Texas coach Steve Sarkisian went through his normal Friday night routine at the team hotel. At some point the night before each game, he speaks to the team for about 15-20 minutes.

This Friday, Sarkisian said most of his talk was about battling through adversity.

“I think about Jaydon Blue,” Sarkisian said Saturday night. “This guy fought through an ankle injury earlier in the year, fought through some fumbling issues this season, continue to work, continue to fight back. And he has this game tonight.”

Blue unleashed a season’s worth of frustration with a 38-yard touchdown run and a sizzling 77-yard score to cap his best game of the season in Texas’ 38-24 win over Clemson. Blue tallied 146 yards on 14 carries, meaning he averaged 10.4 yards every time he touched the ball.

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“The first thing, I want to give a lot to credit to the guys up front,” Blue said. “Those guys paved the way for me. But we made a big emphasis that we were going to have to run the ball in order to win this game.

“Like I said, I credit these guys. Those guys are the reason that those two touchdowns happened.”

It wasn’t just Blue. Fellow running back Quintrevion Wisner also had 110 yards on 15 carries and scored two touchdowns himself. The Horns finished with a season-high 292 rushing yards to pair with 202 passing yards on a night of balanced offense.

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Third-stringer Jerrick Gibson also got some chances in short-yardage situations. Gibson had 35 yards on nine carries.

“We had to run the football in this game,” Sarkisian said. “In their three losses, the teams that ran it well against them had the most success.”

All of this happened with Texas calling on two backup offensive linemen, too.

Right tackle Cam Williams and Wisner both got injured on the same play — a slow-developing screen play that got blown up in the second quarter. Williams came back into the game for one play but was pulled back by the training staff. Wisner was seen riding a stationary bike off and on throughout the balance of the game.

Then on the next play from scrimmage, Quinn Ewers’ pass bounced off DeAndre Moore Jr.’s hands and went for an interception. On the return, Clemson’s Tre Williams was flagged for a personal foul on a blindside block on center Jake Majors.

Hayden Conner moved from guard to center, backup Cole Hutson went in at guard and backup Trevor Goosby went in at right tackle.

Majors was cleared to go back into the game, according to Sarkisian. Williams will have an MRI to gauge his availability for the Arizona State game in the Peach Bowl.

It was a next-man-up mentality for the Horns. No matter who was in the game, the offense kept rolling.

“It all starts in practice,” Blue said. “Like I said coming into this week, we made an emphasis that we were going to have to run the ball in order to win this game, and the O-line and us in the backfield took a lot of pride in working on that, so we'd be able to run the ball effectively.”