Texas’ two most successful teams of the 21st century — the 2005 national champions and the 2009 team that fell in the BCS Championship to Alabama — ranked eighth and 11th in the nation, respectively, in scoring defense.

Coach Steve Sarkisian made clear during his Saturday postgame press conference that if the 2023 Longhorns are going to approach those heights, success will likely lead back to a stingy defensive unit.

“I think the majority of the people that walked into the stadium thought that game was going to go a certain way, when in reality, our defense played a fantastic football game,” Sarkisian said. “There’s not always a lot of talk about how good we are defensively.”

JT Daniels led Rice on a 13-play, 62-yard touchdown drive that ate up nine minutes and 24 seconds of the fourth quarter clock. The issue for the Owls was that it was just their second score in over 52 minutes of game time.

Here’s what the Rice offense did between its short field, first-quarter field goal, and the fourth-quarter touchdown drive: punt, punt, interception, interception, punt, punt, turnover on downs, punt, fumble.

The Owls managed only 95 offensive yards through the first three quarters Saturday.

David Gbenda and Ethan Burke combined for a pair of sacks, Jaylan Ford collected his fifth interception over 14 games played since the start of last season, Austin Jordan recorded his first career interception, and Jett Bush recovered a fumble.

“To be plus-three on the year after Week 1, that’s a huge win for us,” Sarkisian said. “That’s something that we have circled and highlighted in every team meeting in here about, ‘That’s going to be the difference in our season.’”

The coach said he would like to see the team average about two takeaways a game this season. If the Longhorns can manage that, the 49-year-old Sarkisian believes they’re going to put themselves in a position to be postseason contenders.

“At the end of the day, to go win a championship, you’ve got to play great defense. And we started off on the right foot today,” Sarkisian said.

Sarkisian admits that while the defensive line exhibited much of the same dominant play it did throughout training camp in helping contain Rice to 1.1 yards per carry Saturday, there remains room for improvement.

“I’m sure we’re going to watch the tape and find some things for growth. I know this: Our rush lanes probably need to improve, where a little more elusive quarterback may have had some more yards in there when he pulled it down and ran it,” Sarkisian said.

It’s difficult to get a read on where exactly Texas’ Week 2 opponent, Alabama, stands offensively at the moment, given the Crimson Tide’s season opener came against Middle Tennessee State, which finished 83rd in scoring defense a year ago.

But redshirt sophomore Jalen Milroe sure looked sharp in his starting debut. The 6-foot-2 signal-caller completed 13 of 18 attempts for 194 yards and three passing touchdowns, adding 48 rushing yards and two rushing scores on seven attempts during the 56-7 win. He was pulled in the third quarter with the Crimson Tide leading 42-0.

Quick Hitters

A couple of closing points as Texas shifts focus to its road trip to Tuscaloosa:

CJ Baxter injury status

Baxter exited Saturday’s win after tearing off a 32-yard run to open up a 7–play, 36-yard Texas scoring drive early in the second quarter. After the game, Sarkisian commented on the running back’s status in saying:

“I think, what it looked like, is he landed on the ball and kind of had a rib issue that we just wanted to make sure we were getting checked out. So, I’m hopeful it’s not serious but we don’t know for sure yet.”

O-line update

Asked about DJ Campbell’s performance at right guard in Saturday’s season opener, Sarkisian said, “DJ, I thought played pretty well, again from the naked eye. You know, this was pretty challenging from a weather perspective. Obviously, I think everybody saw guys kind of starting to cramp up late there. And I think DJ withstood that, playing probably the most football he’s played in his time here.”

On Cole Hutson, Sarkisian said the sophomore offensive lineman got nicked up during the practice week. “We held him today,” the coach said toward the end of Saturday’s press conference. “I want to make sure he’s healthy moving forward in the season.”

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