The Texas Longhorns took a last-minute lead over LSU, scoring a touchdown with just four seconds left in the game.
To give the Tigers their fourth loss of the season, Steve Sarkisian and his No. 6 Longhorns were able to pull off the late win during his first time meeting Lane Kiffin.
Here’s what Kiffin had to say about the last-minute win.
Opening Statement
“Credit Texas for driving down and winning at the end of the game, in a really hard-fought game where both teams played really hard. You know, really disappointing, here to be up by two scores. In the game, and not be able to close it out. Plenty of opportunities, you know, even with all the stuff before them to make all their field goals, they’re like 250-yarders and miss some field goals, and so they lose a one-point game, obviously, any of those points in there and a pretty critical interception, including two red zone interceptions, no points there. You know, because in a lot of areas, they can say, hey, we outplayed them to win the game.
“But, again, that’s not how it works, because I’m gonna work that way. And so just disappointed for, you know, our players, our fans, you know, that, you know, game comes down to one play, and it’s all a hard place through the game, and we just don’t run out, cover the guy, and make them play really easy, and they walk their hands on, so… It’s very discouraging, kind of like the last play in Kentucky, that so much comes down to one thing, and there it is, and, you know, I go a lot better when I gotta work from the plays. You know, or missing out for a guy’s better than… Obviously, we’re disappointed,” said Kiffin
The Final Play
Question: What’s it, a miscommunication on that last play, or who should have covered?
“Yeah, I mean, obviously, Davhon (Keys) had him, so, you know…” said Kiffin.
Question: Coach, do you have opportunities to put this game away in the fourth quarter tonight? I’m just curious: you move all so well most of the night, and then it just couldn’t really matter. You think that’s, like, a lack of depth or maybe conservative play calling? Like, what do you think changed?
“Well, there’s a little bit of concern in this in there on compass, you know, because we are playing to our defense during the game. I was really kind of okay. It may go like that, when we get to lead; like, let’s lean on our defense. Let’s not, and if you’re throwing 3 interceptions, we’re not gonna force a lot of balls, you know, those times you also gotta, I understand it doesn’t work. Obviously, it’s always a question, but throwing three interceptions, are you really gonna keep trying to force the ball downfield or be a little conservative when your defensive play really well, which game plan was, you know, if the game gets like that, you know, let’s really try to pressure Arch and see if he can beat us,” said Kiffin.
Message From The Game
Question: What’s the message? What do you say to a team, in back-to-back weeks? They took compromising positions; they were bending, and bending, and then finally breaking the time of the game.
“I felt this was a little different than the week before. You know, I kind of planned that this might happen when we play a game like this. No, I’m just gonna think we’ll throw three interceptions, or maybe it will be a low-scoring game, and we’ll play their defense. They have a great defense, great defensive players, and, um, so I thought maybe it would kind of be like this where, you know, let’s not reach out and do try too much, and, um, you know, play to our defense. And so that’s what we did. And almost, you know, worked, and made play at the end, so it didn’t. The week before, I needed much more compromising positions. than we had to go for it late, you know, a week before,” said Kiffin.
Question: You’ve had some different kinds of losses, where, obviously, the type you talked about this one, and that was, is that you’ve been as close as you have, or do you still feel kind of far away?
“Now, um, it’d be a lot worse if it wasn’t like this; we’re sitting in here and, you know, they beat us by 4 scores or something, and, you know, I really wouldn’t have any answers for it. Besides, we go long ways to go. Again. I don’t overreact; yes, we need to win games, but I also don’t overreact that we covered a guy around the last plate, one, or that fumble comes out a second earlier, whatever. We’re in here; none of these questions are happening. And, you know, like, man, what a great job, man, you guys played your defense today, and, um, you know, really what an awesome way to really finish, you know, when the players understand how to finish. So I get it. I get my questions, but I also know that one play difference and then none of these questions happen. So that’s part of understanding coaching and how it works. But you’d be getting those questions if, you know, you weren’t ahead by 2 scores and, you know, you were getting run out of here,” said Kiffin.
