Longhorns Confident Heading Into Home Opener With Colorado State

The Longhorns opened as heavy favorites over the Rams. They are not taking Coiorado State lightly. They had a solid week of practice. They are good to go on Saturday.

Texas Longhorns Head football coach Steve Sarkisian during the first fall football camp practice for the Texas Longhorns at Denius Fields on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. / Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK

University of Texas coach Steve Sarkisian strolled into his press conference on Thursday very cool, calm and collected. He is very comfortable with his Longhorns going to do battle with the Colorado State Rams on Saturday night in Austin.

He likes how his fourth-ranked Longhorns have been practicing this week. He has deemed them ready to go.

“We’ve had three really good practices in a row. I commended the team, I think the intent, the attention to detail, the speed in which we practiced with and most notably on Tuesday and Wednesday, the physicality that we practiced with was really encouraging going into a first game,” Sarkisian said.

Colorado State is coming in as a heavy underdog. This is a perfect game for a team, a highly-ranked team such as Texas to take their opponent lightly. Sarkisian said he saw no indication of them loafing around this week.

Texas Longhorns Quinn Ewers during the first fall football camp practice for the Texas Longhorns at Denius Fields on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. / Ricardo B. Brazziell/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK

“Thoroughly impressed with the way these guys worked here this week, and naturally, we know we’ve got a really good cleanup day tomorrow, but proud of the way they’ve prepared and put ourselves, I think, in a really good position to go out and perform Saturday,” Sarkisian said.

Sarkisian discussed how the defense has performed in practice. They have done well in meetings by learning the formations and the tendencies of the Rams offense. The Longhorns are well-versed in Colorado State's offensive formations. They understand the schemes as if they were their own.

“They know their system really well. And then, because when you know your system well, they know the answers to the test when you try to give them a different look. So I think it’s important for us to be tighter in coverage, try to affect the quarterback, and then having the ability to mix things up, to try to create a little bit of hesitation,” Sarkisian said.

As for the offense, Sarkisian said Colorado State coach Jay Norvell likes to mix his defense and use multiple schemes. Texas' offense is going to have to be prepared for whatever is thrown at them. Quinn Ewers will have to be able to check into different formations to offset the defense they might not have seen on tape.

“The multitude of defenses that they could call that are nowhere on tape, and then what are we going to call to adjust to that, and that’s for myself and the offensive staff,” Sarkisian said when asked what’s at the forefront of his mind heading into gameday.