Texas keeps future focus in wake of loss: ‘We’ve got to handle our business’

College Football

Updated Oct. 10, 2023 11:17 p.m. ET

After an impressive start to the season for Texas, which mainly included a win over Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Longhorn fans were excited about their team for the first time in a long time.

Then over the weekend, adversity, in the name of the Red River Rivalry, hit.

Oklahoma edged out Texas, 34-30, at the Cotton Bowl. Sooners quarterback Dillon Gabriel led his team on a dramatic, up-tempo, 75-yard drive in 62 seconds with no timeouts left. He hit receiver Nic Anderson for the game-winning touchdown, leaving the Horns with 15 seconds on the clock to respond. Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers‘ Hail Mary attempt was close, but not close enough.

So, where does Texas go from here?

While every loss is sobering, Saturday’s was especially so because it came against a bitter rival. Coach Steve Sarkisian said the team’s goal this season is to win a championship, and that dream is still very much intact.

The Longhorns should win the rest of their regular-season games, as none of their upcoming opponents are currently ranked. While anything can happen in college football, there would be no valid excuse for another loss.

That means we’ll likely see a rematch against OU (as long as the Sooners win out as well) in the Big 12 championship game the first weekend of December. Whoever wins that would be a shoo-in for the College Football Playoff. If it’s Texas, it would be a one-loss team with wins over Alabama (by double-digits on the road) and Oklahoma (in a conference title matchup).

While Sarksian and his players are watching film and playing the woulda-coulda-shoulda game, Saturday’s result is not the end.

“The overriding message is, ‘Hey, everything we want out of the season is still right in front of us,'” Sarkisian said this week. “We’ve got to go handle our business.”

That means fixing some of the glaring mishaps that cursed Texas over the weekend — like giving up three turnovers and forcing none. Oklahoma only scored seven points off those takeaways, but they prevented scoring chances for Texas and shifted momentum.

Breaking down Oklahoma’s upset of Texas

Ewers threw interceptions on the first two Texas series and was sacked five times. But he still managed to complete 31-of-37 passes for 346 yards and a touchdown. This included at one point completing 19 passes in a row.

“For any quarterback to throw two picks, that could rattle you pretty good and the response he showed, I thought, was tremendous under duress,” Sarkisian said. “He was sacked, had a fumble in there, got hit pretty good scrambling, but I thought the poise and composure he showed was indicative of a guy who’s growing in confidence, who’s maturing.”

Even so, Texas was still called for nine penalties when it had previously been averaging four per game. The Longhorns scored just three points on three trips to the red zone (while OU went 6-for-6) and couldn’t make a stop defensively on OU’s last drive. One of the most head-scratching moments came early in the fourth quarter when Texas had a chance to tie the game, but failed to score on four tries from the 1-yard line.

“That sucked,” Sarkisian said of the Sooners’ goal-line stand.

The Horns still led 30-27 with 1:17 to go after Bert Auburn’s 47-yard field goal. But that left just enough time for Gabriel to lead an epic winning drive, during which Sarkisian said his defense wasn’t on the “same page from a coverage standpoint.”

Not being in sync on offense, defense and special teams was a common theme throughout the game. On OU’s final play, Texas thought it made the right call, but failed to execute.

“The biggest thing that comes out of this for me, after all that being said, we had a great opportunity to win the game,” Sarkisian said. “And if that’s our worst, we’re going to be OK.”

Texas, which dropped six spots to No. 9 in the rankings, has a chance to recover and regroup as it heads into the bye week. Then it has six winnable games left (opponents include Houston, BYU, Kansas State, TCU, Iowa State and Texas Tech, who have a combined 18-15 record at the midpoint of the season).

Steve Sarkisian, Quinn Ewers, more react to Texas’ loss

While most coaches talk about a 24-hour rule to dwell on games after both wins and losses, Sarkisian actually doesn’t want to apply that right now. He wants his players to grieve and feel the pain of a last-minute loss. He believes it will motivate them in the second half of the season.

“Losing sucks,” Sarkisian said. “It’s not fun for anybody. But inevitably, you’ve gotta focus on the task at hand. I don’t know if you ever just wash it away.

“I’m hopeful we don’t just walk out of that stadium Saturday and then back here in Austin and leave the game up there. I hope we kind of carry this one with us for a little bit and I hope it fuels us to be even better than we can be moving forward.”

Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of “Strong Like a Woman,” published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her on Twitter @LakenLitman.

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