Interceptions Issue
Question: Have you ever seen so many just-missed opportunities and mistakes in the red zone, and how do you explain these interceptions that are thrown in the end zone?
“Yeah, I mean, poor decisions. Um, we remember; they’ll tell you the same thing, you know? You gotta… not force it. You gotta throw it away. You know, not handle any points,” said Kiffin.
Special Teams Unit
Question: Do you think special teams are going to be a concern this year, and are you surprised at your inability to, I guess, flip the field anytime?
“Yeah, I think, you know, coming in, it’s joined in analytics, you know, offensively, on the most rankings, offense made defense, who are top ten. And I think we’re… we’re already rated, I think, but 104 on special teams. So, it does tell you also that we got to do a better job of doing depth, you know? We’re going into our second year, so we play better, especially, where it shows up, and you have good players at the top. But, you know, your deficiencies are at the bottom; that shows up on special teams and coverage, returning us, and I think that imagining a team in the country is such a glaring effort; it’s two top-10 offensive compasses, especially over a hundred,” said Kiffin.
Program Outlook
Question: Lane, obviously, you were brought here to win games, with high expectations, despite this being your first year. So how do you just sell this to the fan base? I know it’s disappointing, but you still have a way to go.
“I get it, you know, but we’re also down on, you know, a final drive, one play, two in there, whatever, 10 seconds away from winning. So, but I get it; you can come here and take games to the last flight. It’s a really good Texas team. Um, and, you know, I think where you can see the ways to go to be a dominant team, not have to play teams as close as, you know, continue to build the program, build depth, and so then you’re playing better on special teams. You got more backups to put in, but I get it. I beat this too. You know? We lost. It doesn’t really matter that there are seven seconds from winning,” said Kiffin.
Question: Just overall, from a big-picture standpoint, the year’s not over, but do you feel like you guys have enough foundational pieces to build where you also want to be looking towards the future?
“Oh, yeah, I’m not concerned about that at all. I’m concerned that we lost. I’m not concerned about the future. I said it weeks before, when we were winning, you know, that we’ll have better rosters, and that’s no horrible reflection on these players. We just will. We will have been here, we’ll build, doubt, in depth; we will, we won’t have senior days with these scholarship players, you know,” said Kiffin.
Question: Expectations are, obviously, external, but how do you evaluate this season with four losses already given, kind of the investment of the program and with you arriving?
“Yeah. Fair Question. On your performance, you know, it doesn’t matter if the game’s been close, or they go down to the last, whatever, six seconds. I was brought here to win, and we need to win more than that. And also, everything isn’t built for the first year. When you come in somewhere, I would tell you that if we were undefeated right now. You build things, and they take a little bit of time to get, I’m not saying to necessarily win, we should be winning, but to get things where your roster is. Um, like, those guys (Texas), you know, watch, warm-ups… These guys have done a great job of building a team, size, and backups, special teams, players. And didn’t look like that his first year,” said Kiffin.
Question: What kind of players do you think we have in that locker room in terms of moving forward? And how do you think they’ll take ownership in the last couple of games?
“Yeah, again, I think, as I said, if you think about those questions, which all come right now, which are totally fair, I don’t overreact to be like, man, we don’t have, like, players that care, you know, because, you know, the Legos, their game against the top 10 team goes down in the last 10 seconds. And really, a game that we throw 3 interceptions, we go 2 for 5 in the red zone. We don’t think the field goal. They make all their field goals, and we still are right there with the lead, and then. So I think that says that the players made a lot of plays throughout the game in order to do that. We just made some really critical poor ones. So the next two games, well, you and your staff really focus on, um, to get the most out of the next 2 weeks now; you probably don’t have to worry about the playoffs. Same as before, but I’ve been very different. You know, we gotta go back to work. Find ways to perform better, the next few better, and the players play the best they can,” said Kiffin.
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