Everything Steve Sarkisian said after Texas' loss to Florida

Here’s everything Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said after the Longhorns’ 29-21 loss to the Florida Gators.

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A link to the video can be found here.

Steve Sarkisian: “Obviously a disappointing loss in the fact that we just didn’t play great. We didn’t play very good especially early on in the ball game. We struggled to get stops defensively. We really were not very good on the line of scrimmage on either side of the ball early. We got a little better on defense. But we just weren’t great on the line of scrimmage on offense. Had some opportunities, missed some opportunities, but we battled and competed and competed until the very end. I love the fight of the guys, but we’ve got to play better. We just didn’t play good enough, and that’s on me. We’ve got to get that fixed.”

Steve Sarkisian on if this is a game that can inform him of his team’s resolve going forward: “I think so. I think this is where you find out about the culture that you have. That’s what we just talked about as a team. We’ve got to get tighter than we’ve ever been. We’re going to have to quiet the noise because there will be plenty of noise coming out of this game. We need to get back to work, and we need to play our brand and our style of football that we’re capable of playing. We just didn’t do it tonight. That’s a good team. We knew it was going to be a good team coming in. We knew it’d be a tough environment. We knew we needed to play well and we didn’t play good enough. We’ll hunker down. We’ve done it before. We know how to do it. It’s going to take everybody staying really well connected. We’ve got to be really tight. We’ve got to march forward. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again.”

Steve Sarkisian on improving his lacking run game: “We have to figure that out. I don’t have a great answer for you today. What I do know is we couldn’t run it tonight when they didn’t know we were going to run it, regardless of when they knew we were going to run it. We’ve got to improve that. We just cannot be a one-dimensional team. When guys can just start rushing the passer and not worry about the run, the game gets really difficult. We’ve got to find a way to generate some run game and generate some run game outside of Arch (Manning). We’ve got to find it with the runners. That’ll be a task of ours tonight, tomorrow, Monday to put together a plan for next week.”

Steve Sarkisian on being unable to get to DJ Lagway: “The one that really stood out was the deep post they hit I think to (Vernell Brown). I want to say that was in the third quarter where we felt like he looked left, he looked right, looked right, looked left, looked back right, and we just didn’t get a pass rush. Graceson (Littleton), he’s in tight coverage, but that’s tough to guard a guy that long all the way down the field. I think to their credit, they ran the ball enough to where we had to play run defense and then when they were calling their passes, we weren’t really in straight pass rush mode. We got home, we hit the arm and forced the interception for (Michael) Taaffe there with a pass rush. We have to find a way to make opponents one dimensional. We weren’t able to do that tonight. They were able to run the ball, win on early downs especially early in the game, and that opened up their entire playbook.”

Steve Sarkisian on Florida’s front and if they are comparable to other elite ones from 2024: “I know they’re good. It’s hard to gauge and compare and whatnot. They’re a good team. They’re a physical front. They’ve got good players and they’ve got a good scheme. I thought they called a good game defensively, but I thought we had opportunities. That was probably the most frustrating part. We had some things down field that we couldn’t really get off. We’ve got to improve in that area. We’ve got to find a way to help those guys, and the best way to help those guys up front is to have the ability to run the ball to neutralize some of that pass rush stuff they had going on.”

Steve Sarkisian said he thought his team did well with penalties but “they just started coming in waves, those pre-snap penalties.” — “I thought we were handling the crowd noise really well, but later in the game we started to get a little antsy and that’s when the pre-snap penalty started to kick in.”

Sarkisian on whether the run game issues are based in the O-line or with the backs: “Off the top of my head, I don’t know. Is it on the O-line? Is it on the backs? We’ll have to evaluate that. I thought we had a couple of pretty good runs and we had holding penalties. Then when we didn’t get the holding penalties we didn’t gain any yards. That part, we have to fix. Our offense and any offense for that matter, you’ve got to find it. You got to at least get close to some balance. We didn’t have that tonight. We were a one dimensional team, and that gets difficult on everybody. It gets difficult on the linemen. It gets difficult on the quarterback. It gets difficult on the running backs in protection when guys are just pinning their ears back and rushing. We’ve got to find a way to find more balance in our offense than we had today.”

