Steve Sarkisian vs. Big 12 defenses -- Round 2

Below is an interaction I had with Steve Sarkisian at the 2022 Big 12 Media Days in which he laid out some of his thoughts and philosophy on attacking Big 12 defenses this season with his evolving roster.

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I was able to ask him about all of the formational diversity they can utilize this coming season, how to incorporate tempo while being diverse, and how to finally solve these three-high safety flyover defenses which have plagued him over the recent seasons.

We pick up with Sarkisian describing his tight ends and how Texas can use them this season.

Steve Sarkisian: We can get into different formations and know these guys can run routes. We can get in 12 personnel and you line up in nickel defense, now we can run the ball at a smaller defensive unit.  We can do that.

So I’m excited what these guys are doing and bringing to us. They’re all very talented and we’re young so I think the future is bright, we just gotta get out numbers right we don’t have enough bodies at that position right now.

Ian Boyd: Sark, how do you balance having the ability to get into a lot of different packages on offense with the different personnel versus wanting to go fast and not allowing opponents to substitute? Obviously your predecessor, he would just stay in 11 for that reason.

Steve Sarkisian: Yeah, it’s a challenge. Because some would say 11 personnel is our best personnel, right? Some would say 20 personnel is our best personnel with two running backs on the field, some would say 12 personnel is with the tight ends. I’ve got people in my building right now that argue we should be in more 10 personnel with four wide receivers because of the talent there.

(Narrator pause)

This is truly one of the more challenging questions for the team this season. Who are the best 11 players on offense? It’s unclear. You know they’ll prefer to play with two outside receivers and generally have a tight end on the field more often than not, which leaves one final spot for slot receiver Jordan Whittington OR team leader Roschon Johnson OR transfer tight end Jahleel Billingsley, etc.

Steve Sarkisian: But I’ve always held onto this adage, the more things we can do really well, the harder we are to defend. The more things people have to prepare for to try to stop… and we may highlight one or two of those packages more one week and then highlight something more the next week. 

But to do that we have to be really good at all those things and then you gameplan and you try to do the best that gives yourself the best chance to be successful.

Tempo is another piece of that. Because there’s times we do try to go fast, there’s times we try to give the illusion we’re going fast and try to go slow and just see what the defense is in, and there’s times we use motions and shifts and different things just to create issues for the defense as well.

All of which, we’re just trying to make it hard on the defense and making sure we’re putting our players into the best position to be successful. It’s nothing really earth-shattering, but we try to build a roster that is very versatile to go do those things. I think we did a pretty good job of that this offseason.

(Narrator pause)

How Texas balances all of this formational diversity will be fascinating to watch this coming season. They’ve also got to find concepts, particularly in the run game, which translate across multiple formations but are simple and few enough for freshmen offensive linemen to master them.

Ian Boyd: Last year it was tricky when you guys faced those three-high safety teams, Arkansas, Iowa State, Oklahoma State. What were the reasons those particular defenses gave you guys some issues last year if you would say that they did, and how do you guys anticipate growing against that style next year?

Steve Sarkisian: Well, without divulging gameplans I’m going to do my best to answer the question.

I think one, you have to have the ability to run the football and block the front, and we struggled at times a year ago just blocking the front to get the ball to the three safeties, to force those guys to tackle. I think two, having some patience with A) the play-caller, pointing at myself, and then B) the guy who’s throwing the ball to get completions against that style of defense, and then 3) you gotta take advantage of your opportunities when they present themselves.

You know if you go back to the Arkansas game, we missed some big opportunities in that game that could have changed the complexion of that game. Everybody wanted to blame Hudson Card after the game but if, yes we might have missed a couple of throws but man we could have caught a couple of balls too, could have blocked some things better too that maybe could have changed the complexion of that game. That’s no different than the Iowa State game as well or Oklahoma State as well, and so on and so forth. Again, I think there’s a… we’ve got a formula that we feel like will be pretty successful that will vary some week to week when we play those style of teams but it starts up front, you gotta be able to block them to get things started.

Whatever Sark has planned, some of his players will have fewer tools in their toolbox to execute them…

Ian Boyd: Bijan what did you think about the new rules on cut blocks, and how does that effect you and Roschon playing together?

Bijan Robinson: On cut blocks? What’s the new…

Ian Boyd: So the rule is, if you’re in the box and say it’s like a split zone play, and you want to cross back and block an end, you cannot cut block him unless you are square, 10-to-2.

Bijan Robinson: Man, I didn’t know all that. I mean…that sucks (laughter).

I mean, we try to cut block when we see a guy coming in front of us and when have like a D-linemen or an angle. So, it’s very rare we’ll have situations where you have to come all the way across to cut somebody but, yeah. It would suck for a running back that mostly cut blocks and that’s their game, but yeah, they’re changing a lot of rules nowadays.

Steve Sarkisian still has a lot of weapons to put to use this coming season and should be able to scheme up a lot of easy reads for his quarterback so he can land some knockout blows.