AUSTIN (KXAN) — What does Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian look for going into a season, particularly one that begins with a blockbuster game against the defending national champs and the team that eliminated them from the College Football Playoff last season?
Simple things.
Sarkisian spoke with reporters after the Longhorns’ second scrimmage of preseason training camp Saturday, and went into detail about what he keeps his eye on as his team prepares for the Ohio State Buckeyes. He said it comes down to four things that he referred to as “major concerns” as game day nears.
“You think about ball security, tackling on defense, pre-snap penalties and special teams,” he said. “Those are the main things. How do we take care of the ball? How do we work on tackling, and what’s the fine line of tackling too much and not enough? We have to make sure we don’t give away free yards before the ball is snapped, and how do we play sound on special teams?”
One of the aspects he emphasizes the most in training camp is not allowing “hidden” yards on special teams.
“Whether it’s punting the ball, returning, making your field goals, finding areas where you can maybe block a punt of a kick, things of that nature.” he explained. “Naturally, every guy is going to come out of meetings thinking they’ve got to get better at X, Y or Z, but the big picture for me is can we take care of these four areas?”
Pre-snap penalties and giving away free yards while the ball is dead have already improved since the first scrimmage, Sarkisian said. In the first scrimmage Aug. 9, he said things were a mess before the ball was in play with “10 or 11” penalties. The teams significantly reduced those Saturday, committing a pair of fouls.
If the Longhorns can win those four areas, then Sarkisian said, “the rest of the game will kind of take care of itself.”
“We’ll find out if we’re good enough or not,” he said.
More on pre-snap penalties, specifically away from DKR
Last season, the Longhorns were better at avoiding pre-snap penalties on the road than at home. Sarkisian attributes that to “mental intensity and focus,” but also, as he admitted, he’s “a jerk” about it.
“I made it a real point this week, and they were probably like, ‘Coach Sark’s being a jerk,'” he said. “Well, I’m being a jerk in their best interest, so they can perform. You get what you emphasize, and the byproduct of that was we cleaned stuff up.”
Sarkisian “kicked himself” about what happened in the first scrimmage with all the pre-snap miscues, saying he wasn’t hard enough on the team. Clearly, he adjusted his approach and the problem was solved in a week.
Longhorns generally healthy out of scrimmage
Minus the season-ending injury to offensive lineman Andre Cojoe, Texas is relatively healthy heading into the waning portions of training camp. He had to take three players out of the scrimmage, he said, but it was in precautionary fashion and if it was during the season, they would have pushed through.
Left tackle Trevor Goosby, running back Quintrevion Wisner and defensive back Jelani McDonald all had shortened scrimmage time Saturday, but there’s no need to worry.
“I can get away with that in a scrimmage, right?” Sarkisian said. “I feel confident those guys will all be OK. We’ve ran about 280 plays in scrimmage football, and to not come out of it with any real catastrophic injuries, you know, knock on wood, that’s good for us.”
Cojoe’s injury wasn’t during a scrimmage; it was a non-contact injury during drills early in training camp.