Steve Sarkisian on why Florida was successful running the ball: “I didn’t think we played great. I know what we’re capable of. We got out of our gaps a couple of times in the run game. We didn’t get off as many blocks as I’m accustomed to seeing. I thought their runner did a good job of falling forward. We were making contact at three or four yards, he’d fall forward and get five, six, seven. Then they were in some really manageable third downs where they could convert those things. That makes things drastically different when you’re playing in third and two, third and six as opposed to third and nine to third and 12. Your margin for error is much better when you’re there over time. Historically, just look at any third down numbers. They’re better when those are your third downs. We’ve got to win more on first and second down and put people in more third and long situations, which we’ve done historically. We weren’t able to do it tonight. They got leaky yards in the run game, and then they were able to convert on third downs, extend drives, and score points.”

Steve Sarkisian on Nick Brooks: “Nick has been practicing really well. That was something that, as we went into the bye, we felt like this guy’s really been coming along. We’re trying to get our best five guys out there, and as we started working him at left guard, it felt like that would be the right mix to at least give him an opportunity to play. It felt like he was the best matchup, especially when it got into a dropback pass type game. He could matchup a little better inside.”

Steve Sarkisian on why the O-line hasn’t clicked yet: “I think it’s a bunch of stuff. It goes back to our ability to run it. It goes back to finding rhythm of playing with one another and trusting one another. I think ultimately, it’s experience. Right now, we’re not an experienced group, and especially not an experienced group playing together. We’ve got to keep pushing those guys to be the best that they can be. I know there’s more in there. It’s our job to get it out of them.”

Steve Sarkisian: “Arch kind of got a stinger on his shoulder. That’s why he went to the tent and came back out. He did take some hits. I thought Arch competed today. He battled his butt off. The interception there that their safety makes over the top is a heck of a play. I’m sure there’s going to be plays he’s going to look at on the film and wish he could have back and where we could have had more. I thought he battled and competed.”

Steve Sarkisian on Parker Livingstone: “Parker, X-rays and everything were negative. He got hit in the lower leg and just couldn’t quite return, but I don’t think it’s anything serious.”

Steve Sarkisian on Emmett Mosley: “I thought Emmett played well. First time out there, made some big time plays. Makes a great catch on our sidelines on a 50-50 ball. That’s what he has. I didn’t think for a second the moment was too big for him. He felt very comfortable out there. I think Arch definitely has a lot of trust in him. It was great to have him back.”

Steve Sarkisian on Dallas Wilson: "He's a physical player, he's a really good player, he's got a bright future."@ZachAbolverdi

— Inside Texas (@InsideTexas) October 4, 2025

Steve Sarkisian on Arch during the comeback: “I thought he competed his heart out. Our entire team did. I think most people thought we were probably dead and gone. We fought all the way back. We had a chance there at the end. Learning lesson for him is the situations of the game of not taking a sack in two minute with no timeouts and having the ability to throw the ball away. It was just because he was competing so hard. He’ll learn that stuff. That’s part of the process of growing and developing as a young quarterback. Proud of his competitive spirit. Made some big time plays for us. I’m sure there’s going to be a few other plays he’d love to have back, but I don’t question his heart at all. He battled tonight.”

Does Steve Sarkisian have to reshape the season goals?

“No, not at all. We’re a one loss team in the SEC. There’s a lot of football left to be played. We’ve got 7 conference games to be played. I’m not going to sit here and give the poor me’s and the woe is us. We’ll get back ready to go. Obviously got a big, pivotal game next week against a rival opponent in Oklahoma. Very good football team. We need to get ourselves ready and focus on next week. One of the mistakes we can make is to look big picture. We need to focus on this week and put our best foot forward and get ready to play against a good football team.”