Steve Sarkisian makes plea to wide receivers following loss
Steve Sarkisian was asked directly about the bevy of dropped balls and missed plays by the Texas Longhorns’ receiving corps in Saturday’s loss to Baylor.
The Texas head coach took a simple approach when answering how his receivers can bounce back from a tough outing.
“Well, we get back to work and we get back to our fundamentals,” Sarkisian said. “To make sure that fundamentally we are sound with how we are trying to catch the ball.”
On paper, the Texas receiving corps didn’t have a bad outing. Xavier Worthy hauled in four receptions for 115 yards and a touchdown. Marcus Washington followed up with another seven catches for 70 yards. Joshua Moore hauled in his third touchdown pass of the season.
But both Moore and Washington struggled in key moments. Moore fumbled and dropped a touchdown pass while Texas attempted to keep the lead in the first half. Washington dropped a contested catch in the fourth quarter inside the Baylor 25.
Steve Sarkisian says he is confident in the players he has at wide receiver, despite Saturday’s struggles.
“Ultimately, we gotta have faith in the guys that we have,” the Texas coach said. “We have some talented players, and I’m sure those guys would love to have some of those plays back.”
Steve Sarkisian on self-inflicted problems
The wide receiver discussion opened a bigger one, focused on the entire team.
Sarkisian’s Longhorns have constantly inflicted problems upon themselves in 2021, knocking them out of contention in close games against talented opponents.
When asked about how the Texas coach will change the narrative so his team avoids hurting itself in a close matchup, Steve Sarkisian gave and honest response.
“I don’t know, I think sometimes psyche can get involved,” Sarkisian said when asked about how his team has gotten in its own way during key moments. “Whether it’s ‘I’m too relaxed, or I’m too tense,’ so everybody is a little different.
It’s my job to push all of the right buttons so that all of our guys plays with the utmost confidence and belief to make their plays and they can do it.”
Steve Sarkisian used the offseason to implement a new culture for the Texas football program moving forward, and in the early part of the year, his players showed they were buying in.
So far, there have been signs the program is headed in the right direction, but the Texas head coach will be the first to admit its a work in progress.
With the Big 12 title now out of sight unless chaos occurs, Sarkisian and his young title are taking a “one game at a time” approach.
The Longhorns will look to right the ship against Iowa State on Saturday night.