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How "All Gas, No Brakes" came about, and what it means to Texas

Joe Cookby:Joe Cook•08/03/21•

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Steve Sarkisian (Courtesy of Liz Parke/Big 12 Conference)

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There was no way for him to know it at the time, but during his introductory press conference on January 12, Steve Sarkisian uttered a short, catchy phrase that quickly became synonymous with the first year of his tenure.

“This work will be all gas and no brakes,” Sarkisian said. “We will go to it full fledge. We will lay down on the hammer and go get it, but at the end of the day, to put on the burnt orange and white and to represent this great university and the great state of Texas is one I don’t take lightly. We will go for it to the highest level.”

In the six months since his hire, “All Gas, No Brakes” has become a tertiary option behind “Hook ‘Em” and “Texas Fight” as sayings associated with Longhorn football. The school quickly recognized the marketing opportunity it had on its hands and filed for a service mark with the US Patent and Trademark Office on April 8.

The saying is prevalent around the football program. DeMarvion Overshown wore a licensed hat with the phrase during an interview with Longhorn Network during the Orange-White Game. He has continued to wear it in some of his social media posts.

It became the slogan during June’s official visit weekends, with recruits taking pictures with the phrase in the backdrop.

The phrase has taken off as a symbol of Sarkisian’s program. It wasn’t intended to be that.

“We developed a little mantra here of All Gas, No Brakes,” Sarkisian told a room full of coaches at the THSCA coaching school on July 18. “Unintended, mind you. Unintended. I used to use this in Atlanta talking to the offense. We were not great on defense at the time, and I’d say ‘it’s all gas today, man. We’ve got to roll. Don’t worry about the brakes. We’ve got to score every chance we get.’ Then I just kept bringing it with me.”

“I got the job here and the university kind of took the liberty of putting that as a hashtag or whatever it was,” Sarkisian continued. “The players loved it. The players loved it at Alabama. The players loved it in Atlanta. I’m like, ‘okay, this is kind of cool.’”

“All Gas, No Brakes” is now a key part of Sarkisian’s overall culture-building strategy. It is just one part of the culture he wants to establish at Texas, but it’s easily the most prominent part of the culture and one fans have quickly grasped onto. As Sarkisian mentioned, players too.

“That’s been great how he’s brought that to Texas,” Bijan Robinson said at Big 12 Media Days. “It shows that we just give 100 percent in everything that we do no matter what it is. If it’s school, if it’s football, even if it’s just talking to somebody on the street, it doesn’t matter what it is, you’ve just got to give it your full heart and put it into full speed no matter what it is.”

What are some of the other key aspects under the “All Gas, No Brakes” umbrella? At Coaching School Sarkisian explained what program facets fall under “All Gas, No Brakes.”

Attack-oriented football team

Sarkisian described an attack-oriented team as “the best in football.”

“We’re going to go after your ass every chance we get,” he added.

Do things fast and aggressive

“We do things fast and aggressively,” Sarkisian said. “If it’s a walk-through, it’s a walk-through. If it’s a practice or a game, that’s a different story. We do everything fast and aggressive.”

Make opponents uncomfortable with our physicality

“We believe in running the football and we believe in stopping the run,” Sarkisian mentioned. “Starts there, everything for us does. But we’ve got to make them uncomfortable.”

Execute calls and assignments with belief

“We execute our calls and assignments with a belief, not a hope, not a wish, a belief,” Sarkisian said. “We have to establish that belief. That comes with the instillation with the football piece of it, but we have to establish belief in our calls and in our assignments.”

Everything is with amazing energy

This part of the mantra included a story from his first spring.

“It was probably a week or so into spring ball, and I came up to the team meeting room,” Sarkisian said. “They had music playing in the team meeting room prior to my team meeting. I just kind of sat back. I kind of enjoyed it. You know these guys, they want their juice going. They’re trying to adhere to the things we talk about, and they were taking ownership of these things. Fascinating.”

Practice is everything

“Practice is everything,” Sarkisian said. “We only get 14 to 15 times a year, all of us in this room to go perform, to go put on a performance. Man, practice is critical, isn’t it? It’s the whole deal. It is clearly the whole deal to get ready for the performance.”

It’s all about the ball

“It’s all about the ball,” Sarkisian said. “Everything is the ball. We can’t score (without) it, they can’t score if they don’t have it.”

Sarkisian’s catchphrase shouldn’t be construed as his sole cultural principle. During his presentation in San Antonio, he highlighted other aspects of the culture he wants his football teams to possess.

None of those principles were publicly highlighted, emphasized, and marketed like “All Gas, No Brakes,” another in a long line of accidental inventions that have become extremely popular.

Cover photo courtesy of the Big 12/Liz Parke

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