Steve Sarkisian discusses building culture, program amidst losing streak

Times are currently tough for the Texas football program. On the field, the team is in the midst of a four-game losing streak, three of which they had a double-digit lead in the second half. A couple of incidents have occurred off the field as well, most recently a video of Bo Davis making rounds online.

Steve Sarkisian is trying to rebuild the culture in Austin, even with the losses piling up. The head coach said accountability, from everybody in the program, is the biggest thing he is trying to instill. If there is a little bit of tough love from a teammate or coach, nobody should take anything personally.

“One thing I talk to the players about pretty extensively this morning is getting the players to hear the same message consistently that our job, as coaches — my job as the head coach is to hold our players accountable so that I can put them in the best position so that they can be the best player they can be, so they can be the best teammate they can be, so they can be the best person they can be,” Sarkisian said. “I don’t want our players to misconstrue us being demanding or having constructive criticism as a personal attack. We are trying to do what we can to support them to put them in the best position to have success in whatever one of those three areas.

“Accountability is great when you have it from coach to player, player to coach, player to player, coach to coach,” Sarkisian continued. “Like I said, the one thing we are really trying to work on in our locker room is player to player and that’s where the leadership is really going to step up.”

Sarkisian mentioned everybody needs to be accountable to each other, no matter their role in the team. Player to player is the biggest concern at the moment for him but said everybody across the board is looking to improve.

Steve Sarkisian’s second message

Understanding why everybody in the program chose Texas is also important to Sarkisian. The players and coaches all decided they wanted to be the group to turn around the Longhorns. Embracing their decision and being able to “charge forward” is also a part of the head coaches’ message.

“The biggest key to it all is making sure our guys understand what we’re here for and why we’re here with them,” Sarkisian said. “I think the other side of it is, there’s a life of a competitor here, right?

“We chose to play college football, we chose to coach at the University of Texas. All of our players chose to come to the University of Texas and play football here. We chose this arena, we chose to be in the environment so that we can be a part of the group that makes Texas football special again. So we have to recognize the arena that we’re in, embrace the arena, and then we got to charge and charge forward and go for it. I think that’s part of the other message we’re trying to get across to the guys.”

Texas will have the opportunity to end their losing streak with a home matchup against Kansas. However, Sarkisian’s rebuild of the culture will continue throughout the season, no matter the results.