Tag: Steve Sarkisan

Rice head coach Mike Bloomgren calls Steve Sarkisian ‘surgical’

The Rice head coach has a ton of respect for Steve Sarkisian and his offensive prowess.

Texas is set to host Rice for their season opener on Saturday, and emotions are running high for a couple of reasons.

For starters, college football is finally back. However, the hype around the Longhorns has many thinking that this team will be generational. Texas is set to field what should be their best team since 2009, and are looking to finally be…we all know the word.

On Tuesday, Rice head coach Mike Bloomgren was speaking to the media about the game and spoke highly of Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian. He highlighted how innovative Sarkisian is on offense and even went as far to call him surgical as written about by On3.

“I think everybody knows Sark’s background. When you go back to those mid-2000’s USC teams when him and Lane (Kiffin) were as innovative as anybody in the country. What Sark did when he went to the Falcons and went to Alabama again, I mean, just an unbelievable offensive mind that’s very surgical.”

With a more confident and improved Quinn Ewers, elite receiving corps, and one of the best offensive lines in the country, Texas fans are hoping to see the success that Sarkisian had while at Alabama as the offensive coordinator.

Unfortunately for Rice and Bloomgren, they are subject to feeling the wrath of this high powered offense and enter the game as 35 point underdogs. They do however have an experienced quarterback in JT Daniels and a pair of receivers that could challenge the defense.

Urban Meyer says Texas is “loaded” ahead of 2023

Urban Meyer is confident in this Texas offense.

Former championship winning head coach Urban Meyer was recently discussing the Texas roster ahead of the 2023 season and had very high praise for the team.

The buzz around the Longhorns has been growing and growing as the season approaches, with Texas being favored in all but one game and expected to win the Big 12. The hype has gone from Texas fans praising their own team, to analysts and experts hopping on the hype train as well.

The latest to do so was former Florida and Ohio State head coach, Urban Meyer. When talking to Tim May of Lettermen Row, Meyer raved about how deep this Texas team was.

“They are loaded. There’s a five-star athlete at every position on offense.”

Meyer is correct, as this Longhorns team is the deepest squad we have seen since 2009 headlined by five-star quarterback Quinn Ewers. Joining Ewers is one of the best receiver corps in the country, a stacked running back room with four and five-stars littered throughout, and an offensive line that is one of the best units in college football.

Texas will be putting their new loaded offense on display come Sept. 2. As for Meyer, he is one of the analysts for Fox Sports and can be seen previewing games each Saturday.

Texas receives five crystal ball predictions in their favor

Texas is finding success across multiple recruiting classes.

The Longhorns have been hitting the recruiting trail as hard as any program across the country, and they appear to have more good news coming their way.

After seeing Texas’ class take a major leap from around No. 60 in the country to now being a top-25 class, 247Sports analyst Hank South is calling for more. The Texas recruiting insider for Bama247 inserted five crystal ball predictions on Tuesday in favor of Texas for recruits across multiple classes.

Let’s take a look at which recruits Texas is now viewed as the favorite to land in the near future, according to Hank South.

Texas making a push for Alabama WR commit Ryan Williams

The five-star WR is the No. 2 player in the country for the 2025 class.

Texas’ 2025 recruiting class is already off and running thanks to a commitment from four-star quarterback KJ Lacey. The Longhorns are reportedly targeting one of his teammates as well. Continue reading “Texas making a push for Alabama WR commit Ryan Williams”

Four Longhorns that can emerge as stars in 2023

These four players could explode in 2023.

The Texas Longhorns are being mentioned as the favorite to win the Big 12 this college football season and maybe even make a playoff appearance.

If they were to win the Big 12 it would be the first time they’ve done so since No. 12 (Colt McCoy) was leading the offense. When looking at this roster on paper combined with what we saw during the spring game, it is hard to think of a team from the past decade that looks as good as this one. However, even with all of the hype there are still players that have much to prove in 2023.

That is why I decided to pinpoint four emerging stars for Texas. These are names you absolutely need to look out for this upcoming season. Whether they were starters last season or not, these four Longhorns will have much higher expectations as Texas looks to return to glory.

Is 2023 the year of Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers?

All eyes are on Quinn Ewers in 2023.

It feels like just yesterday that Texas Longhorns fans were theorizing that former Ohio State quarterback Quinn Ewers would transfer to Texas where he was once committed. Continue reading “Is 2023 the year of Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers?”

Steve Sarkisian viewed as being on the cusp of his first championship

Steve Sarkisian could very well be on the cusp of greatness.

The question that has haunted Longhorns fans for over a decade, “is Texas back?”

