Everything Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said about Mississippi State

The Longhorns' leading man spent more time answering questions about the trials and tribulations of his own team than the Bulldogs.

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian is interviewed by the media after the game against the Kentucky Wildcats at Kroger Field. | Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

No. 22 Texas coach Steve Sarkisian held his weekly press conference on Monday ahead of this weekend's trip to Starkville, Miss.

Mississippi State will host the Longhorns at 3:15 p.m. Saturday on SEC Network and both teams could use a win to settle their upset fanbases.

Sarkisian is facing a whole lot more pressure as the coach of the preseason No. 1 overall team that hasn't lived up to those expectations. It showed in Monday's press conference, too.

Nearly all of the questions asked to Sarkisian was about his current team, what's gone wrong, how to fix those things, and, of course, plenty of questions about Arch Manning.

Sarkisian did talk briefly about Mississippi State in his opening statement:

On Mississippi State's overall team...

So as we look forward to Mississippi State, Jeff Lebby, second season, has done a really nice job. This is a much improved football team. Obviously, a high-powered offense, you know, up-tempo team that has knocked off Arizona State already at home this year, I think went to overtime with Tennessee already this year at home, and had a chance last week at Florida to win that game without a turnover there at the end of the game by Florida to seal the victory. So like I said, high-powered offense, does a nice job of balancing things. Got two good runners, have two explosive receivers on the on the perimeter, and Blake Shapen is playing good football for them. And a defense that goes and attacks the football. They create turnovers at a high rate. We've got to continue the trend that we've been on. We've gone two straight games now of protecting the football, and that's part of playing complementary football, that we're not putting our defense on any short fields. And so we got to do a great job of that this week. But should be a great environment. We have four straight games away from DKR, and we've got to take pride in the way we perform on the road, and this is going to be another challenge for us to go do that.

That's all he said about the Bulldogs. You can watch the full press conference here, but the most interesting question-and-answer was this one:

On why he hasn't considered handing offensive play-calling duties to someone else...

Because that's why I got hired. I was a really good offensive coordinator. I believe in what we're able to do. You know, every year we have to continually evolve, and there's years we're going to be better on offense that we are on defense. There's going to be years we're better on defense than we are on offense, you know? But it's like if I was the best outside sales guy, and then I had a startup company, surely I'm going to go to the sales meetings if I'm trying to sell something, right? And so if that's one of your strengths, I'm always going to tap into the strength that I have. And I think being a play caller on offense is one of my strengths. Some may disagree, that's okay.

How to Watch: No. 22 Texas at Mississippi State

Who: No. 22 Texas Longhorns (5-2, 2-1 SEC) at Mississippi State Bulldogs (4-3, 0-3 SEC)
When: 3:15 p.m., Saturday
Where: Davis Wade Stadium, Starkville, Miss.
TV: SEC Network
Radio: Live Radio
Stats: Live Stats
Series History: Texas leads the all-time series 3-2
Last Meeting: Texas 35, Mississippi State 13 (September 28, 2024)
Last time out, Bulldogs: lost to Florida, 23-21
Last time out, Longhorns: def. Kentucky, 16-13 OT