“Couldn’t Get Out of Our Own Way:” Sarkisian’s 11/14 Press Points

Keeping with the common lay of the land, Texas HC Steve Sarkisian gave a quick recap on his thoughts from Saturday’s 17-10 loss to TCU. He first thanked the fans for the “fantastic atmosphere” that they created and then touched on how well the defense played “against a very explosive offense.” Offensively, Sarkisian stated how they “just didn’t play well… we all just kind of took our turns to where we couldn’t get out of our own way and I think at times we showed a little bit of our immaturity, a little bit of our youth…”

Moving to the overall theme of today’s conference, Sarkisian was asked persistently about the offense, its struggle to put up points in the 2nd half of games, the inconsistency in QB Quinn Ewers and much more. Here’s a breakdown: starting with the overall passing game, Sarkisian stated that it’s about “precision, timing and execution…” and says how they have to “overall execute better in the passing game, but overall, collectively, we need to execute better offensively.” Focusing on the running backs, Sarkisian was asked if he was comfortable giving Bijan Robinson and Roschon a heavy workload. His response: “We just did it two weeks ago. So very comfortable”. When asked about his thoughts on Ewers footwork and mechanics, Sarkisian simply stated “he is doing a nice job.” When asked about Quinn reading the field, he responded by mentioning how the offense is “all progression-based” and how he wants keep working the shot’s down field to “loosen up things in the run game.” Later on, Sark was asked for names of who he thought played “winning football” offensively on Saturday. His one answer was WR Jordan Whittington as he was “providing a spark for us [Texas] offensively… really bounced back the other night and played well.” 

Shifting gears to Kansas, Sarkisian mentioned how it’s a “very meaningful game against a very good opponent.” He pointed out how they are “running the ball extremely well” and how Kansas HC Lance Leipold “has done a great job.” Looking at the offense, he stated how they use “a very unique style of offense with a lot of triple option components… they still force you to play discipline football…” Overall, Sarkisian states it’s a “great challenge for us [Texas].” 

The Longhorns will try to not only get redemption from Saturday’s loss to TCU but also from the loss to the Jayhawks themselves last year in Austin. Can the Longhorns keep their Big 12 championship hopes alive, or will Kansas pull off the upset for the second straight year?