Steve Sarkisian is once again the target of an in -depth examination after the last high level loss of Texas.
But despite the way to the narrow championship of Longhorns and their global lack of game success during his mandate as a coach in Austin, Sarkisian defended culture in Texas and praised his team’s mindset before Saturday confrontation with Oklahoma in the rivalry of the Red Allstate river.
“It would probably not be right for these guys to say, you know, our culture is perfect at the moment,” said Sarkisian on Monday. “They are all – they should do the right things. They were great today. They arrived, they were coachable. They took the difficult coaching on Saturday.
“So their state of mind is all there, so that tells me the law of culture. But at the end of the day, we were able to play together in a team on Saturday.”
Sarkisian’s comments occurred two days after Texas fell to 3-2 with the defeat of 29-21 on Saturday at Florida in difficulty.
The Longhorns, the pre-season team n ° 1, fell from the association of the Associated Press with the loss and saw their chances of reaching the decline in the playoffs of university football at only 22%, according to ESPN Analytics.
Texas has only 3-8 against the top-10 AP teams of all time under Sarkisian, who raised the eyebrows on Monday when he asked if he had been surprised by the struggles of the Longhorns this season.
“I don’t know if I’m amazed,” he replied. “I mean, take the other-how many teams are there in university football? One hundred and thirty-six. Take the other 135 and ask them to play Ohio State and Swamp. See how they do.”
The Texas won three consecutive victories after its loss of opening of the season at Ohio State, but the loss in Florida has renewed the criticism of Sarkisian, which accepted the responsibility for the slow start of the Longhorns.
“We don’t have time for the” poor me “. We don’t have time for” misfortune to us, “he said on Monday.” We have to come to work, and I think I must illustrate it. I cannot let my actions betray my words, and if I will say these things, well, I must be a model of that, and it is in our preparation. “
According to ESPN Analytics, Texas has 3% chance of managing the table and reaching the playoffs of university football as a team of two defeats.
Beating the sixth row of the Sooners (5-0) Saturday would jump the Longhorns in the heart of the title of the dry, the first step towards the 12 team playoffs. Sarkisian said he didn’t like “noise around how we play”, but recognized that he could not control the story about Texas which has trouble meeting high expectations.
“I cannot control things outside our building and outside our team,” he said. “But I can control (our preparation for Oklahoma) and I can control our state of mind and I can control our approach. And then, in the end, the staff and the players follow in this way. So I have to look at myself first, and I cannot let my actions betray my words. If I want our players to act in a way, I would certainly be better to model this.”
