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AUSTIN, Texas — Steve Sarkisian opened his press conference on Monday, more than 48 hours after Texas kicked off the 2025 season with a 14-7 road loss to Ohio State, with his thoughts after reviewing the game. Sarkisian’s film study confirmed that the Longhorns left too many yards, opportunities and points on the field at the Horseshoe to avenge their College Football Playoff semifinal loss to the Buckeyes in January. A streak of 24 consecutive games forcing at least one turnover was snapped (a 34-30 loss to Oklahoma in 2023 was the last game in which the Texas defense failed to record a takeaway). Three penalties charged to the defense (illegal hands to the face calls against Colin Simmons and Liona Lefau and a defensive holding call against Malik Muhammad) aided a touchdown drive and wiped out a safety, which put the Longhorns on the losing end of a nine-point swing. Even with Jack Bouwmeester averaging 46.2 yards per punt, with three of his four punts pinning Ohio State inside its 10-yard line, Sarkisian said Texas must be better at playing complementary football, beginning with Saturday’s home opener against San Jose State (11 a.m., ABC). “I thought in the first half we had some really good field position that we didn't capitalize on offensively, that the defense and special teams got us,” Sarkisian said. “Conversely, we had some good field position on defense. “I just didn't think we did a good enough job of pinning them deep and flipping the field back in our favor.” Obviously, the offense going 1-for-5 on fourth down, with two turnovers on downs occurring in the red zone, isn't conducive to winning games against elite-level competition. “We were aggressive initially, obviously, with the first fourth-down sneak, and then the fourth-and-2, which we didn't convert,” Sarkisian said. “A couple of the fourth downs late were, kind of, because of the situation, we, kind of, had to go for them. They were what they were.” On the other side of the coin, Sarkisian liked his team’s fight. The offense “played much better in the second half,” he said. Arch Manning and the Longhorns tallied 257 total yards on 41 plays from scrimmage (6.3 yards per play) and recorded six of their seven explosive plays (four pass completions of 15 yards or more and two rushing attempts of 10 yards or more). He came away pleased with what Texas generated on the ground (166 yards on 37 official rushing attempts). With Quintrevion Wisner (16 carries for 80 yards) and C.J. Baxter (10 carries for 40 yards) leading the way, the Longhorns averaged 4.5 yards per rushing attempt as a team (the Buckeyes allowed 4.5 or more yards per carry in just three of their previous 29 games, a stretch in which the Ohio State defense held opponents to under 100 yards rushing). “I think our ability to run the football was evident in the game,” Sarkisian said. “To go into that environment against that defense, to rush for just about 170 yards, I thought, was good for us.” Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense held the Buckeyes to 3.8 yards per play, 2.3 yards per rushing attempt, a 3-for-12 effort on third down and just two explosive plays (a 16-yard reception by Jeremiah Smith and Julian Sayin’s 40-yard touchdown pass to Carnell Tate) on 54 snaps. “I thought, defensively, we played a very good football game,” Sarkisian said. Individually, Sarkisian singled out a few Longhorns for their performances in all three phases. “I was proud and happy for Cedric Baxter. I think he had 15 touches in the game, his first game back not playing for a year — 10 rushes, five receptions,” Sarkisian said. “I thought Manny Muhammad competed his tail off Saturday against a great player in Jeremiah Smith. I thought Jack Bouwmeester was fantastic. He's a weapon for us in the punt game. I thought to have four [new] full-time starters on the offensive line [Trevor Goosby, Connor Stroh, Cole Hutson and Brandon Baker], and the way that they performed was definitely encouraging. I think Arch, in the second half, I thought we started to see the glimpses of what he's capable of. Sarkisian wrapped up his thoughts on the loss to the Buckeyes before fielding questions on Monday with a message befitting a coach and a team looking to turn the page after learning a lot about themselves. “A lot to look forward to this season, I think, of where this team can go,” he added. “We've got a ton of potential. Now, we've got to make that come to life.” View full news story

Does anyone have any extras? I need 5 and it doesn’t matter where they are

OU has a good front but they ain't Ohio State and their oline is SUSPECT.

