Steve Sarkisian talks Texas run defense, exciting changes

Last year, Texas finished toward the bottom of the Big 12 in rushing defense. But as Steve Sarkisian takes over for his second year as head coach, he’s hoping for improvement — specifically, consistency.

The Longhorns ranked eighth out of the 10 teams in the Big 12 with 201.6 rushing yards allowed per game on the ground. But Sarkisian said they showed flashes of what they can do on defense, and that’s what he wants to see game in and game out.

Don’t expect him to get into specifics, though.

“Quite frankly, it’s consistency,” Sarkisian said. “Because those same teams and those same games — we played stretches of playing really good football against quality teams. And the idea that we hit moments where we played really poor football and gave up big plays and big runs, one is gap integrity. Owning your gap, trusting your gap, doing your job. Another is making your play when the opportunity presents itself. Another one is having the ability to tackle and get people on the ground. Another is playing with fanatical effort so that if my partner happens to miss the tackle, I’m there to make that play.

“We can’t assume that that guy is going to make that play. We have to assume he’s going to miss the play and I’ll be there to make the play. That’s big-picture stuff. There’s obviously some schematic things that, again, I don’t know why I’d share with you guys [in the media] right now because I don’t want our opponents to know exactly what we’re doing. But I do think that we’ve got a plan in place to improve our level of consistency and play a really cool brand of football from the defensive perspective.”

Steve Sarkisian reflects on evaluation of the Texas defense

Offense was not an issue for the Longhorns last season, as they ranked second in the Big 12 in points per game with 35.3. But the defensive side of the ball could use some improvement, and Sarkisian talked about how they’ll do so.

“Part of me wants to evaluate the scheme and what players were in what spots, but then in a a lot of these games we went through stretches in these games where we played really good defense,” Sarkisian said. “I look at the Iowa State game, we get beat 31-7, or whatever it was, we walked into that locker room at halftime with a 7-3 lead and our defense was playing really good defense.

“I look at the Oklahoma State game, we’re up 17-3 late in the second quarter, we throw a pick six on offense, we didn’t give up a touchdown in the first half, but in the fourth quarter we give up a couple drives that ultimately result in scores.”