Everything Steve Sarkisian said after Texas' win over Wyoming
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was available to the media following the No. 4 Texas Longhorns’ 31-10 win over the Wyoming Cowboys. Here’s everything he had to say in his postgame press conference.
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Opening statement: “I love quoting Mack Brown on this. We watched as a team in training camp the documentary on the 05 team. I’m not exactly sure who we played after the Ohio State game, and it was I think a little bit similar to this one. He used a quote in there that we had a bunch of sore backs going into that game from everybody patting us on the back about how great we were and how great we played. Even tonight, as we were going into the stadium (and) as I was taking the field, fans (were) congratulating us on the win last week. It’s human nature to sometimes get distracted by that and you lose sight of what’s right in front of you. I think it kind of showed in the first half, especially offensively. We had a couple of false starts right off the bat. We had a false start on the first play of the game. Why is that? How can we go play at Alabama on the road and not have one false start, and then come home and have a false start on the first play of the game?
That lends itself to psyche. It’s not about physical ability or what we’re capable of. We had a snap in there where we had 12 guys on the field on defense. How do you go to Alabama and not ever have one snap with 12 on the field, but then you come home and you have 12 on the field? I think it was a good lesson learned for us. I think in the end, our guys did a nice job of maintaining their cool and staying composed. We talked a lot about our composure, our poise. I thought that shined through tonight. In the end, we adapted schematically to some things they were doing. We found a way to dominate the second half of the football game, then ultimately the fourth quarter.
I’ve talked a lot in here about being a versatile football team. I thought our versatility showed up tonight. All the talk going into the game was, could we find a consistent run game? In the end the run game was what took this game home in the fourth quarter. I thought Jonathon Brooks, the offensive line, and the tight ends played extremely well. Xavier (Worthy) made a really explosive play. We finally got him in a one-on-one scenario where he could do what he can do. I thought our defense had a really good football game tonight. After that beginning start of the game, I think our defense forced five straight punts at one juncture of the game. Our offense, we had the one 90-yard drive and they were making us earn it, which we knew that’s what would happen in the ballgame.
Ultimately, in the fourth quarter, to score on three consecutive drives after the (Barryn) Sorrell sack I thought in the end was good for us. I think that’s what championship teams do. They find a way to win when they’re not at their best. Tonight, it’s safe to say we were not at our best. We found a way to win. We found a way to adapt. We found a way to stay composed, keep our composure, and then start playing our style and our brand of football, which I thought really shined through.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t touch on our fans in the stadium tonight. It was electric, over 101,000 in the stadium for a non-conference game. Just tremendous atmosphere. I’ve got to credit (Chris Del Conte) and the administration for the environment that they’ve created here. It’s a definite homefield advantage. We feel it. We feed off the energy of our fans, and I can’t thank them enough for what they brought tonight and what I know they’ll continue to bring throughout the season.
Just a couple of highlights in the game, I thought Ryan Sanborn punting the football was tremendous. I think he had three straight over 50-yard net punts. Drops another punt inside the five. Jerrin Thompson, back to back weeks with an interception and what a huge play that was this week, returning it for the touchdown. As I touched on, the offensive line. I think their ability to impose their will and our ability to run the football there in the second half definitely shined through as well. In the end, there’s a lot to learn from games like this and that’s going to be the key component for us, that when we get back in here that we take the lessons from this game from a win that’s not totally pretty, learn from it, and then get ourselves ready for Big 12 play starting up next week.”
On his team being able to turn things on in the fourth quarter: “In the end, I’d like not to have to wait until the fourth quarter but it is a little bit comforting to know we can play that way in the fourth quarter. This is back-to-back weeks of 21 point fourth quarters. I think there’s a lot of credit to that. I think there’s a credit to our strength and conditioning program and the condition that our team is in that they can play that way in the fourth. I think there’s a lot of credit to the coaches making the proper adjustments in-game and at halftime to adjust to what’s happening in the ballgame. I think there’s a lot of credit to the players and their psyche and keeping their poise, and keeping their confidence in knowing that if we just continue to execute that good things will happen.
This offseason and two offseasons ago, all I heard about was we weren’t a fourth quarter team and we didn’t play well in the fourth quarter. It’s like anything in football, and you guys hear me say it all the time, generally in our sport you get what you emphasize. We’ve made a huge emphasis on our ability to finish games and play that way in the fourth quarter. I can’t pick two better weeks, back to back weeks in a row, of us playing our best football in the fourth quarter.”
On Jonathon Brooks’ performance and if that affects CJ Baxter: “We’ll deal with that as it comes. Cedric just wasn’t 100 percent tonight and I just didn’t want to risk where he was. I thought Jonathon stepped up, shining all the way through. I kind of felt like he got stronger as the game went on, which is the sign of a really good back. How many times have we seen that and talked about that with Bijan (Robinson) and how well he’d run in the fourth quarter of tight games? We need CJ. We need to get him back. Those two are both physical runners and run our style. We’ll monitor that as we go. It’s hard for me to sit here and predict who is going to play and what percentage of the plays. I just know we’ve got two good players back there who can run our style of plays we want to.”
On the defense stepping up late and over the course of the year: “I’ve been proud of that group. Barryn, to start with his sack. We’ve been talking about Ethan Burke, we’ve been talking about Anthony Hill. We’ve been talking about T’Vondre Sweat. We’ve been talking about Byron Murphy. Tonight, it was Barryn Sorrell that made the impact play and I think that’s the sign of a really good defense. We have multiple players who can step up and make plays at critical moments now. I think tonight, it was his turn. That really set the stage. There’s something electric about being in that north end of the field where the students are and having that sack made right there. You could feel the energy.
