Sark knew Texas would need to make adjustments against Ohio State. He said he and the staff made adjustments in the first half — they just weren't good enough.
Sark said the offense's goal is to have an explosive play rate of 20 percent or more. Seven explosives on 67 snaps (a 10.4-percent explosive play rate) didn't get it done.
The courage Jack Endries showed catching ball down the field, knowing he'd get popped, is one of the things that stood out to Sark regarding the transfer tight end's debut.
Sark said the defense needs to practice more of the second tackler getting to the ball and trying to strip it. Ohio State's game plan when throwing the ball wasn't conducive to playing a lot of balls in the air, so Texas needed to force fumbles to create turnovers.
On balancing out being aggressive on defense and not leaving the cornerbacks vulnerable in coverage, Sark said they were mindful of Jeremiah Smith all day. He said they got lucky on the fourth-and-1 when Ohio State failed to convert (Max Klare dropped a pass) and Kobe Black was one-on-one with Smith.
Texas respects every opponent, including San Jose State, but Sark said a lot of the focus this week will be on the team working on itself and getting better.
Sark said Texas got "too cute" running the football in big games last season. He wanted to get back to running the football between the tackles and being physical. He felt like, for the most part, that happened, but he showed the team on tape where they left some bigger gains on the table if all 11 guys on offense had done their jobs.
Part of Arch's growth, Sark said, is learning to trust that the route is developing accordingly, even if the look isn't exactly what it looked like in practice.
The way Texas coaches quarterbacks to read crossing routes and Arch getting off kilter in how he read it led to some of the mechanical issues everybody saw, like throwing the ball with a sidearm delivery. Sark said that that's not Arch's style.
"I feel like sometimes when you get hit, you realize, 'Oh man, we're playing," Sark said of how Arch needed to get the first hit out of the way early in the game to settle in.
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