DALLAS — Texas coach Steve Sarkisian defended Arch Manning on Saturday after the quarterback threw two fourth-quarter interceptions in the No. 1 Texas Longhorns’ 27-24 loss to the Oklahoma Sooners at the Cotton Bowl. Tate Sandell kicked a 47-yard field goal as time expired, 19 seconds after Courtland Guillory intercepted Manning at the Oklahoma 39.
Sarkisian said Texas has to run the ball better so the offense does not fall on Manning’s shoulders.
“I think Arch competed his tail off and he made some tremendous plays, to the shots down the field, to the drives when we had to have them,” Sarkisian said. “He’s made a lot of plays scrambling out of the pocket. And he went to make a play and the ball gets intercepted on the one they run back. And I think, you can ask him, but I think as the competitor in him, he’d love to have that back, but he was competing. And so there’s the fine line there.”
“Again, the last play of the game for him, they called a good defense. He tried to make a heck of a throw,” Sarkisian continued. “It was bang-bang, and their kid made a really good play. And you can’t take that away from their guys when they make plays too. So, again, I thought there was a level of confidence, consistency, and rhythm in which he was throwing the ball. We’ve got to continue to run the ball better so it’s not all on his shoulders of when he’s got to throw it to go make all these plays for us.”
Manning finished 19-of-31 for 261 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions. His touchdown passes covered 41 yards to Cam Coleman, 34 yards to Ryan Wingo, and 15 yards to Jermaine Bishop Jr., the last of which tied the game 24-24 with 6:32 left. Peyton Bowen returned the first interception 42 yards for a touchdown with 10:07 left. It was the first pick-six of Manning’s career.
Guillory, a Klein Oak graduate, made the second interception on an Oklahoma blitz with Texas at the Oklahoma 49, 15 yards from field goal range. Manning said afterward he was trying to extend the play on the first one and missed Coleman high.
Steve Sarkisian Says Texas Cannot Put ‘All The Pressure’ On Arch Manning
Texas entered 4-0 with wins over Texas State, Ohio State, UTSA, and Tennessee, and it had beaten Tennessee 20-17 before its bye week. The Longhorns were 7.5-point favorites Saturday. Sarkisian said the issues Texas has been working on showed up against a quality team.
“First of all, credit to Oklahoma. That was a nice win for them,” Sarkisian explained. “They battled, they competed, they hung around, they made the plays that they needed to make at some critical moments to get the victory. So congratulations to them. As far as we go, you get a blocked punt for a touchdown, you throw an interception for a touchdown. You get off the field on defense multiple times. You get penalties. You give people chances to hang around in games, and they took advantage of it and ultimately won the game.”
Sarkisian Says Texas’ Problems ‘Rear Their Ugly Head’
“And so for us, there’s obviously a level of disappointment,” Sarkisian continued. “There’s a level of anger and frustration because we know we have issues that need to be fixed, and we’re working on those issues and trying to get them fixed. But they rear their ugly head today against a quality team, and that’s what happens in this conference. If you expose yourself to these errors, good teams in our conference are going to take advantage of them and you get beat, and that’s exactly what happened today.”
Texas led 17-7 at halftime and did not score in the third quarter. Oklahoma scored on a blocked punt by Danny Okoye, Bowen’s interception return, and a 2-yard run by Lloyd Avant, and it did not commit a turnover. Gianni Spetic missed a 53-yard field goal that would have given Texas the lead with 1:54 left.
Texas faced fourth-and-2 at the Oklahoma 35 on that drive. Sarkisian said the decision came down to whether he trusted the fourth-down call more than Spetic.
“The factor was did I think we had a really good play call or not that could get us the first down,” Sarkisian said. “We had had a couple third-and-shorts earlier that we didn’t convert. One on kind of a keeper with Arch that they defended well. Another was on an interior run that they defended well. So it was like, well, do we have enough confidence in what we had up that I felt like we were going to call to get the first down?”