Disagree with this guy about the gameplan. Texas had 2-3 chunk plays that were set up but Manning couldn’t deliver. That would have completely changed the narrative some of this game. Opening play would have been at least a 25 yard play. Manning spiked it. Moore was open with separation. The next was the rub concept on 3rd down to Wingo late in the 4th. That play was set up to the shallow or even the rail. Moreso the shallow which is where it was designed. Texas is easily inside the 30 and Wingo would have been 1v1 with the safety. I like that matchup. Finally, the play inside the 10 with another rub concept where Manning went to Livingstone instead of an open Wingo on a slant route that was well designed. Wingo gets in or is at the 1. Those are 3 monster plays that were just fine from a schematic standpoint that would have put points on the board or put Texas in scoring position. Manning didn’t deliver. Coaches can only put players in position. Sark did that in those instances.

You have to throw passes that are catchable. I only saw one questionable pass to Livingstone which was a 50/50 that may have been caught. Everything else was caught.

Awesome Silas was a great teammate and great player when he got his opportunities last season!

Just my opinion, but everyone needs to ease up on Arch a bit and stop comparing him with Sayin. You know who else played a much more impressive game at qb in his first major game against a top-5 opponent at home? Quinn against Bama in 2022. That game had little to no correlation to the way he played the rest of 2022. Bama won that game on the road, but it had a 4th-year Heisman favorite at qb in Bryce Young. It is ridiculous to expect Arch, who has never played in that kind of situation, to will his team to victory on the road against a top-5 team with only a fraction the experience that Bryce had in 2022. Arch will be fine. It was our expectations that were way out of whack. We were expecting way too much of a young qb in one of the most challenging situations you can put ANY college qb in. You know who had a terrible game playing at the Shoe last year? Nico. Rourke from Indiana. Allar (at home!). Raiola. Quinn (in Dallas!). Those are all very talented QBs on good teams with more experience than Arch. Let’s please let him grow and develop.

Watch the first play of the game. If Arch doesn’t skip it, it could have been taken to the house.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/46128861/2025-college-football-sp+-rankings-all-136-fbs-teams

Sarks formula had been to get proven starting caliber WRs in the portal and then this year he decides not to do so. If i remember correctly wasn’t Mosley a post spring transfer due to Stanford firing their coach? There was a lot of WRs in the portal that were #1 level, abs culture fit can’t be an excuse because Sark took a chance on Bond last year even though there was rumblings about his time at Bama. It’s one game, I hope D Moore, Parker and Mosley when healthy again can continue to take a step as the season goes, but as Bobby has said throughout the offseason Texas lacks explosive playmakers like Blue, Bond and Golden.

Tremendous ! Hope he keeps it up and makes some money doing what he enjoys.

The one to Wingo early was in a bucket also. Just unfortunately had 2 guys smothering him.

It’s honestly impressive how much energy you pour into tracking tweets from the shadows, acting like you know whose they are when you actually have no idea. You get worked up over factual stats from some random person on Twitter, someone you don’t even know, yet you never engage there to dispute them…that’s odd behavior. That’s not passion, that’s obsession. Meanwhile, you’re never around for good news, only showing up to latch onto negativity and pretend you’re the moral compass of the internet. There’s a pattern: stalking disguised as criticism, sensitivity disguised as outrage, and insecurity disguised as authority. At this point, your obsession is more entertaining than the tweets themselves.

Yep. Until Sarkisian can prove to me that he can beat another elite head coach with comparable talent, I won't be giving Texas the benefit of the doubt in that game.

I think the offense as a whole lacks an explosive element. Baxter and Wisner are great RBs but I wouldn’t consider either explosive. Wingo supposedly is but need to see it more on saturdays against great teams.

My issue is I don’t think Sark believes he’s part of the red zone problems. So acknowledging that would make me feel better.

Unless Sark is dumber than us sitting on the couch for 10 million a year I'd expect a gameplan centered around this for Florida and especially OU, cause you know Venables is foaming at the mouth for a chance to implement the blueprint on rattling Arch

There is nothing he can say in a press conference to make anyone feel better about the red zone. It’s going to have to happen on the field. And like the second statement out of his mouth today was something about everyone in the organization, coaches and players, learning and improving from that game. I get that’s not what you are looking for. You’ve made that pretty clear. It’s a college football head coach press conference after a loss so there is a narrow path to success.

10-2. Until we show we can beat Georgia, we shouldn’t be favored.

I don’t think he took questions? Just gave a statement.

No way I'll take that bet.

now you’re assuming he’s successful at the 2nd level…please provide film as proof

Sark and Arch have to figure out a way to counter this kind of defense. Because I have a feeling they’ll see it again at Florida, Georgia and AtM. (maybe Rod Babers can talk about this strategy??) Hook’em