Despite a win, Sarkisian takes the heat for poor offensive showing vs. Kentucky

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A win is a win, especially on the road in the Southeastern Conference, but Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian wasn’t pleased with his performance from a playcalling perspective.

The No. 22 Longhorns survived the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday, overcoming their worst offensive performance in the Sarkisian era to win 16-13 in overtime at Kroger Field in Lexington. Kicker Mason Shipley made three field goals with the game-winner from 45 yards in the extra session.

Texas struggled to 179 yards of total offense against the Wildcats defense that was allowing more than 400 yards per game. Sarkisian took the brunt of the criticism about the performance, saying he “has to do a better job.”

“I’ve got to do a better job putting all of our players in position to be successful, and that’s blocking people, that’s throwing the ball to open people, that’s running routes precisely where they need to be,” he said. “That’s on nobody but me. That’s when you look in the mirror first.”

Even when the Longhorns play well on offense, Sarkisian said he still watches the tape and critiques himself about play calling and where he could have done things differently. It’s a process that most coaches do, but Sarkisian said he takes a lot of pride in it.

Specifically, he said he didn’t like the first play of overtime. It was a Quintrevion Wisner run to the right side that was strung out by the Kentucky defense, going for no gain initially, and then the Longhorns were backed up 10 yards due to a holding penalty on Brandon Baker.

“I didn’t need to risk that holding penalty predicated on them not scoring in their overtime session,” he said. “I didn’t have call a direct run, which is what I should have done in that instance, but I went into game plan mode and thought we could create an explosive play.”

Sarkisian said it’s easy for fans to point at Baker because he was flagged on the play, but he took ownership of the situation and said he’s the guy to blame.

“It just wasn’t a good call by me,” he said. “I can look at a lot of different things within a game — good, bad or indifferent of the result — and ask myself what could I have done differently, what could I have done better for the offense and for the team. I’m very comfortable doing that. I’ve been doing this for a long time.”

Texas beat the Wildcats on the back of its defensive and special teams play. Arch Manning had another inconsistent performance throwing the ball, missing open receivers and not putting the ball where it needed to be. He finished 12-of-27 for 132 yards without a touchdown, but also without an interception, so he had that going for him. Sarkisian said Manning simply needs to “not overthink it.”

“You just need to take the layup,” he said. “That’s the time to make sure you drill the throw in there, get the first down and keep things moving. Things can add up on you to where you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh I got this guy and I got to hit this,’ but then you just need to play catch.”

The Texas defense was on the field for a long time, nearly twice as long as the offense was, but made big stops to keep Kentucky out of the end zone. The biggest came in overtime with a goal line stand to turn the ball over, keeping the Wildcats off the scoreboard.

Shipley made two kicks from 53 and 39 yards to go with his game-winner. He’s 11-for-13 on the year, with his two misses from 55 and 56 yards. Ryan Niblett continues to affect the game with big punt returns, scampering for 88 yards on two returns.

Texas (5-2, 2-1 SEC) travels to Starkville, Mississippi, to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs (3-4, 0-3 SEC) next week. It’s the fourth consecutive game away from DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium for the Longhorns.

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