Column: Steve Sarkisian talks, and now his program listens

After Texas’ second loss to the Kansas Jayhawks in six years on November 13, 2021, Steve Sarkisian looked up to a message he had placed on a wall in the Texas Longhorns’ team meeting room during his postgame press conference.

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“It says it up on the wall right here in our team room: the team that has discipline, commitment, toughness and accountability all of the time, that’s what wins games,” Sarkisian said almost three years ago. “And that’s what ultimately wins championships. And we didn’t play that way in the first half.”

Obviously, they didn’t play that way the whole game. Texas lost 57-56 in overtime to a Jayhawk team whose only other win that season was a three-point victory over FCS South Dakota.

“Until we figure that out, that it takes discipline, commitment, toughness, and accountability all the time, we’re going to be swimming upstream,” Sarkisian said. “That’s the message to the guys. At some point, they’ve got to recognize that and they’ve got to do the things necessary day in and day out, game in and game out, first half, second half out, start of ball games, end of games, it doesn’t matter if it’s losing a fourth-quarter lead or coming out flat, that’s what it’s about.”

I asked what I thought was a pertinent question at the time: do you think players have tuned you out or are there players that have tuned you out?

“I don’t know,” Sarkisian said. “You’d have to ask them that question. I feel good about our messaging. I think we’ve got great leaders on the team. But you’d have to ask them that question.”

Here’s what I wrote in the aftermath of those words. It became obvious in the days and weeks following there were players who didn’t care for Sarkisian’s message. They eventually left the program via the portal. Those who stayed picked up on what Sarkisian wanted. Others joined them including highly-touted prospects like Kelvin Banks, DJ Campbell, Arch Manning, Johntay Cook, and CJ Baxter just to rattle off some of the more highly-ranked guys.

Fast forward three years. Here’s what Sarkisian said on Monday during his weekly press conference.

“The belief in our culture, the belief in the way we speak, the way we talk, and the way we act I think is real,” Sarkisian said. “It’s true to them. What I enjoy is being at dinner, being on the bus going to the hotel, or listening to our guys, or watching their press conferences, or watching their interviews, I kind of get goosebumps when I hear what I say to them and what I’ve been saying to them over three years come out of their mouth.

“They’re not thinking about it. It just flows naturally for them. Now, it’s not just coach talk. That’s our team talk. That’s the way we’ve kind of been structured. That means not only have they bought into what we’re saying, they’re living it. They’re elevating our culture and the belief in what we do to a point to where, like I said, I think they live it. I think they start drilling it down into why it’s important. When we start answering the why, that’s when good things really start to happen for us.”

Sarkisian and his staff deserve all the credit that has come their way, including a second week at the top of the AP Poll, for the work they’ve done in resurrecting Texas on the field. But that shouldn’t distract from the fact that there has been a similar 180 degree change in how the program has functioned off the field.

Prior to Sarkisian, the Texas football culture was aimless. That had to do with the previous head coach, and some of the circumstances the program was put through amplified that lack of direction. There were literal physical separations plus separations of opinion, but strong cultures are able to navigate those problem’s. Texas’ couldnt.

Even at the start of his tenure, Sarkisian had to navigate similar headwinds. Aspects of a 5-7 campaign in 2021 can be linked to those challenges. But there was a sense Sark had learned how to do such a thing in his time following his USC disaster. In fact, I believe Sarkisian added a second national championship ring to his trophy cabinet during the 2020 season while part of the Alabama Crimson Tide. A lot of those lessons, as well as previous ones, are visible today.

It took a lot of effort to see something that aspires to be similar to that Bama team and program take shape at Texas, efforts that put pressure on Sarkisian to connect with his players not just in Culture Wednesdays but every single day. Like Sarkisian himself and many others, I believe there’s still a lot more work to be done in Austin.

But when I look back at that answer to a question I asked following the worst Texas football loss this century, and then look at the answer he provided on Monday, I can see that effort paid off. What he has said, whether to his team in the meeting room or into his headset on game day, has been successful most of the time.

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It all started with him talking. Now he has people who are listening.