When the Texas Longhorns came back to beat the Ohio State Buckeyes, the post-game discourse shifted from the team’s actual accomplishment to head coach Steve Sarkisian’s abrupt post-game interview, which led directly to the controversy surrounding Arch Manning’s Monday comments about the AI video of Sarkisian slapping ESPN reporter Holly Rowe.
After the Longhorns survived against the Volunteers on Saturday, the performance was to some extent overshadowed, this time by the celebration of Texas junior
edge Colin Simmons after a sack that drew a personal foul penalty and by the celebration of fifth-year running back Raleek Brown after scoring a touchdown that did not draw a penalty, but could have, according to Sarkisian.
“You guys have heard me say it — you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it 100 times, right? We get what you emphasize as a coach. We’ve got to re-emphasize the discipline in which we need to play the game. And again, I know there’s been a lot made of Colin’s penalty, there probably could have been a couple more, truthfully,” Sarkisian said on Saturday.
During the game, Simmons was removed, the coaching staff addressed the penalty, and Simmons went back in.
“I’m not going to give the guy the death penalty over an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty,” Sarkisian said on Saturday.
During the team’s Monday morning “Good, Bad, and Ugly” session, Sarkisian addressed the celebrations in addition to individual meetings with Simmons and Brown. The Texas head coach declined to specify the internal discipline that both players will face.
“That’s not who we are as a team, and that behavior is unacceptable,” Sarkisian said.
Senior linebacker Justin Cryer arrived quickly to try to shut down the celebration by Simmons, and teammates arrived with more urgency later in the game to avoid any more unsportsmanlike conduct penalties by the star edge rusher on subsequent sacks, a team-wide learning process that unfolded in real time.
“We’ve got to learn from that. I think Colin will. I don’t think any of those actions are indicative of the character of the young men and I think we’ll see that as the season unfolds of who these guys really are,” Sarkisian said.
More lenient celebration rules in college football have put more pressure on players not to make poor decisions on the field.
“We have got to do a better job of celebrating with one another. I don’t want to take our stinger, I don’t want to take away the excitement of the game, but the moment you start to demean an opponent, the flags are going to come out, and I think that’s the — you can call it a fine line, but it’s really not very fine, it’s pretty clear — but understanding what is acceptable and what is not, and what is acceptable from a rules perspective, what is acceptable from a program perspective of what we stand for, what we’re about. If you just put all that energy into your teammates, you almost can do just about what you want outside of it not being an orchestrated dance together or something like that,” Sarkisian said.
The messaging surrounding the need for more discipline starts with the coaching staff, which relies on upperclassmen to reinforce the message to younger players — making the behavior of team leaders like Simmons and Brown more unacceptable — and won’t just come during and after the Tennessee game.
“Emotions can run high, so I’ve got to make sure that we continue to reinforce it. It can’t be a one-time message in a team meeting or at the locker room at halftime of the game, and then in a team meeting today, and think it’s just going to be okay,” Sarkisian said. “I’ve got to reinforce it as we work our way throughout the season.”
The environments in which the Longhorns will find themselves are going to test those lessons and that messaging, starting with the trip to Dallas for the rivalry matchup in the 50-50 split of the Cotton Bowl, and then continuing in road trips to Columbia, Baton Rouge, and College Station.
“We can’t let the emotions of the game get the betterment of us,” Sarkisian said.
