Steve Sarkisian: All of Texas' season goals, from the Big 12 to CFP, are still possible

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian's weekly press conference has come and gone. The Longhorns, coming off a big 34-30 loss to Oklahoma, are off this week. But that only means there's not a game on Saturday. The work continues, Sarkisian said.

Here are some takeaways from today's presser:

And on the 7th week, they rested

The open week comes at a good time. Tight end Ja'Tavion Sanders, center Jake Majors and cornerback Ryan Watts all are injured, so this week helps in working to get them back on the field. The Longhorns spent their Monday practice recapping the Oklahoma game and talking about where they're at right now and where they are moving forward. Texas will practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then the coaches will spread out and hit high school football games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday to recruit.

More: How Texas graded out in our Longhorns report card from the OU loss

Texas' 2024 class is currently ranked No. 16 in the nation, per 247Sports' composite ratings, with 18 commitments, topped by five-star tackle Brandon Baker from California and five-star edge rusher/linebacker Colin Simmons from Duncanville.

The coaches will be back in Austin on Sunday to regroup, and regular game-week practices resume next Monday.

Injury updates: we'll know more next week

The status of Majors and Watts will be clearer next Monday, Sarkisian said. And Sanders' as well. They won't practice this week as they try to get right. "We're going to hold those guys this week and try to get them as healthy as we can," he said.

Sark said Sanders, who did play Saturday but finished with just one catch and gave way to No. 2 tight end Gunnar Helm, was not on a pitch count/set number of plays against the Sooners. Sarkisian said the goal was to monitor how Sanders was moving out there, and that he warmed up for a bit, then saw Helm take over that lead role.

"It wasn't so much an actual number (of plays for Sanders), it was just monitoring how he was playing in the moment," Sarkisian said.

More: The American-Statesman's 160-page hardcover book will detail Texas' Big 12 era

Losing Majors hurt. Texas' regular backup center is Cole Hutson, who also wasn't available because of an injury, and Connor Robertson was thrust into his first significant playing time. He was hit and miss on Saturday. "Sure, there are plays he would like to do a little bit better and he had a flinch (false start) on the ball. But his snaps were good and he communicated relatively well at the line of scrimmage," Sarkisian said.

Robertson ended up playing 74 snaps. "In a game, in that environment for his first real action, that was pretty good," he said.

Thanks to the ankle injury, Sanders had one catch for 13 yards against the Sooners and one catch for 10 yards the previous week against Kansas. Despite those numbers, he's still Texas' third-leading receiver on the season with 291 receiving yards.

Red River redux

Sarkisian opened his presser with a recap of the OU loss, both the good and the bad.

First, the good:

∙ Sarkisian was happy with the successful fake punt, with Kitan Crawford's blocked punt that Malik Muhammad recovered for a touchdown, with Bert Auburn's 3-for-3 showing on field goals as well as his clutch 47-yarder to take the late lead, and also Texas' "competitiveness, resiliency, grit and fight even when we weren't at our best."

And the bad:

∙ Texas' three turnovers were a factor, he said, though not necessarily because of OU points that came off them (the Sooners scored one touchdown off the three turnovers) but in terms of drive killers and momentum turns; Texas' nine penalties ("That's out of character for us") that included pre-snap miscues, a roughing the punter and a late hit; getting only 3 points out of three red zone trips; and ending the first half and the game not able to get defensive stops.

Our own Kirk Bohls asked about the Sooners' goal-line stand. Sarkisian was quick to summarize his feelings:

Kirk: "The four tries from the 1—"

Sark: "That sucked."

Still, Sarkisian summed up the loss this way: "If that's our worst, we're gonna be OK."

Taking care of business

... which brings us to the big question: what will this second half of the season look like and play out for Texas?

Consider this: the loss to OU removed that hope that Texas, which was No. 3 in the country and right on the heels of No. 2 Michigan, would make it through the season without a loss. But the Horns' path to a College Football Playoff invitation is still there. To secure that, Texas needs to repeat OU's 2018 season when the Sooners lost a heartbreaker to Texas in October on Cameron Dicker's game-winning field goal but then won out, earned a rematch with Texas in the Big 12 championship game, beat the Longhorns in December and got that CFP bid as Big 12 champions.

That, Texas can still do. Four of the last six games are against teams currently in the bottom half of the Big 12 standings — 2-3 Houston, 4-1 BYU, 3-2 Kansas State and 3-3 TCU. There's also a Nov. 18 road trip to 3-3 Iowa State and the regular-season finale at home against 3-3 Texas Tech the day after Thanksgiving. Texas will be favored to win in all six of those games.

"Everything we wanted out of our season is in front of us right now," Sarkisian said "We gotta go take care of our business. ... Those goals still remain because they're reality. Now more than ever. There are no divisions in the Big 12; the two best teams go to play for the championship and we control that. Naturally no one likes to lose a game, but we gotta handle our business and we're more than capable of doing that."

Texcetera

Texas' next game is Oct. 21 at Houston. TV and kickoff times were announced today: it's a Fox game that starts at 3 p.m. ... Texas fell six spots in this week's AP poll, from No. 3 to No. 9.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas football to spend this off week regrouping, getting healthy