you know, we’ve got to we’ve got a damn good football team that’s well-coached and physical and that we got a championship culture.”
Erwin lauded the running, and pass catching, performance from freshman running back CJ Baxter, who had 117 yards on the ground in relief of the injured Jonathon Brooks. “It takes a little bit of time for those great backs to get lathered up,” Erwin explained.
“Baxter seems to me to be one of those running backs that likes to get going a little bit and just continues to gain pace as opposed to one of those guys who just comes out of the gate popping in the first five or so carries,” Burton agreed.
Both experts liked the progression of quarterback Quinn Ewers over the course of the victory over Iowa State and its three-man rush.
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“A big part of Ewers’ understanding came from how to maintain pocket presence, especially against just a three-man rush,” Erwin said. “Because you tend to have a lot of time and quarterbacks aren’t used to having that much time and they get a little antsy. Once he got comfortable with that three-man rush, he started doing some great things.”
Burton and Erwin lauded the play calling of coach Steve Sarkisian, both grading Sark’s work among his best this season.
“Sark called the whale of a game,” Erwin said. “I know Iowa State was off balance because I was off balance. I mean we had no idea what was coming next.”
Erwin was pumped at the contributions from slot receiver Jordan Whittington after the former coach had all but pleaded Sarkisian last week to get Whittington more involved.
“I’ve been beating his drum and beating his drum and I was so excited for J-Whitt,” Erwin said. “You could tell just the intangible that occurred when J-Whitt started getting involved. I felt the team just getting stronger and stronger.”
Go check out the rest of the video for plenty of additional insights from Bobby and the coach.
