Steve Sarkisian weighs in on Derek Mason, Oklahoma State defense

Last year, under the leadership of Jim Knowles, Oklahoma State had one of the best defenses in college football. Although Knowles is now at Ohio State and Derek Mason is in from Auburn, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian still thinks the Cowboys are a force on that side of the ball.

Sarkisian spoke about what Oklahoma State will throw at the Longhorns when the two teams face off this week. Since last year was his first year with Texas, Sarkisian has only seen Knowles’ defense, which held teams to 18.1 points per game. This year, opponents are averaging 27.1 points per contest against Mason’s defense, but Sarkisian still isn’t taking the Cowboys lightly.

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“They obviously had a tremendous defense last year and I’m sure before I got here, but last year most notably with Coach Knowles and what they did,” Sarkisian said. “They had really good players, veteran players, they had a really good team. I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach Mason. He’s been doing it for a long time and I think he came in and with his expertise in defensive football, I think he adopted a lot of what they did.

“But you can definitely see his fingerprints on it, as well. I think he’s, like good coaches do, they’re trying to do what’s best for their players to have success and you can see him trying to do that.”

Steve Sarkisian calls Spencer Sanders an ‘elite competitor’

The Texas Longhorns are rolling, putting together three straight conference wins following their 24-21 win over Iowa State this past Saturday. But this weekend they face one of their biggest challenges of the year, as they take No. 11 Oklahoma State on the road this weekend.

The Cowboys are led by one of the Big 12’s most experienced quarterbacks in Spencer Sanders, who Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke highly of ahead of their matchup.

“I think what I see out of Spencer Sanders, and this is the ultimate compliment, I think he is an elite competitor,” Sarkisian said. “I mean this guy has got a fire inside of him that is clear, you don’t have to look for it, I think it burns inside of him.”