Everything we want to hear from Steve Sarkisian's pre-Vanderbilt presser

When Steve Sarkisian takes the stand at 11:30 this morning on the Longhorn Network to talk about his football team, a clear theme will emerge.

Culture.

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You’ll hear him talk about a culture win, one that took all three phases to eke out a gutsy victory on the road in the SEC—all of this while mulling over a ton of actual problems that show up when you win two straight OT games against bottom-four SEC teams who have yet to win a conference game this season.

The defense struggled, having its worst day since… ASU last year? Washington in ’23?

The offensive line continued to play poorly, and Texas was the far inferior team for 45 minutes of game time. Thankfully, you play 60, and sometimes more.

First order of business for Sarkisian: we need an update on Arch Manning.

Once in SEC play, Sarkisian tends to let the SEC availability reports do the talking in regard to injury. He tends to keep quiet about which players are hurt, and usually, he’ll give a basic answer when asked about an injured player.

But this is QB1 we’re talking about, five days away from playing a top-ten Vanderbilt team (check that under “things I didn’t think I’d be saying in 2025”).

Manning was clearly concussed on the overtime run against the Bulldogs. What is his timeline? When will he be able to practice? Should we expect a Matthew Caldwell appearance come Saturday?

Secondly, what is this disconnect between what he wants to call in the first half and what actually works in the second half?

Against P4 teams, Texas has scored 14 or more offensive points in a half three times. Two of those three came in the second half on the road in games Texas was down in—Florida and Mississippi State.

Both times, Texas showed what their best offense is: spread the ball out, 11 personnel, and let Manning make plays. He did it well in both games!

Why is he so adamant about 12 personnel? Why does he continue to call a clearly flawed play-action pass game? Why does he insist on keeping his most talented position group on offense off the field?

Texas was clearly at its best on Saturday when it had three receivers in who could all make plays. Emmett Mosley was fantastic against man coverage. DeAndre Moore is Texas’ best zone beater. Ryan Wingo had three giant explosives thanks to getting the ball in his hands on the perimeter. Parker Livingstone is even turning into a reliable red-zone threat, and we know about his explosive play ability.

Why not just spread the defense out and allow Manning to make timing-based throws to his good group of pass catchers? I’m not saying it’s going to magically turn this offense elite, but it clearly works better than what he has shown in the last two games.

I’m also curious about the interior offensive line. Connor Robertson actually played a pretty good game. So did Connor Stroh, especially when he moved to left guard. He played 40 more snaps than Nick Brooks. Is that the combo Texas is going with moving forward?

Lastly, I’m curious how Sarkisian will talk about his defense.

He hasn’t had much reason in the last two years to critique them. There clearly needs to be some change after this one.

Texas gravely missed Michael Taaffe, but his unit really struggled against an experienced QB like Shapen. Texas hadn’t played a P4 QB this season with over 350 passing attempts in their career. Shapen had over 1,000, as does Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia.

What is the response after seeing a veteran QB on a lower-level team dice the Longhorns up for 38? How are they going to bounce back with a top-10 offense in the nation staring them down?

This press conference will also touch on the rumblings about the NFL, but I couldn’t care less, and I know y’all feel the same.

Texas controls its path to the playoffs, and Sarkisian has the talent on his roster to get there. This is a must-have home win.