No. 2 Texas Longhorns get much-needed week off after winning SEC opener

No. 2 Texas heads into bye week 5-0

Fresh off of winning their SEC opener, the undefeated Texas Longhorns get a much-needed week off.

AUSTIN, Texas - Fresh off of winning their SEC opener, the undefeated Texas Longhorns get a much-needed week off.

Life is good for the No. 2 ranked Longhorns heading into the bye week.

"There's nothing like going into a bye (week) coming off of a win as an undefeated team," said head coach Steve Sarkisian.

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As for Sark's off-week to-do list…

"The biggest thing for me is the mentality of our team. I challenged them really hard this morning about what this bye week was gonna be about, how we were gonna try to improve as a team, how we're gonna get better," said Sark. "But also get fresh, get healthy."

That goes double for QB1 Quinn Ewers, who missed the last 2.5 games with a strained oblique.

"I think he's been making steady progress from one day to the next, which is a good sign. We haven't had any setbacks. I think he's getting stronger and more comfortable and more confident,"
said Sark.

And then there is the mental side of Ewer's recovery. He has shown in previous injury rehabs that he can stay locked in while sidelined and hit the ground running in his first game back. And, it sounds like Sark and his staff have something to do with that.

"I think it starts right when they get injured. Most notably, at quarterback, when he gets injured, we want to pull him in even tighter, we want to pull him in even closer. When we're at practice, Quinn is engaged, he's in every meeting, he's talking about the game-plan. Friday night, when we go through the call sheet for the quarterbacks, he's talking about different things. On Saturday, he's wearing the earpieces, so we keep him engaged on that front," said Sark. "And if he's gonna play, I've already kinda listed out 10, 15, maybe 20 things that I think he feels really good about, and we'll probably go in that direction if he's gonna play so he's running stuff that he's had success with throughout the week."

The Texas Longhorns have a bye week this week, and get ready for the Red River Showdown against OU on Saturday, Oct. 12.