Steve Sarkisian credits roster stability to culture, cohesion, honesty
There are several teams around the FBS that lost a significant number of contributors from their roster to the transfer portal during the winter and spring windows. While Texas did lose players off of its roster, a massive amount of production did not leave the Forty Acres for a new destination.
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The Longhorns only saw four players — Brenen Thompson, Jaden Alexis, Trevell Johnson, and Derrick Brown — leave during the spring transfer portal window. That foursome joined 22 others, not all of whom were on scholarship, who left the program during the winter window. From that group of 22, the losses who had seen the most playing time during their career on the Forty Acres were Ovie Oghoufo, Hudson Card, Jamier Johnson, and Junior Angilau.
To have just four of 26 players be significant losses of production was a victory for Texas, and that victory didn’t come without some effort. Speaking at the San Antonio stop of the Texas Exes’ Texas Fight Tour on Tuesday, Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian wasn’t blind to the fact that players who elected to stay may have heard that the grass might be greener at another program.
“We have to say to ourself that it’s a reality,” Sarkisian said. “That’s going to happen. We can’t walk around with our head in the sand that ‘hey, we’re going to recruit good players and it’s going to be great. No one is going to try to come poach our guys.'”
Sarkisian credited the culture he, his staff, and his players have created going into an all-important Year 3 in Austin as the reason why there wasn’t an exodus out of the Moncrief-Neuhaus Athletic Center during either window.
“We’ve got such a good culture right now that I don’t think players want to leave,” Sarkisian said.
The Texas head coach admitted that the program may have to find “creative ways” from time to time to get players to stay, but that falls in line with Sarkisian’s oft-repeated “adapt or die” philosophy. He understands that if he isn’t able to discover or utilize those creative methods, even if he isn’t the biggest fan of their prevalence, then his ability to win games as head coach suffers.
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But before they have to get to that process, Sarkisian said he tries to be as forthright with his players as possible. He said Tuesday that includes letting them know where they stand on the roster, where they need to improve, and the plan for doing so.
In his mind, that gives players a better grasp of the positives that are available to them in Austin as opposed to elsewhere when it comes to player development. Being surrounded by others on the roster who share the same work ethic, values, and goals for Texas football helps as well.
“I think that we’ve got a lot of players that like what we do,” Sarkisian said. “They like the environment. They like the culture that we have. They feel like they’re improving and getting better.”
And if they do have to get creative?
“I definitely am aware that people are probably going to try to come after our guys,” he said. “That’s okay, we’ve just got to make sure we handle it accordingly.”
