LIVE UPDATES: Steve Sarkisian reviews Arkansas, looks forward to Texas A&M

Steve Sarkisian will be available to the media at 11 a.m. today to review Arkansas and look ahead to Friday’s game versus A&M

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You can watch the press conference HERE.

Updates from Steve Sarkisian

Steve Sarkisian: “I thought situationally we did some nice things in the game from a complimentary football standpoint.” — Mentions the red zone stops on Arkansas’ first two drives, drives before and after halftime, and the ability to turn the Razorbacks over.

Steve Sarkisian: “Longhorn Nation was fantastic with over 102,000 on Saturday at 2:30.” — “We’re looking forward to Friday night for Senior Day as well as obviously hosting Texas A&M.”

Steve Sarkisian: “They’re really good in all three phases. Defensively, the numbers are pretty startling when you look at 3rd down defense, sacks, TFLs. You see the explosive play ability that they have on offense with Marcel Reed, the variety of runners, then the receiving corps. Concepcion and Craver lead the way.”

Steve Sarkisian: “I can remember as a kid in California watching this game. It was the only game on Thanksgiving. To be part of it is special, and it was special a year ago and especially this year. I don’t take games like this lightly.”

Steve Sarkisian: “I like that in this game we get an opportunity to stand alone whether it’s Thanksgiving or the Friday after Thanksgiving. I just think this game deserves the spotlight to stand alone. The fact that we’re playing on Friday night with all the eyes of college football on it, and really the football world on this game, I think this game deserves that.”

Steve Sarkisian: “We need to be sound in our schemes and we’re going to need to win one-on-one battles. When you get into games like this, that’s what it requires.”

Steve Sarkisian on Arch Manning and his development and if the game has slowed down: “I think it has for him. I think he’s done a really good job of his decision making. He had a couple scrambles the other day where I think Arch early in the year puts his head down and starts barreling forward and maybe gets two or three more yards. I thought he made some really good decisions on first down plays where he ran out of bounds and it was a one yard gain but he didn’t take that hit.”

Steve Sarkisian says they appealed Ty’Anthony Smith’s targeting foul and that the appeal was denied.

Sarkisian on turnovers:

"I think we're +10 on the year right now. Our ability to create two more turnovers, get 14 points off of those things. Having a ball game where you don't have any is always a great sign for us."

— Evan Vieth (@EvanVieth) November 24, 2025

Steve Sarkisian’s team is practicing in the afternoon this week.

Steve Sarkisian on how facing Taylen Green helps Texas’ defense prepare for Marcel Reed, mentions playing against Gunner Stockton and Diego Pavia also helped. On Reed specifically: “You could probably argue Marcel Reed is the most dynamic of all those guys. What (facing those quarterbacks) prepares you for is where did we break down when they hurt us? How do we rectify that and fix that so we can go back to some of that old tape, whether it’s from practice or from the game, to see where our issues occurred against those guys and then we can work on those things in practice.”

Steve Sarkisian on if Texas deserves a spot in the CFP with a win: “I’ll talk about that after the game. If we’re fortunate enough to win the game, I’ll talk about that after the game because I think that would be a better platform.”

Steve Sarkisian on if he has to do much to motivate his team ahead of a rivalry game: “Not very much. They’ll be ready.”

Steve Sarkisian: “I think I know them pretty well. It’s a very young team where we’ve really had some growing pains. What I appreciate about them, and I told them this yesterday when we got together to review the Arkansas game, is that I appreciate them trusting the messaging. These guys want to be really good. They’re striving to be really good. They trust me. You can feel it in their approach to things, so what I know is that they’re willing and they’re going to try to do what we ask them to do.”

Sarkisian says his defense is chasing to try to make plays instead of the players doing their specific jobs well.

— Evan Vieth (@EvanVieth) November 24, 2025

Steve Sarkisian on A&M’s front: “They’re quick. They’re fast. They’re very aggressive. They’ve got a really good scheme. Ultimately, we’ve got to use all the tools to our offense. We’ve got to do a variety of different things to negate that but I think there’s a fine line in protecting and not attacking. On the same notion, we’re at our best when we attack people, too. Does that maybe stress us a little bit? But I need to apply a little pressure, a little stress the other way too. If we don’t, then you become passive. You become too ‘gotta protect, gotta protect.’ Then at that point, what’s the point, right? So there’s a fine line. It’s trusting your players, it’s them trusting the plan, it’s remaining aggressive yet in the same token making sure that we’re using all of our offense and using all of the tools that we have to try to negate those things.”

Steve Sarkisian on senior night: “At the end of this day, knowing this group, they’re going to be focused on this game. They’ll take their moment and they’ll have their moment to shine coming out of the tunnel and having their couple of minutes there. Knowing the guys, the Michael Taaffes, the Ethan Burkes, the Jaylon Guilbeaus, they’ll refocus pretty quickly and get ready for the game.”