Sarkisian, Texas looks to overcome road woes with a QB making his first start in a hostile environment

Texas’ last true road win, and the only true road win for Steve Sarkisian as head coach of the Longhorns, occurred over one year ago.

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Thanks to over 200 rushing yards and two touchdowns from Bijan Robinson, the Longhorns topped TCU in Fort Worth last season, 32-27. Since that win on October 2, 2021, Texas has lost four consecutive true road games. Three came last year during Texas’ six-game losing streak, the one from this season occurred in September at the hands of Texas Tech in Lubbock.

Sarkisian has the opportunity to notch his second true road win at Texas this Saturday, but like most road games in the Big 12, it won’t be easy. No. 20 Texas will need to take down No. 11 Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla., and do it the same weekend as “America’s Greatest Homecoming.”

Sarkisian’s road struggles at Texas are well-documented. He’s 1-5 away from Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium. For his career, he’s 13-27 away from his home turf. Add that he’s 11-25 against top 25 teams, and the challenge facing the Longhorns prior to their game at Boone Pickens Stadium appears even more daunting.

This season for the Longhorns is all about overcoming challenges that have plagued the program not just under Sarkisian’s watch, but in years prior, too. Hence the “revenge tour” tag thrown around by players after wins against West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Iowa State.

The revenge Texas wants to dish to the Cowboys differs from the previous three instances considering OSU beat the Longhorns in Austin last season. To return the favor north of the Red River, Sarkisian believes it will require the Longhorns to bring several traits with them up IH-35 and OK-51.

“I think poise and composure is really important on the road,” Sarkisian said. “You’re in an environment where the crowd’s not cheering for you, they’re cheering against you. When adversity strikes on the road, that doesn’t have to mean it’s adversity for the next quarter. It can be for that one play, and then you’ve got to have the ability to move onto the next. I do think it takes mental intensity, it takes focus, it takes maturity, but it also takes poise and composure on the road.”

Poise and composure was absent from the Longhorns’ road appearances last season, save for the win over TCU. Even then, Texas barely hung on to a double-digit lead thanks to Robinson’s efforts.

The team no-showed against Arkansas in the second game of the 2021 season as neither offense nor defense could accomplish much. At Baylor, Texas surrendered what was a 21-10 lead. Nothing worked in Ames, Iowa against Iowa State. By the time Texas got to West Virginia, the bumps and bruises suffered during the five-game losing streak extended it to six.

The loss this year versus Tech had several overlaps from last season. Texas looks to make that a one-off this Saturday.

“We want to win the road game,” Robinson said Monday. “We want to win those types of games, especially against a good team like this. This is a really big game for us, them as well. We know that with the goal that we have, this is a championship game for us.”

In addition to poise and composure, Sarkisian stressed the need for his team to play complimentary football. When it comes to his offense, no player is more important in making sure that happens than the quarterback.

The player in that role for the Longhorns this weekend? Quinn Ewers, who will be making his first career start in a true road game.

Even though it’s his first start, it won’t be Ewers’ first taste of opposing crowd noise. He started against Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl in a return from injury and operated on the boisterous Oklahoma side several times before the game was out of reach.

Plus, Ewers was on Ohio State’s travel roster toward the end of last year. With Texas, he made the trip to Lubbock in the loss that Hudson Card started.

For Ewers, does anything change in how he approaches this contest away from home now that he’ll be the one under center?

“I don’t think anything really changes because I really try to prepare the same every week,” Ewers said Monday.

That reiterates something said by his head coach a few hours earlier. When asked if he altered anything about his program’s travel habits after going 1-5 in road games last year, Sarkisian said he made sure to keep things consistent.

“I’m a big believer in habits, routine, knowing your routine, and sticking to it,” Sarkisian said.

That’s worked out for the 5-2 Longhorns this year. The two defeats were by a total of four points, and one took place in overtime. Sarkisian sees improvement, and has a confidence in his team that was hard to come by last year.

“This team has felt different to me from the very beginning, and continues to show to me that even when we’re not at our best that we have the maturity to settle ourselves down and play good enough to win,” Sarkisian said.

The next way to show more improvement, for Sarkisian, for the current team, and for the program?

Heading back to Austin and into next week’s bye with a win.