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LIVE UPDATES: Steve Sarkisian recaps SJSU, looks ahead to UTEP

Joe Cookby: Joe Cook09/08/25josephcook89
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Steve Sarkisian (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian will be available to the media at 11:30 a.m. to recap San Jose State and look ahead to Saturday’s matchup with the UTEP Miners. You can watch here on Longhorn Network. Updates from Sarkisian will follow below.

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Updates from Steve Sarkisian

Steve Sarkisian: “As far as the game goes, I’ll start positively. I thought things that we emphasized, we got the rewards on.” — Mentions he talked about attacking the ball on defense last week and Texas created four turnovers as a result. On offense, mentions they made a point to be more explosive. Sarkisian believes about “20%” of the Longhorns’ plays were explosive.

Things that were glaring to Sarkisian? Penalties: “You have 12 penalties for 115 yards, which means there were some major fouls in there and they were in all three phases.” — “I think we had 12 third downs Saturday. Six of those were 3rd-and-9 or larger, and that’s not a winning formula for success when you’re trying to move the ball on a consistent basis. We’ve got to improve upon that.”

Sarkisian: “I got a chance by playing at 11 a.m. to get home earlier and watch some other teams kind of slug the ball around on the field in games where everyone thinks you’re just supposed to go out and play perfect, so part of that is the growth of the team. We need to improve, and everybody needs to improve individually. I believe we’ll do so and we started to do that today.”

Steve Sarkisian on playing a variety of looks and styles in non-conference play: “We’re fortunate that way. We have some growing pains from a players perspective, but there’s some growing pains from a staff perspective too of what do we really like, what works, what doesn’t, how we’re coaching it, and so we need to use these experiences as valuable lessons even when maybe things don’t go exactly the way we want.”

Steve Sarkisian on Ryan Wingo: “With Ryan, I just think he’s pressing a little bit. Ryan is, if not the most, one of the most conscientious kids on our roster. He works really hard, nobody practices harder than this guy. He wants to do right. He’s in the right spots. He wants to make all the plays. Sometimes, not trying so hard is the best avenue and just playing and relaxing and playing. He’ll get there. I think that we all want him to get there sooner rather than later. I know he does too.”

Steve Sarkisian on punt return: “This past week, we really went in thinking we could get a block. It’s unfortunate we just didn’t execute it. Just two weeks in a row we had chances. We didn’t execute it very well. We’ve got to be better and more detailed there. Two, we didn’t block great for him. I thought all the decisions Ryan (Niblett) made were probably the right ones. There may have been one late that he could have returned, but it’s tough when they’re short kicks.”

Steve Sarkisian says he’s in favor of the most recent portal recommendation that would place one window in early January: “I feel like to be fair to the players but also fair to the schools, if you’re one of those four teams that are left and the portal window opens for those 10 days and the players will still have their five days after whenever you’re done, the national championship or the semis, those are champagne problems. That means you’ve got a pretty good team. You’re in the semifinals. I think for the betterment of the sport, that’s the right window for teams.”

Sarkisian on penalties, says Colin Simmons may be leading the country in penalties right now. About the rest of the team: “at the end of the day, you have to point them out. In game, what happens is when you get a penalty, there’s a consequence. The team suffers. You go back five yards. You go back 15 yards. The opponent gets to continue to possess the ball because you rough a punter. There’s consequences to penalties. We need to have consequences in practice, too.”

Sarkisian mentions Zina Umeozulu, Lance Jackson, Maraad Watson, Ty’Anthony Smith, Xavier Filsaime, Kaliq Lockett as younger players who had quality performances on Saturday.

Sarkisian: “We have some new faces. There’s going to be some growing pains. I wasn’t naive to that, to think we were just going to be a well oiled machine the first month of the season. But I want to see some incremental growth, and there were some errors Saturday that need to improve.”

Sarkisian on the O-line: “I didn’t think we carried enough information into the game and applied it up front. To me, I think that showed a little bit of our immaturity upfront on Saturday, that it wasn’t the same game. It was a different game. You can’t play it the same. You know that’s something where I think we need to grow this week and learn and understand who’s my opponent, what are they trying to do to me, how are they trying to beat me, and then how am I going to combat that within the ball game.”

What games did Sark watch this weekend?

  • Clemson v. Troy
  • Georgia v. Austin Peay
  • Oklahoma v. Michigan

Sarkisian: “You learn a lot. You think ‘is this just us? Are we screwed up?’ There were some pretty good teams that were struggling on Saturday, too. There were some other teams that looked really good and maybe they’re a little head of the curve.”

Steve Sarkisian on Tre Wisner: “I’d probably say today, he’s doubtful. I’m not ruling him out. At this juncture of the season, I’m just not in a rush to push guys back out there if they’re not as close to 100% or closer. I just know how long this thing goes. I know what it’s going to look like in October, November, December, and hopefully January. Is the juice worth the squeeze right now? For Saturday, we’re rehabbing them. We’re trying to get him ready to go and then we’ll make a decision as we get closer to the ball game of what that looks like.”

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