Texas coach Steve Sarkisian talks the turning point in his football program
Whenever a new coach embarks on reviving a program, there’s usually a turning point during the process that symbolizes the vision and promises the new tasker has laid out for his team. For the No. 3 Texas Longhorns, that moment was a loss.
[Join Inside Texas and get ONE MONTH of Longhorn intel for just $1!]
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke to the media on Sunday and was asked at what point he felt the Longhorns were really headed the right direction. And it happened to be a home game last fall vs Alabama.
Veterans Jaylan Ford, Christian Jones, and other players said the home loss to Bryce Young and the Crimson Tide was the moment they really started to believe in these guys as a staff. The Horns were leading, 16-10, entering the fourth quarter, but Young made a few plays and the Crimson Tide kicked a game-winning field goal as time expired. Texas lost, 20-19, even after a safety was removed from the scoreboard mysteriously.
Did Sarkisian feel like that was the moment that he felt like the guys started to believe? And if it was, then how important was it? Even though it was a loss, how important was that moment?
“Well, I think naturally — and year one was a really difficult season in that we were — we were trying to — trying to turn the ship, right, in the right direction,” Sarkisian said. “And we lost a couple really tough games against good teams. And we were struggling to kind of get our footing back in. You end the season 5-7, you’re wondering is this the right path as a player. As a coach, I felt great about what we were doing. I knew it was going to be a process.”
Then Alabama arrived in Austin.
“So when year two came and we had a great offseason, I felt like we had a really good roster,” Sarkisian explained. “And we played Bama earlier in the year with a very talented team, with Bryce Young and Will Anderson and that crew, to play them the way we played them, I think for the players it was an a-ha moment in that everything Coach is talking about, we actually are capable of. Now we have to put the final pieces together to really learn how to finish. That was a whole process. That took a whole other year to really get that done for us.”
Top 10
- 1
Elko pokes at Kiffin
A&M coach jokes over kick times
- 2
Dan Lanning
Oregon coach getting NFL buzz
- 3Trending
UK upsets Duke
Mark Pope leads Kentucky to first Champions Classic win since 2019
- 4Hot
5-star flip
Ole Miss flips Alabama WR commit Caleb Cunningham
- 5
Second CFP Top 25
Newest CFP rankings are out
Usually turning points happen during wins, but it gave the Texas program a ton of confidence knowing they could not only hang with the best college football program over the last 15 years, but that they could beat them.
“Naturally, now, I think there is a level of belief in the fourth quarter of these games, when the games are tight, that we can find a way to win, that we’re versatile enough to find a way to win in whatever phase, offense, defense, or special teams, to make that play in that critical moment,” said Sarkisian. “I do think there’s something to be said for playing those types of games early in the season because it does give you — it gives you a sense of a little bit of a bar of where you are at, where you need to improve, and what another one of the best teams in the country looks like and how you measured up against them early in the season.”
It certainly was a catalyst for the 2023 campaign when Texas walked into Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa during Week 2 and beat a Nick Saban-led squad to its worst home loss of his era.
Often turning points in a program can happen at the least expected time. For Texas, it was a loss at home over a year ago that told them they could play and thrive under Sarkisian and his staff. Since then, it’s all buy-in on the Forty Acres.
