Steve Sarkisian reflects on evaluation of the Texas defense

Head coach Steve Sarkisian enters his second year as the Texas head coach and is looking to improve on the team’s disappointing 5-7 finish from last year. 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 coach 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. 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,” Sarkisian said.

The Longhorn defense definitely had its moments last year, and Sarkisian is hoping to potentially make some adjustments to their scheme and secondary play to maximize their pressure up front.

“So how do we find a way to keep that consistency of our play up. Now there’s always schematic things that we’re looking at, I’ve touched on this during spring ball, I want to play tighter coverage,” Sarkisian said. “Because I think that can then allow us to yes rush the passer a little bit better, but if it’s a three step drop and the ball is always coming out because we’re not re-routing receivers, it’s tough to get home as a pass rusher so those things work obviously hand in hand.”

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Texas was ranked third to last in points allowed in the conference last year giving up 31.1 per game, and Sarkisian knows that in order to improve that, consistency and his defense’s mindset will be the key.

“But I think bigger picture, broad scope is how do we keep that level of consistency because we show these stretches in game where we play really well. But we can’t let one drive or one play all of a sudden dictate our behavior and our morale and things all drop, we’ve got to be able to pick it right back up and get back on the field because last time I checked I didn’t see a team go twelve games and not give up a touchdown. We’re going to have to be able to respond to some of the adversity that we get faced with,” Sarkisian said.