Booger McFarland calls out coaching issues he has with Steve Sarkisian, Texas

For the second season in a row, head coach Steve Sarkisian has the Texas Longhorns in the College Football Playoff as one of the last four teams standing. It’s been the program’s best run of success since the Mack Brown era and firmly has Texas back among the sport’s top programs.

Despite that, not everyone is thrilled with the job that Sarkisian has done. That includes ESPN’s Booger McFarland, who called out issues, like the team not playing a full 60 minutes, that he’s had with Sarkisian and Texas’ coaching during an appearance on Always College Football.

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“I think some of that has to do with coaching,” Booger McFarland said. “On defense, I can tell how aggressive we’re going to be by the play calls that come into the game. Like, if I’m on defense and we’re sitting in Cover-2, Cover-2, like, what are we doing? But if we’re coming in with single high, man pressure, zone pressure, I can tell that we’re trying to be super aggressive. Same thing goes for offense.”

The Arizona State game Texas is coming off in the Peach Bowl saw the Longhorns jump out to an early 14-3 lead before the Sun Devils fought to get back into the game. During the middle portion of the game, Texas was unable to pull away and it ultimately went into two overtimes.

“When Sark gets a team down 14-0, let’s continue to be aggressive and push the football,” McFarland said. “I’m not saying we’ve got to throw bombs every play, but let’s call plays where we’re trying to get chunk yardage. I think the tone has to be set with the play caller and the tone has to be set with the execution because we give Ohio State a lot of credit by saying, ‘Man, if they play their best football, they can beat them.’ I think the team that can possibly give them a run if they play their best is Texas.”

Now, Sarkisian and Texas are turning their attention to Ohio State for the Cotton Bowl that will double as a College Football Playoff semifinal. The Buckeyes are coming in after two dominant Playoff performances and it’s going to take an excellent effort for 60 minutes to get the win.

“How they can match you up. You look at Texas’ defense. You look at Quinn Ewers,” McFarland said. “You look at the offense…Texas’ offensive line is no slouch. I honestly think that if Ohio State doesn’t quite play to a 10. Let’s say they play to an 8.5 and Texas plays to a 10, I think Texas can no doubt about it win this game.”

The Cotton Bowl is scheduled for Friday, January 10th at 7:30 p.m.