The Texas Longhorns came into the season with massive expectations. That was in no small part due to quarterback Arch Manning and the success he’s expected to have with head coach Steve Sarkisian. Then, the Longhorns only scored seven points in their first game.
Now, with Texas turning the page to Week 2, Sarkisian can admit that he was frustrated by the offense. Going into halftime against Ohio State, he even pulled Manning aside for a conversation to figure things out.
“I was pretty frustrated coming out at the first half,” Steve Sarkisian said. “Because I felt like we had a good plan. But I wasn’t mad in the sense I felt like, if I could just calm Arch and get him into a space. That’s why we met him directly at halftime. Like I said, I thought we played a really good second half. If you would have told me we were going to go out and have just about 260 yards in the second half against that defense, but only score seven points, that’s where the disappointment came in that we weren’t able to get more points. Our ability to move the football in the second half.”
Arch Manning would finish the game receiving his fair share of criticism. At times, his inexperience showed, and he missed a couple of throws that fans thought he should have made. In total, he completed 17 of 30 passes for 170 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. He also rushed for 38 yards.
With zero points scored at the half, it’s easy to understand why Sarkisian wanted to figure things out. In doing so, he knows he can be tough on players, but there’s a balance to strike as well.
“I’m very hard on our players. But I don’t feel like I’m hard in a way where I’m hard all the time and then they can’t even hear my message, that they tune me out. When I get upset with them on things, they know I mean it and that’s something we need to fix. Coming out of today, I think they understand the expectation of how we can play offensive football. We need to do that for four quarters and we need to do it on a consistent basis. When we’re running the ball the way we run it, there’s a physicality to it. There’s a strain to finish that we need to do it. When we’re throwing the ball, our ability to make plays has got to be something that comes to life,” Sarkisian said.
“I can design all the things that I want to do, but at the end of the day, the players make those things come to life. We’ve recruited high caliber players who are highly competitive, who believe that they can make those plays, but we have to go do that. It’s kind of like, enough talk. We have to go do it. We’ve got to make it come to life.”
Texas finished the game with 336 total yards to 203 yards for Ohio State. They both threw and rushed for more yards than the Buckeyes. In particular, in the rushing game, Texas had 166 yards to 77 for Ohio State. However, only going one for five on fourth down and failing to score at all twice in the redzone cost Texas the game, as the Longhorns were held to just seven points.
Steve Sarkisian broke down his conversation with Arch Manning
The Texas offense did improve in the second half. Much of that can likely come down to the conversation Steve Sarkisian had with Arch Manning at halftime, which he also addressed.
“With Arch it was just recognizing how we could identify their coverages a little bit better. The plan of the things that we were gonna go to in the second half and how we expected to attack them. Like I said, I thought he understood. Took it really well. Was really receptive to how we were gonna recognize their coverages and attack them a little bit differently. I thought he responded well to that,” Sarkisian said.
“I think offensively, it was just getting back to not losing sight of the run game, which was effective early, but utilizing some of the passing game and being more effective in the passing game to be a more efficient offense, which I thought we were in the second half. It wasn’t to where we want to be, but we were much better in the second half than we were in the first half.”
Texas is looking to bounce back quickly now. The Longhorns return to Austin for their home opener next Saturday against San Jose State.
