Texas believes it has improved, but knows results are needed to truly show it

Texas has a better roster in 2022 than it did in 2021. It has a better culture than it did during Steve Sarkisian’s first year leading the program, which suffered because of a variety of reasons. It even has better rankings in certain advanced metrics.

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Longhorn coaches and players alike know they live in a world where process is important, but results matter even more. Despite that process leading to clear improvement in many areas on and off the field, Texas is 2-2 through four games in 2022 after a 3-1 start in 2021.

In both seasons, Texas sandwiched Week 2 losses to SEC programs between victories over Group of 5 teams that ranged in level of difficulty from cakewalk to mild struggle.

The SEC losses were much different. After the ill-prepared 2021 Longhorns ventured into Fayetteville, Ark. only to be soundly defeated by the Razorbacks, the 2022 Longhorns went blow-for-blow with the then-No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide in a contest that went to the final minute in Austin.

That result indicated Texas’ progress truly was something concrete. Bryce Young, the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner, had to mount a comeback in the final minutes to escape Austin with a win, and led an offense that only managed to score 20 points.

The ensuing start of conference play told a different, though familiar, story. In 2021, Texas crushed Texas Tech 70-35 in Austin to open Big 12 play in Week 4. In 2022, the Red Raiders mounted a second-half comeback to win 37-34 in overtime, Tech’s first win over the Longhorns in Lubbock since 2008.

How did it happen? Many of the same issues that plagued the 2021 Longhorns resurfaced. Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense never broke, but it bent enough on money downs to where there was no noticeable difference between bent and broken. Steve Sarkisian’s offense built another first-half lead with good offensive play that buckled over the course of the second half.

Four points is all that separates 2-2 Texas from potentially being undefeated. That’s a certain sign of improvement, but not enough progress has been made in the area the team needed to shore up the most in Sarkisian’s second year: the win-loss record.

The Longhorns have had many chances to close out wins against Big 12 opponents during the Sarkisian era, and have not done it consistently. There have been one-offs like when Bijan Robinson closed out the win in Fort Worth over TCU, or when Roschon Johnson carried Texas in the 2021 season versus Kansas State. Those were games in which Texas was able to protect second-half leads by the skin of their teeth.

How do they go about doing it on a regular basis, which would be the clearest sign of year-to-year improvement, starting on Saturday versus the West Virginia Mountaineers?

“You’ve just got to go do it,” Robinson said Monday. “Everybody needs to create a mindset of just dominance. We can’t let anything like that happen again. We want to come together as leadership guys and just instill that in the whole team, and say, every single day until we get tired of hearing it, that we’ve just got to do it.”

Sarkisian said something similar moments earlier, indicating that was one of the themes he preached to his team in the aftermath of the trip to Lubbock.

“I think it actually has to happen,” Sarkisian said. “I think at some point in there, you gain confidence in doing it. Hopefully we continue to put ourselves in that position. That means we’re playing pretty good football. Naturally, once you can do it once, you can do it twice, you gain confidence on how to go do it. It just has to happen. We have to keep working at it.”

From spring football to the current date, every Longhorn player has repeatedly mentioned how much emphasis was placed on finishing in the last nine months. They’d make sure to note when they were nearing the end of a practice or workout and the need to work as hard if not harder as the finish line approached.

The win over UTSA was a good example of what Sarkisian and staff believes it should look like, especially after the Longhorns recovered from an early deficit. Against Texas Tech, the growth was not as clear — if not almost invisible — once the scoreboard read in the Red Raiders’ advantage.

“I just feel like overall we’re making strides, but it’s not good enough,” Anthony Cook said. “We’ve got to finish. We had the lead. We’ve just got to finish.”

Even with a worse record, the team does believe they are better. But they know to truly prove it and bring about the wins, they have to eliminate the mistakes that let Texas Tech back into the game.

Which mistakes? Things like fumbles, missed tackles, missed assignments, and many of the same things that created last year’s slog.

“We know where we stand,” Johnson said. “Looking back at the film, it’s just the minute things that cost us the game. Definitely, we’re in a way better position now than where we were.”

If Texas starts to do that, and forces the opposing team into positions they’d rather not be in, the improvement will manifest itself in the form of consistency, and that consistency will manifest itself in the form of more wins.

If not?

“We can’t afford to have lapses in our consistency in our play or our preparation, or we’ll get the result that we had,” Sarkisian said.