Texas football HC Steve Sarkisian right to take blame for struggles

Much of the conversation for the next few months concerning second-year head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Texas football program will surround how this team can progress this coming season. Texas had a successful offseason in terms of the strides we saw from the team in spring camp and the way that Sark and his staff built out this roster.

Yet, a good portion of the Longhorns fan base won’t have confidence fully restored in the direction of this program until they see the success on the field. That is the last step for this coaching staff to truly start putting all the pieces together to get Texas trending in the right direction once again.

Sark and the Longhorns staff definitely have a lot to prove, though, considering some of the lapses we saw from this team on the field last fall. Texas had one of their worst stretches in Big 12 play in recent memory through the bulk of the conference slate last season.

Texas finished up last season with a record of 5-7 (3-6 Big 12), which saw them miss out on bowl eligibility for the first time in roughly a half-decade.

Sark and the Longhorns must improve the results in the win column to truly inspire confidence this fall. And he seems to recognize that with the way he spoke regarding the current state of the program and the direction of the team as he addressed Texas Exes during the Texas Fight Tour earlier this week.

Texas football had struggles last season that place responsibility on Steve Sarkisian and his staff

He noted that he failed in “connecting with our team and our team connecting with one another” throughout last year. But he also mentioned that part of the reason for those failures was the fact that he and his staff didn’t have much time to properly evaluate the personnel on hand and make the necessary adjustments prior to the start of the 2021 season.

It sounds like Sark and his staff have more belief in the fact that they are turning the corner in 2022 after having a full year to properly evaluate the personnel on the roster. And it’s also worth noting that Sark made some adjustments to the coaching staff to make sure the right personnel are in place there too.

Moreover, while it’s good to hear Sark acknowledge some of the shortcomings of the team and himself, in particular, last season, a lot of this felt like just pandering to these alumni in attendance this week in San Antonio during the Texas Fight Tour. These statements won’t be meaningful until we continue to see progress within the program this fall.

Texas officially wrapped up spring camp with the altered version of the annual Orange-White spring football game back on April 23. Sark and the Longhorns are set to open up the regular season at home on Sep. 3 against Louisiana-Monroe.