Steve Sarkisian joins On Texas Football ahead of the start of Longhorns training camp

In a special edition of On Texas Football, Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian joins Bobby Burton for an exclusive interview to talk preseason training camp goals, what staff continuity helps accomplish, pleasant surprises, team leaders, recruiting, and so much more.

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Sarkisian explains how with under two days left until preseason camp starts, the entire staff is ready to get the pads on.

“We just had a long staff meeting this morning just on goals, standards, expectations, and things,” Sarkisian said. “I just reference what an honor it is that we get to be here coaching and working at the University of Texas, and don’t take that lightly. We show up every day with the right energy, with the right mindset, with the right attitude to help our players, put them in the best position to be successful, support them in any way that we can, and making sure we’re doing the things on our end to give them the best opportunity for success.”

Sarkisian was asked about his goals for this season’s training camp.

“We definitely want to drill down even deeper than we have in the past to situational football,” Sarkisian said. “We’ve felt like we’ve done a good job historically, but last year was not our best year in some of the situations as they arose. I’d love for us to be a better third-down football team, and fourth-down for that matter. Especially defensively. I’d love for us, offensively, to be a better red area offense than we were a year ago. We definitely need to create more turnovers on the defensive side of the ball. Then, in some of those critical moments in the fourth quarter, putting our players in those positions in practice so that they’re comfortable in those scenarios when they come up in game.”

Staff continuity combined with an older team is a huge positive for the Longhorns this camp.

“From a continuity standpoint amongst the staff, we’re all speaking the same language,” Sarkisian said. “There’s a consistent message flowing through the players through our locker room from our older players to our younger players. Consistent message is one. Two, I think the older players’ ability to help coach the younger players in the summer workouts and the summer practices has been helpful. We feel more ready for training camp this year just in talking to the players. In turn, our players have been exposed to a lot of football.”

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Burton asked Sarkisian about some of the things that have surprised him about Texas. Sarkisian identified the successful dips into transfer portal, noting that Keilan Robinson, Isaiah Neyor, and Quinn Ewers all joined the program after starting elsewhere. That wasn’t available to him during his time at Washington or USC.

Sarkisian said they try to make sure that when they go into the portal, it counts.

“I think our success rate has been really good in the portal,” Sarkisian said. “It hasn’t been perfect, and I don’t expect us to be. But those guys have come in with a really good mindset to contribute to the culture that we’ve been instilling in place. On top of that — like I was talking to the staff earlier today about — you always have a vision when you’re a head coach of what you want your culture to look like. I really praised our staff. I think it really helps with the continuity. I praised our players. I don’t think they just bought into this culture. I really think everybody has contributed to it and elevated it, and that’s been something that’s different for me from my time as a head coach at Washington and USC.”

He’d add, “this is one of the closest if not one of the closest teams I’ve ever been a part of so far.”

Sarkisian then goes into leadership candidates after the departures of Roschon Johnson and Bijan Robinson. Sarkisian then says players like Xavier Worthy, Ja’Tavion Sanders, Kelvin Banks, and Quinn Ewers have stepped into leadership roles. He then lists defensive players Byron Murphy, Barryn Sorrell, Jahdae Barron, Jalen Catalon, and Jaylan Ford as team leaders on Pete Kwiatkowski’s side of the ball.

Sarkisian ends the interview with his 30-second recruiting pitch.

“I can’t do it in 30 seconds,” Sarkisian said. “I said this in year one and I said this in year two, we’re never going to settle. My job is to field the best football team that I can at the University of Texas that can compete for championships. To do that, you just can’t settle. You go deep sea fishing for those big fish out there. Sometimes it takes a little longer and you’ve got to put in the work. You’ve got to develop great relationships. You’ve got to do those things. When you do that, you might not get them all. But you have to be willing to go for it. That’s something that our staff has been willing to do. We’ve reaped the benefits of it. I think you’ll see us reap the benefits of it more moving forward. I just don’t want to settle. We’re going to keep recruiting the best players to make sure that we’re a championship caliber team for years to come.”

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