Nothing helps a quarterback get his confidence back like a strong running game.

By moving the chains on the ground, the quarterback won’t feel as much pressure to make big throws.

Texas struggled on the ground last week against Georgia but carved out some running room Saturday against No. 25 Vanderbilt.

Quintrevion Wisner wore a green jersey all week at practice, indicating he was off limits from full contact. But Wisner had no problems running between the tackles in Nashville. He pounded out 79 yards on 17 carries, averaging 4.6 yards per clip.

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“I used this week to take a lot of mental reps and just lock in on a lot of little details that the coaches were pointing out,” Wisner said. “So just going through the week, I just knew if I was going to play in this game, I was going to give him my all, play on my heart, just be behind my brothers at all times.”

Not to be outdone, fellow running back Jaydon Blue had 47 yards on 10 carries, meaning he averaged 4.7 yards per attempt.

Wisner and Blue both had individual runs of 20 yards or more. Together, Wisner and Blue helped the Longhorns tally up 104 rushing yards, which isn’t anything to write home about, per se. But it kept the pressure off Ewers and kept the Commodores’ defense honest.

If anything, Texas had way too many penalties that negated critical run plays or potential first downs.

Texas finished with 10 penalties for 108 yards, four more than the team had in rushing.

“Man, we had some really good runs getting called back,” Sarkisian said. “I don’t know how many times we had holding penalties called on 10-yard, 10-plus runs that change your complexion and gives everybody confidence.

“It wasn’t like one guy that was getting them,” he added. “We’ve got to find a way not to go backward, because it’s hard to overcome first-and-20 and second-and-19. We were able to get away with that tonight, but we can’t make a living doing that.”