Steve Sarkisian recognizes Texas must 'start throwing haymakers' in order to defeat Alabama

Steve Sarkisian recognizes Texas will need to be aggressive to defeat Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Saturday night.

The Longhorns leader likened his game-plan to boxing while speaking with the ESPN College GameDay crew, explaining how Texas will remain smart yet ramped up as they take on Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide.

“I think a couple things, one is we’ve got to make sure that our energy, our juice is right. But we’ve got to make sure that we don’t become emotional, because when that happens we start making poor choices and decisions,” stressed Sarkisian. “We want to be aggressive. We know this is going to be a physical ball game. We want to attack them, in all three phases. You have to. When you can do that, and you can execute, you give yourself a chance to play a four-quarter football game against them. But that has to start from the opening kick.

“We can’t throw jabs. We’ve got to come into this game, and we’ve got to step into the middle of the ring and start throwing haymakers.”

Alas, Texas threw some haymakers last season, but the Longhorns came up short against Alabama. However, that feeling has remained with them for a year now, as Sarkisian’s squad believed they should’ve sent the Crimson Tide home with a loss last season.

Revenge is on the docket, and Texas is hoping to take it. We’ll find out what Steve Sarkisian’s team is made of in Week 2.

Kirk Herbstreit on former assistants struggling vs Nick Saban: ‘It’s more Alabama than anything’

Meanwhile, Kirk Herbstreit doesn’t subscribe to the theory that former Alabama assistants, like Steve Sarkisian, can’t beat Alabama, as the ESPN College GameDay analyst touched on the subject ahead of the Longhorns taking on the Crimson Tide.

“I hate to take it. I think it was Sark, I don’t know if it was this week, but Sark made a comment about look at his record against guys that didn’t ever coach for him,” Herbstreit said. “He’s Nick Saban, in my opinion, the greatest coach in the history of college football. And so you look at his record against anybody and it’s pretty darn good. I think there became a narrative that these guys that were coordinators under him, now they become head coaches. They maybe understand Alabama, Nick Saban better than others, and they should have somewhat of an advantage competing against him. And so everyone started to talk a little bit about the record, and then finally, Kirby had some moments where he’s been able to beat him. I just think it’s Alabama more than anything.

“I happen to agree with Sark about, he does this against his former assistants and he does it to everybody else, is who Nick Saban is. I have nothing but respect and admiration for what Coach Saban has done since he’s been at Alabama. I’m not one that takes it for granted. Every year he decides to come back, I thank the football gods if we get another year of watching him coach, because I love the sport so much and I just love watching him do his thing. I think we’ve learned there’s no real advantage being a former assistant under Nick Saban when it comes to these match-ups, just like any other coach going against him.”