AUSTIN — Texas is coming off a 23-6 win over the Oklahoma Sooners in the Red River Rivalry on Sunday, and it’s left the Longhorns feeling motivated and ready to continue to prove the doubters wrong.

After securing their first major win of the season, the Longhorns have shifted their focus to Kentucky, a team that is still looking for its first conference win and waiting for the chance to attain its first statement win of the season.

As Texas is preparing for the nighttime showdown in Lexington, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke to the media on Thursday and talked about how the Longhorns responded well last week, and are keeping the work up this week.

“This has been an exciting week for us,” Sarkisian said. “Every week poses its own unique challenges and its own unique opportunities. This is a great opportunity for our team this week to really grow and show the maturity that good teams have. All of last week, we heard how lousy we were, our backs were against the wall, we weren’t what everybody thought we were going to be. We went out and practiced really well. We had a great sense of urgency. Guys prepared well. It was a rivalry game. They were really well connected. The sideline engagement was fantastic last Saturday, and we played well. We won.”

The Wildcats are a good team that has been dealing with some struggles, similar to the struggles that the Longhorns were dealing with towards the beginning of the season. They have a good run game, too, something that Texas has struggled with some.

Sarkisian also mentioned how this week is a test, so it’ll be interesting to see how Texas can respond to last week’s victory.

“Now this week is the test of the maturity of the team,” Sarkisian said. “Can we quiet the outside noise again, of everybody saying we’re great again, and Arch is great again, and all these things, and focus on the things that helped us play well? That’s the intent in practice, the preparation, the sense of urgency, the connectivity amongst the team, the sideline engagement on Saturday, our ability to take care of the ball and not give up short fields, our ability to play well at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, our ability to create turnovers defensively. That’s the real test. I love the opportunity for our guys because I really feel like if we can do it again, that’s creating habits, and now that becomes the norm of who we are. That’s been the message all week. I think the guys have responded very well.”

Fans can tune into the game on ESPN when it kicks off at 6 p.m. CT on Saturday.