The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
11.08.2021 | Football
Football head coach Steve Sarkisian previewed Saturday's game vs. Kansas.
Football head coach Steve Sarkisian Weekly Press Conference
Opening Statement
"Just a (quick) recap of the ballgame from Saturday night.; I kind of want to reiterate a little bit of what I said after the game. I thought the first half defense played really, really good football. (They) did a nice job on the sudden change of (possession of) holding them to a field goal after the turnover on the first drive and really played well that whole half. It was unfortunate (that) we missed a couple opportunities offensively in that first half that could have maybe changed some of the complexion of the game. (Freshman wide receiver Xavier) Worthy on the post route there in the second quarter, and then obviously not taking advantage of the blocked punt; we received the ball on the plus-fifty with an opportunity there before the half to get points and that didn't happen. So inevitably, you get to the locker room up seven-to-three against a quality opponent on the road, you feel good about where you're at. Kind of a chain of events of three things really changed the whole game and I think changed a little bit of the psyche for us. Obviously, the speed option hurt and our inability to get the runner on the ground. A couple penalties offensively that pushes back, we punt, they get the ball in the fifty and then they hit the double pass on the very next play. Those obviously were huge momentum shifters for them and for us. The reality of the whole situation was, we didn't play the quality of football in the second half that I think we had been making incremental progress on. I think we've seen aspects of our team getting better and improving. I thought tackling had improved, I thought the line of scrimmage had improved, some things had been showing up for us that were really positive, even in the first half of the game. But in the second half, we lost that momentum and we lost that incremental progress that we had been making. Missed tackles started to rear their ugly head again, we started to lose at the line of scrimmage again, and ultimately, some of that was a byproduct of our inefficiency to throw the ball. We have to get back to building the belief that we know we have been building, and that the players have been building. I think it's a dangerous strategy to play with hope. Hope doesn't work; you can't hope the guy next to (you) does his job, you can't hope that (you're) going to make (a) play, you can't hope that the scheme is going to work, you have to have belief in the scheme. Then you get some success through your belief, and then ultimately, that's how you gain confidence. That's the priority for us this week. Like I said, after the game, we don't have any time to be down on our luck, or to feel sorry for ourselves. We have to get back to work. We have to create our own breaks. The only way I know how to do that is to be demanding of what is expected. Not demeaning, not demeaning of players, but being demanding of what's expected of them, so that ultimately, we can make the progress and get the results we're looking for down the road."
On what the building the culture of the team
"From a fanbase perspective, I use this analogy. Whenever you want to buy a classic car, or use a classic car, it's easy to put a new paint job on it and make it look like you restored it, and it looks great. We're under the hood, man, we're under the hood, and we're fixing the engine, we're working on the interior. And when this thing's done, we'll put the nice fresh coat of paint on it. But we're under the hood right now working on a lot of things that we think need to get worked on, whether it's schematically, whether it's culturally, whether it's individual players development, and ultimately, the car is going to look shiny and good. And we just have to trust this process that we're going through. Nobody likes where we're at, I get it, shoot, I wish we were undefeated right now, too. And outside of a couple games, we probably could have a really good record compared to where we're at. But that's the progress that we're in. That's where we're at. But I do think there is incremental progress that is occurring. It's unfortunate what happened in the second half the other night, but there was a lot of good early on in that game that we can build from."
On the impact of social media
"I'm a realist, with our guys and a realist in society, right? I've said this early on, when we were talking on the subject of mental health, and social media, in this day and age, has totally changed the experience for athletes in general, but most notably for us, our football players in their life as a player. Historically, college athletes, they play a game, they may get cheered, they may get booed, and they walk out of the locker room, they hug their family, we get in a team meeting room, we tell them what we did right, what we did wrong, and how we're going to fix it. They may read a newspaper article; they may turn on the evening news or Sportscenter to see it. Well, social media has changed that experience for the athlete now. Now, it's instantaneous. And not only do they have to go look at somebody else's tweet, a lot of what our guys get our direct messages directly attacking them and/or us. But what I remind our players is: we choose to be in that arena. If you have an Instagram account, a Twitter account, a Facebook, a Snapchat, now you're choosing to be in that arena where you're subject to criticism. The same way, when you do well, and you want to post a video of yourself making a great catch or a great tackle or whatever that is, you're going into that arena to catch the praise and the notoriety and all the likes and the different things of that nature. So, they need to understand that once you choose to get in that arena, now you're subject to that criticism, whether you're worthy of it or not. The point is, they still have a choice to read that or not. There's a famous quote, you guys can probably figure it out, but the Man in the Arena is real. That's a real quote. And we're in the arena, and we're not here to criticize anybody else. We're here to do our job to the best of our ability. And if we get criticized, we just need to recognize that we appreciate what we get to do through the blood, sweat, and tears and, ultimately, the triumphs because that's the life of a competitor, and that's what we chose to do."
On player development and team leadership
"I like the development of our players. I think when you really break down individual players, you see the growth in a lot of our guys. Some guys may be further ahead than others, some guys may be making a bigger stride than others. I look at (senior defensive back) Brenden Schooler for example, where early in the year he kind of came out playing really well and hit a little bit of a lull. Now his game has come back and I thought he played really well the other night. I look at (sophomore defensive lineman) Alfred Collins, a guy who really was a little bit down on the depth chart at the beginning of the year, and now is an integral part to what we're doing. He's starting and he's playing good football. I look at (senior offensive lineman) Tope Imade, who is a six-year player that we continue to develop and now he's playing pretty good football for us on that front. I think we're seeing that in a lot of different spots. Obviously, we never want to settle. We're always striving for more. We never want to settle for a ceiling. From a leadership standpoint, one thing that I'm encouraged by is that we have a lot of players trying to do the necessary things for themselves for what is needed of the team. I think ultimately, when teams really get to that point to where they're really good teams, and not only in their play but in their culture, players start to hold players accountable for what's acceptable and what's not. Clearly, as coaches we're holding the players accountable, I think the players are recognizing who's doing things the right way and who may be trying to cut some corners. That's when they step in and they start holding each other accountable. That's when we got something special. I think we're getting closer to that. We're just not exactly where we need to be."
