Both men’s and women’s college basketball is now over and spring football is underway. The college football season will be here before we know it, and it will be a big season for the Texas football team. Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian watched both college basketball tournaments, and he was impressed with what he saw from Dawn Staley and South Carolina and also Dan Hurley and UConn.
South Carolina and UConn were both incredibly dominant this season, and that’s what Steve Sarkisian wants to see from his Texas football team this season. Sarkisian was very impressed with what both teams were able to do.
“I watched both games,” Sarkisian said, according to an article from On3. “I watched both tournaments, quite frankly. And I think what coach (Dawn) Staley has done has been obviously very impressive in that she’s assembled talent year after year but she’s got her culture for sure, and it’s in place. She instills it in them. She had a whole new team this year and they went out and won every game. And last year they lose in the semis, they couldn’t get it done. So very impressed with what she’s been able to do. And very impressed with what coach (Dan) Hurley has been able to do. I think he lost three or four NBA players off last year’s team.”
Like South Carolina, Texas also lost in the semis last season, and the Longhorns are now hoping to bounce back and win a national title with the extremely talented roster that they have.
Steve Sarkisian likes the way Dawn Staley and Dan Hurley coach
Steve Sarkisian went on to discuss the coaching styles of both Dawn Staley and Dan Hurley, and there are two things that pop out to him the most.
“But one thing that is very clear in both of them. I’d say two things,” Sarkisian said. “The first is they coach hard. There’s not for a second, you watch their interaction with their players, where they’re not coaching them hard. And they’re demanding of their players. But you can also feel the love coming from them with their players. And two, they’re both very confident and their teams play very confidently because there’s a belief that’s been instilled in them.”
If Texas football wants to have the success that the top college programs in the country have, they have to be able to do what those programs do. Sarkisian has paid attention to a lot of the greats over the years.
“We’re always all striving for that and looking at those great teams that do it at a high, high level,” Sarkisian said. “You can look to what coach (Nick) Saban was able to do at Alabama or what Kirby (Smart) was able to do here with Georgia, from our aspect of it. And there’s a lot of teams that way. I’ve been fortunate to be part of some great teams in that era with Pete Carroll, so it’s not a one-time thing. You’ve got to continually work on the things that are important to you to recreate it year after year after year.”
The Longhorns are going to have a very talented team in 2024, and there is a chance that people are looking at them next season as the top dog in college football if things go to plan. Sarkisian has a big year ahead of him.
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