Steve Sarkisian shares key to Texas' defensive turnaround

The Texas Longhorns are fresh off of their best all-around performance of the season, as they defeated rival Oklahoma 49-0 in this year’s Red River Showdown. Their shutout of the Sooners was the first time an Oklahoma offense has ever been held scoreless since 1998, and is a testament to Texas’ newfound strength in their defense, a unit that so far this season is much improved from last year according to head coach Steve Sarkisian.

“I think like anything, I have a saying I use I have written on my wall in my office, trust equals time plus consistency. And I think as coaches one, we have to be consistent with our message, we have to be consistent with our style of play and what we’re asking of them, we have to be consistent with our fundamentals, our techniques, our schemes,” Sarkisian explained. “If we’re consistent there, through time the players will continue to develop trust in what we’re teaching them and why we’re teaching it to them.”

Consistency sounds like the key for the Texas defense, which has held opponents to 20 or fewer points in all but one game so far this season. The Longhorns last year gave up 31.1 points per game, and so far this season have dropped that number drastically to 17.8, which Sarkisian also attributes to their recognition of the small but important details to their defensive success.

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“And then we have to celebrate the small victories, if we’re teaching a certain fundamental or technique at three-technique and sometimes that play doesn’t bear itself out to where you can celebrate the technique that the man is playing with that’s the proper one. We still have to celebrate it so he understands he’s doing it right over and over and over again, and then when the moment comes that technique is really important because of the play that’s coming his way, man now he really sees the value in it,” Sarkisian said.

A defensive lineman playing a three-technique tasked with occupying the space between the offensive guard and tackle is definitely a thankless job, and it’s refreshing to see Sarkisian celebrate that dirty work. But every member of his defense has been worth celebrating this season, as they have been relentlessly pursuing the ball and tackling at a high level. In the Big 12, four of the top ten leaders in tackles are Longhorn players (the most from any team), led by linebacker Jaylan Ford who currently occupies the top spot with 58.

“So I think there’s a level of consistency from the coaches, I think two ultimately it’s complete buy in from the players to what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. I think three I think we’re playing hard, I really think our effort is as high as it’s ever been,” Sarkisian said. “We’re getting to the football, you see 11 guys flying to the ball, that’s great effort. We tackle well and I think schematically we’re doing things from week to week that are beneficial to our success.”

Sarkisian’s defensive staff and players seem to have figured things out in their second year with him at the helm, as they hope and strive to build on their early success so far this season.

“Whether that’s the players buying into the plan, whether that’s the coaches putting the plan together, whether that’s the coaches tapping into coach (Gary) Patterson and some of his expertise, I think it’s all of that. It’s all of that coming together that ultimately leads to success, and majority of us have some success at something, we want more of it. But if you want more of something, you have to pay the price, you have to be willing to do the work to get more success and I think we’re getting that,” Sarkisian said.