What Steve Sarkisian said after Texas' win over Vanderbilt

Here’s what Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said after Texas’ win over Vanderbilt.

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“It’s always good to win on the road in a conference game, that’s for sure. So first of all, I’d like to thank our fans. I mean, Longhorn nation was amazing. Unbelievable amount of burnt orange in the stands, their support was incredible today. You know, ninth straight road win for us now. On the road, it’s always tough. You’ve always got to try to find a way to win. It’s going to take all 60 minutes. And I think that that showed up today.

I thought some things definitely were clear today. You know, we made it a point to go attack the football defensively. They had only had two turnovers on the year coming into the game. So to go force three turnovers, I thought was huge for us defensively.

We wanted to make sure that we were getting our snaps and running plays, and the fact that the time of possession was about even — think we might have had them by a couple minutes — but we ran 70 plays in the game where teams had come in here and they had only been running 50, 55 plays. It was big.

I love the response Quinn (Ewers) had after the tipped ball interception. I think he completed 17 balls in a row with three touchdowns for over 200 yards. So again, just who he is, was super impressed by him.

We knew third downs were going to be big in this game. I think we were 9 of 15 on third down. They were 3 of 12. They were leading the conference coming in the game on third down.

Some some players to highlight, DeAndre Moore, heck of a game all the way until the end of recovering the onside kick.

Thought Silas Bolden, you know, showed up. His opportunities increased with some guys getting nicked up. Tre Wisner, a great game. Thought Jahdae Barron showed up defensively, some key third down breakups.

And Michael Taaffe, again, he just continues to play at a really high level for us.

A couple things that showed up tonight that were not at our best, we had two tip ball interceptions that were unfortunate that led to 14 points. The two times we gave them a short field, they cashed that in for 14 points.

And then the 10 penalties, and they were all like, big penalties. Very minimal false starts. It was holding penalties and DPIs, and obviously the roughing the passer there. Those penalties led to points and/or took points off the board for us. So something that we have to clean up there.

But I’ll say this in closing before questions: these weeks are not easy. When you get so emotionally invested into a game like we were last week, and then you don’t play your best, it’s tough. It’s tough on coaches, it’s tough on a team to rebound, and I think how many times we’ve seen a team lose a game like that, and then they get beat again the next week, because they’re still they’re still going through it.

And I thought this game tonight was a culture, was a toughness win for us. I’m really proud of our players and their preparation. I was proud of the way they handled the adversity tonight. We knew it was going to take 60 minutes against this style of team. And you know, it’s always good to get up to get a road win.

And like I said before, that was a good football team. They weren’t 25th in the country on accident. So to come in here on the road and get a win, super pumped. I know that we need the bye. Obviously, we’re banged up a little bit, especially at a couple spots where we’re gonna need to get some people healthy for this third phase of our season here coming up with a four game stretch here in a couple weeks.”

On the timeliness of the Texas run game

“I don’t think it’s a secret. You know, people are trying to defend the pass when they’re playing us at certain times, especially on a third and medium type scenario. And so we’re always trying to find the run game. Doesn’t matter. I think most people think run game 1st and 10, but we’re always trying to look for it at different times and different opportunities.

And I thought that those were two critical plays. And, man, we had some really good runs getting called back.

You know, I don’t know how many times we had holding penalties on, really, almost 10 yard plus runs that change your complexion and change your confidence and build and gives everybody confidence.

And so here we got to look at that stuff. I’ve got to look at all the holds. It wasn’t like one guy tonight that was getting them. I think Kelvin (Banks) had one. I think Gunnar (Helm) had one. I know there was a there was a few more in there that we’ve got to find a way not to go backwards

Because it’s hard to overcome 1st and 20, 2nd and 19. That’s difficult over time. And so we were able to get away with that tonight. But we can’t make a living doing that.”

Is there a message to a players about penalties?

“I’ve got to assess them all. I’ve got to look at all of them. I’m sure we’re going to watch the tape as a staff. And I’ll probably not agree with maybe three, four, or five of them. I don’t know. I got to see a couple of them.

Hey, you know, you know that there’s a the deep ball on I think it was 4th and seven that Manny (Muhammad) gets the PI on, if he turns around just a hair quicker it’s probably not defensive pass interference. The roughing the passer with Vernon (Broughton). I don’t think he was intending to hit him in the head, but when the quarterback jumped into the air, and it’s a split second near 335 pounds, it’s hard to kind of move. I don’t think that was intentional on his part. You know that he knows the rules, and he’s not an egregious player like that.

So, but we can’t make a living doing that that way. And so we’ve got to assess all the penalties, and then where can we improve? If they’re fundamentals or techniques in the run game? Are we getting our hands outside things of that nature? We’ll have to address that.”

On Quinn Ewers and the tipped passes

“The first one was an RPO, and I couldn’t even really see. It was a blitzing linebacker I think that kind of got his hand up.

It’s not, it’s not his fault, it’s not anybody’s fault. Sometimes that just happens. You know, balls get tipped.

