LIVE UPDATES: Steve Sarkisian speaks to the media after OSU, ahead of SJSU

Steve Sarkisian: “I think the biggest thing coming out of it is lots to build on from that game. I thought we built on a lot of things during the game. I thought we played a much better second half than we did in the first half. I thought all the way through our guys played hard. They fought. I think that was obviously evident there all the way into the fourth quarter at the end of the ball game.”

Steve Sarkisian: “Offensively, we played much better in the second half. I think we had just about 260 yards in the second half. I think our ability to run the football was evident in that game. To go into that environment against that defense, to rush for about 170 yards, I thought was good for us.”

Sarkisian identifying the lack of forced turnovers and the number of penalties was key and kept the Longhorns off the board. He also identifies a lack of complementary football. Offense couldn’t back up what the defense and special teams accomplished. He also notes the 1-for-5 on 4th downs as being a problem.

Steve Sarkisian praises CJ Baxter and Malik Muhammad. He also mentions in the second half for Arch Manning, “I thought we started to see the glimpses he’s capable of. A lot to look forward to this season.”

Steve Sarkisian: “I think it’s learning from the game. I think one thing that happened a little bit to Arch is the game can mount on you a little bit and you feel like ‘we’re not scoring’ or ‘I missed a read’ or ‘I missed a throw’ when in reality, you look at the scoreboard and it’s still 0-0. The game can mount and you feel like you’ve got to make a play, but you look at the scoreboard and it’s 7-0 right? This was a tight game that I don’t think he needed to press, and I think he’ll learn that as we go.”

Steve Sarkisian: “I don’t know if it’s intentional and I don’t know if it’s for every game, but I feel like sometimes when you get hit you realize ‘oh man, we’re playing.’ — Sarkisian mentions that QBs are not live during the preseason and so he thinks Manning may have been ‘waiting’ for that first hit. He tried to get him moving forward and moving in the pocket, but admits he may not have incorporated it as often as he would have liked.

Steve Sarkisian: “There was a couple of times where we had some crossing routes where I I didn’t feel like he brought his feet to where he wanted to throw the ball, which in turn forced kind of a sidearm delivery which isn’t his style of throwing. I think if he can get his feet aligned and get his shoulders aligned, that can help with some of his accuracy that way. I think it all started to when we throw crossers, we don’t look for the crosser. We read the defenders trusting that the crosser is going to come to the window he’s supposed to be. I felt like he looked back for the crosser, which in turn brought his shoulders and feet and then he had to look back and forced a little bit of an errant throw. Part of that is just finding that comfort level of trust with receivers in real games, right? Not in practice, not against a scout team, but in a real game against a good defense because the windows get small against good defenses like that.”

Steve Sarkisian says that against the high-end teams last year, he felt like the offense was probably “a little too cute” and wanted to “get back to a physical brand of football that we’ve kind of built around here.”

“We went into this game with that mentality. We ran the ball between the tackles. We wanted to run the ball right at them, we wanted to have a physical mentality, and I think we can with the style of offensive line that we have. I thought we did that, but we challenged the players. I thought we had opportunities for even bigger runs, but it takes all 11. We need to block better on the perimeter at wideout. We need to strain a little bit more on the back side of runs so that last defender can’t make that tackle.”

Steve Sarkisian: “I didn’t think they gave us a whole lot of opportunities in the pass game. I thought it was a very cautious pass game that they played with and to their credit, it was effective enough. They really didn’t beat themselves in the game.”

Sark says he challenged his defenders, specifically the second players to the football, to make a concerted effort to pop the ball out of the ball-carrier’s hands.

Steve Sarkisian notes there weren’t many negative plays for his offense on Saturday: “I think we had 30 some-odd runs and there was one negative run. I think we had one sack in the game.”

“We didn’t have enough explosive plays Saturday. I think we were at 64 plays and there was only 7 explosives. That’s about 11%. Our goal is to be 20% or higher, so that means we need to have about 13 explosive plays in a game like that. I think we had chances to do it and just didn’t. It didn’t happen the way we would have liked. We’ve got to find ways to be efficient yet also be explosive.”

Sarkisian says the gap scheme runs was better early but as the game wore on “we were striking guys, we weren’t bringing our feet the way I would have liked and they were kind of falling off blocks. Guys were falling back in and making plays where we felt like we were going to have runs for 8, 10, 12 yards, we were getting 3, 4, and 5 yards.”

Steve Sarkisian says he thought they made good adjustments at halftime: “Credit to our players, they adjusted with us.”

Steve Sarkisian: “All Parker did was come in and work, very similar to Tre Wisner coming out of year one, guys that just came in and worked and found a niche role.” — “The guy had a great spring. When DeAndre and Ryan were out, he became the go-to guy and I think there was rapport built between he and Arch, and all he did was continue to build on that throughout fall camp. I think that when his opportunity presented itself Saturday on a couple of plays, he made plays and I didn’t expect anything less from him because that’s what he’s been showing us all along.”

Steve Sarkisian mentions that all his players lift in season, but there’s a “travel squad lift” and a “developmental lift.” He says the lifts Anthony Hill does are different than the ones Bo Barnes does. — “Just because you’re part of the developmental group, that doesn’t mean that you’re not going to play for us this year. It’s just we also think long term for you in your development physically as well as mentally.”

Sarkisian: “We’ve got a high football IQ defense, whether it’s Anthony (Hill), Liona (Lefau), Ty’Anthony (Smith), Trey (Moore), Michael Taaffe, Jelani (McDonald), Manny Muhammad, Graceson Littleton for a young player, Hero Kanu, Ethan Burke, these guys have a high football IQ.”