Jeff Howe

Sark: "Our inability to create explosive runs tonight showed up."

Sark: Kentucky "has really good coaches and I've got a ton of respect for Coach Stoops." He said Kentucky hit timely blitzes and minimized the explosive plays.

To ride the defense and special teams, you have to play more efficient football. Sark said the offense didn't do that tonight.

Sark said he didn't consider a quarterback change.

Sark: "We've got to find ways to get him some more completion."

Sark, when asked about Arch Manning's performance, said things up front "were way too leaky for him."

Sark on the offense: "We've got to minimize the self-inflicted wounds and be more efficient. We weren't efficient enough tonight."

He specifically mentioned the false start in the fourth quarter, the holding penalty in overtime and getting out of bounds at the end of regulation.

Sark on the offense: "We've got to quit the self-inflicted wounds."

Sark: "As I told the team, half of the SEC lost today. We were on the other half."

Sark: "I always feel like once a year, where you have a culture win." Sark said things were "sliding the other way," but Texas won the game.

This should be about as fun as a root canal.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A goal-line stand by the defense and Mason Shipley’s third field goal of the night helped No. 21 Texas avoid a staggering upset on Saturday with a 16-13 overtime road win over Kentucky at Kroger Field. On Texas Football has live coverage of the postgame press conference with coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns. View full news story

The pregame injury report from the SEC is out and CJ Baxter is officially OUT for tonight’s game against Kentucky. Maraad Watson is a game-time decision.

Probably too late to hire an external candidate. I would think Josh Elander or Frank Anderson will be the interim.

I just don't think the offense has that kind of explosive element right now. I'd rather Sark and the staff work smarter, not harder (i.e., forcing the issue, trying to hit the big play on offense or being static on defense).

Thanks, PaulieD. Great to have you as a part of the community.

Well, I don't imagine my wife and daughter are too broken up when I travel. So there's that.

He’s headed down the Colt McCoy/Chase Daniel path in the NFL, which is a great gig if you can get one.

This report says the Broncos do indeed plan on signing Sam to the practice squad:

Sam Ehlinger was released by the Broncos on Friday, but this report indicates he could be brought back as early as today:

Greetings from the Nashville airport! On my way to Cincinnati and then Lexington tomorrow! It feels good to be back on the road with the Longhorns!

As CJ reported earlier in the week, Terry has been working his way into the running back room before Gibson's transfer went public. We'll what that means for Saturday, but I love it long term for Terry's viability as a Swiss Army knife on offense.

On the eve of No. 21 Texas attempting to build on winning last Saturday’s 23-6 fist fight with Oklahoma when it faces Kentucky on the road (6 p.m., ESPN), what Colin Simmons said on Monday stands out as the theme of the week for Steve Sarkisian’s team. Texas (4-2, 1-1 SEC) wants its suffocation of the Sooners to be the jumping-off point to a prosperous second half of the regular season. Coming off of his most productive game of the season (five tackles and 2.5 sacks), Simmons, who was named SEC Co-Defensive Lineman of the Week for his performance in the win over Oklahoma, was blunt in his response when asked about the challenge of maintaining the mental approach the Longhorns carried into the Red River Shootout. “Well, I'll let you know this right now: We're not here for the emotional roller coaster. We're not here to go up and down,” Simmons said. “We're only here to go up and be consistent.” Simmons, along with the other Texas players who met with the media on Monday, and Sarkisian referred to Saturday’s meeting with the Wildcats as “an SEC Championship Game.” While that might sound disingenuous on the surface, the mantra speaks to the Longhorns' understanding that a loss to Kentucky (2-3, 0-3) would all but put an end to their hopes of returning to Atlanta for the second consecutive season. A start to Saturday’s game that mirrors what happened when Texas got itself into an early 10-0 hole in Gainesville on Oct. 4 (Florida hung on for a 29-21 win that knocked the Longhorns out of the Associated Press Top 25) is one from which the Longhorns might not recover. Mark Stoops has had better teams than the one he’ll lead onto Kroger Field. Still, the Wildcats’ potential to successfully utilize a ground-and-pound style of offense (Kentucky averages 159.4 yards per game and 4.22 yards per attempt on the ground) is the kind of attack capable of protecting a lead. According to College Football Data, the Wildcats average 3.2 line yards per carry, which ranks fifth in the SEC. According to the metric, which distributes a percentage of the credit for an offense’s rushing yards to the offensive line, the Kentucky offensive line gets the job done in the running game better than all but four lines in the conference. For all of the talk about the Texas offense needing to start fast, the defense’s job is just as important in that regard. “We've got to come out and stop the run,” defensive tackle Hero Kanu said on Monday. “That's, obviously, the mindset we’ve got to have.” In the loss to the Gators, Florida gained 94 of its 159 rushing yards in the first quarter. If the Longhorns can replicate what it did against the Sooners — the defense allowed only 80 sack-adjusted rushing yards (3.2 yards per attempt) and, once Texas grabbed the lead in the second half, turned up the heat on John Mateer to the tune of five sacks — it will go a long way toward making sure the team returns home with all of its goals intact. “We've got to force them to have third-and-longs,” Kanu said. “We've got to stop them on first and second down. That's really the mindset we have and we know what we've got to do.” View full news story