Another guy on defense I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention is Jahdae Barron. Jahdae makes three third down stops for us that were really big plays. His physicality at that nickel spot shows up as much as the coverage does. His ability to get people on the ground, tonight he did that as well.”
On where he feels his team is at entering conference play: “I touched on it with the team in training camp because I felt it coming in, and now through three games I think we’re really versatile. That’s a great feeling to have, that we’re not a one-dimensional team. I thought tonight, we played exceptional on special teams. Xavier got a couple of good returns. Sanborn’s punting the ball extremely well. They really returned one kickoff; we tackle them inside the 20. On that aspect of it, the special teams, I like that. The one run upset me, but ultimately, were we really ready to play? Was our mind right? They popped the one run, but outside of that we minimized the explosive plays defensively and started stopping the run better.
Offensively, we were throwing the ball so well through two weeks and then tonight, it was the run game that stepped up. When you’re versatile, you don’t have to rely on (like in basketball) the one guy who has got to score 40 or we have no chance of winning. We have a group of guys and a team that we can win in a variety of ways. Tonight, we needed something different. That’s a really positive thing for me. I really like the fact that we’re adapting in-game. Much better poise and composure on our sideline and on our headsets. Guys aren’t panicking, we’re making good adjustments, and that’s the positive on that front.
We’ve got a real level of trust on our team that we lean into. We talked about the culture at length, I really think this team is together. They stick together. You don’t feel guys pointing the finger at something else, why not me, what about that. It’s just, how are we going to win this game?
Then, we won the game, lets go fix some of the issues we have coming out of it.”
On if Sarkisian is concerned with his O-line: “I’m okay. We have to get accustomed to something. This is now two out of the three weeks where we have gotten an absolutely different defense than they’ve put on tape. That’s the sign of a really good team, that people are going to such lengths to play a style of defense that they would never play against anybody else.
So when that happens, you have to fall back on your training and trusting your training and being able to block the plays regardless of the look that we get. We had to adjust our play-calling some, too. When we were able to do that, I think I gave them better opportunities tonight later in the game to block what we were getting. They really did a nice job of adjusting to that. I think it allowed them to be a little more physical and come off the football in a way where they could knock people off the ball. I do think there’s some things that we can really grow from last week late in the ballgame, and then again this week in the adjustments that we made. Ultimately, we’ve got to make sure we’re game-planning, preparing, and practicing things we might see earlier in the game so we can come out firing on all cylinders.”
On Savion Red, Gunnar Helm, and Byron Murphy getting offensive opportunities: “Savion, he’s a really talented guy. He was a high school quarterback that we played at receiver when he first got here. He outgrew that, his physical build is what it is, but we really liked him at running back. It’s been an adjustment for him. We’ve had a package for him that we wanted to utilize. He got nicked up pretty good in training camp. We had to put it on hold. Now, we’re able to get to it and it’s kind of similar to the stuff we did with Roschon (Johnson) for the last couple of years. Tonight, we were able to go to that with him on a couple of short yardage situations. He ran the ball really effectively. That was positive.
Murphy has been in our goal line package for a couple of years. He’s got excellent hands. To throw him a ball — and nobody gets more excited than when a D-lineman catches a touchdown pass. That was really cool to see.
Gunnar, I’ve been talking about him. He’s had a great training camp. He’s played really good football for us for the first two weeks. For him to get that opportunity to catch it, I said ‘I handed you a gimmie for a touchdown,’ but he didn’t quite get in. It’s just a little bit of a reward for the work these guys are doing. Gunnar’s played good football. To utilize him in the pass game, he’s got good hands, it’s a benefit to us when we can keep spreading that ball around.”
On Kristopher Ross and Cole Hutson: “Both guys, we’ll MRI in the morning. Kris has got an elbow injury. Cole has got a knee injury. I’m hopeful they’re not long, long-term injuries. We’ll know more, like I said, in the morning. I’m hopeful it’s three weeks for each guy. We’ll see how that goes.”
On if there’s a tendency for young players to think ‘the switch’ stays on after playing Bama: “I think that’s a great point. You can’t rely on that. We’ve got to make sure we don’t lose our stinger of being a great first-half team, which we have been historically over the first two seasons. We’re really into the gameplan and guys go execute at a high level. I want to make sure we get back to that. That is definitely a strength of ours. Ultimately, that’s coaching. We’ve got to come in here on Monday morning, we’ve got to point out the areas where we can improve initially and make sure our psyche is right and that we’re dangerous from the opening kick and not waiting until ‘we gotta have it’ moments. We’ve got to have it once that ball is kicked off in the first quarter.”
On if the team played up to the program’s standard, and if the team is where he wants it heading into conference play: “I can say in the first half, we probably didn’t play to our standard. We just didn’t quite have the pop, the energy, the speed that I was accustomed to seeing us playing with. There was too many solo tackles on defense. We just weren’t quite finding our rhythm offensively, but in the second half that’s what it felt like. I give the guys a lot of credit for recalibrating themselves at halftime and coming out and playing a style of football that fits us.
I critique myself as hard as I critique the players or harder, and quite frankly we probably should have scored on the first drive of the third quarter. Those were a couple of crummy playcalls, the second and third down call. If I could go back and change two calls, I can tell you right now I’d change those two calls that I made on second down and third down in the high red right there. Ultimately, on third down, Quinn (Ewers) takes a sack on something that I was trying a little too hard to make happen. That’s okay. I’m going to come in here Monday and tell the players that exact same thing. They know that as much as I’m critiquing them and trying to get them better, we do the same as coaches, too.
I like being 3-0. That’s a heck of a lot better than any other outcome we could have right now. I think we have a team that believes in themselves and their coaches. I think we have a confident football team, but also one that knows there’s more work to be done. We get to start Big 12 play next week and we’re looking forward to it.”
