Steve Sarkisian opens up on Oklahoma State, Baylor having no flags against Texas

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian took a jump this season with the Longhorns, as their latest 38-27 win over Baylor extended them to eight wins following a five-win season last year. Only one penalty for two yards was called against the Bears when they faced Texas, and none were called against Oklahoma State in their week 7 matchup with the Longhorns. Sarkisian was asked about the lack of flags thrown on their opponents in those games, and if he would make any complaints to the league office.

“You’re not gonna get me on this, no fines,” Sarkisian laughed and siad. “At the end of the day you play the hand you’re dealt, you play the game as hard as you can play it. Adversity is going to strike, things are gonna come your way, you don’t have time in game to complain.”

Sarkisian may have dodged a fine with his answer, and harped on how he emphasized to his players and staff to worry about controlling what they can control in those situations.

“The ball’s gonna get snapped again in 40 seconds and you’ve got to be ready for the next snap. And so that’s been something that we’ve been trying to press upon our players and for me to the coaches of we’ve got to move on to the next snap, and we can’t harbor what just happened whether it went our way or didn’t go our way,” Sarkisian said.

The Longhorns suffered their third loss of the season in their game versus Oklahoma State, but were able to fight through adversity in their game against Baylor, only accounting for 19 yards of penalty yardage themselves in a back-and-forth matchup where they pulled away late to secure a win.

“We’ve got to focus on the next snap and to me I think that’s a sign of a maturing football team, I thought we handled it a lot better on Friday when some of the calls didn’t go out way,” Sarkisian said. “I didn’t think we handled it great at Oklahoma State when some of the things didn’t go our way, but I thought we handled it better Friday, we moved on to the next snap, and like I said I thought we played pretty good football.”

Hopefully for the Longhorns, they can carry their maturity and strong play into their bowl game, as they will have to sit and wait to see who their opponent will be in December in their final game of the season.