Steve Sarkisian shares how he keeps motivation during Texas's struggles

Steve Sarkisian and his Texas Longhorns came up short at home on Saturday to TCU, 17-10. That loss to their Big 12 conference rival eliminated them from contention for the Big 12 title. Although the results of that game and its lingering effects are a bummer; it’s not what Sarkisian is using as a measuring stick for his team’s success this year. For the Longhorns’ head coach, he keeps the motivation flowing by highlighting his squad’s progress from last season at this point to now.

“Well, I think about where we were this time last year, which was a tough spot to be in,” said Sarkisian at Monday’s press conference. “I feel like we’ve made progress. Would I like to have a better record than 6-4 right now? For sure. But the idea of the way that we’ve lost a couple of the games and where we’re at, and in conference standings, I think there’s still a lot of belief in what we’re doing.

“I still think there’s a lot of hope in what this season can be. But again, we can’t think all big picture right now. We’ve got to make sure we’re drilled down and zeroed in on the target, and that’s playing really good on Saturday.”

6-4 is probably not the results Texas was expecting, but it is still a step up from last season’s 5-7. Currently, Texas is bowl eligible and still has an opportunity to play in a quality bowl game at the end of the year if they can finish this season with two more wins. The Longhorns remaining two games will be against the much improved Kansas Jayhawks and the defending Big 12 champions, the Baylor Bears.

Texas struggles but shows improvement in ’22

Texas has been in a lot of close games this season, similar to last year. However, the improvement from 2021 to 2022 is the Longhorns are coming out victorious in some of them. Last season Texas struggled to finish out games, losing some of them in surprising fashion, including the largest blown lead in the Red River Showdown’s history. Texas made amends for their 55-48 loss last season to Oklahoma by routing their neighbors to the north 49-0, giving them their worst loss in the rivalry game.

For the Longhorns’ offense, the more things have changed, such as who is under center, the more they have stayed the same when it comes to star running back Bijan Robinson. The junior from Tucson, AZ, has put together another impressive season on the ground. Robinson has already rushed for 1,158 yards, eclipsing his 1,127-yard total from last season with two games remaining on the schedule.

Sarkisian has the Longhorns trending in the right direction. And although there have been a few struggles and bumps this year, Texas has done better than they did in the previous season, and that’s with having to deal with multiple injuries at the quarterback position.