Steve Sarkisian points to loss from 2021 that sunk their season

Steve Sarkisian knows that Texas needs to improve on its 2021 season. 5-7 isn’t supposed to be the standard in Austin. At the same time, Sarkisian deserves some grace for the simple fact that it was a transition year. He was still trying to put his stamp on the program.

“The kids knew not everybody in that locker room was all-in last year,” Steve Sarkisian told ESPN. ” think they could feel it, and they wanted to weed out some of the warts, some of the bad apples.”

One thing that Steve Sarkisian wants to do differently, is to have one set starting quarterback in 2022. That way, there isn’t a shuffle, with quarterbacks always playing for their jobs and magnifying every mistake that each team makes. The Arkansas game was a perfect example of that when the team shuffled between Hudson Card and Casey Thompson.

“The reality is that we didn’t play very well as a team, and I’m not sure we ever recovered from that loss,” said Steve Sarkisian.

“But it never got comfortable. It was back and forth throughout the year, and we never found our rhythm. I’m a big believer that position is the most important position in sports for a reason, because that person instills belief in everybody else in the organization, the offense, the defense, the coaching staff, the fans, everybody. … And we never got that last year. We just never got that mojo the right way.”

Texas has a brutal September schedule

Traveling to play Arkansas early in Steve Sarkisian’s tenure at Texas was a recipe for disaster. The Longhorns simply weren’t ready to compete with a big, strong team like the Razorbacks. Unfortunately, they’re going to have a difficult early schedule again in 2022.

On3’s Mike Huguenin ranked Texas as having the 11th most difficult September schedule in all of college football. The headliner opponent on their schedule is, of course, Alabama.

“The opener is a win. But the other three September games for Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns? Teams breaking in a new quarterback don’t need to see Alabama in Week 2, a feisty little brother in Week 3 and a conference road game (and in Lubbock, at that) in Week 4,” Mike Huguenin wrote.