Steve Sarkisian shares what lesson was learned from Houston walk-off win

The Houston Cougars are in the midst of an emotional two-week stretch. Last week, the Cougars played and beat head coach Dana Holgorsen‘s old team, West Virginia, on a Hail Mary. Now, they’re getting set to take on Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns as peers in the Big 12 Conference.

Sarkisian took notice of the Hail Mary win and even saw ways in which it paralleled games Texas has already played, showing lessons the Longhorns can take away from it.

“I was actually with Coach [Jeff] Banks,” Steve Sarkisian said. “We were recruiting, and as we were bouncing around I had my iPad out and we were kind of driving and watching it all at once and getting back to the hotel there at the end.”

Steve Sarkisian actually compared the game to Red River against Oklahoma. In that game, the Sooners took a late lead but the Longhorns had a Hail Mary shot at the end zone. It fell innocently to the ground, though, and Texas lost. In there, Sarkisian found a lesson in remembering to play the entire game.

“Ironically, it felt a lot like our game two weeks ago, quite frankly. West Virginia scored with whatever it was, 12 seconds. Fortunately, for Houston, they got the unsportsmanlike conduct foul and got the kickoff moved back, but then it came down to the Hail Mary from the 45 and the ball was able to bounce to them,” Sarkisian said.

“We executed ours pretty well, a couple weeks ago, it just fell in a spot where we weren’t there. So, I think the lesson learned is you’ve got to play all 60 minutes until that last tick on the clock.”

This will be the first time Steve Sarkisian coaches against Houston as the Texas head coach. It will also be the first time the two have played since 2002. The Longhorns hold a 16-7-2 all-time record against the Cougars, with most of those games coming during the Southwest Conference days.

“But a credit to Houston for getting themselves back into that position and getting the completion and then taking that shot at the end and being where they were supposed to be to make the play,” Sarkisian concluded.

Steve Sarkisian details what he learned about Texas during bye week

Coming off that loss to Oklahoma and ahead of the trip to Houston, Texas had a bye week. During that time off, Steve Sarkisian took a deep look in the mirror at his Longhorns team.

“Our red zone execution is an area where if we want to be the team that we think we’re capable of being, we have to take that to another level. And that evaluation was not just of the players; that was of the coaches, the gameplan, of the playcaller,” Sarkisian said.

“I think defensively, we’ve played really good football. But as I look at ourselves defensively, an area where I know we can approve is we’ve got to take the ball off of people more, and we’ve got to attempt to take the ball off of people more. We’ve created some interceptions, but we really haven’t knocked the ball off of people and created turnovers. And I know we’re more than capable of doing it.”