Steve Sarkisian Saw Something Crucial In His Texas Longhorns vs. Oklahoma

DALLAS - There was a tremendous amount of doubt concerning the Texas Longhorns heading into their annual matchup with the Oklahoma Sooners in the Red River Rivalry.

Offensive line, physicality, talent, schematics, the running game and the quarterback were all under fire after the team's disappointing loss to Florida a week ago.

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian heard it, and his team proved on the football field that those doubts were going to be short-lived, dismantling the Sooners 23-6 at the Cotton Bowl.

Sarkisian Saw What He Wanted to See

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian takes a photo with players after the game against the Oklahoma Sooners | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

He saw fight. He saw character. He saw toughness. And most importantly, he saw his team staying together.

Not only that, but he was quick to pounce on the opportunity to fire back at the doubters who were already counting the Longhorns' season as lost.

"I think that we learned how to fight today," Sarkisian said. "And I think that, you know, we don't have to wait till the 12th round to try to knock somebody out to win a game. We can win rounds, and we can continue to fight for four quarters."

"I think we saw the true character of the men in that locker room today, their connectivity, their love for one another. You heard these two guys just say it's staying connected. Continue to grind with one another, because it's easy to succumb to the outside noise. And there was a lot of sh*t getting talked about our team, about these guys, and I think they responded here in the second round."

This still isn't exactly the Texas football team that many expected to see coming into the season.

But that's okay. It doesn't have to be.

A New Mentality?

Texas Longhorns defense — Oklahoma Sooners wide receiver Javonnie Gibson throws a pass in the first half of the Red River Rivalry | SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

What is important is that Sarkisian seems to have found the recipe for success for what this team needs during the week, and the kind of identity that they need to have on game days.

That starts with the mental makeup of this team, and their ability to stay united amid the noise.

It also heavily involves physicality and toughness up front and in the running game, and a much-needed injection of the short passing game, so that Arch Manning can get into a rhythm and get the ball into the hands of his receivers.

Implementing each and every one of those things was critical to their success on Saturday.

That said, it is something that simply has to continue going forward if they want to run the table the rest of the way in SEC play.

And Steve Sarkisian knows that.

"We're 1-1 in the SEC. I said this last week. I don't think people wanted to hear me when I said it, we're 0-1 in the SEC," Sarkisian said. "Last week, we won the conference a year ago in the regular season by going seven and one in conference play. If we can play the way we played today. We're plenty good enough to compete with any team in our conference, but we gotta play that way."

"Just as I told the team in the locker room, we have more work to do, right? It's we're going to celebrate this until we get back to Austin, and then we're going to we're going to switch gears, ready to get ready for Kentucky at night. It's going to be a tough environment to be a hard race football game, but that's what this conference requires. It requires mental and physical toughness week in and week out. And so the way we prepared this week for this game is the way we need to prepare for next week's game. It's going to take the same, and so we don't have time now to take a deep breath and relax. We've got to go further. We've got to dig deeper. We have to require more and demand more as coaches, and the players have to give more, and that's what it takes in this conference. But if we can play this way, surely we're good enough to put ourselves in position to win a lot more football games here.

Texas faces off against Kentucky next week in Lexington, hoping to do just that.