The second one, again, was unfortunate. You never try to throw over people over the middle, but when balls get tipped at the line of scrimmage, you naturally have to throw over people.

But again, I don’t fault him for those things. It’s really just unfortunate, because I thought he played a really good football game tonight and made some really critical throws on third downs for explosive plays.

I thought he took advantage throws when he had them on the perimeter. Used his legs a couple times effectively. I thought he stepped up beautifully. Had a great one on a 3rd-and-long conversion to Silas Bolden working up in the pocket. So I know, hey, it’s been a long week for him, too.

And so I was proud of him in the way that he came and attacked this game tonight. And again, I thought he played really well. Had some just kind of bad luck with the tips.”

And the sacks?

“I got to look at that too. One of them, I felt like we should have been much better, for sure. There was another one where we have a miscommunication and the running back doesn’t block his man, and that’s a little concerning because that’s two weeks in a row now on third down that that’s occurred.

So again, everybody has a part in all that. Us as coaches do, too, and we have to improve that.”

On Ewers’ first TD drive after that interception and if that’s a sign of growth from two years ago“

“I don’t think so. I think it’s just a real credit to him, even coming off of last week’s game. When doubt creeps into your mind, that’s a killer. And I didn’t think there was a sliver of doubt in his mind.

It was bad luck. He made a great read. Ball got tipped, interception. He came right back out. Believed in his preparation, into the plan, and really executed at a very high level tonight.

So I really want to credit him and his maturity, his belief in himself, his confidence, and I want to credit his teammates. I think all week those guys were making sure they were pumping him up and getting him ready to go.”

Texas is 7-1 and 4-1 in SEC play. Is Sark where he’d like to be ahead of the final four games?

“I’m competitive. In my eyes, I want to win them all. I’m not here to sing the blues. We’ve had to endure some injury stuff here that has been pretty unique at very specific positions.

I wish I could tell you. It got us at the safety room. We were thin there. It had us, you know, pretty good at that the running back room. It’s gotten us a little in the receiver room right now. So I’m proud that we’re able to get to this juncture of the season, at 7-1 and where we’re at.

I know that the next four games are all going to be very challenging, and they’re all good football teams that we’re going to have to take on one at a time.

But the beauty of that is I think we know how to do that, and we understand that the metal intensity, the focus that are needed one week at a time, I think we know how to do it, and because that’s what it’s going to take.

Yes, there’s going to be some physical fatigue that the last four games are going to tax us with, but it’s the mental focus that’s needed. Because if you get mentally fatigued, that’s when your preparation can wane, and that’s when maybe you’re not quite ready to play.

And so that’ll be our task, that’ll be our challenge, and we’ll address a lot of that next week throughout the bye to get ourselves in position to go do that.”

On Sark’s confidence level in his defense

“I’ve been proud of them. You know that the first touchdown today, you know, after the tipped ball, was unfortunate, because I think we’re actually in really good position.

We let the quarterback get out and kind of circle us for a touchdown there. But our defense I think is defending the run at a really high level, which we thought maybe coming in the year we might not be where we were a year ago defending the run. But we stopped in the run. I thought it showed up tonight, keeping the quarterback in check.

I think that first run he had was an 18 yard run. After that, you know, 15 carries for not a whole lot of yards. So that was good.

Where I’ve been impressed is what we’ve been able to do in the back end, and our ability to defend the pass, our ability to create turnovers, I think, is really starting to elevate itself, and I think we’re playing a lot of confidence.

And so, you know, I know we didn’t, we didn’t want him to score at the end there to put us in that position. But again, we’re off the field. We return the ball for a touchdown. We roughed the quarterback, and so it could have looked a whole lot different. But in the end, it took all 60 minutes to get the win.”

Is the version of Quinn he got tonight to achieve the goals for this season, and if so, how do you get that out of him every week?

“Well, you know, I think he played really well. If he plays like that the rest of the year, we’re going to be okay. We’re going to be just fine.

Again, bad luck with tipped balls. So that was that.

I think how we get to that is just keep instilling confidence in him and him believing in himself. And I think he should be able to do that. It can’t get kind of worse than how it went for him last week, especially in that first half, and his ability to bounce back and show that resolve that he showed.

I always say that the sign of the true character of a man is in the face of adversity. And that was a lot of adversity for him, a lot of adversity for us as a team coming off of last week’s game.

I think the way he responded was kind of indicative of how we responded as a team. So like I said, if we can get that version of Quinn Ewers for the rest of the way, we’ll be okay.”

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On Vanderbilt’s defensive adjustments

“It kind of just kind of got frustrating. I’ll be honest with you, I was kind of getting a little frustrated, like, because it’s one thing to get a holding penalty on a one yard run. We were getting holding penalties on like chunk plays, and then you go backwards. Then you’re off schedule. And I think when we’re on schedule as an offense, we’re really good. We got off schedule in he second half and things got difficult for us.”