Sarkisian says Texas football defense is playing with ‘fanatical effort’
Texas football head coach Steve Sarkisian talked to the media in one of his press conferences this week, specifically taking place on the evening of Aug. 18. The media covered some key topics with Sark as we head into the second scrimmage of fall camp this coming weekend.
On Aug. 20, Sark and the Longhorns will get underway with the second scrimmage of fall camp. This could also be the most important scrimmage for a number of different position battles as we get closer to the regular season opener next month.
While most Longhorns fans were curious about what Sark would have to say regarding the quarterback competition between redshirt freshman Quinn Ewers and junior Hudson Card, there were other storylines to note as well. One of those overarching storylines that Sark addressed for the Longhorns heading into the second fall scrimmage was the performance of the defense in camp.
Sark noted that he thinks the defense is essentially improving compared to where they were at last season. And it sounds like he feels a lot better about multiple position groups heading into this season compared to what Texas had in the fold in his first year at the helm.
Steve Sarkisian likes what he’s seeing in terms of effort from Texas football’s defense in camp
An interesting thing that Sark mentioned in his Thursday press conference was how he thinks the defense is playing with “fanatical effort” in fall camp thus far.
Given that part of the context here was Texas’ effort off-ball and making up for any potentially missed tackles in drills and scrimmages, this is a good sign for this unit. Texas clearly had some issues in Big 12 play last season with off-ball effort and speed.
Sark also mentioned multiple key Longhorns defensive players when discussing the defense. He noted that some of the potential starters for this defensive unit such as sophomore defensive lineman Byron Murphy, senior linebacker Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey, junior safety Jerrin Thompson, etc., were really leading the way effort-wise in camp in the last couple of weeks.
To sum this all up briefly, it’s easy to see why Sark seems to be more excited about what he has on the defensive side of the ball this year compared to last fall. It sounds like the two-deep will be stronger than it was last season, which inspires some confidence that this entire team will find more success in the win column this fall.
Next. 4 pleasant surprises from the first half of fall camp. dark
Texas finished up last season with a record of 5-7 (3-6 Big 12), missing out on bowl season for the first time since 2016. Sark and the Longhorns will open up the 2022 regular season at home on Sep. 3 against the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks.