Steve Sarkisian has learned a lot from his former boss, including the catchphrases.
Sark borrowed Nick Saban’s famous “rat poison” line when speaking with the media Monday.
Sarkisian’s Texas Longhorns were expected to get blown out by Alabama last weekend, but the game turned out to be a close one that the Crimson Tide pulled out with a late field goal. Many considered the close game to be a moral victory for Texas, and a signal that the Longhorns are ready to play with the big boys.
Sark cautioned against accepting that praise.
“First of all, to quote my old boss, we’ve got to be careful of the rat poison of people telling us how good we are, which is important,” Sarkisian said. “A week ago, everyone told us how bad we were. Now this week, everyone wants to tell us how good we are. We’ve got to be careful to quiet the noise outside of our building and focus on us.”
That’s a good lesson for Sarkisian to have internalized and now be disseminating. His team and the fanbase shouldn’t be getting carried away just because they lost a close game. They still lost. If they think they’re hot stuff just because they played Alabama closely, they’re in for a rude awakening from UTSA on Saturday.
Texas is coming off a 5-7 season. Sark can’t let his team lose focus again this season.
