Steve Sarkisian on College GameDay: "We can't fear anybody, we respect all and fear none"
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was on ESPN’s College GameDay this morning and previewed tonight’s matchup between the No. 11 Longhorns and No. 4 Crimson Tide.
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What do you think it’ll be like walking into the stadium for you tonight?
Steve Sarkisian: “Well, it’s going to be an amazing environment. Bryant-Denny Stadium at night in a big time game. The fans always show up. I’ve got a lot of great memories from my time there. We won a bunch of games and winning that national championship that last year was a tremendous experience. I know they’ll be fired up and it’s going to be a great environment for football.”
What’s your philosophy when you go on the road and you deal with potential adversity? How do you approach this game when you talk to your players about how you’re going to step in early and get after Bama?
Steve Sarkisian: “I think a couple of things. One, we’ve got to make sure that our energy and our juice is right. We’ve got to make sure that we don’t become emotional because when that happens we start making poor choices and decisions. We want to be aggressive. We know this is going to be a physical ballgame. We want to attack them in all three phases. We have to. When you can do that and you can execute, you give yourself a chance to play a four quarter football game against them. That has to start from the opening kick. We can’t throw jabs. We’ve got to go into this game, try to step into the middle of the ring, and start throwing haymakers.”
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What makes you believe your team is going to be able the environment? Can you feel your culture now settling in in your third year as head coach at Texas?
Steve Sarkisian: “We’ve got some real good veterans on this team who have been with us now for three years that have really embodied our culture. We’ve got a really good influx of young, hungry players. This is why they chose to come to the University of Texas — to play in this environment. We respect the University of Alabama. You guys know how I feel about Coach Saban, the job that he’s done there, their players. But the key to the drill is, we don’t fear them. We can’t fear anybody. We respect all and fear none. That’s the mindset going into the ballgame.”
What if Texas beats Alabama tonight? What does that mean for your program?
Steve Sarkisian: “At the end of the day, this game is a really good benchmark for us. We put in a lot of work. The coaching staff, the administration, the players in the program have put in a lot of work to build this roster, to get this culture to where we want it to be. Now we’re in year three. I thought last year’s game was a really good benchmark of how far we’ve come. We still, obviously, have more work to do. Tonight is going to serve as a good benchmark. I applaud the universities for playing this game early in the season when so many teams are not playing these primetime games like this. At the end of the day, we’re going to have to get back to the drawing board win, lose, or draw. Whatever happens, our quest is to go win a Big 12 championship. This is going to serve as a really good benchmark for us of where we’re at as a program, where we’re sufficient in what we’re doing, and maybe where we’re lacking and how we can improve upon those things. “
