Steve Sarkisian is once again the target of widespread investigation texas‘The latest high-profile loss.
But despite the Longhorns’ narrow championship path and lack of big-game success during his coaching tenure in Austin, Sarkisian defended the culture at Texas and praised his team’s mentality ahead of Saturday’s contest. oklahoma In the Allstate Red River Rivalry.
“It probably wouldn’t be fair to these people to say, you know, our culture is perfect right now,” Sarkisian said Monday. “They’re all there – they’re reason to do the right things. They were great today. They came, they trained. They took the hard coaching from Saturday.
“So their mentality is right there, so it tells me the culture’s right. But at the end of the day, we got a chance to play together as a team on Saturday.”
Sarkisian’s comments came two days after Texas fell to 3-2 with a 29-21 loss in a hard-fought game on Saturday. Florida,
The Longhorns, the preseason No. 1 ranked team, fell out of the Associated Press poll with the loss and their chances of reaching the College Football Playoff dropped to just 22%, according to ESPN Analytics.
Texas is just 3-8 against AP top-10 teams under Sarkisian, who raised more eyebrows Monday when asked if he was surprised by the Longhorns’ struggles this season.
He replied, “I don’t know if I’m shocked or not.” “I mean, take the other ones – how many teams are there in college football? One hundred thirty-six. Take the other 135 and have them play Ohio State and The Swamp. See how they do.”
Texas rattles off three straight wins after season-opening loss Ohio StateBut the loss at Florida renewed criticism of Sarkisian, who accepted responsibility for the Longhorns’ slow start.
“We don’t have time for the ‘poor’.” We don’t have time for ‘woe is us,'” he said on Monday. “We have to come to work, and I think I have to exemplify that. I can’t let my actions betray my words, and if I’m going to say those things, I have to be a model of that, and that’s in our preparation.”
According to ESPN Analytics, Texas has a 3% chance of moving up in the standings and reaching the College Football Playoff as a two-loss team.
The Longhorns will get back into SEC title contention by defeating the sixth-ranked Sooners (5-0) on Saturday, the first step toward a 12-team playoff. Sarkisian said he doesn’t like “the noise about how we’re playing,” but acknowledged he can’t control the narrative about Texas struggling to meet high expectations.
“I can’t control things outside our building and outside our team,” he said. “But I can control [our preparation for Oklahoma] And I can control our mindset and I can control our attitude. And then, ultimately, the staff and players follow the same path. So I have to look at myself first, and I can’t let my actions betray my words. If I want our players to act a certain way, I’m definitely going to be better at it.”
