Steve Sarkisian sends message to Texas fanbase, asks for patience

The Texas Longhorns are now below .500 for the first time this season, and there is little patience for another slow rebuild in Austin.

Iowa State outscored Texas 27-0 in the second half in Ames on Saturday night on the way to a 30-7 victory. The Longhorns (4-5, 2-4 Big 12), in their first season under head coach Steve Sarkisian, are in the midst of a four-game losing streak after starting off strong.

Despite losing four straight, Texas has generally been competitive in every game since the Arkansas loss on Sept. 11. That changed last weekend.

The Cyclones scored a touchdown on three of their first four possessions after halftime, and every end zone trip took four plays or fewer. 

On Monday, Sarkisian took a question regarding his fan base’s clear frustration.

“I use this analogy some: you want to buy a used classic car, it’s easy to put a new paint job on it and make it look [restored], and it looks great,” Sarkisian said. “We’re under the hood, we’re fixing the engine, we’re working on the interior. And when this thing’s done, we’ll put the nice, fresh coat of paint on it.”

The exterior certainly does not look good. Texas will need to win two of their three remaining games to become bowl eligible. The last time the Longhorns did not go to a bowl was 2016, Charlie Strong’s final year in Austin.

“But we’re under the hood right now working on a lot of things that we think need to get worked on whether it’s schematically, whether it’s culturally, whether it’s individual players’ development,” Sarkisian added. “And ultimately, the car is going to look shiny and good. We just gotta trust this process that we’re going through.”

‘Nobody likes where we’re at’

Sarkisian is in his third head coaching job, and there have been mixed results. At Washington (2009-2013) and USC (2014-2015), he was a combined 46-35. While the Huskies showed some improvement by the end of his tenure, they never won more than eight games in a season. 

Sarkisian added that he, too, is frustrated with how the season is playing out.

“Nobody likes where we’re at,” Sarkisian added. “I get it. I wish we were undefeated right now too, and outside of a couple games we probably could have a really good record compared to where we’re at.”

Three of Texas’ five losses were one-possession games. They have led at the half in all but one loss. 

“I do think there is incremental progress that is occurring. It’s unfortunate what happened in the second half the other night, but there was a lot of good early on in that game that we can build from.”