Everything head coach Steve Sarkisian said after Texas' win over Vanderbilt

Texas football (7-1, 3-1 SEC) bounced back from its first loss of the season with a 27-24 win over No. 25 Vanderbilt (5-3, 2-2 SEC) in Nashville.

Steve Sarkisian and No. 5 Texas football notch their first SEC win on the road vs. No. 25 Vanderbilt

This is an intriguing game to dissect from a Texas point of view.

The Longhorns accomplished their ultimate goal: a win. However, this game never felt comfortable for the No. 5 team in the country.

Texas fell in an early 7-0 hole after Vanderbilt turned an early Quinn Ewers deflected interception into an 18-yard Diego Pavia touchdown run. Ewers responded as well as you could have asked, completing his subsequent 18 passes as the Horns took a 21-10 lead into the break.

The second half was more of a trudge for the Texas offense, which gained just 142 yards of total offense while averaging 3.9 yards per play. Another deflected interception from Ewers late in the third quarter set Vandy up for another short-field touchdown.

The only Commodore drive over 43 yards was their eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive at the end of the game when Texas defense mostly stayed in a shell. In other words, this defense is still elite.

If it had not been for the untimely deflected interceptions, the Horns would have won this game going away. They outgained the Commodores 392-269 and finished 9-15 on third down compared to Vanderbilt's 3-12 mark.

Red zone defense and penalties will be the two areas discussed most over the next two weeks of practice.

The Commodores have one of the best red zone offenses in the country, proving that again on Saturday. Vanderbilt scored three touchdowns on three red zone trips. As for the penalties, Texas was flagged 10 times for 108 yards. Sure, there were some questionable calls, but you cannot leave these things up to the discretion of the officials.

Texas fans can't complain too much as head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Horns move to 7-0 following a loss since 2022. Here is everything Coach Sark said after the win.

On the win:

"This weeks are not easy. When you get so emotionally invested into a game like we were last week, and then you don't play your best, it's tough. It's tough on coaches and a team to rebound."

"I thought this was a culture and toughness win tonight."

"I am proud of the way [the players] handled adversity tonight. We knew it was going to take 60 minutes against this style of team. It's always. It's always good to get a road win."

"Some players to highlight ... DeAndre Moore with heck of a game all the way until the end of recovering the onside kick. I though Silas Bolden showed up. His opportunities increased with some guys getting nicked up. Tre Wisner with a great game. I thought Jahdae Barron showed up defensively with some key third down break-ups. And Michael Taaffe, again, just continues to play at a really high level for us."

On the defense:

"We made it a point to go attack the football defensively. They only had two turnovers on the year coming into the game, so to go force three turnovers, I thought was huge for us."

"Our defense is defending the run at a really high level, and I thought it showed up tonight."

"Where I've been impressed is what we've been able to do in the backend and our ability to defend the pass."

"Our ability to create turnovers has been really starting to elevate itself and I think we are playing with a lot of confidence."

On the play of Quinn Ewers:

"I love the response Quinn had after the tip-ball interceptions. Who he is, just super impressed by him."

"[The interception] is not [Quinn's] fault. It's not anyone's fault. Sometimes balls get tipped."

"I thought he played a really good football game tonight and made some really critical throws on third downs for explosive plays. I thought he took advantageous throws when he had them on the perimeter. Used his legs a couple times effectively."

"I don't think there was a sliver of doubt in his mind. It was bad luck. He made a great read, ball got tipped up for an interception. He came right back out, believed in his preparation and plan, and really executed at a very high level tonight."

"If he plays like that the rest of the year, we are going to be okay."

On the penalties:

"The ten penalties. They were all big penalties. It was holding penalties, DPI's, and obviously the roughing the passer."

"Those penalties led to points and/or took points off the board for us, so something we have to clean up."

"We had some really good runs getting called back. I don't know how many times we had holding penalties on 10+ yard runs that change your complexion and confidence."

"I got to look at all the holds. It wasn't one guy tonight that was getting them. Kelvin had one, I know Gunnar had one. We have to find ways not to go backward. It is hard to overcome first and 19 or second and 20."

On the upcoming bye week and going forward:

"We need the bye. Obviously, we're banged up a bit, especially at a couple spots where we are going to need to get some people healthy for this third phase of our season coming up."

"I am proud we are able to get to this juncture of the season at 7-1. I know that these next four games are going to be very challenging. They are all good football teams that we're going to have to take on one at a time."

"There is going to be some physical fatigue the last four games will tax us with, but it's the mental focus that is needed. We'll address a lot of that next week throughout the bye to get us in position to go [finish the season strong]."

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