“Also, did I feel like Gianni could make the kick? And I watched him in pregame, and it wasn’t about distance,” Sarkisian added. “I thought he hit it well. He just missed it right. And then you’re looking at the clock and the situation in the game. You start playing all the factors in, and I felt like the smart play was to kick the field goal. And so that’s why we decided that’s what we did.”
Texas also had a punt blocked for a touchdown and kicked its opening kickoff out of bounds, the second straight week it sent a kickoff out.
“I feel like we’ve missed some opportunities on special teams, quite frankly,” Sarkisian said. “I feel like we’ve had a couple return opportunities that we didn’t get. Clearly it’s two weeks in a row we’ve kicked the ball out of bounds on kickoffs. We’re better than that.”
“And so I’ve got to find a way to get our guys playing with more confidence from a specialist standpoint,” Sarkisian detailed. “And, again, that’s my job to try to get that done.”
Texas punted on all 3 of its third-quarter possessions and went three-and-out after Oklahoma tied the game 17-17.
“I don’t think we’re lacking confidence,” Sarkisian said. “I think there’s a ton of belief in what we’re doing. I think we saw some of the explosive playmaking ability that we can have on this offense. We saw that today, different guys making plays. But we’ve got to find a way to do that with a level of consistency, and I know I’ve been using that word here recently. And again, that’s my job, that’s my job to try to figure that out, to make sure that we’re putting our guys on offense in the best position to have that confidence, that belief, so that we can play a more consistent brand of football.”
Earlier in the week, Sarkisian pointed to last season, when Texas came into the game 3-2 and unranked after a loss at Florida and beat sixth-ranked Oklahoma 23-6.
“We were in the same situation a year ago,” Sarkisian said Oct. 6. “We were just coming off losing to Florida. We were a two-loss team. We were a desperate football team and found a way to win and played a really good second half. So we know what it is.”
Sarkisian also said that week the game tends to turn on fundamentals more than its reputation.
“As much as we want to talk about the emotions of the game, as much as we want to talk about the trick plays or the craziness that can happen in this game, it generally comes back to the things that are important to football,” Sarkisian said.
‘We’re Not Dead’: Sarkisian Turns Attention To Texas’ SEC Schedule
Texas has seven SEC games left, beginning with three straight at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium against Florida on Oct. 17, Ole Miss on Oct. 24, and Mississippi State on Oct. 31. The Longhorns then play at Missouri on Nov. 7 and at LSU on Nov. 14, host Arkansas on Nov. 21, and close at Texas A&M on Nov. 27.
Sarkisian closed his opening statement on the response he expects.
“There’s a level, like I said, a level of frustration, a level of disappointment, a level of anger, but also a level of optimism knowing we can get these things fixed and we’ve got a long season to go, a long way to go,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve got a good football team. So we’re not dead. We’re going to be OK. We’ll get back up off the mat. I never questioned the competitive spirit of these guys or the guys in that locker room, and I think that showed again today, and that competitive spirit will show up again next Saturday.”
Defensive lineman Hero Kanu, who joined Sarkisian and Manning at the podium, said the season is not over and Texas cannot stay stuck on this one. Sarkisian pointed to that answer later.
“What gives me confidence is a competitive spirit in that locker room, the connectivity in that locker room,” Sarkisian said. “They’re obviously disappointed. They’re frustrated. They wanted to win today more than anybody, believe me. But I also know that they recognize we’ve got a long season ahead of us. You heard Hero say exactly that. There’s a lot of football left to be played in the Southeastern Conference. We’ve got some big-time opponents coming up.”
“But the competitive spirit of these guys is what gives me the confidence to know we’ll get up off the mat,” Sarkisian noted. “We’ll be ready to play next week.”
The Florida Gators lost 38-19 to South Carolina on Saturday. Florida beat Texas 29-21 in Gainesville on Oct. 4, 2025. Kickoff in Austin is set for 11 a.m. CT on ABC or ESPN.
