Blaine Young
September 27, 2022
Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian believes the Longhorns made too many self-inflicted wounds to put themselves in a position to win the game Saturday against Texas Tech.
The way Sarkisian felt immediately after the loss to the Red Raiders held true after rewatching the game tape, he said Monday. The Longhorns let too many opportunities slip by to come up victorious.
“That’s the most frustrating part because I think we have a standard here and a style of play we take pride in,” Sarkisian said. “We didn’t play to that standard. We didn’t play to the level of execution that is acceptable and that’s our responsibility.”
Sarkisian mentioned his frustration when the defense jumped offsides on two different third-and-long opportunities. Instead of forcing the Red Raiders’ offense off the field by stopping it short of the first-down marker, the Longhorns’ defense twice gave Texas Tech quarterback Donovan Smith free plays to gain the first down.
Offensively, Sarkisian noted that the offense getting stopped on fourth-and-short when Texas had a lead was another self-inflicted wound. While it would be easy to blame a specific unit or a moment for the turnover on downs, Sarkisian said the entire team and coaching staff is responsible for the loss.
“It’s on all of us,” Sarkisian said. “At the end of the day it’s (the coaching staff’s) job to put the players in the best position to be successful. Then ultimately when (the players) gain the trust of us to put you out there to go do it, then it’s your job to go execute.”
One such play that didn’t execute like Sarkisian would have wanted was the very first play of the overtime period. Junior running back Bijan Robinson fumbled the ball while being tackled, giving Texas Tech the ability to win the game with any sort of score on its next drive.
Sarkisian said that while losing is never fun, he thinks the running back room and the team as a whole has done a nice job of picking Robinson up after the fumble.
“We naturally gravitate towards those we love and we love everybody on our team,” Sarkisian said. “We try to pick each other up so they can continue to grow and get better and ultimately play at a high level come next Saturday.”
The loss on the road to Texas Tech was strikingly similar to the way last year’s team consistently failed to close out games with the lead. In order for Texas to buck the trend of letting substantial second half leads slip away, Sarkisian said the team holding onto the lead just has to happen. He added that the team would gain confidence in holding onto leads by simply doing it.
“Hopefully, we continue to put ourselves in the position (of having late leads), that means we’re playing pretty good football,” Sarkisian said. “Naturally, once you can do it once, you can do it twice. You gain confidence in how to go do it.”
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