AUSTIN — The Texas Longhorns beat the Oklahoma Sooners 23-6 on Saturday in the Red River Rivalry, and they did so while looking like a new and improved team, considering what we saw in the 29-22 loss to Florida the week prior.

It was a performance in which the offense was firing on all cylinders, with quarterback Arch Manning looking more mature and poised than he has all season. Meanwhile, the defense looked championship-caliber again.

Although the team looked great, there were still some issues to be found around the field. Head coach Steve Sarkisian pointed out how Texas will need to continue to improve as the Longhorns move down the stretch.

“We had aspects of our team that were experienced,” Sarkisian said. “We had other aspects of our team that were inexperienced. And so we have to continue to grow. As I said, my goal is that we’re playing our best football at the end of November and into December, right? That’s the goal. But we have to work towards that. We have to continually try to improve. We aren’t a finished product today. We weren’t a finished product a month ago. We’re not going to be a finished product next week. But if everybody’s striving to improve, if everybody’s trying to get better at whatever we’re asking of them, then we will get better collectively as a team.”

He then went on to give credit where it was due and speak about how the team is headed in the right direction.

“Like I said last week, we didn’t have time for the poor me’s,” Sarkisian said. “What we had time for was trying to improve and trying to get better as a team, and a credit to a lot of phases of our team, we did. And you know, to me, the most telling thing where we’re at now is we created three turnovers defensively. We had zero turnovers on offense. And so the fact that three-nothing in the turnover margin, that’s a huge indicator for us that we’re moving in the right direction. We’re attacking the ball defensively, we’re taking care of it on offense, and that’s a formula that you can rely on, while other aspects of your team continue to get better.”

Hopefully, we’ll continue to see improvements from Sarkisian and Texas throughout the rest of the season, but especially on Saturday, as the Longhorns will have to face a Kentucky team in Lexington at night.

The Wildcats will still be searching for their first win of conference play, so they’ll be looking for any opportunity to take control of the game, and the Longhorns will need to ensure that doesn’t happen.

Fans can tune into Texas’ attempts to keep the Wildcats at bay on Saturday when it kicks off at 6 p.m. CT and airs on ESPN.