Steve Sarkisian addresses Texas receiving a first-place vote in the USA Today Coaches Poll
There are few entities in life more perturbing yet so insignificant as college sports polls. Heck, some of the people participating in these polls couldn’t care less about the sanctity of them. Just look at the renegade voter in the SEC Media Poll who picked Vanderbilt to unseat Georgia and win the SEC East. Or when the USA Today Coaches preseason poll came out, one Longhorn lover ranked Texas first in the nation despite coming off a 5-7 season. Luckily, head coach Steve Sarkisian had a nice laugh about that one.
When asked about the one voter who slotted Texas first, Steve Sarkisian did his best Shaggy impression, joking, “It wasn’t me.”
He then went on to question the mere existence of preseason polls. Which he can’t seem to wrap his mind around.
“You know, I say this all the time: I never really understand preseason polls, I don’t quite get them. I know you guys do your media picks for the Big 12 and we do it for the coaches poll, and then the AP poll. I never quite understand it. Because you are the way you play. You are the record that you end up with. And we got a lot of work to do. We’re picked to finish fourth in the Big 12. So that should motivate us to get our butts moving in practice really well.”
Coach Sarkisian, your comments are valuable and for the most part accurate, but let’s get to the point: what else would fans, players and media folks obsess over during the July/August drought of sports activity if not for meaningless rankings? Also, it’s nice to have a rough starting point outlining which teams are projected to be the best in the country.
Anyway, for those who do indulge in preseason polls, check out the full USA Today Coaches Poll below, where the Longhorns came in ranked 18th.