Fans of college football have endlessly mocked the once power of the sport for their many failed attempts at returning to prominence, but the stars appear to be aligning for Steve Sarkisian and company.  The 2023 season has the makings of being “the year” for Texas, which if you poll any Longhorn fan prior to every season since 2010 you’d probably get the same response.

However, when looking around the landscape of the Big 12 and even the country itself, Texas has every reason to have confidence. The Big 12 is as up for grabs as it has been in years with Oklahoma on the decline, and notable programs such as Ohio State, Alabama, and Georgia are replacing stars all over the field. This has many Longhorns fans and media members alike, certain that Texas will finally get over their hump of stumbling.

In a recent article by 247Sports, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian who is fresh off a 8-5 season was featured as a coach on the verge of his first national championship victory. Joining him were names such as Ohio State’s Ryan Day, Penn State’s James Franklin, and Florida State’s Mike Norvell among others.

His ability to recruit, access the resources that the great state of Texas has to offer, and the overall trajectory stemming from last season were cited as to why Sarkisian was featured despite never having a 10-win season.

Across 10 seasons and three different programs, Steve Sarkisian never posted a double-digit win total. Despite the lack of a national championship caliber season on his resume, the Texas head coach lands on this list because of the upward trajectory on which he appears to be leading the Longhorns and the wealth of resources at his disposal. Texas continues to stockpile talent, and it has one of the most loaded quarterback rooms in the nation ahead of the 2023 season, so expectations in Austin are high after the Longhorns won eight games last fall. If Sarkisian gets the most out of his players, Texas is a CFP candidate.

Sarkisian brought in the No. 3 recruiting class in the country headlined by five-star quarterback Arch Manning and five-star linebacker Anthony Hill. He also added five massive transfers from the portal that all will likely start or at the bare minimum be vital contributors off the bench.

The pressure on Sarkisian, while it is at an all-time high, has been placed on the shoulders of quarterback Quinn Ewers. The former perfectly rated recruit showed flashes of prominence last season, but also had fans questioning if he should be pulled for Hudson Card late in the season. If Sarkisian can channel his ability to be a quarterback guru to help Ewers take those next steps, the 2023 season could end up being Texas’ best chance to contend nationally since Colt McCoy’s final season.

Everything Steve Sarkisian said at the Houston Touchdown Club

Steve Sarkisian spoke at the Houston Touchdown Club on Wednesday.

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian addressed the media at the Houston Touchdown Club on Wednesday. Continue reading “Everything Steve Sarkisian said at the Houston Touchdown Club”

College football coaches facing the most pressure in 2022

College football is a pressure-packed industry.

College football is a pressure-packed industry. Nowadays, schools are becoming less and less patient with coaches trying to turn around a program. If a head coach does not start seeing significant results in two or three years, their job is likely in jeopardy.

The 2021 season proved to be make-or-break years for many coaches around the sport.

Kirby Smart got Georgia over the hump to bring home the first national title in 40 years. Jim Harbaugh finally took down rival Ohio State en route to a conference championship. Mike Gundy got the last laugh against Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners as the Pokes had an impressive 11-2 season.

Unfortunately, not everyone had the success those programs did in 2021. Clay Helton and Ed Orgeron were fired after losing seasons at blue blood programs. TCU moved on from longtime head coach Gary Patterson after another down season in Fort Worth.

Here is a list of college football coaches under the most pressure in 2022.

What Texas needs to improve upon ahead of the 2022 season

In order for Texas to make significant strides in 2022, they must improve in these key areas.

With the dreadful 2021 season behind them, and what should be a prosperous future thanks to success in recruiting and the transfer portal, Texas is poised to turn things around.

It won’t be easy to get back to the top of the college football world, but competing within the conference may be a tad more attainable at the moment.

In order to do so, there will be some major improvements needed across the board, as this Texas team had numerous flaws that ultimately led to the demise of the team as a whole.

For starters, the Longhorns were home to one of the worst defenses in the nation giving up 430-yards per game. It was a unit that showed no signs of improvement throughout the season, and will likely benefit from the amount of talent brought in during the offseason.

The offense was no peach either, and it would be fair to say that outside of Xavier Worthy and Bijan Robinson, the rest of the unit was abysmal all season.

Steve Sarkisian and Texas have a lot of soul searching to do, and most certainly had to go back to the drawing board in order to figure out how to right their wrongs after going 5-7 in year one.

When a season goes as poorly as 2021 did for Texas, everyone is at fault with some more bearing more weight than others. However, with an offseason to improve and fine tune things, it is certainly reasonable to pinpoint who or what needs to improve in order for this team to succeed.

Here is a look at what Texas needs to improve upon in order to succeed in 2022.