AUSTIN, Texas — Texas clinched a second straight 10-win season — its first in the SEC — leaning on its running game after an ankle injury to quarterback Quinn Ewers in a 31-14 victory over Kentucky.
After a third-quarter lull, in which Kentucky came back to cut Texas’ lead to 24-14 following Ewers’ fumble that was returned for a touchdown, coach Steve Sarkisian pivoted and decided to exert the Longhorns’ will. The result was a 15-play, 86-yard drive featuring nothing but running plays that gave Texas the final score.
Ewers said after the game he was banged up after a tackle on a scramble earlier in the contest. Sarkisian said afterward that the “ball wasn’t clean in the third quarter” and the Longhorns had just 14 second-half passing yards to 132 rushing.
Ewers’ ankle “just kind of kept tightening up on him,” Sarkisian said. “At that point, I just said I didn’t feel like it was worth having to expose him, the way we were starting to run it. And so it was like, well, let’s get to what are we doing best today? … For weeks we’ve been talking about, well, the run game is a by-product of the passing game. Well today the run game was the key to the drill.”
Ewers said he’ll just get as much treatment as he can this week before the Longhorns renew their rivalry with Texas A&M next weekend in College Station.
“It’s just a little tender,” Ewers said. “I was around the 50-yard-line and I stepped up and kind of took off running a little bit and then kind of got hip-drop tackled and I think he kind of just rolled up on it a little bit. But it’s football and stuff like that happens.”
The Longhorns can focus on the hype around the rivalry against the Aggies returning on Nov. 30 for the first time since 2011 in College Station with a berth in the SEC championship game on the line.
“It’s going to be amazing,” Texas defensive back Jahdae Barron said. “I need to start watching film right now. I need to hurry up and answer these questions so I can go get in my playbook. … I won’t take it for granted.”
Sarkisian acknowledged that he didn’t shy away from what the game means to fans in talking to his team.
“I know for us the game is the game as far as what we are trying to accomplish to win that game to get to the SEC championship game,” Sarkisian said. “But I’m not naive to know the rivalry is the rivalry and what this game means to the entire state of Texas and households being divided Thanksgiving weekend. … I think it’s great for college football that this game with us and them is going to matter on a grander scale than just what’s happening in the state of Texas. But I also know how much it means to every household in the state of Texas. So it’s pretty cool to be part of. I’m excited.”
And his players said they know what the atmosphere will be like at Kyle Field.
“Probably the loudest environment I’ve ever been in, that’s what I’m expecting,” defensive back Michael Taaffe said. “But we can control what we can control and that’s all that we can do. We’re playing really good football right now.”
Ewers said recently his dad told him that for many years, the rivalry against Texas A&M was a bigger game than Texas’ rivalry with Oklahoma. Ankle pain or not, he said he’s ready for the challenge.
“I know this whole team is fired up for just another opportunity and especially for this one to be coming back, the tradition that it has in it,” Ewers said.
